Stewardship as Community Care

Stewardship as a Tool for Connecting

So much has changed over the past week. It’s hard to keep up with the daily and hourly updates to guidance and mandates.  We recognize that you are facing unprecedented challenges and stresses. This is especially so for the large majority of congregations conducting annual campaigns right now to support budget decisions for the upcoming fiscal year.

We believe you can place stewardship and your annual pledge drive in the context of Community Care, as a counter to the notion of social distancing.  After all, stewardship is about bringing members and friends together in covenant to sustain our beloved Unitarian Universalist congregations and further our mission and ministries.  In these times of social isolation, we can use our campaigns to reach out and connect with people, not just to secure the pledges we need, but also as a pastoral presence, bringing human contact, compassion, concern, and hope. 

Resources

Along these lines, Stewardship for Us will provide several resources in the coming weeks. While the focus will be on Spring campaigns, much of the material will be applicable to all.  Here’s what we have planned:

First, a series of blog posts addressing five key topics for effective Spring 2020 annual campaigns:

1. Best practices for conducting virtual campaigns
2. Setting and maintaining operating budgets in these uncertain times
3. Providing many options for electronic giving
4. Managing pledge fulfillment as a pastoral process
5. Integrating stewardship into virtual worship

Second, we are preparing to hold a free pop-up Zoom Symposium on Email Blasts for Stewardship, open to everyone, on Monday, March 23 at Noon EST.  It will be highly interactive and engaging, taking advantage of Zoom functionality.  Watch for a sign-up post and more details in the next day or so, and please plan to join us. 

Third, we are making Stewardship for Us advisory services available to congregations in more flexible and immediate ways.   All of our work currently is highly tailored to each individual congregation and begins with an intensive Next Steps Weekend that takes time to schedule and carry out.  Recognizing that many congregations will need more immediate help, we will offer services in blocks of time that can be used as needed over the next 3-6 months. More details to come. 

Fourth, we plan to create a second wave of blog posts later in the Spring, on such topics as capital campaigns and use of endowments and other permanent or reserve funds during the crisis.

Fifth, we are coordinating our efforts with the UUA, for example, participating in virtual stewardship salons every Monday and Thursday.  Details can be found here:  Rev. Lauren’s “Stewardship in a Time of Pandemic”

Join Us

Finally, we want to hear from you.  We’d love to see our blog function as a community resource, allowing all of us – including all of you – to share your success stories, frustrations, questions, concerns.  Please post comments, telling us what you need and we will try our best to address them.