Welcome to Our 2023 Pledge Drive!

Greetings to WellSprings!

WellSprings is a unique community. And your support is essential. This past November, the Board of Trustees reached out to us to ask for additional financial support, given budget shortfalls in the current fiscal year. Our community responded by giving $28,700 that greatly assisted WellSprings! Thank you!

WellSprings celebrated its 16th birthday this year! It was fortunate in early years to be supported by major financial grants from other institutions as a startup congregation. In recent years, COVID relief funding helped support shortfalls. But now, the outside funding is no longer an option. We must develop a culture of generosity that fully supports and sustains WellSprings now and into the future.

Stewardship Ministry. To ensure the financial stability and growth of WellSprings, the Board has renewed the former Generosity & Gratitude Ministry and renamed it the Stewardship Ministry. The first goal is to organize a pledge drive to fund the next fiscal year beginning July 2023. Current ministry members are Majid Alsayegh and Josie Waldman as pledge drive co-chairs, Mary Alsayegh, Kathy Burke-Howe, Carol Klekotka, and Bill Cabin and Julie Choi as representatives of the Board.

Pledge Drive. The Stewardship Ministry has been working diligently for the past two months on a new stewardship plan. We hope to inform our community members of the value of your support and the importance of continued support. Along with this message is an informational brochure that describes this year’s pledge drive goals, our budget by mission, the shortfall of current giving levels, and data on past giving patterns. In the past, about 20% of members have provided 80% of the overall WellSprings budget. Much broader support is needed to sustain WellSprings into the future.

Our stewardship goals are:

• to increase member participation in giving from 70% to 95% so that overall support will become more broadly based
• to meet the budget goal of $265,500 for the fiscal year July 2023 to June 2024 by increasing our overall pledge income needs by $75,000 – or 40% overall

We are asking every household that is able to make a pledge to WellSprings for the fiscal year July 2023 to June 2024. Given the needs, we hope each household can generously commit to making a pledge in an amount greater than last year. If each household increased their giving by $10 per week, or approximately $500 per year, our budget goal can be met. Of course, we understand some households may be experiencing financial stress. We want everyone to understand the pledge is not mandatory but is requested from the households who are able to give.

To help determine your pledge amount, we invite you to reference the Suggested Giving Guide provided by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), of which WellSprings is a member congregation. (For more on the Giving Guide, watch Josie Waldman’s message on our Pledge Kickoff Sunday, “What Would WellSprings Do?”)

Ways to Pledge. Please submit your pledge either online, in person, or by mail by Sunday, April 16th.

• Online: login to Realm to make a pledge for the fiscal year 2023-2024 at
  https://onrealm.org/wellsprings/AddPledge/2023.
• In-person: Complete a paper pledge form and return it to the Giving Box at Bell Hall.
• Mail: Send a completed paper pledge form to the WellSprings Office.

Please reach out to any Stewardship Ministry member if you have questions, or send an email to stewardship@wellspringsuu.org.

Charged Full Living. The WellSprings mission is to be a community charged-full with the charge of the soul. We are blessed to have:

• a unique spiritual experience
• inspirational Sunday services with quality music
• a quality youth fellowship program
• a diverse community that builds connections between people with different life experiences
• community outreach through HeartWorks and JusticeWorks

Members of our community share reflections below on the impact of WellSprings in their lives.

I rely on WellSprings to keep me grounded in the real, grounded in community, and grounded in purpose.

Sarah Costa

“WellSprings has offered me an opportunity to be part of the Band, helping me to be who I am. Knowing that there is a group of people that care about me, and value me as a person because of who I am and not because of the job I have. It’s a blessing to be part of this community.”

Julie Choi

“It’s a lot of fun to volunteer in YouthSpirit. The things the kids say are unbelievable. They are open with each other and with us. They are given the safety to share what’s in their heart. The topics are so great that you end up learning something new.”

Kelly Nastasi

As we plan for the future, we invite you to connect, to commit, and to engage in a manner that keeps WellSprings strong. Please pledge according to your ability during this upcoming pledge drive.

We thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Your Stewardship Ministry:
Majid Alsayegh
Mary Alsayegh
Kathy Burke-Howe
Bill Cabin
Julie Choi
Carol Klekotka
Josie Waldman