The Stewardship Committee is pleased to share with you a final report of our very successful
2021 Stewardship Drive, “To Gather Again,” which was launched on January 24th and came to a
conclusion on February 28th.
The Total
The extraordinarily good news is that we received pledges of $332,298—more than $12,000
above our $320,000 goal. (For those of you who attended last Sunday’s service, you can see
that we have happily recorded additional pledges since the official close). Those financial
commitments will make it possible for the Board of Trustees to create a well-funded budget for
FY ’22, which begins on July 1 of this year and ends on June 30, 2022.
The Committee expanded tremendously the number of people who were involved in the
stewardship effort. That inclusiveness helped more of our congregants feel a part of the drive,
and, we believe, made a substantial contribution to our success.
The “ASK”
We tried something new this year, individualizing the “ask” we made of each of our members
and friends, and 68% of you met or exceeded our requested amount. In most cases, the
suggested increase was not enormous but, nonetheless, collectively those increases made a
significant, positive difference. Other positive news is that 33 pledges, some 37% overall, were
at or above 10% of the previous year’s commitment.
Pledging Analysis
We solicited 102 individuals and couples and received pledges from 89. Pledges ranged from
$50 to $21,500. As always, in the course of our outreach, we learned that some of our
members and friends, for a number of reasons, are moving on from their affiliation with UU
Wellesley Hills and thus did not pledge. We happily welcomed some new friends into a
financial relationship with our church and reaching out to those individuals was a particularly
joyful part of the work of our team.
The Stewardship Committee revised the Pledge Contribution Guide and created a chart that
showed the number of pledges at each level needed to achieve our goal. Below is the original
chart (the black numbers), that delineated how we expected the pledges to come in, in order to
meet our $320,000 goal. In blue, you can see the actual commitments.
Especially for the top two categories of pledging, our predictions and the outcome were very
much on target. As mentioned in our original written materials, we are very dependent on a
relatively few families, and our hope for this year was to increase the number of mid-level
contributors, who could help reduce the reliance on top donors. Last year, 20 families provided
61% of the giving. This year, our top 20 families still accounted for 60% of the money pledged,
so we did not make any real progress on that goal. However, there was substantial increase in
the amount of money raised in pledges between $1,000 and $4,999 (nearly $12,000 more than
predicted), and that was extremely heartening.
We are a congregation with many older members. Some of those members have been among
our most generous contributors, and they are now needing to reduce their financial
commitments. Those decreases are often substantial. Happily, we were able to achieve our goal
despite those significant reductions because of other individual’s and couple’s generosity, but
unless we are able to engage more younger families in the years to come, this trend will likely
be an increasingly significant factor in our fund-raising capacity.
Despite the few cautionary statistics and comments, this is surely a very joyful and proud
moment for us all. UU Wellesley Hills is our faith community, and it can rely on only us for
direct financial support. We have responded remarkably to that necessity, and the Stewardship
Committee is deeply grateful for your unwavering and generous support. Thank you!
Stewardship Committee
David Barnard
Kathy Coolidge
Tim Fulham
Kathy Kaufmann, Chair
Rev. Kelly Murphy Mason
Doug Poutasse
Special thanks go to the following, who assisted with our stewardship efforts: Cara Fearing, Jim
Lillie, Lisa Markey, Elaine Mittell, Betsy Taylor, the Board of Trustees, the Gifts of Gratitude
Group, the goodie bag drivers, Suzie Cartreine and the UU Wellesley Hills Choir, Michael
Packard, committee chairpersons and those who offered testimonials.
And, most importantly, we are all incredibly grateful to our generous members and friends:
Vicki Amalfitano, Tom Atkinson & Deborah Kemper, Sonoko & David Barnard, Sheila Boyle, Naomi & John Cameron, Cathy Chapman & Vic Polk, Deborah Cole, Catherine Connor, Kathy Coolidge & Marc Shechtman, Rachel Cottone & Charles Hwang, Christy Curran, Dale & Clayton Curtis, Tom DeRiemer, Pat & Steve Ellenwood, Lynn & David Falwell, Cara & Marsha Fearing, Nancy & Bill Fenstemacher, Mimi & Bob Ferrell, Irene & Tim Flint, Carolee & Steve Fogg, Lynn & John Foreman, Tim Fulham & Lise Olney, Gabriele Ganswindt & Arthur Keigler, Nancy Geiser, Susan Geiser & Andrew Kinross, Katy Gibson, Ali & Walter Greeley, Jeanne Hathaway & Tom Scammell, Bob Hellweg, Donna Helwig, Lindsey & Todd Himstead, Jeanne & Steven Hoerter, John Hussey & Kimberly Fletcher, Parker Jayne, Phyllis Joachim & Peter Shaw, Tricia & Ellis Johnson, Kathy Kaufmann, Jim Kelleher, Therese Kelly, Andrew Kemper & Catherine Wheeler,
Marianne & David Laffitte, Anne-Laure Lehman, Giselle Lehman, Jim Lillie & Maureen
McCaffrey, Roxanne Lyman, Barbara & Don MacIsaac, Karen & Brian Mariscal, Lisa Markey, Tracy & Frank McGrath, Jim McLaren, Elaine Mittell & Doug Poutasse, Nina Moss, Lisa Muto & Mark Libenson, Janine Myers, Nancy & John Nichols, Joan Parrish, Janet & John Pattillo, John Phillips, Jackie & Eric Pierce, Pamela Posey, Karen Quigley, Erin & Ted Rebholz, Karen & Fred Reichheld, Barbara Reynolds, Diane Rich, Pam Roberts, Eric Rocher, Brenda & Michael Ross, Jane Sarly, Marjorie & Peter Schellenberg, Linda & Joe Senecal, Jennifer Collins Shor, Nancy Siska & Roger Stern, Estelle Slavin, Jessica & Singu Srinivas, Anne & Peter Stoner, Cean Tan, Betsy Taylor,
Charlotte & Vin Trubiani, Benjamin Unger & Kelly Murphy Mason, Frances & Lawrence Unger, Molly Walsh, Sally & Rick Watts, Dianne Weil, Kathy & Paul White, Walter Wickersham, Bruce Wiley, Loie Williams, Katherine Wyly, and Britta Zecher