Beginning this month, our Board of Trustees has authorized making every Sunday’s plate collection an outreach offering. With the beginning of a new calendar (and tax) year, Heritage Church is proud to join the growing ranks of Unitarian Universalist congregations who have committed themselves to creating a better, more peaceful, more just world by turning an outmoded ecclesiastical practice into a modern tool for effective social change.
In December, your generosity helped us surpass the budgeted amount for offering plate income for our current fiscal year (ending June 30). In future years, we plan to do away with the modest “offering plate” line in our budget, and rely solely on your annual pledges, outside rentals, fundraising, and so on to meet our operating costs.
What this means for us is the ability to give away the offering plate each week. What this means for the world around us is more help and support from the loving hearts and hands of the Heritage Church family for worthy non-profit organizations and projects that are consistent with our Unitarian Universalist principles and values.
Here’s how it will work on Sunday mornings: If you are writing a check to put in the offering plate, make it payable to “HUUC.” It will go toward our outreach offering recipient organization or project for that week, unless you specifically write “Pledge Payment” on the memo line. Doing so would indicate to our Treasurer that you prefer that money be counted as a payment toward your annual pledge. Otherwise, all checks, and all cash contributions, will go toward the outreach offering. (Remember, cash contributions are not considered tax deductible by the IRS.)
January 2017.
