Pledging and Economic Justice

Why Do We Pledge: Part VI

This is actually an article from 2012 on another blog. But worth a repost in this series!

We want our congregations to be welcoming to people of all ages, genders, races, sexual orientation, and economic levels. Our congregations are obvious in how we celebrate people of color, LBGT, folks and others. In this era of extreme economic disparity, how can we embody justice by welcoming people from across the economic spectrum? This is particularly challenging as we need to ask everyone to financially contribute to our missions.

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Excluding people from the request or process is not caring. And if we give people either specific financial amounts or no guidance about what we expect them to contribute, we are not being open enough. A specific level may be too much or too little for them, or they may become suspicious of “what the deal is” if they are given no guidance.

The Suggested Fair Share Contribution Guide (SFSCG) allows people to find their own capacity to give and to determine what level of giving they want to reach for. This means that a very low income person can find themselves on the chart and know that they are being just as generous, with their own level of financial resources, as the wealthiest person in the congregation. There is perhaps nowhere else in America where a very low income person and a very wealthy person can give at the same level. The Guide can allow your congregation to be such a place.

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Let me give you a concrete example. If you were going to have a “Leadership Givers Event” next month, how would you know who to invite? Most congregations would take a list of members, sorted by financial contribution, and invite the top dollar amount givers. That is not a bad thing to do, because you know who those people are – you can identify them easily. And based on the amount they give, you can presume a fairly high level of dedication to the congregation and its mission. Those are folks you want to gather and talk to, just as you would want to talk to your most dedicated volunteers. However, you are missing an opportunity to invite people who may be just as dedicated to the congregation, and are giving just as generously, yet their resources are more limited. Some of those lower income people may actually be stretching themselves more – and feeling it more strongly – than the higher income folks.

If a good number of people in the congregation use the Guide, and are willing to indicate that they do by their own self-report, you will have a better idea of who is being generous to the congregation. And in this instance, their level of financial resources will not divide out people who have more resources from people who have less.

Using the Suggested Fair Share Contribution Guide, you can provide an environment where congregants can stand together – low, median, and high income. All are welcome, all can feel that they contribute their share, all can feel generous for their own financial contributions. Imagine a leadership givers’ event that includes more than the usual members; it might include people from all socioeconomic levels, yet who are dedicated and generous in relation to their own capacity. Now that is economic justice lived in our own congregations!

Mark Ewert is a stewardship consultant with the Stewardship For Us team. Mark can be reached at mewert@stewardshipforus.com, via the UUA’s Congregational Stewardship Network, (http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/index.shtml), or through your regional staff.

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