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Unitarian Church of Sharon
4 N. Main St.
Sharon, MA 02067
781-784-3652
E-mail UCS
Stewardship: AIM Gifts
For more information contact the Stewardship committee.
May 2008
The late Dr. Karl Menninger was a leading psychiatrist and one of the founders of the Menninger Clinic, the well-known psychiatric hospital. In an interview in Newsweek Magazine in November of 1959 he said, “Money-giving is a very good criterion … of a person’s mental health. Generous people are rarely mentally ill people.” If Dr. Menninger was right—and I believe that he was—this congregation is full of very sane people.
Just over a month ago we launched a campaign to secure the funds to make this meetinghouse accessible and to expand it to meet the needs of this burgeoning community, and to raise enough money to meet our increasing annual budgetary needs.
On the night of March 15th, we had a party downstairs to kick-off this effort and we announced that the goal for the building project was to raise $800,000. I am very pleased to be able to report that due to the generosity—the sanity—of so many in this community we have pledges for the building project totaling $813,720, and we have pledges for the annual budget of just over $130,000. This community in just a few short weeks has raised nearly a million dollars!!
We have surpassed the goal for the AIM project and we are going to keep going. The best news is that there are still many in the community that we have not heard from yet. We will continue to collect pledges sheets until everyone has had a chance to fill one out. We have one more week to go before we end this phase of the campaign. So if you haven’t been visited yet, and you haven’t had a chance to make your pledge—and for the sake of your sanity you feel that you must—please talk to me or to any member of the stewardship committee.
On April 27, after the service we will have a celebration of all that we have done together to make the dream of this project come true. That will be a good time to have some fun, pat ourselves on the back, and— it seems only appropriate—to get a little crazy.
March 2008
One of the Stewardship Committee’s main jobs is to secure the resources necessary to make the Accessibility and Improvements to the Meetinghouse (AIM) Project a reality. There are many people who have been working very hard to nail down the last design details and to determine exactly how much the project will cost. As these important details are in the final stages of being worked out, the Stewardship Committee wanted to share some very good news.
Even though fundraising for the project has yet to “officially” begin, a small and very committed group has stepped forward early to show their support for the project, for this community, and to give us a great head start.
As of this writing we have received 6 gifts totaling $286,500!
These early gifts are very large and generous but they were not easy to make. They represent strong commitment and sacrifice on the part of the donors. They reflect a passion for our community and a willingness to do whatever it takes to move it forward.
While this is certainly terrific news and these early gifts are very impressive, I realize that some in the congregation may find these numbers intimidating. You might be thinking to yourself—as I think to myself—I want to support the AIM project, but I cannot give at the level that these early donors have clearly given. The important message to hear is that every single gift—big, small, in between—will matter. Every gift will help make this project a reality.
In the coming weeks we will be asking people to think about the AIM project, to think about how important this community is to you and to your family, and then make a decision to make a gift to both the AIM Project and the Annual Pledge Drive that is commensurate with your commitment to this community and with your own particular circumstances. We will be suggesting that people can make their gifts over a three-year period in the hopes that this will allow people to stretch.
On March 15 here at the church we will be holding an event to celebrate our early success and to kick-off both the Annual Pledge and Capital Campaigns. Then, in the days following, Stewardship members and others will be meeting one-on-one with everyone to ask for their commitments. The Stewardship Committee is grateful to our early donors and is now brimming with confidence as we move forward.
The AIM project is beginning to come into sharp focus. What has been a dream for a long time is coming true, but it will take every single one of us to make it happen.
Tim Monroe
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