Hi. My name is Michael Hamill Remaley. As a member of All Souls for many years, I am not new to our community, but I am new as a staff member leading fundraising efforts.
I am looking forward to connecting with you in my new role, but I’m even more excited to have a conversation with you about “stewardship” and what it means for each of us.
Stewardship, quite simply, is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care. For Unitarian Universalists, this is not an obligation, but rather an act of love and mutual support.
If you believe in the possibilities that All Souls is creating, the way you care for our community will be unique to you.
Over my years as a member – and more intensely since I started my staff role on July 1 – I have been talking with fellow members about what we’re creating here at All Souls and why it is so meaningful. People attach to All Souls for countless reasons – pastoral support, spectacular music, social justice action, youth learning, friendship, spiritual and intellectual exploration, to name just a few.
I think about all those many reasons as a unified whole:
We are creating the world we want to see. All Souls is a place where we are nurturing beauty, care, joy and change. Our congregation is rooted on a tiny parcel of land, but we’re growing this community as a beacon of what can be, and its light is radiating far beyond our walls.
As the staff member who is now charged with supporting your intentions to create the world we want to see, my mandate is to listen and connect you to new stewardship opportunities. Here is what I mean…
What Does Stewardship Mean to You?
Amidst the tumult of this era, All Souls is the place where we connect, care, explore, grow, advocate, serve, imagine, create and find purpose. Bolstering one solid and reliable place where joy, justice and beauty are growing – and where we are working to expand it outward – is important. It matters, you matter.
Whether you have in abundance friendship, volunteering time, professional expertise, creative skills or financial resources to share, All Souls is a place that welcomes all that you are, and gratefully receives your gifts whenever you are ready to join in.
I am here to listen to your interests and help you figure out which opportunities feel right for you at this stage of your life. The conversations we will have will explore how you can form deeper connections within our community, and apply your “time, talent or treasure” to join with others.
We’ll succeed in building a broader commitment to stewardship when every member regularly revisits the mutual bonds within our community and thinks seriously about how our time, skills/interests/expertise and available financial resources are – or are not – aligning with our intentions.
What Am I Actually Doing?
A sizable portion of my time will be dedicated to activities that typically fall under the heading of fundraising, which aligns with my professional background (see below). We – the Stewardship Committee (FKA Annual Giving Committee), Rev. Pamela, Rev. Kathleen and I – have developed an Annual Plan that prioritizes engagement with donors at all levels, sets forth a timeline of activities that increases engagement in All Souls activities, and develops materials and procedures that should make it smoother for people to give in the ways that work best for them.
But the part of the Annual Plan that most excites me is how I’m going to be connecting with you. Over the course of this year, I will be seeking out as many members as will answer my call to ask you a few targeted questions about what brought you to All Souls in the first place, what’s important to you, and how you’re feeling about the mutual bonds of support that keep All Souls such a thriving place.
I intend for these conversations to produce two distinct outcomes:
- Your Stories Will Rise. I will be listening for people’s experiences about how they formed connections at All Souls and asking individuals if they would be interested in sharing their stories. These could eventually become Opening Words, “Stewardship Stories” retold in our communications, or inspiring personal narratives for our archive, among many other possibilities.
- New Opportunities Will Be Identified. As you discuss how you currently interact with All Souls, I will be listening and thinking along with you about ways to deepen your connections, sustain your efforts and make sure you are connecting in ways that match your intentions.
It will take many months for me to have these conversations with a significant number of All Souls community members, but I hope to talk to you, and I hope you will want to talk with me.
Why Me?
At this point, you may be asking: What credibility does this guy have to take on all these stewardship goals?
I am a lifelong Unitarian Universalist. I am deeply committed to our ethical bonds, which means I strive to be conscientious in every human interaction and to be fully accountable for the outcomes I have promised. I am passionately invested in a thriving All Souls NYC, and I believe there is so much more we can achieve together.
I am a writer and communicator. My undergraduate degree is in journalism and, for many of my years in nonprofits, I was a director of communications and public policy. For several years, I was an editor for the online publication Inside Philanthropy. My graduate degree is in Social Work, with a focus on program evaluation.
I started my career in philanthropy and I’ve worked for three private foundations (Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, Russell Sage Foundation), a national philanthropic consulting firm (TCC Group) and Philanthropy New York, the regional association of grantmakers. Over the years, I worked for several grant-seeking nonprofits and was often responsible for grant writing and fundraising, discovering a love for it.
After co-founding a nonprofit (Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation) and leading its successful national fundraising efforts, I decided to focus my career on fundraising. As a major gifts officer for Lambda Legal, I deepened my experience with fundraising systems and individual donors. I have been a fundraising consultant to a wide variety of small nonprofits in New York, most recently for Our House NYC, a provider of grief support services.
My resume is less important than my steadfast commitment to All Souls. Since I started in July, I have felt fully embraced in my new role. The creative ideas, fundraising best-practices and concrete plans I have been sharing are being welcomed in a way that I find extraordinarily encouraging.
This is a time of transition at All Souls. I believe there is no better time to be having deeper conversations about what stewardship means to each of us. I look forward to connecting with you soon.
If you want to connect with me before I reach out to you, never hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected] or 917-753-4890.
Yours in Service,
Michael Hamill Remaley