From Your Pledge Drive Committee
Celebrating Our History and Funding Our Future
Welcome to the 2024-2025 Pledge Campaign! The opportunities that lie before us abound! Celebrating our 75th anniversary, searching for a new minister, and--as usual--balancing all that is required to make the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington the special place for connection, love, and action that it is.Our financial contributions make possible who we are and what we do. UUCB has an extraordinary staff that creates vision, inspires us, and provides space for learning, questioning, and creative disagreement. We have a beautiful, fully paid-for building, where we create space to meet, plan, work, and welcome new people to join us.
Our goal this year is $700,000.
This is an audacious goal, which will enable us to compensate our new lead minister and staff competitively with salary and benefits, address some past-due maintenance on our building, recover from having withdrawn $100,000 from our operational reserves, and continue to ensure the integrity of our programs and ministry, as this congregation and the extended community deserve.
We are a generous bunch who always rally when there is a need, and there is currently a need for our pledges of financial support. Each of us is asked to pledge an amount that represents the value of this congregation to us, while keeping in mind our ability to contribute.
As you thoughtfully consider your pledge to UUCB, whether it is your first pledge or your fiftieth, let us be generous and forward-thinking.
Thank you!
"We experience joy in forming the intention to be generous;
we experience joy in the actual act of giving something;
and we experience joy in remembering the fact we have given."
Lama Surya Das – Quoting the Buddha
The Pledge Drive Committee
Corrin Clarkson, David Frew, JaneAnn Gifford, Pat Slabach, Judy Witt
Giving brings happiness at every state of its expression.
Stewardship Testimonials
David Keppel
I first encountered the UU Congregation of Bloomington on Courthouse Square in February 2003. Congregation founders Cookie and Bill Lynch had led a large group to Wednesday afternoon rallies to oppose the looming U.S. invasion of Iraq. I enjoyed talking with Cookie. But it was one bitterly cold, wet night that really got my attention. Bloomington Peace Action Coalition (BPAC)'s organizer had scheduled a rally with seven speakers. The first six speakers were interminable, and I was eager to go home while I still had all my toes and fingers. The seventh speaker was Rev. Bill Breeden. He was brief; he was funny; he was passionate. We went home with new warmth and energy.
Having resolved never to go to any church anywhere, I decided to attend just one service as a minor experiment. I was astonished to find a community of kind, caring, and interesting people where worship services were a celebration of stunning music, of creative uncertainty, and enduring commitment to peace and justice.
I have never been prouder of the congregation than on the day when most of the congregation joined in a march of solidarity to the Bloomington Islamic Center.
I was a fundraiser for the Nuclear Freeze Campaign, and I know it takes money to keep an organization running. At UUCB, we recognize we all have a shared commitment, including financially; but we each fulfill that commitment as we, individually, can do at this time in our lives. We can also include UUCB in our estate planning. I look forward to another pledge season, as an expression of our diverse individuality and our shared community.
Nicole Motz
Why I pledge…When my daughter was in third grade, she participated in Lemonade Day through the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington. If you’re not familiar with Lemonade Day, it is an experiential program that teaches kids a variety of skills including how to start a business, setting financial goals, saving, and the value of philanthropy. With some training my daughter bravely built her own small business and made a nice profit selling delicious, fresh-squeezed lemonade. Later, she put some of her profits in her bank account, and the rest she chose to give to WildCare Inc., a local wildlife rehabilitation center.
As is often the case, in teaching my daughter about philanthropy, I was also learning. I hadn’t really ever had much money to donate, though I readily gave to charitable organizations after a disaster or emergency. My daughter on the other hand was taught to think carefully about where she wanted her money to go. As an animal lover, she chose to give some of her hard-earned money to support those who work to address issues that are important to her. I watched her deliver a check to the WildCare staff with great pride, and it got me thinking about how I share my own money.
Shortly after that experience, I decided I wanted to pledge a portion of my income to our church. The more I thought about it, I realized that the people and task forces at UUCB serve the community in ways that are deeply important to me. The people on our task forces are building homes, feeding the hungry, promoting Earth-centered living, working at dismantling racism, sponsoring refugee families, etc. and I want to support them in any way I can.
Sometimes I’m able to be there in service, and other times I am supporting them through my pledge. I like to think that my pledge is like tossing a stone into a pond; The ripples of it extend out from within our magnificent church, into our community, and eventually out to the rest of the world. This is why I pledge.