2020 was… well, 2020. No one will forget it. Everyone will carry memories from it. And everyone remains uncertain about 2021. 
But we all learned a lot from last year and have rediscovered our resilience, persistence, adaptability, and most of all, our caring. Stewardship for Us started 2020 with a roster of planned on-site congregational engagements and we were looking forward to meeting with so many members, volunteers and leaders across the country. But by early March, COVID 19 had prompted a national lockdown and a deadly illness took family, friends, and millions more in its global path. Stewardship for Us pivoted to what was of highest priority for a trying year: Stewardship as Caring Community.
We encouraged congregations to place stewardship activities in the context of community care to counter the notion of social distancing – i.e. physically distanced, socially connected. Stewardship is about gratitude, generosity, and bringing members and friends together in covenant to sustain our beloved Unitarian Universalist congregations and further our mission and ministries. Good stewardship is not just to secure financial commitments, but also to be a presence, to listen, and to bring human contact, compassion, concern and hope to our members.
“Our congregations pivoted in 2020 to meet congregational needs in a digital world! They strove for compassionate connections with those unable to leave their homes, and enhanced or created new ways to sustain our communities financially. Many people worked hard to push out of their comfort zone, lift spirits, provide support to each other and live our values together!
~ Kay Crider, S4Us
2020 – A Snapshot of the Caring Community
Each year we have invited you to read a summary of the activities we undertook, the services provided, and the regions where we have worked with congregations. A glimpse of our 2020 profile tells a different story as we migrated to the virtual world along with the UUA and individual congregations.
| Blog posts | Webinars, Open Forums | ||||
| 2019 | 15 | 2019 | 4 | ||
| 2020 | 26 | ↑173% | 2020 | 17 | ↑425% |
| Blog Subscribers | Webinar, Open Forum Participants | ||||
| 2019 | 985 | 2019 | 221 | ||
| 2020 | 1,414 | ↑145% | 2020 | 645 | ↑300% |
The Stewardship for Us website had 52% more users and 68% more page-views in 2020 than in 2019.
Our blogs cover a wide range of topics to help you in both pandemic and ‘normal’ conditions. We encourage you to spend some time on the Stewardship for Us blog for good ideas on virtual stewardship canvassing, fundraising events, giving tools, and more.
| In-Person and Remote Engagements for Individual Congregations | |||
| Pacific Western Region | |||
| 2019 | 12 | 2020 | 6 |
| Mid-America Region | |||
| 2019 | 3 | 2020 | 6 |
| Southern Region | |||
| 2019 | 14 | 2020 | 10 |
| Central East Region | |||
| 2019 | 15 | 2020 | 6 |
| New England Region | |||
| 2019 | 11 | 2020 | 7 |
Services Provided:
- Virtual Next Steps Process for Stewardship and Beyond (10)
- Capital Campaigns and Financial Feasibility Studies (11)
- Year-End Giving (1)
- Annual Budget Drives (7)
- Legacy Giving (1)
- Mission/Vision and Strategic Planning (3)
- Long-term Stewardship Planning (2)
- Financial Planning (1)
- Board Retreats (1)
- Hourly Consulting (4)
“2020 saw a lot of UU congregations catapult into fully utilizing digital giving. Pre-pandemic, some congregations were still debating whether to offer credit cards or had a single way of donating digitally. Now most congregations have multiple ways to give electronically, and are really using them! “
~ Mark Ewert, S4Us
Survey of Impact of COVID 19 on Annual Pledge Drives
In Spring 2020, Stewardship for Us conducted a survey of congregations to capture the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on pledge drives and pledge fulfillment. With 89 responding congregations, survey results reflected geographic diversity and a broad range of congregational sizes. We learned that campaigns this past year were more successful than might have been expected:
- More than half achieved 90%+ of their pledge drive goal; 86% achieved 85%+.
- Only 5 of 65 achieved less than 80% of their goal
- Not surprisingly, congregations that began their pledge drives later in the spring did not do as well toward achieving their goals.
Of course, the jury is out on pledge fulfillment for FY 2021 and the strength of Annual Pledge Drives for FY 2022, but we all have the tools and good habits now of sharing information and ideas, and we hope you will use them.
“2020 marked for me the deep commitment of our congregations to be generous, even in the face of some seriously challenging economic and personal circumstances. Annual pledge drives and even some capital campaigns benefited from unabated generosity as congregations were determined to invest in our values, our role in the larger community, and the future of our spiritual homes.”
~ Liz Coit, S4Us
Stewardship as Caring Community at the first Virtual General Assembly: Money as Medicine: Rooting, Inspiring, Readying Congregational Stewardship
Mark Ewert and Rachel Maxwell introduced GA participants to Edgar Villanueva’s book, Decolonizing Wealth, and his seven steps to healing through money or using money as medicine. Over 175 people joined this session to learn and discuss the ways in which their congregations can engage in this work. Villanueva’s Seven Steps are: Grieve, Apologize, Listen, Relate, Represent, Invest and Repair. Alicia Garza, co-creator of Black Lives Matter, calls Villanueva’s book “… a must read for those looking to achieve the change we want to see in this world. Compelling, honest, and kind…” This book stretched our own ways of thinking about stewardship and generosity and we recommend it to you as our congregations face more aggressive forms of inequality and racism.
“I have observed amazing resilience in the congregations I’m working with! You’ve made creative and often difficult decisions about conducting or postponing capital campaigns, creating annual budgets, and meeting virtually, outside or in person while staying safe. You give me hope for the future!”
~ Rachel Maxwell, S4Us
Stewardship for Us was established to help congregations build cultures of generosity and commitment. That fundamental purpose doesn’t change, and we continue to make connections to a broader vision of how this work gets done. As we begin 2021, let us join together to sustain the caring community within and beyond our congregations. Never has the need for unity and resilience been so readily apparent.
“Entering 2021, I am filled with pride in all we Unitarian Universalists accomplished during 2020; and hope for an even better future. Think of our rapid transformation to all-virtual operations and our ever-deepening commitment to social justice, anti-white-supremacy, and democracy. 2021 and beyond offer opportunities to grow this faith we love by further embracing technology, reaching out to a new and more diverse membership, and having even greater impact on the world.” ~ ~ Barry Finkelstein, S4Us
Liz Coit, Kay Crider, Mark Ewert, Barry Finkelstein and Rachel Maxwell are part of the Stewardship for Us team. Please send your questions and topic suggestions for our blog or online Friday Forum discussions to team@stewardshipforus.com
Over a 25-year career in resource development, Liz has led fundraising efforts including major gifts campaigns for Prosperity Now, Center for Community Change, Ms. Foundation for Women, and Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense Fund). Liz has been a member of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Washington, DC since 2003. Reach Liz at Team@StewardshipForUs.com