St. John’s | San Juan Episcopal Church
Stewardship Report for The Chronicle
July 2021
As the first step in developing a comprehensive program for stewardship and community and financial development for St. John’s | San Juan, the initial meeting of our new Stewardship Committee was held on July 8, 2021. Members of the Committee include Judy Bartels, Caitlin Bird, Sarah Clifthorne, Anne Hall, Bob Le Roy, Pat Le Roy, and Andre Unicume. The Committee discussed and began planning for the following activities:
- Capital Campaign Fulfillment Phase
In this phase, we will reach out to everyone who made a gift or pledge to the Sing to the Lord a New Song campaign to thank them and ask them to confirm their commitments. Anne will also complete a master record of all gifts and pledges so we can project cash flow from pledges we will receive during the balance of 2021, 2022, and 2023 and for our use, when necessary, in reminding contributors when their pledge payments are due.
- Social Engagement
Caitlin and Andrew will take the lead in organizing an event, perhaps a block party or street fair, to celebrate our return to being with each other. R.C. anticipates three events during the first half of the upcoming program year: “return to church” in September, “blessing of the animals” in October, and “Feast of All Saints” in November.
- Legacy Society
We will begin the process of creating a Legacy Society to promote, solicit, and celebrate planned and deferred gifts designated to St. John’s | San Juan. We will recruit a Chair for the Society and a team of planning professionals (attorney, accountant, financial planner, life insurance agent) from within the congregation, if possible, to serve as resources for articles and presentations focused on estate and financial planning.
- Project Resource
The Diocese of Olympia is offering us an opportunity to participate in Project Resource (Project Resource | The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia (ecww.org)), a comprehensive, 5-part, series about stewardship formation. This program, from the Office of Bishops, “has proven success in being an effective and enduring set of practices for changing the culture of giving in congregations”. R.C. and I will be participating and encourage members of the Stewardship Committee, Vestry, and congregation to join us. If you are interested, please let me know.
- 2022 Annual Campaign
We anticipate the annual campaign for 2022 will be held during a six-week period in October and November 2021 and will be structured much like the capital campaign, with lead volunteers reaching out to members of the congregation personally to cultivate and solicit gifts and pledges. It was suggested the launch of the annual campaign occur on the same day as the ministry fair to illustrate some of the many ways campaign gifts support our mission and ministries.
- Stewardship Retreat
We would like to schedule and host a “Stewardship Retreat” for members of the Stewardship Committee, Ministry Leads, and other interested members of the congregation to share our experiences during the pandemic and build consensus around priorities for stewardship and community and financial development at St. John’s | San Juan in post-COVID times. We will create a small planning team for the retreat and invite members of the Vestry and congregation to join us. If you would like to be part of the planning team, please let me know.
Respectfully submitted,
Bob Le Roy, Stewardship Chair
