Is it easy and painless to balance your operating budget each year? Are you facing a budget deficit? Are you able to set aside sufficient reserves? Do most of your members (and pledging friends) understand the financial realities of your congregation? Is everyone comfortable talking about money and its relationship to mission? Is it easy to find volunteers to carry out your annual pledge drive?
If you answered yes to all of the above questions, congratulations! If not, the Strategic Financial Planning Process may be for you.
Many of our Unitarian Universalist congregations have a fraught relationship with money. Balancing the budget and finding stewardship volunteers seem to get more difficult every year. Congregants generally have a limited understanding of finances and assets and their importance to furthering mission.
The past few years have brought this reality into sharper focus. The pandemic, along with reduced membership and attendance, and aging populations have exacerbated financial stresses. Even in “normal times,” our way of managing funds, especially annual budgets, has proven challenging. Balancing the budget and running pledge drives are no one’s favorite pastimes!
Working with UU congregations, Stewardship for Us developed a Strategic Financial Planning service to help congregations manage their resources more effectively and with less stress. The process enables congregations to step back from the year-to-year budgeting and pledging process and look longer term at their priorities and goals using their assets as a unified whole.
Stewardship for Us has worked with congregations on the planning process. You can hear from some of them in our 2022 GA workshop on Sustainable Financial Planning at this link:
https://www.uua.org/leaderlab/financial-sustainability.
On September 20th at 1 PM EDT / Noon CDT / 11 AM MDT / 10 AM PDT Barry Finkelstein and Rachel Maxwell will be hosting a Wednesday Wisdom session on Strategic Financial Planning. We will be sending a Zoom link the day prior to the session.
Stewardship Consultant Barry Finkelstein has been a Unitarian Universalist congregational stewardship consultant since the Fall of 2007 and has worked with over 50 congregations on annual budget drives, capital campaigns, and strategic planning. Reach Barry at Team@stewardshipforus.com
Hello – I am interested in the webinar on 9/20, but it seems like maybe you have the times wrong for the different time zones. Can you clarify?
Thanks,
Steve
Hello!
Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the live session. Is there a recording of this session that can be shared?
Thanks!
Hello Robert, we do not record Wednesday Wisdom sessions, because a lot of the session is spent by people in breakout rooms sharing knowledge. Can you find someone in your congregation to attend and take notes for you? Mark
Hello Robert, I did respond – but do not see it posted, so trying again.
We do not record Wednesday Wisdom sessions became most of the time is spent in breakout groups, with people sharing knowledge. Can you ask someone else from the congregation to attend and take notes for you? Be well! Mark