Why is the GIFT Pilot Being Done Only in the Southern Region?

Thinking about GIFT FAQs: 

Why Should We Support the Region and the UUA?
by Bill Clontz, UUA Stewardship Consultant

In 2012, the UUA and the Southern Region embarked on a new course to improve how we share our resources. GIFT, Generously Investing For Tomorrow, is intended to be a simpler and more equitable program for providing the resources that enable our UUA and Southern Region team to serve our congregations and to represent our values and priorities at levels we could not do as individual congregations. 

To provide information and to encourage reflection on GIFT, the Southern Region has provided a number of GIFT information tools on this web site, including most recently a set of GIFT FAQs. This blog will, from time to time, focus on one of those FAQs in an expanded discussion. Today we are examining a fundamental question: Why should we share our resources when congregations already feel financially challenged?

Q: Why is the GIFT pilot being done only in the Southern Region?

A: Although the mechanics of GIFT are reasonably straightforward, this sort of funding program represents a major change within the UUA. Such a major change is best launched first as a large-scale pilot program. After what is learned from GIFT has been studied and modifications made as needed, such a funding program will be considered throughout the UUA, but only at the pace that each district or region is ready for. The Southern Region was asked to take this on as the pilot program because this region’s progress toward regionalization and this region’s levels of giving by all measures have historically been among the best in the UUA. 

Put succinctly, the GIFT program is necessarily a large and complex initiative that connects directly to how we run things and to our culture as an Association.  Recognizing that, the approach has been designed to implement in one region first, to validate the concepts and prove out the technical aspects on a large enough scale to stress the system, but small enough to adjust without excessive repercussions. As we are learning the lessons of implementation, this is proving to be a wise course. It likely will take another 2-3 years to ensure we have this right. The basic approach is solid, but as always, the devil is in the details – we still have work to do.

The Southern Region took the lead as an exceptionally diverse and traditionally generous region. No other region could be a better trailblazer than the Southern Region.

As always, your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcomed by your Regional Congregational Life Staff Primary Contact, the Congregational Giving Director, or at a dedicated email address at the UUA: southerngenerosity@uua.org.

Why Is the GIFT Program Being Piloted Now?

Thinking about GIFT FAQs: 

Why Should We Support the Region and the UUA?

by Bill Clontz, UUA Stewardship Consultant

In 2012, the UUA and the Southern Region embarked on a new course to improve how we share our resources. GIFT, Generously Investing For Tomorrow, is intended to be a simpler and more equitable program for providing the resources that enable our UUA and Southern Region team to serve our congregations and to represent our values and priorities at levels we could not do as individual congregations. 

To provide information and to encourage reflection on GIFT, the Southern Region has provided a number of GIFT information tools on this web site, including most recently a set of GIFT FAQs. This blog will, from time to time, focus on one of those FAQs in an expanded discussion. Today we are examine the question of why conduct GIFT now.

As the question and response below note, this has been a long time coming, in response to a number of challenges. 

Q: Why is the GIFT program being piloted now?

A: Many of us have felt for some time that the methodology used to fund our district and national programs have been more cumbersome, multi-layered, and at least potentially unfair than should be the case. In addition, the existence of one approach for large congregations and another system for everyone else led to mistrust and discomfort in both large and small congregations.  The UUA was asked by many of us to reexamine our existing funding model with the goal of finding a better approach. Teams at the UUA and districts have been working on this problem for some time now; the GIFT program is the resulting solution. It was rolled out as a pilot program in one region to validate the concept and processes.

GIFT is designed to replace a system that was more cumbersome, had greater potential for unfairness, and lacked a clearly shared foundation. Developing a replacement system was an effort that took time and reflection. As soon as it was ready, GIFT was rolled out in this one region, a large and diverse region, to validate the concept and methodology.

As always, your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcomed by your Regional Congregational Life Staff Primary Contact, the Congregational Giving Director, or at a dedicated email address at the UUA: southerngenerosity@uua.org.