Strategic Plan Update- Strategy #4
Strategy #4 – Challenge all members to increase financial support for St. James Parish.
The Strategic Plan for St. James Parish begins with a strength – fulfillment of our historic mission and of our true potential – and ends with a problem – St. James is underfunded. To address both, this strategy begins and ends in “generosity.”
In our study, the Strategic Planning Group (SPG) found our operating budget to be surprisingly small, chiefly because only a quarter of our 1200 members (800 “giving units”) pledge annually to support it. A church of our size, history, and importance cannot fulfill its mission without proper funding. And so the SPG has urged – and the Vestry has already adopted – that by 2023 we support an annual budget of $2.2M (almost twice its current size); raise $7M in capital gifts; increase annually the number of pledges, $5000 gifts, and planned gifts; and personalize our stewardship efforts.
- The Strategic Plan calls for ambitious enhancements of:
- Salaries
- Outreach (to both our members and the Wilmington community)
- Music
- Evangelism (in welcome to others)
- Christian Formation (for example, an expanded Speakers’ Series)
- Proper maintenance of the SJP facility
To explain the church’s needs and to solicit generous support for meeting them, the SPG has recommended to the Vestry:
- Decentralization and personalization of the solicitation process
- A well-organized Stewardship Committee
- A well-trained Canvassing Committee
- Effective use of technology
As with all aspects of the Strategic Plan our goal is excellence: “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” And excellence has its costs.