Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a capital campaign? How is it different from the annual stewardship campaign?
A: The Living Waters capital campaign raises money over and above the annual stewardship campaign. It will pay for projects that will support our community and ministry for years and which we could not afford using pledges from the annual stewardship campaign.
Q: How were the goals and potential projects identified?
A: Together, the parish went through a process in 2012 to articulate the core commitments of this community. The resulting Vision Statement is posted around the campus and can be read/seen on our website. A vision statement identifies core values, and then a strategic plan articulates how to live into those values. After months of congregational discernment, research, and prayer by scores of All Soulsians, in 2015 the Vestry adopted a Strategic Plan that designated three areas for focused attention in the following three to five years. Those areas were: Deep Hospitality, Christian Action and Practice, and the Re-development of the Parish House. The Parish House, now Jordan Court, is complete and our new neighbors are moving in.
The pillars of the Living Waters campaign, and the projects that support them, arise from the other parts of our Strategic Plan. Our work on kinship and welcome will be enhanced by improving accessibility and our ability to welcome all to our space. Our ministry work around Christian action and practice will be enabled by adapting and caring for the buildings on our campus and caring for creation through improvements to reduce or eliminate fossil fuel use on the premises.
Q: Why are we doing this campaign now?
A: The buildings we have testify to the imagination and generosity of those who came before us. Since 1956, have had one major capital campaign. In 1999 the Inviting the Light campaign improved accessibility and modified the chancel – the area around the altar. After 60+ years of loving use, it is time to renew, refresh and update our space to prepare for another century of reflecting God’s love to the world.
The visible phase of the Living Waters Campaign was just beginning in February and March of 2020, when the COVID pandemic required the Vestry to suspend the campaign. In the Fall of 2021, the Vestry weighed an apparent waning of the pandemic, a pressing need for work on the buildings, and a rekindling of hope among All Soulsians and decided to relaunch Living Waters: Renewal for Our Second Century in the Spring of 2022.
Q: Why is the campaign theme Living Waters?
A: As we begin the renewal of our physical spaces for the next century, we seek to remember that the Living Waters Jesus spoke of bring forth life. One touchstone for that remembrance is the painting on the cross that hangs above All Souls’ altar. Next time you are in the church, look for this reference to the living waters and know this campaign seeks to continue to draw on those life-giving waters to our ministry in the next century.
Q: What are the pillars of the Living Waters campaign?
A: As a faith community we live, through the grace of God, to do God’s work in this time and in this place. Together with the wider church, we see this moment as a critical time to take specific action in the four areas – four pillars — of the Living Waters campaign. A successful campaign will move us toward:
- Complete Accessibility – Installing an elevator and making ADA modifications so that all spaces and programs are available to all people.
- Communal Flexibility – Renovating the kitchen and the undercroft to better serve parish and community needs.
- Carbon Neutrality – Adding solar panels and replacing the old heaters to reduce our carbon footprint.
- Continued Vitality – Updating the chapel and parish hall to help us meet, host, and welcome as a church and as a neighbor.
Q: What do we expect these projects to cost?
Complete Accessibility |
|
| Identified Need | 2020 Cost Estimate |
| Elevator | 580,000 |
| Nave modification for elevator | 55,000 |
| ADA modifications to stairwells | 50,000 |
| Parish Hall audio-visual system | 15,000 |
| Complete Accessibility Estimate
|
700,000
|
Communal Flexibility |
|
| Identified Need | 2020 Cost Estimate |
| Parish Hall Kitchen expansion | 185,000 |
| Parish Hall Kitchen appliances, furnishings, installation | 145,000 |
| Parish Hall storage for chairs/tables, storage cabinets | 90,000 |
| Crow’s Nest 3rd floor reconfiguration | 230,000 |
| Undercroft: flex rooms, 4 restrooms, kitchenette from finance office, choir and storage rooms, additional outlets in Common Room | 625,000 |
| Landscaping (from new building around to Spruce and courtyard) | 150,000 |
| Communal Flexibility Estimate
|
1,425,000
|
Carbon Neutrality |
|
| Identified Need | 2020 Cost Estimate |
| Replace furnaces with energy-efficient heat source | 140,000 |
| Additional solar panels | 170,000 |
| Tesla wall battery system for emergency power | 66,000 |
| Radiant heat in Parish Hall floor | 30,000 |
| Radiant heat in Chapel floor | 11,000 |
| Carbon Neutrality Estimate
|
417,000
|
Continued Vitality |
|
| Identified Need | 2020 Cost Estimate |
| Parish Hall: floor replacement, window repair and curtains, lighting | 90,000 |
| Parish Hall Foyer: hallway paint, flooring, drinking fountain | 40,000 |
| Chapel: paint, lighting, flooring | 44,000 |
| Electrical panel upgrades | 45,000 |
| Stained glass skylight above choir | 40,000 |
| Nave chair seating | 50,000 |
| Continued Vitality Estimate
|
309,000
|
General |
|
| Identified Need | 2020 Cost Estimate |
| Preliminary feasibility study | 12,500 |
| Structural inspection | 1,950 |
| Hazmat issues | 58,000 |
| Consultant fee | 44,000 |
| Campaign overhead (events, print, etc.) | 18,225 |
| “Tithe” — Significant Gift from Living Waters | TBD |
| General Estimate | 134,675 |
| Total Estimate
|
2,985,675
|
The Living Waters Campaign does not include repairing or replacing the organ or building a columbarium in the courtyard. Those projects will be addressed independently.
Q: How will the campaign work? How long will it take?
A: The Living Waters project has three phases that will renew All Souls for the next century:
- Phase 1 – Capital Commitments (February 2022 – June 2022) After education, prayer, and fellowship, each member of our community will be asked for a financial commitment to the campaign – above and beyond regular giving.
- Phase 2 – Capital Planning (July 2022 – Fall 2023) The Vestry will engage the congregation to discern project priorities and then develop a construction plan supported by the financial resources we have raised.
- Phase 3 – Capital Construction (Fall 2023 – Fall 2024) Construction and renovation work. We renew the church for the next century of ministry and service.
Q: How much do we plan to raise?
A: There is enough vitality and vision in this church that if we had $10 million we could spend it well. But, as a rule of thumb, capital campaigns can expect to stretch to raise 3 times the annual giving totals from current church members. In 2021 our total giving was about $700,000. So, we aspire to raise $2 million in new commitments.
In 2020, the vestry approved use of $550,000 from Ann Jordan’s bequest for the Living Waters capital campaign. It is clear, however, that we will need significant additional funds from the current congregation to address the church’s needs.
Taken together we hope to be able to spend $2.55 million, or more, to renew our church.
Q: How will we decide which projects we will do?
A: In 2020, a list of projects that support the four pillars of the campaign was estimated to cost $2.9 million. Costs have risen since then. And we plan to make a contribution from our campaign proceeds to help the world outside our walls.
When we know how much the campaign has raised, the Vestry will gather broad-based, systematic input from the entire congregation and determine which projects can be activated at this time
Q: What are the spiritual benefits of these projects?
A: By tending to our building’s needs we are tending our own needs for a place to worship, learn, and meet in fellowship. Our spaces also benefit a preschool and the dozen or so community groups that meet here for learning, healing, and practice. When we choose to make a generous gift to All Souls for this campaign, we reflect how much we value this church and its people, its mission, and our own faith journey in community. When we choose to commit our resources to All Souls, we commit to do all we can to make All Souls the kind of church community that is worthy of such investment – to be a church where worship, love, fellowship, reconciliation, and justice are practiced and lived into.
Q: In a world of need, how can we spend so much on our own buildings?
A: The maintenance of our building will not eclipse our care for neighbors in need; rather, it is a parallel project. It is by maintaining this common home that we will continue to gather, worship, and change as individuals and community that seek to be like Jesus. This will always include our commitment to our neighbors in distress.
Q: How should I think about my Living Waters commitment?
A: Living Waters offers these guidelines for each of us as we discern our financial commitment:
- To what extent does my giving accurately reflect the value I have for All Souls?
- To what extent am I acting purposefully, intentionally, and faithfully in my giving?
- How is my giving helping me grow in faith toward God, and in service to others?
Q: When will I be asked for money?
A: At the end of May each All Soulsian will be asked to make a personally significant commitment – above and beyond regular giving – to the Living Waters campaign.
Q: When and how do I pay my commitment? What if my circumstances change?
A: The commitment can be paid all at once or over a three-year period, June 2022 – May 2025. Commitments, like pledges, can be paid using your bank’s auto-pay system, a separate check or other asset transfer.
All Souls will be relying on the commitments to make its own financial commitments and plans. However, if circumstances change, you may revise your pledge by notifying the church.