Pledge Guidelines & Considerations

Please feel free to contact anyone on our committee about questions beyond the information provided below or to address issues or topics that you may prefer to talk about personally. Our goal with this information is to offer helpful context so you can make the best and most informed decision for your particular situation.

First Parish Budget Background

Since our congregation is responsible for the health of the church, First Parish finances are open to all members. For instance, 2009 Actual Expenses were $275,506 while 2010 Expenses are projected
to be $287,380. Further detail is provided in the FPC Annual Business Report and Annual Business Meeting Minutes, June 6, 2010.

Programs Supported

The budget supports everything from Sunday worship to Christian Education and from Vespers to Music, all to benefit the varied needs and passions of our members. More details are on our website.

Guidelines

Because our church is mostly funded by our members, we hope you can pledge some level of consistent support. Similar to last year, we’re again offering electronic giving as an option to make the process of pledging simple. We recognize and respect that while some members of the congregation are in more fortunate situations and can offer more, others may be more able to contribute through volunteerism or their talents.

For context, actual annual pledges to the church have ranged from $50 to more than $20,000, the wide range reflecting those varied circumstances of our respective lives, which we all understand.  But, it also means that we have to be careful with budget volatility and instability.

Understandably, there is no right way to determine what’s “appropriate” for an individual or a family. However, since we do need to come together to fund the budget, the congregation decided at the last Annual Meeting that a guideline of 1% to 5% of household income could help our collective efforts to reach the budget. In the spirit of being helpful, here are two quick illustrations:

1. For a household earning $75,000 a year, a 1% pledge would be $750 for the year, or $15/week.
2. For a household earning $250,000 a year, a 3% pledge would be $7,500 for the year, or $144/week.

All that said, our church community gives itself in many more ways than the annual pledge. You can feel it whenever you attend a Sunday Service. Whether you’re able to make a pledge, give an hour of your time, cook a warm meal for a homebound individual or give $5 towards blankets for a shelter, the spirit of your gift will always greatly surpass its size in importance and value to our church.