The pledges you make during this year’s Annual Pledge Drive helps UUCC plan for the upcoming ministry year. Your financial investment sustains the congregation and allows us to be a safe and welcoming community, nurture each other’s hearts and spirits, and be a meaningful voice for justice and inclusion in Howard County.
This year, we invite you to pledge with UUCC’s future in mind. We invite you to take some time to consider the ways you wish to invest in the future of UUCC through your time, talent, and financial treasure.
On this page, you’ll learn about two approaches to help you determine what a fair financial investment looks like for you in 2023: Fair Share and Deciles.
Use the Fair Share Guide to make a Fair Share pledge
Throughout the pledge drive, you might hear mention of “fair share” pledges. That’s in reference to the Fair Share Contribution Guide developed by a Texas UU congregation in the 1990s and subsequently adapted and distributed by the Unitarian Universalist Association.
The Guide is a valuable tool because—
- It provides a range of practical gift levels for the individual or household making a new pledge to consider
- It serves as a social justice tool, in that it recognizes people have varying capacities to give, based on their resources and other financial responsibilities, while providing recognition for giving at various levels.
Here’s how the Guide works:
First, calculate your Adjusted Monthly Income following the pointers in the Fair Share Guide.
Second, decide what suggested giving level you are ready to support, depending on adjusted income and your commitment level:
- Supporter: The congregation is a significant part of my spiritual and intellectual life that I want to support. My fair share financial commitment starts at 2% of my income and rises to 6% as my income and capacity rise.
- Sustainer: The congregation is my central community; I am committed to sustaining the programs and ministries of my congregation. My fair share financial commitment starts at 3% of my income and rises to 7% as my income and capacity rise.
- Visionary: My commitment is a clear demonstration of the unique importance of this congregation and of my spiritual principles. My fair share financial commitment starts at 5% of my income and rises to 9% as my income and capacity rise.
- Transformer: I am deeply committed to the congregation; my contribution provides fuel for transformation and is part of my spiritual practices in living out my UU Principles. My fair share financial commitment represents 10% of my income.
You can read in-depth insights about the Fair Share Guide and download a printable worksheet here.
Move up a step in the decile breakdown
In past pledge drives, UUCC members leading the campaign looked at the distribution of pledge ranges from top to bottom. They divided that year’s pledges into ten deciles and invited you to increase your pledge from the previous year by jumping up into the next decile.
The graphic below shows the most recent decile breakdown shared by the UUCC pledge drive team from the 2022-23 fiscal year, in case this helps you decide what it means for you to pledge with UUCC’s future in mind this year.
For UUCC’s 2022-23 fiscal year, 231 congregants pledged a total of $657,081.20. The average pledge was $2,844.51; the median pledge was $1,500.
We broke down our combined pledges into 10 groups (or deciles), with each group representing roughly 10% ($65,700), of the fiscal year’s pledge total. As you can see, 80% of pledges were under $5000/year. Each pledge acts as an investment in the future of UUCC, no matter the size.
Here’s what the decile breakdown looks like for fiscal year 2022-23:
