Stewardship For Us Snapshot of Work (part 2)

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The Snapshot (see part 1 for the infographic): What work has the Stewardship For Us team been doing?

Each year we look at our activities and try to account for where we have been working, and the nature of that work. We have sent information out to you before, calling it an “Annual Report.” Because this does not have the kind of data people might expect from a standard annual report (for instance the one your congregation might produce), this year we are calling it a Snapshot.

Although we were ramping up a new consultant last year (the amazing Rachel Maxwell!), so we have 5 consultants in FY19 as opposed to 4 in FY18, we did a similar amount of work in FY19 – July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. And although our numbers are too small to constitute an indicator of activity across Unitarian Universalist congregations, there are some differences between FY18 and FY19:

  • We are doing more capital campaign work now. In FY18, there was more preparation for capital campaigns, in FY19 there were more campaigns implemented.
  • We did less work on Endowments and Planned Giving. This is surely because the Wake Now Our Vision matching program was still active in FY18 and not in FY19.
  • We did fewer Next Steps processes. This is probably due to the cyclical nature of our work. We tend to start with a congregation and then over a period of time go on to do other needed work with them, so some years we are doing more initiation, some years more follow-on work.

Each year we talk about how we can track and express our “impact.” We certainly track how much was raised with the pledge drives and capital campaigns we support. However, we are loathe to take credit for those figures, when you; the volunteers, staff, and clergy make such a difference in the hard work you put into these projects. With our other work: the Mission & Visioning, the Strategic Planning, the Endowment & Planned Giving work, even the Next Steps processes; our work invests in the congregation in ways that may not bear fruit for months and sometimes years. We know that our client congregations feel the impact of that work, yet we are often not engaged to see the full blooming of that work.

What do you see in the Snapshot this year? We would love to hear what you think. 

Mark Ewert

Mark Ewert is a stewardship consultant with the Stewardship For Us team. Mark works with congregations on their stewardship programs and can be reached at mewert@stewardshipforus.com, via the UUA’s Congregational Stewardship Resources page (http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/consulting) or through your regional staff.