We, the Faith House Board of Directors, are writing regarding the financial health of our organization, with our eyes looking forward.   

 

It is an ongoing blessing to celebrate Faith House as a vibrant and much-needed year-round community in New York City and beyond, an innovative contribution to the interfaith movement.  However, we are facing a budget deficit this fall. The recession, which began a month after our official launch three years ago, has affected Faith House, as it has virtually all organizations and congregations. While we continue to grow and have just received our independent 501(c)3 tax-exempt status, the fiscal reserves that Samir raised before our launch have finally run out. Without your help, we will have to make severe cuts at a time when we and our larger community need Faith House to deepen its impact and amplify its message.

 

The commemorations of 9/11 have helped all of us reflect on the past decade. We yearn for this young century to transcend its beginning. As important as they are, occasional interfaith events will not effect lasting change in the way we think, feel, and live. Continuous gatherings, relationships, and experiences will. That is what Faith House is all about: a courageous, sustained, and inspiring interfaith community. Faith House moves beyond looking back.  We look forward to help write a new chapter of the story with new insights and new actions that can help us turn a new page.

 

Our fourth year is about to begin and here are the questions we ask you to consider:  

Has Faith House been an extension of your commitment to make a difference?

Has it helped you think, feel and relate in new ways with people who are different from you?
Has it had an impact in your family, among your friends, neighbors, or co-workers?
Has it helped you think about your own spirituality in a new way?  

 

If Faith House has broadened your appreciation for your neighbor's faith, deepened your own, or made a public impact that you value, then please:

• Become a sustaining supporter by making a 12 or 16-month pledge to support us through August or December 2012. This would be the single best way to support us. (click here to make a "repeat donation" online or email your pledge to support@faithhousemanhattan.org )
• Make a generous contribution to Faith House today (click here to donate)
• Prioritize Faith House in your spiritual and charitable giving this year
• Join the Board of Directors to shape the finances and growth of this community with your time, talent and financial resources (please email Samir)  

At a time when many start-up organizations are struggling to survive, this has been a period of extraordinary accomplishment for Faith House. More than two thousand people have attended Faith House events and have experienced their "neighbor's faith," planting seeds of compassion that will grow over a lifetime.  We have created 62 Living Room gatherings, led by more than 50 guest hosts and musicians, plus 30 other varied events, totaling more than 90 events in three years. Many of them have been successes beyond all of our hopes. For example, attendance at our Annual Interfaith Seder has grown from 40 to 250, a partnership with St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church and Romemu Jewish Renewal congregation, a truly powerful testament to the need that Faith House is fulfilling here and now.  

 

Some of our programs have facilitated breakthrough experiences, such as a Christian chaplain attending his first Shabbat service and an Orthodox Jew stepping foot in his first Catholic Church. Samir will give the keynote address at a Harvard University memorial event on September 11. This year we are collaborating with four communities on a "Tour Bus" to visit each other's worship services. Faith House has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Times, Huffington Post, Religious News Service, Anglican Theological Review, USA Today, and many other publications. People from all over the country and the world read our newsletters, drawn to our open, honest, courageous, and respectful experiential approach to inter-religious life.   

 

"Can religion change anything in the world?" That is the question we have been asked and our unequivocal answer is "Yes!" Religion is the way we human beings communicate about what matters to us. Religions give words and practices to what we value. They are sacred vessels of what we hold and see as right, beautiful, and true. Making our religions more compassionate and welcoming is arguably the most thorough and long-lasting way of making the world a better place. This is our adventure.  

   

The reality is that this growth requires financial investment in programming, administration, and personnel. Faith House was started as a project of Adventist Metro Ministries, an organization that has generously been our fiscal sponsor. Last month, we were granted our own, independent 501(c)3 tax-deductible status. At the same time, the start-up funds that Samir had fundraised before our launch in 2007 and which had subsidized our annual operating budgets for the past three years have now run out. Before us is a critical time of transition.

In anticipation of what we knew would be a challenging year, the Board has:   

• Cut our expenditures to 80% of the approved budget for 2011
• Collectively contributed more than 25% of the operating costs
• Continued to operate with only a part-time Executive Director and quarter-time Community Development Administrator, working alongside many dedicated volunteers
• Focused on identifying Faith House's unique value and where we can "pivot" to move forward (take our survey to give us your input)
• Determined that this is the moment to concentrate on growing our constituency to a level that will make this initiative sustainable

Faith House has been solely supported by individual contributions, and although we are beginning to apply for grants, we believe that the individuals close and far whom we serve will continue to be our primary support. And that means you. We need your help now.
  
We are confident that with your support, we will not just survive this bend in the road, but we will continue together to build this unique and vibrant interfaith community in New York City.
 
So please,  become a sustaining supporter or make a contribution today.  We thank you for your generosity!
 
In faith,

 
Samir Selmanovic, Board Chair   
Rod Colburn, Board Treasurer   
Khabir John McGeehan, Board Secretary                  

Bill Ashlock

Russell Chin

Yolande Miracle Colburn

Jill Minkoff

Mairim Pina

Bowie Snodgrass, Executive Director, ex officio