Case for Giving
May Our Doors Always Be Open for You ATID Campaign for our Future
Our Shir Shalom
Congregation Shir Shalom is a warm, welcoming, and inclusive congregation that plays a vital and valued role in our lives as a spiritual home and sacred community. Talented and caring clergy and educators inspire us through participatory and musical worship and enriching educational opportunities for all ages. We aspire to enhance our lives, our community, and our world through worship, lifelong learning, the pursuit of social justice and Tikkun Olam, and adding to our meaningful social and personal connections. As we celebrate and reflect upon our past, we are imagining our future as a sacred community. Stability will enable us to envision and implement plans for a vibrant future.
Current strategic initiatives including Tot Shabbat 2.0 and Adult Programming have better engaged current congregants and attracted new individuals and families. These cohorts will continue to coalesce in our vibrant Jewish community. Continued (and expanded) strategic programming and initiatives will help us better retain congregants and continue attracting new individuals and families.
Our Future Together
Our vision is to enhance Shir Shalom as:
• A vibrant, dynamic, and inspiring Jewish community.
• An institution built on a growing foundation of generosity and participation.
• Our area’s center for lifelong Jewish learning, prayer, and music as well as a place where people come for enrichment, connection, inspiration and shalom (peace).
How we will get there…
Congregation Shir Shalom is embarking on a $4 million campaign to meet our needs and strengthen our sacred community for our bright Atid (Hebrew for future) together.
The Atid Campaign will address the following needs:
Reduce the economic barriers to growth and participation in our Jewish community (endowing new and improved opportunities for connection). Congregation Shir Shalom’s new endowment fund will generate investment income annually to implement and support strategic programming and initiatives that will foster growth and enrich our lives and our sacred community. This investment income will enable new, progressive programming and initiatives without significantly increasing Community Commitment/membership dues.
Respond proactively to maintain our sacred space (capital expenditures). A recent detailed, professional survey of our physical facilities (capital reserve study) showed necessary investments required to maintain and update our building and better serve our community. The upkeep and management of sacred space is critical to our place in the community, our current work and our future. An amortizing fund will be created to allow us to properly maintain our home over the next 10–15 years, including the replacement of major systems.
Support innovative opportunities for connection now (operations). It will take some time for our endowment to generate the necessary investment income, and we want to continue and increase innovation now. While we evaluate our cost structure and make prudent decisions around our budget, an amortizing fund will be created to enable our vision of adding new opportunities for connection through strategic and capital initiatives including programming to enrich our community.
Your Participation is Key
We aspire for 100% participation in the Atid Campaign and look to you and the entire Congregation Shir Shalom family to step up and pledge support for this ambitious and important effort. Please add your support to that of Congregation Shir Shalom’s leaders and congregants by investing generously to help secure the future of our sacred community as those who came before have done for us. Every investment is appreciated, valued, and important and will help ensure that Congregation Shir Shalom remains a sustainable, vibrant and thriving center for Jewish life in this community.
