by Reid Hester
Dear Heritage Members and Friends,
Happy New Year 2024 to all! I’m very happy to report that we are in a very solid position with our finances as we reach the halfway point in our church fiscal year. I want to thank the Board and the volunteer spirit within our congregation for bringing loads of energy and excitement to our fundraising efforts and for making some hard decisions that have worked out very favorably for us this year.
As I look back on where we were at this time last year, I can see that we were concerned about losing our long time Taekwondo renter; we were facing mounting energy costs and confusing billing practices from Duke Energy; and we had what seemed like daunting fundraising goals. I’m very happy to report that we have made great strides addressing each of these challenges while all of you, our members and friends, have stepped up with your financial support of our church community through your pledges.
As we faced the prospect of losing our Taekwondo renters, the Board made the difficult decision to substantially increase the cost to Turpin High School students to rent spaces in our parking lot during the school year. We went into the school year with bated breath, wondering how this price increase would impact sales of parking passes, only to find that Turpin students and their families took the increase in stride. We sold out just as quickly as ever. This price increase, along with a few other rentals tucked into the year, are more than making up for the loss of Taekwondo, and this has been a huge help for our budget.
I want to thank Martha, our Church Administrator, for working diligently to seek out new contracts for our gas and electricity suppliers to lower our prices. Martha has also worked diligently with Duke Energy to make sense of our even billing (also known as budget billing) and ensure that we’re not being overcharged. At this time last year, we were staring down some of the highest energy costs we have ever faced, and now halfway through this fiscal year those costs have been brought into line and well within our budget.
That brings us to fundraising. We have set a high bar this year, folks, and we dove right into the challenge early in the church year by moving our yearly auction from the spring to the fall. With the auction already behind us, we are now more than halfway to our goal of $21,000 (after we exceeded our goal last year by raising almost $19,000 on a goal of $16,000). Congratulations to all for achieving as much as we have this year already! As we make our way through the second half of the church fiscal year, please be on the lookout for opportunities to host, plan, and participate in fundraising activities that are at least as important for their community-building impact as they are for their financial impact.
Now, for the boring stuff, the day-to-day work of the Finance Committee and the Board. We have made a major change by changing banks! Heritage banked with Fifth Third for many, many years, and it was a good relationship, until it wasn’t. Little by little, Fifth Third added fee after fee and finally drove us away. An extensive search process led us to Center Bank where we were pleased to find excellent service, higher yields on our savings, and no fees. Center Bank is a locally run bank with branches that are convenient for our needs. We are looking forward to a long and drama-free relationship with this new banking partner.
Finally, as we have turned the page to a New Year, it will soon be time to plan our 2024-2025 fiscal year budget and set a pledge target for our spring pledge drive. Our pledge campaign will start in earnest on Stewardship Sunday, March 17. Learn about our most recent 23-24 stewardship campaign on our past year’s stewardship website at https://huuc.net/stewardship/. If you are interested in volunteering to help with our upcoming 2024-25 pledge campaign, please send an email to:
Here’s wishing all of our members and friends a productive and positive start to 2024. As always, please let me know if you have any questions. You can email me anytime at:
All the best,
Reid Hester
HUUC Finance Committee and Stewardship Chair