The fall is a good time to reflect on how we each help Fabric remain strong and grow to include those who aren’t a part of our community yet through our intentional involvement, serving, and financial giving.  As part of this reflection, we’re asking everyone to check in on their automated giving or to take the plunge to begin autogiving.

In preparation for our autogiving check-in, we discovered a bookkeeping error that inflated our autogiving income during the last several months of the 2021-22 fiscal year.  The good news is that we found the mistake and corrected it.  And because our expenses last year were significantly under budget due to COVID’s impact on our operations, we still ended the year safely in the black.  The hard news is that while we thought our autogiving had simply leveled off during the year, it actually has decreased by about $600/month. 

Automated giving makes up about 60% of Fabric’s annual income. It helps make our income more predictable and reliable. Before we discovered the drop in our autogiving income, we had a goal of increasing autogiving by $500 month during the fall to meet our budget.  Given the prevailing economic conditions and the hardship of inflation on all our budgets, we have decided not to increase this goal.  However, it’s critically important that we reach our goal.

Any amount—$10, $20, $25 per month—makes a difference in meeting our goal.  We recognize every household has its own financial rhythms:  months when budgets may be particularly tight, months when we expect salary adjustments or bonuses, or seasonal fluctuations in income. If the fall is a good time to adjust or begin autogiving, we encourage you to do so now. If it makes sense to wait until another time of year, mark your calendar and let us know when we should check back in.

We’re including some information that may be helpful as you evaluate your own giving.  The pie chart to the right shows the percentage of Fabric households enrolled in automated giving that give certain amounts each month. If you decide to adjust or start autogiving now or later, please complete the online check-in form or email your plans to Katy at katy@fabricmpls.com.  Here are options for setting up automated giving through your bank, Zelle®, PayPal or Simply Giving.

We hope to see you Sundays at Field, via livestream, in Groups, or however else you’re able to connect.  We’re in this together.  Thank you for your contributions to and engagement with Fabric and for weaving your life with us!

P.S. We will have our Annual Spring Giving Challenge but autogiving will not be a part of the challenge.