Beacon: Annual Fund Drive
MAY 2012
2012 Annual Fund Drive and Development
Jennifer Marling, Chair, 2012 Annual Fund Drive
afd@unitytemple.org
On Sunday, May 20 our Members will gather in the sanctuary of Unity Temple to hold our Annual Meeting. One of the most critical actions during the meeting is the approval of a budget for our 2012-2013 fiscal year. The Board is recommending a budget that calls for member financial commitments of $725,000 (a 14% increase over this year's budget) focusing the increases on many of the things that you as members have stated are important to you:
· Paying our core staff at least at the mid- point of the salary ranges recommended by the UUA for similar jobs
· Focusing more resources on our extraordinary music program
· Working to address the current classroom limitations for our Sunday morning RE program
Unfortunately as of the publication deadline - even after receiving increases from many generous households and doing a good deal of Committee follow-up to Members and Friends who have not yet turned in their Commitment Forms - we are still $35,000 SHORT OF OUR GOAL. But we still hope that even in the face of economic challenges our members still can stretch to meet this important goal and step up and "give their values." Throughout the drive we heard several testimonials about the important role that UTUUC serves in the lives and hearts of our members. We need to see this support now more than ever.
On Sunday, May 6 we will be asking you to consider increasing your commitments with a "stretch" appeal. We hope that you can reach a little deeper into your resources to help us. On average, we are only asking for an additional commitment of $200 per household (of course, not everyone can do that, so if you can do more, please do). Please watch and listen for this appeal on May 6th and be as generous as you can. Members of the Board of Trustees and Development Committees will be in the Lobby following both services to collect stretch commitment forms and answer questions.
We hope that through outstanding commitments and stretch increases we can reach our goal, but at the end of the day we must face the fact that the Board will need to make the necessary and difficult adjustments to the budget to base it on commitments received not commitments hoped for - please help to have the programs we hope for. If you would like to "short circuit" this May 6 follow-up we encourage you to make your commitment or your stretch using our convenient on-line form by following this link http://unitytemple.org/support/annual-fund and THANK YOU.
Please read Ian's article for a great update on our progress toward our congregational Capital Campaign efforts. There are great things happening in our partnership with Steve Pratapas and his staff and we are looking forward to hearing from you all on this project in one form or another.
As always feel free to contact us at afd@unitytemple.org or call David Wilke at 708-848-6225 ext 100.
Thank you again for your generosity and support of our congregation!
