Forerunners in the "sustaining giver" shift

[Molly Baskette]

hi Beloved Staff,

I thank God for you: your skill, your work ethic, your cheer, your faith, your commitment to beloved community. Our church is healthy and strong in an age of deep uncertainty in institutional Christianity in large part because of you and your steadiness. 

I have an important ask of you, to that end. You probably know that a core tenet of our consultant Michael Piazza's work with churches is encouraging a supermajority of donors to give electronically (no more paper checks), and in a perpetual way (pledging no longer linked to a fall stewardship drive). 

Electronic giving benefits the church by assuring a stable income stream throughout the year, and reducing paperwork and people hours. It benefits donors/disciples by helping them avoid painful end-of-year "oops!" moments if they fall behind in their pledge. It also signals the steadiness of their commitment to the community they love.

This fall SF&A is going to ask the entire congregation to begin giving electronically, in what we hope will be the Last Pledge Campaign Ever. We are hoping to hit a total of 87% of our givers, or 163 pledge units, giving electronically by the end of 2018. 

You can help this effort by signing up to give electronically right now, to inspire your peers and anchor us in this culture of generosity and efficiency. I am making this same ask of ministry team chairs and other key leaders. 

The process is *easy.* I have already signed up myself (because I had already prepaid my 2018 pledge, I just set up my account with a small additional donation to start things off, and will adjust that number toward the end of 2018). You can use a credit card or your checking account. 

Please see the attached How To that Nate Mazur created. I am asking you, if you are able, to complete this shift by Wednesday, September 5. 

If you have not activated your Realm profile, you will have to do that first. You can ask Louise to send you an invitation to Realm by emailing her at lha...@fccb.org.

If you have any difficulty figuring out how to sign up to give electronically, Kit Dunbar (kdu...@fccb.org) or I would be so happy to help you. 

And if you have any other questions, concerns, conflicts or reasons why you can't pledge electronically at this time, please call me up and talk to me about it! We know this will feel like a big change to some folks, and we want to understand how to make this transition as easy, understandable and painless as possible for the congregation, including for you. 

gratefully,

Molly

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If you write me on a Monday, know that it's my sabbath! The day I turn out the "lights," to better see the stars.