Why North Chapel Needs an Endowment

Why Are We Launching This Now?

As the past couple of years have confirmed, we live in a volatile and precarious world.

Yet throughout the pandemic, the North Chapel was able to adapt its services, programs and activities to provide care, support and sustenance to its congregation and the broader community.

It wasn’t easy.

In addition to the huge effort required to transform activities, the church was operating under a budget where our operating expenses significantly exceeded revenues. As a small congregation of fewer than 150 members, we face resource constraints that limit our capacity to achieve our ambitious aspirations.

In recent years, as the church’s membership profile has changed, so too has our financial situation: revenue from pledges has declined as a large proportion of membership has entered retirement; rental income dropped following the departure of the nursery school; and fundraising revenue has slowed as the capacity of our membership to continue high energy events such as the annual fair and the book sale has decreased.

The North Chapel Endowment Fund will serve two vital purposes.

First, the funds will be invested to provide a stable, reliable and growing stream of revenue to support the church and its ongoing activities. Our $500,000 initial target would generate an extra $25,000 a year to supplement our annual budget revenue.

The second objective is to provide a safety net that could be accessed only in exceptional circumstances—an unpredictable financial crisis, a serious legal challenge, or a catastrophic external event like the Covid pandemic. These funds could help ensure that North Chapel survived an emergency like the one that forced the church to sell the parsonage and close its doors during the Great Depression.