Charitable Contributions Committee: Annual Report, 2017
On April 4, 2017, the CCC met to review last year's (2016) Third Haven Friend's charitable contributions, its beneficiaries and to make any adjustments.
We had three aims with the budgeted amount—$3500:
- We sought to be inclusive of our wider Quaker community, leveraging our contributions through their better fulfillment capabilities. Given our budget, our expressed recognition, appreciation and support, rather than the gift amounts were seen as important
- We provided assistance to local organizations that are doing good work to address the needs of the less fortunate in the local community. In this case any small contributions significantly impact their abilities to function, given their limited budgets.
- In meeting our directives, we wanted to provide integrity of oversight, good stewardship of our finances and to assist in informing Friends so they might have less reservation about making their individual tax deductible contributions to these worthy causes.
Last year we committed to keeping the same slate of organizations for a total of 3 years, changing amounts if we felt it necessary. This year, 2017, will be the third year with the same organizations recommended. We kept the same slate and only slightly varied the amounts.
For next year we have several concerns. With the recent changes in national policies, we are deeply concerned about the need to take care of our most vulnerable citizens. We understand that the need of our local charities is great and would like to focus more on local groups who are doing much on shoestring budgets. We are requesting a $5000 budget for our upcoming Fiscal Year July 2017-June 2018. We recognize that our small budget will not solve the problems nor meet the needs, so in light of the good work being done by our T&C Committee, we are recommending a Fund For Suffering to be funded through a carriage shed sale. The proceeds to be administered by T&C Committee in support our testimonies by leveraging our resources through the work of the various local service organizations—Multicultural/Immigration… boarding shelter under Neighborhood Service Center, CMCRC? etc.