Brown Envelope Recipients

Each month, our congregation designates its Brown Envelope offering to organizations advancing justice, equity, and compassion in the world. These gifts—ranging from local service efforts to international partnerships—reflect our shared UU values and collective impact.

October 2025 will be directed to LUCE: Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, a coalition of immigrant led, grassroots organizations who build people power for everyone across the state. They move grounded in principles of justice and equity, with a deep commitment to keeping all of our communities safe through grassroots organizing, information sharing, and mutual aid.

September 2025 was directed to our Partner Church in Gyulakuta, Transylvania. For many years, our congregation has supported fellow UUs in Romania. The money we raised pays for a musician during their worship service and for a copy of the monthly Romanian Unitarian magazine for each family, as well as other urgent project. 

July / August 2025 was directed to supporting our ongoing monthly commitment to providing brown bag lunches to shelters at MainSpring House. 

The summer envelope collection raised $1,068. 

June 2025 was directed to The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental heath organization for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Questioning young people Their mission: to end suicide among LGBTQ youth. For more than 23 years has worked to save young lives through 24/7, free, and confidential crisis intervention services. In addition, they invest in four key program areas; a community of peer support through and international social media platform, on-the-ground advocacy efforts, research on LGBTQ youth and their mental health, and education and public awareness to help youth & adults support the LGBTQ young people in their lives.

The June Brown Envelope collection raised $4,523 due to their matching gift program.

May 2025 was directed to the Louis D Brown Peace Institute, and members of the community walked in the  29th annual Peace Walk on May 10th. 

The May Brown Envelope collection raised $3,205
due to the support of a 1:1 matching by other donors.

April 2025 was directed to two indigenous land organizations: the Wampanoag Common Land Project,which recognizes the continuous and ongoing impact that colonization has had upon the land of the Wampanoag People. The second recipient is the P8guaso Land Repatriation Project in Millis, MA. Referred to locally as Bogastow Farm (the native term ‘bogwasso’ for ‘shallow’ derives from the brook that cross the property). This agrarian trust and indigenous collective are working to support the long-term viability of land repatriation within the ancestral homelands of the Nipmuc People. 

The April Brown Envelope collection raised $1,149. 

March 2025 was directed to the programs of Father’s Bill & MainSpring, whose mission is to end and prevent homelessness in Southern Massachusetts with programs that provide emergency and permanent housing and help people obtain jobs, housing, and services. They help people who are struggling with homelessness, or are at risk of homelessness, achieve self-sufficiency.

February 2025 was directed to Right to the City Boston, a multi-issue alliance of grassroots organizations representing working-class communities and communities of color in Boston. Their collective work is focused on fighting the displacement crisis in Boston, including:

The right to stable housing and communities; The right to economic justice; The Right to democratic participation; The right to the public good; and The Right to a healthy environment. 

The February Brown Envelope collection raised $1,706. 

January 2025 was directed to the six local food pantries in our surrounding communities of Foxboro, Walpole, Norwood, Canton, Stoughton/Sharon, and the First Congregational Church of Sharon’s local pantry. Donations were converted into Shopping for Justice grocery store cards, which allowed for an additional 5% boost to our gifts. 

The January Brown Envelope collection raised $2,646. 

September 2023 (and for several Septembers in the past) was directed to our Partner Church in Gyulakuta, Transylvania. For many years, our congregation has supported fellow UUs in Romania. The money we raised pays for a musician during their worship service and for a copy of the monthly Romanian Unitarian magazine for each family, as well as other urgent projects. They are enormously grateful for this support. 

June 2023 Brown Envelope donations were split between two funds to support trans people. Each group received $750. The first fund is housed at First Parish Malden, our neighbor UU congregation who is serving as fiscal sponsor to partner organizations of Side With Love (our UUA’s justice campaign). These partners are working behind the scenes at this time due to security concerns. First Parish Malden is accepting donations on their behalf, which will go directly to building direct support, mutual aid, and travel networks for trans people and their families who are either traveling to seek care that is no longer available where they live or relocating entirely. The second fund is the Transgender Emergency Fund – MA (transemergencyfund.org), the only organization dedicated to supporting low income and homeless Transgender individuals in Massachusetts. The Transgender Emergency Fund assists with homelessness prevention, shelter assistance, nutrition assistance, prescription co-pay assistance, transportation and escort to medical appointments, and other needs.  

In May 2023, Brown Envelope donations supported the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute and their 27th annual Mother’s Day Walk for Peace.  Many members of our congregation joined Rev. Jolie for this event on Sunday, May 14th.  Our combined total of BE donations and direct donations for our team, Sharon Walks for Peace, was $3074.

April 2023 Brown Envelope donations of $994 (plus the $300 donation of the honorarium offered to our Earth Day guest speaker, Ricky Stern) supported two organizations supporting Climate Justice efforts: the Sustainable Sharon Coalition (sustainablesharon.org) works to “inspire, educate, connect, and catalyze our community to protect the planet.” We also ask for support for the Neponset River Watershed Association (neponset.org), whose mission focus includes “Climate change affects Neponset land, water, people and wildlife, changing what we view as normal. We can reduce our contribution to climate change as well as help natural communities to adapt.” Both organizations work to support habitat restoration of native trees and plants, and invasive species controls, among their many programs. 

March 2023 Brown Envelope donations raised $1049 to support the work of UTEC (United Teen Equality Center, utecinc.org), a youth empowerment program based in Lowell, MA. Their mission and promise is “to ignite and nurture the ambition of the most disconnected young people to trade violence and poverty for social and economic success.”

February 2023 Brown Envelope donations of $1787, plus an additional $1063 in ongoing donations, were used to purchase grocery store gift cards for distribution at local food pantries in Sharon (Congregational Church), Sharon/Stoughton (Ilse Marks Food Pantry), Foxboro, Norwood, Canton, and Walpole.

Our January 2023 Brown Envelope collections raised $1712 to support World Central Kitchen (www.wck.org), with a focus on their efforts to feed those suffering in Ukraine.

December 2022 Brown Envelope donations totaling $1189 went to support the UU Urban Ministry (uuum.org), a social justice organization based in Roxbury, at the First Church Roxbury Meetinghouse.

During our single Christmas Eve service this year, all donations totaling $377 were given to support the work of Father Bills & MainSpring House, offering shelter and resources to the homeless communities of Brockton and Quincy. The Social Justice Committee voted to round up this amount to $400 from our Shopping For Justice grocery card fund.

The November 2022 Brown Envelope donations totaling $903 went to support Youth On Fire , a program of AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, a drop-in center for homeless and street-involved youth, ages 14-24, located in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. Since opening its doors in 2000, over 3,000 youth have benefitted from YOF programs.  In the last two years, the number of clients served  doubled, while funding has decreased. 

October 2022 funds supported UU The Vote, a nationwide effort by the UUA to register and educate voters on a broad range of important topics this election season. Focused on numerous critical social justice ballot measures and combating voter suppression laws that have made it more difficult for people to vote, organizers hosted events across the country to engage and mobilize voters in key states. Working with UU State Action Networks and other partners, the goal was to reach 4 million voters before Election Day in November 2022.