Mortgage Prevention: Sprint to the Finish!
- Shari Loe
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
First – in case you missed it, please check out our special announcement last Sunday at the end of the September 21st service! It starts at minute 52.13.
The Fellowship’s Capital Campaign is now in its final phase, which we like to call “Mortgage Prevention. As of today, we have enough in pledges to pay off all but about $300,000 to avoid needing a mortgage.
(A 15-year, $300,000 mortage would cost about $30,000 per year – right out of the Operating Budget. Every $10,000 we reduce the total needed by “prevents” the need for $1,000 to be paid to the bank – PER YEAR FOR 15 YEARS – rather than for our own programming!!)
We have a plan to raise the rest – but first, let’s bask in what we have accomplished!
Here is just a sampling of what what we did since 2018!
All that cost about $4 million. As you can see, it wasn’t just the Addition!
It is all paid off! (Solar was funded separately at approximately $180,000, with some loans to be paid back from solar earnings when the system goes live).
So now – it’s time to look to the future.
The building is nice – but our LEGACY will be what we do with it.
When you authorized us to raise the $4.5 million for the new Addition, you agreed we could leave $400,000 to be covered by a mortgage. If necessary.
The outstanding construction loan is due next August. We originally borrowed $2M, but now it’s down to a little over half a million. As of last August, our pledges covered all but $396,000.
So we have raised $100,000 in this past year. But now we need to get the remaining $300,000 in 11 months! Here’s the plan:
Save these dates: October 19, November 15, December 14 and February 28!
It occurred to me that we raised the $8.2 million or so because, from 2012-2014, we shared information and generated enthusiasm and were powered by the dreams we shared and built together in a series of meetings and focus groups open to all. I figured it was time to do a sort of mini-version of that collective work as we pivot towards our future. So, October 19 we will ask you to consider: what is the FUTURE enabled by our new Addition – without a lingering loan? We will invite you to dream of future joys that will get your giving juices flowing. We’ll be starting that conversation with emails and phone calls to listen to you. We will tell our story and answer questions and together consider what the Fellowship has brought and can bring to the Morristown community for the future, especially if we can avoid any debt!
Unlike the Building Project, any mortgage loan would be paid from our Operating Budget (Don’t forget to turn out for the Service Auction Kickoff on November 8, our biggest Operating Budget fundraiser of the year!)
We also will have fun along the way as we fundraise for Mortgage Prevention! Last Saturday we had a marvelous time at the Swing Band concert fundraiser, which brought in 77 people and raised $1800 after some modest expenses. But look what is coming up!
Stearns is a fantastic cabaret performer - and he was also our beloved music director from April 2018 to June 2022. We are hoping for a sellout for his upcoming concert and will be reaching out to the wider community, including his many friends, to do so. Tickets are $40.
I just learned that our Middle School youth will be holding a bake sale to benefit Mortgage Prevention!
Individual “asks” and visits will continue, especially for folks who are newer to the Fellowship.
We will take a break for our 70th Anniversary celebration at the end of January – which should provide more opportunities to dream for our future as we celebrate our past!
And then we will close the campaign out with a bang with our Gala in February, with an internationally honored young Barbershop Quartet, First Take, serenading us as we participate in a fabulous Art Show and Sale curated by our own Nina Nemeth and catered by Ken Nemeth. Admission price is still TBD, but we envision a sliding scale to make sure we maximize returns but also remain financially accessible to all. Stay tuned for more information.
Oh and one more thing: we have 4 named spaces in Gateways that have been funded by naming gifts:
The Al and Minda Chu Family Hall
the Loe Family Courtyard of Compassion
The Uhrhane Wilson Welcome Gallery
the Morgenthaler Ferm Our Whole Lives OWL Classroom
We have room for at least 2 more, and additional spaces in the Mansion! Gifts are totaled across all the phases of the campaign since 2014, and many of you are close to the amount needed to name a space! Qualifying amounts include:
$400,000 for the remaining classroom in the Addition or Room 204 in the Mansion;
$450,000 to name the Kitchen,
$350,000 to name other classrooms in the Mansion.
Gifts can be anonymous, and doesn’t have to be a family name! (Think: The Green Earth Ministry classroom, the Stone Soup Kitchen … The Sophia Lyons Fahs Library …)
Finally – if you have an outstanding pledge, please consider completing it sooner rather than later if you can. Every $10,000 paid towards Mortgage Prevention this year instead of in 2026 will save $600. I’ve just accelerated as much as I could on my pledge, so I urge you to do the same.
VOLUNTEER TO HELP!
We could not have done any of this without your time and talent – added to the treasure we have gratefully received.
Beth Hayward already is volunteering to help with Stearns Matthews concert. The Middle Schoolers are organizing the bake sale in December. Nina and Ken Nemeth are on board for the Gala. What can you do? We need help with the campaign too – help run the Focus Groups, write thank you’s, make calls to set up visits or as so many have done, sign up to get trained as a visitor! Please email us at drww@muuf.org to volunteer your time and talents to help each other bring this campaign home!
