We have some exciting news about the future of our historic church home!
UUCCHC has been selected to participate in Sacred Places Indiana’s New Dollars/New Partners program, an intensive training program designed to help congregations with historic buildings strengthen their financial sustainability, build new community partnerships, and prepare for future capital needs.
We were selected through a competitive application process with more than 25 applicants!
Over the next six months, our UUCCHC cohort will participate in four day-long training sessions focused on:
- Making the Case for Sacred Places
- New Community Partnerships and Asset Mapping
- A Capital Campaign Primer
- Funding Resources Beyond the Congregation
Our cohort team includes Rosie Blankenship, Amy Hayden, Sarah Ratekin, Tyler McQueen and Theresa Bordenkecher. The program requires a $500 registration fee, which is being covered as a gift from a UUCCHC member.
There is a significant opportunity ahead for UUCCHC with this program: congregations that successfully complete the training sessions and application receive a guaranteed planning grant of up to $25,000 that can be used for a professional Building Conditions Assessment or to work with a professional fundraiser. Furthermore, congregations who complete the program are then eligible for grants up to $500,000 from the Sacred Places Indiana Fund, supported by the Lilly Endowment to assist historic houses of worship with restoration and repair, strengthening the sites for continued use as churches.
New Dollars/New Donors is about looking at our congregation, our building, and our place in the wider community with fresh eyes, identifying opportunities for partnership, imagining new and profitable uses for our spaces, and developing a thoughtful plan for long-term sustainability. For our small congregation stewarding a 142-year-old building, this is an extraordinary opportunity.
You’ll hear much more from the team as we move through the program. We expect this work to involve the whole congregation along the way as we imagine what can happen. We should all be very proud that UUCCHC was selected for this program!