My name is Charity Kemper Sandstrom and I have been a member of the FUM Board for just over two years, and the Executive Board for one year. I serve as pastor of University Friends Meeting in Wichita, KS, and am a life-long Quaker. I love working with folks who share my passion for following Jesus and serving the world. That is why I am a member of Friends United Meeting, and why working with the FUM General Board is a pleasure.
With those foundations in place, I want to share with you the current state of our financial health. FUM has a general budget and missions projects. The general budget is called the Ministry Support Fund, because everything we do as an organization is in support of the global ministries we serve in North America, the Caribbean, Palestine, and East Africa. In July, 2025, we set what we thought was an audacious goal of raising $650,000 for our Ministry Support Fund within eighteen months. We reached that goal a few months early, and we celebrate the support and generosity of everyone who gave. In the middle of our celebration, we learned we will need to raise that and more every year in order to fully fund our ministries. In the first two months of this fiscal year, we have a budget shortfall of $40,000.
What that means is we need to increase our support goals by $240,000 to stay in the black. Our goal for the current fiscal year has been updated to $738,000. The good news is that we have had two solid giving months so far, and our remaining support need through June of 2027 is $689,000. We are confident that we will reach that goal, and we recognize it is daunting.
While we are reorganizing our Ministry Support Fund budget and support goals, we are also working through a difficult financial situation in one of our projects. We learned from a whistle-blower last December that the Uganda Farm sustainability project was not being managed properly. At this time, we are awaiting a report from forensic auditors that will shed light on what has happened to those project funds. At that time, we will determine what our response as an organization will be to any mismanagement the report reveals.
In response to these challenges, we have been diligent to examine our policies and procedures for ways to improve our ability to responsibly manage donor funds. We are bringing our financial audits up to date and hope to be current by June, 2027. We have a new Financial Policy Handbook. We have contracted with Edge Accounting to provide CFO Services. We are exploring hiring Everence regarding our Advancement Planning. These challenging situations are not being ignored or swept under the rug. Our General Board, Executive Board, and staff are committed to making changes in our daily operations that increase accountability and reflect responsible stewardship of our resources.
Our goal for October through December of 2026 is to raise $316,000 to put us on track to meet our total support goal of $689,000 by the end of next June. This quarter is historically our highest fundraising quarter, and we have launched our giving campaign, Hope that Endures. We are inviting Friends to consider both one-time gifts as well as giving recurring monthly support. Over the past decade, we have seen a decrease in regular giving from Monthly Meetings and Yearly Meetings. Right now, the majority of our support comes from individuals, like you and me.
I don’t often talk about my personal giving in a public setting. First, I am a Quaker pastor and did not choose this profession for the financial benefits. Still, I am able to give to support FUM at $25 a month towards the Ministry Support Fund, and $50 a month towards the Belize Friends School. Those gifts look tiny in comparison to our overall budget needs, but they add up. In total, my contributions are $300 a year to the Ministry Support Fund and $600 a year to Belize Friends School. I couldn’t write a check for $900 today to FUM, but spread over the course of a year, it makes a difference. Monthly giving, even in small amounts, helps to fund a Hope that Endures.
I hope you will consider giving what you are able to support Friends United Meeting’s Ministry Support Fund so that we can continue to build a healthy and fruitful future together. We are a member supported organization, and every gift counts toward a sustainable future.
—Charity Kemper Sandstrom