“Women with money and women in power are two uncomfortable ideas in our society.” – Candace Bushnell
Money is uncomfortable to talk about, and even more uncomfortable to ask for. At least this has been true for me, personally and professionally. Working for nonprofits can make this even more challenging–there is a cultural norm that people working for nonprofits should accept low pay, and nonprofits should do more than is realistic with less money than is adequate. After all, justice work is about being free!
Except that we live in a capitalist society, both literally and culturally. Productivity is paramount, and everything we do is monetized in some way. Work that does not churn out widgets to make someone higher up richer is not deemed valuable. The common good is not worth investing money in.
But here’s the thing: People who work for nonprofits and faith-based organizations have the same expenses as everyone else, including our staff at UUWF….and UUWF does not have a bottomless well of money. We can’t continue to spend more than we take in forever.
When we think about membership dues, these realities are on our minds. We don’t want any of our work to be cost-prohibitive; but at the same time, we know that justice is not yet just around the corner, and we want to do this work for as long a time as is needed to realize collective liberation.
We have structured our individual membership dues to allow for people to contribute what they can, and when we unveil our Affiliate Program for congregations and groups later this month, the dues will be structured similarly. We hope your congregation or group will consider being a part of it–and will understand the purpose of annual dues.
We are proud of our work, and we believe it has value. We hope you do, too.
