Annual Budget Drive

Yearly Finances Depend on Your Pledges during the Annual Budget Drive

A Message from Annual Budget Drive Co-chairs

We love the Annual Budget Drive: It creates connections among everyone at FUSN.

Just as music is not “notes” but “the relationships between notes,” our community is not the people here but the relationships among us. The Annual Budget Drive fosters conversations about what’s important to us:

Why we came to FUSN,
Why we stay,
What made us first feel connected here,
What we value.

These conversations create relationships that make our community strong, resilient, and valuable. We've met such great folks here through stewardship conversations.

Again this year, we’re offering pledging parties as alternatives to stewardship meetings – so please sign up for one. All pledging will be done privately by sealed envelope.

What a great time to be part of FUSN! Our congregation is thriving.

Our budget drive makes all this possible. It’s our primary source of funding. It’s 69% of our revenue. (The Sunday collection basket is only 2%.)

This year we need to raise $582,000. That’s 10% more than last year. There are three major reasons for this increase:

1. Continue current FUSN operations. We expect a 3% increase in FUSN's operating costs (salaries, utilities, insurance, etc.).

2. Assistant Minister for Congregational Engagement. We have learned over the last year how much FUSN can benefit from full-time dedicated staff for building our community. We have a tremendous opportunity to bring aboard an experienced leader – to build upon our success with Member Services to deepen our connections, get new and old engaged, and preserve our closeness as we grow.

2. Maintain FUSN's financial sustainability. We’ve been funding deficits with a pool of previous surpluses, and that pool will soon run out. To keep what we have—to make FUSN sustainable—we must increase pledges to fill the gap. If we do that, we’ll be paying for what we have. And we’ll be pledging in line with other thriving UU congregations. (We’re actually falling short of that now.)

What’s your fair share? We have a detailed Goals & Giving Guide (PDF), but in short:
“Don’t give until it hurts, give until it feels good.”

When you think of your pledge, we ask that you consider these four essentials:

The importance of FUSN in your life (what it is, and what it could be)
FUSN’s impact in our greater community
What is needed for FUSN to thrive, and
Your own financial resources

… Then please make a financial commitment of which you will be proud.

That amount is different for each person. Try on some numbers. The right one may be higher than you think. What you can – and should – be proud of is always within your own financial means.

Please look at the drawing of the Pledge Quilt. It shows all the pledges made to FUSN last year. Each box is one pledge. There’s a wide range in size, but each and every pledge is needed to make this quilt. We cannot have FUSN without all of them. People can be really proud of any of these pledges.

And now we need a quilt that’s 10% bigger.

We need everyone to step up and participate at a level at which they are proud – whatever that level may be.

If each of us is proud of our own pledge—and if we have faith that the others around us are proud of their pledges—then we will have a very strong community.

And that’s what the budget drive is all about.

Be sure to read these flyers about FUSN's main programs.

And please read these testimonials and budget-drive updates if you did not hear them on recent Sundays:

Thank you for keeping this wonderful community strong.

Josie Greene and Bruce Henderson
Annual Budget Drive Co-Chairs
budgetdrive [at] fusn [dot] org

File attachment: