“How Much Should I Pledge?” One Congregation’s Experience with a New Approach

by Christy Multer, UU Society of Schenectady
The Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady, NY, has used many different approaches for its annual pledge drive. Over the years, I suspect we have used just about every method described in Wayne B. Clark’s excellent book, Beyond Fundraising: A Complete Guide to Congregational Stewardship, because our experience is that changing the stewardship drive every couple of years is important. Even effective campaigns get stale after two or three years, and a new approach can re-energize the congregation and encourage more members to think seriously about their pledge.

Many years ago, one thing we tried was recognizing the highest pledgers by name. (Example: with their permission, we listed the names of the, say, five families who were in the “Emerson” group for pledging $10K and up.)  But the psychology when you do that is fraught with potential downsides, discomfort, and complaints. Why risk antagonizing some of your members who feel it’s unfair? It just didn’t work.

For our most recent pledge drive in winter/spring 2025, our Stewardship Team used a new (to us) grouping approach that we adapted, with permission, from a chart originally created by the Unitarian Society of Northampton & Florence, MA. Our chart describes five different-colored pledging groups from lowest (Green) to highest (Red) and the number of pledging units per level without giving anyone’s names.  See the chart and introduction at: https://uuschenectady.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/March-2-handout-chart-FINAL.pdf

There is a lot of data in this chart for members who chose to read it carefully. I’m sure that some of our members were surprised to discover that we have at least one family who gives more than $30,000 a year, or that a pledge of, say, $900 still puts a family in the lowest group. But both of these examples are part of the reality our congregation needs to face together as a Beloved Community. The messages in the chart intentionally affirmed that each level of giving matters while acknowledging that different people have different financial means and other responsibilities. The chart says one level is not better than another, AND here is some info for you to consider about your own giving level. This language was more direct than the Stewardship Team has used before (which concerned me initially), but the chart also expresses a lot of gratitude for ALL levels of giving. 

The frank language was necessary, our Stewardship Team decided, because the congregation’s current financial picture is not sustainable, and we must change that. As the chart says, in the lower right corner, “Having more than a third of our pledging units here [in the lowest level] is not sustainable. If you are giving what you can, we hope you can continue. If you could make a larger pledge, please do! It is essential that at least 25 Green pledging units move up to another group.”

Did we meet our pledge drive goal last spring using this new chart and other stewardship communications? No, we didn’t. But there are no doubt many reasons for that.

The good news is that analysis of our 2025 pledge drive data showed a number of members who took our “please try to move up to a higher level” messages seriously and did just that. Several members that I spoke to said they appreciated receiving a more complete and realistic picture of our pledging data. They also appreciated being able to visualize their own level of giving in comparison to others who might be of a similar age or in similar life circumstances. Some families said it helped them plan a multi-year approach to increasing their pledge.

Rather than just saying to everyone “Please increase your pledge by 10% if you can,” we invited members into a better understanding of our finances and a deeper commitment to the congregation.