The Finance Committee is working to redefine how we go about soliciting funds
for the growing needs of The Urantia Book Fellowship. While the Fellowship
only has around 1,000 members, we service many tens of thousands of readers
around the world, in many languages and many cultures. This trend is rapidly
growing and should only continue to do so.

With an ever growing variety of projects to fund as the revelation becomes more
widespread throughout the world, the Fellowship and the readers that support
these efforts, have a choice to either tone down our outreach and service, or to
raise more funds. The Fellowship has served the readership community with a
large number of dedicated and wonderful volunteers, a base of dedicated readers,
and will continue to do so. But to serve the rapid growth of readers worldwide,
a readership composed of different languages, cultures and needs, the time has
come to have staff and consultants who can handle the growth our organization is
experiencing.

A volunteer force is unable to supply the administration work, the accounting
and CPA work, the specialized database development and website administration.
These are examples of professional needs that would be unwise to delegate to a
part-time volunteer force.

It is exciting to have such a problem. The revelation is growing! We have
spent 50 years hoping the revelation would take root and grow. And now it is
and this wonderful growth requires more finances. The Fellowship has always
operated very lean and with extreme efficiency, and we will continue to do so.
But, if the Fellowship is to fulfill the obligation of servicing the expanding
readership, we require much more funds, a larger annual budget.

The Finance committee’s challenge and the challenge to all readers dedicated to
the revelation and to those interested in supporting the Fellowships efforts are
really quite simple. We need more people willing to donate. Easily said, a bit
more work to accomplish.

One of our successful campaigns has been our monthly auto-debit program. The
Fellowship now has 60 individuals on the monthly auto-debit program with an
average of $52 per month (or $624 annual) per donor. The Finance committee is
working to build this to 100 individuals on the monthly auto-debit program by
the end of the year, and contributing $60,000 a year ($5,000 a month) toward the
Fellowship’s annual budget.

The Fellowship has approximately 1,000 members, and as of June 30, 2005, the
Fellowship has had 217 individuals donate. Our goal this year is to have 300
individuals donate, which would be a record number of donors for the Fellowship
in a single year. The Fellowship's modest fiscal budget of $290,000 for 2005
requires an average donation of $1,000 per person to reach this goal. Thanks to
the many donors willing to donate more than a $1,000 a year has helped the
Fellowship maintain this budget.

The level of service the Fellowship is able to give the world will not be
limited just by volunteers, but rather by the budget the volunteers have to work
with for their tasks and goals. October is the month of budget decisions for
all the Fellowship's projects. It is the Finance Committee's hopes, dreams and
prayers to have the funds available for the many wonderful projects that are
responsible for spreading the message of the revelation around the world!

Please feel free to contact me with questions, ideas, hopes, or a donation. I
can be reached at snickburns@aol.com, or work number at 949 759-8600 ext 101, or
at home at 949 222-1053. I am always excited to talk to other readers, listen
to your views and share your dreams for this Epochal revelation.

Have you donated yet?


The Finance Committee
Robert Burns – Chair, Nick Curto, Gerald Pando, Ken Raveill Email:
fellowship@urantiabook.org


Email:
fellowship@urantiabook.org