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PNC participated in 2020 Giving Tuesday

The PNC participated in Facebook’s Giving Tuesday campaign on Dec. 1, raising funds while encouraging donors and sponsors who offered matching gifts to express what they are grateful for.

Graphic forGiving Tuesday was a colorful way to express gratitude for each giver. Photo courtesy of the PNC Facebook page

Courtney Stange Tregear, the PNC minister of vitality, said her family frequently engages in a thankfulness practice throughout the year.

“I tell my kids gratitude is like a muscle. It must be used and exercised for it to work well. When we don’t practice our gratitude it is easy to lose sight of all there is to be grateful for, to be discouraged by what one does not have,” she said.

She said that the practice is more important this year, when there has been so much loss, disappointment, grief and turmoil.

The PNC before COVID was prioritizing relationship, learning how to listen, share, be vulnerable and authentic, how to weave together.

“Relationship is at the core of who we are as a conference,” Courtney said. “We have done these things *so that* we have a greater capacity for doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God. In the time of COVID, we have seen everything tested, but we have also seen our relationships and our gratitude continue to strengthen.”

Leaning into relationship and gratitude, PNC leaders decided to increase support of the PNC with a year-end appeal for Friends of the Conference, people giving individual gifts to the Pacific Northwest Conference as a way to express their gratitude for the conference’s impact on lives through camps and visits to congregations.

“These gifts help close the deficit in our annual budget and enabled us to increase programs and PNC vitality,” she said.

This year the theme was “Give Thanks for ________”, inviting people to reflect on what they give thanks for in this time.

Anyone could comment, by sharing what they are thankful for.

This year the PNC participated in the world-wide generosity movement called Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving as an opportunity to raise funds so the PNC can equip pastors and church leaders through workshops, webinars, conversations, study and shared resources.

Participation happened on the PNC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pncucc. Giving Tuesday is primarily a social media movement, but people could give even if they were not on Facebook.

The PNC also received sponsors for this campaign to match gifts given to raise a goal of $40,000.  By Dec. 2, funds reached 70 percent of the goal and as of Dec. 8 more than 80 individuals and nearly 10 congregations and agencies shared in giving.

To build momentum for giving on Giving Tuesday, Kyna Shilling of Plymouth UCC in Seattle and publisher for the Facebook page used graphics and shared gratitude for each gift.

Those donating $1 to $49 received a certificate. Those giving $50 to $99 received a “Give Thanks” Christmas ornament and certificate. Donors giving more than $100 are being sent a copy of This Is Me: Stories of Lent during a Time of Pandemic,  the ornament and certificate.

Gifts can still be made at http://pncucc.org/giving-tuesday or by check.

 

Copyright © December 2020 - PNC-UCC News

 

 

 

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