Dear Members, Friends, and Newcomers,

If you were not able to join us for Celebration Sunday, it was a joyous day to be in the Sanctuary! We have been hard at work tallying our pledge results since that day and want to share that we made it to 80% of our goal within a month. What this means is that we have more work to do if we are going to be able to fund our current program and staffing levels next year. So, if you haven’t given yet, you can help us with these efforts by making your pledge before the holidays if at all possible.  

Thank you to all of you who have given so generously to fund this campaign for 2024. We have received $1,198,538 in Pledges from 594 households so far. To everyone who has given, you are helping us refine our plans for what is possible for the rest of this program year, which ends in June. You are also helping us begin to imagine what is possible for the next program year, which begins in July. 

We enthusiastically invite those of you who haven’t yet made a pledge for 2024 to let us know what you are able to give as soon as possible. We are a socioeconomically diverse congregation, and it takes gifts at all levels for us to flourish. Whether you can give $2,500 or $250, or whether you can give $10,000 or $1,000, it will make a difference. 

You can pledge online at: https://tinyurl.com/FirstUPdx2024

If you are a newcomer and appreciate our programming, please consider making a pledge. If you aren’t quite ready to do so but would like to make a gift now to support the campaign for 2024, you can click the following link below. 

Make a one-time gift of support at: https://tinyurl.com/giveFirstUpdx

Our budget is crafted to be both strong and lean. As a large church, we leverage the collective financial resources we have into worship, learning, caring, justice-making, community-building, and more. Even though our resources are significant, they are also limited – every dollar you share with us contributes to our being good stewards of our faith, our ministries, and our facilities. 

Thank you to all our pledging members and pledging friends. Thank you for sharing a portion of your treasure with us. You help co-create this church, which is here for every one of us, here for our children, and here for the world. 

With gratitude,

Rev. Alison