Mission Giving
At United Parish in Brookline we are grateful to be able to share gifts with organizations doing good work in a variety of communities.
The funds United Parish gives away come from three sources:
- Interest from the United Parish church endowment
- Church members who direct a portion of their annual pledges to support Missions Giving
- Specific offerings several times a year in church services
In addition, the Missions Giving Committee matches, doubles or triples the amount raised by congregants involved in church-sponsored fundraising initiatives, such as:
- The Walk for Hunger
- One Great Hour of Sharing, an initiative of several Christian denominations coming together since to help support 1946 to support relief and refugees
At United Parish, we are grateful to be part of community so dedicated to giving back.
Recent gifts have included:
Domestic Relief
Feeding America
Lowell Fire Relief
Health Care
Health Care For All
Homelessness
Pine Street Inn
Boston HealthCare for the Homeless
Horizons for Homeless Children
Thrifty Threads for Haley House
Thrifty Threads for BostonWarm
Outdoor Church of Cambridge
Pilgrim Trinitarian Congregational Church
Hunger
Brookline Emergency Food Pantry
Sunday’s Bread
Walk for Hunger
Community Servings
Society of St. Andrews
Food for Free
Cooking Matters
International Relief
One Great Hour of Sharing
Doctors Without Borders
Mercy Corps
Vision of Hope School (Zambia)
Ashra Brava School (India)
YOUNG-Africa
United Methodist Haiti Mission
Duke/Rwanda Bridge Construction
Afghan Children’s Mini Circus
Gun Safety/Violence Prevention
Children’s Defense Fund
Mothers for Justice and Equality
Marriage Equality
Guest preaching of Reverend Frank Schaefer defrocked by United Methodists for officiating marriage of his gay son
Mass Incarceration
Jobs Not Jails (EPOCA)
Concord Prison Outreach
Community Resources for Justice
Mass Bail Fun
Social Services
Hospitality Homes
Mt. Pleasant Home
Veterans
Homes for our Troops
Bob Woodruff Foundation
Blue Star Mothers
Run to Home Base
Miscellaneous
Charity Navigator
The Giving Common (Boston Foundation)
Latest Mission Giving News
Over the past year, the United Parish Missions Giving Ministry Team has carefully considered how the church should direct our missions funds to support important, relevant causes locally, regionally, and across the world. Through diligent research, congregational referrals, and awareness of major global events, our church has donated to organizations promoting diversity and inclusion, alleviating hunger, responding to global disasters, and providing for aid and advocacy for immigrants, indigenous groups, women, children, the unhoused, and a whole lot more.
Our team would like to hear even more input from the congregation. If you would like to nominate an organization or cause for close consideration by the UPMG Ministry Team, please find one of the team’s members at coffee hour or send us an email!
In total, our church allocated their budgeted $55,000 of Missions Giving across the following organizations:
- Agape Global Health for Haiti
- Americares Foundation
- Brookline Community Foundation’s Understanding Brookline: Emerging Trends and Changing Needs Report
- Brookline Food Pantry
- Common Cathedral
- Dhansa Maweni School
- Doctors Without Borders, USA
- Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO)
- Hamilton-Garrett Center for Music and Arts
- Food Bank - Hedding United Methodist Church, Vermont
- Jewish Family Services of Metrowest
- National Alliance on Mental Illness
- National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
- Project Bread / Walk for Hunger
- Rosie's Place
- Save the Children
- Sidewalk School
- Soul Fire Farm
- The Network / La Red
- UNICEF USA
Anne A., Cindy V., Prabhakar D., Robert G., & Tyler S.
Our Missions Giving ministry proudly tithes annually --- we give 10% of United Parish's budget to organizations and causes which we believe help to better the world we live in. There are SO many people and places in need, and so many people grateful to each one of you for the assistance we give them through United Parish.
Every so often there is a cataclysmic global event that pushes us to make a major one-time donation. Such an event happened in Turkey and Northwest Syria 2 weeks ago... a 7.8 earthquake that has taken over 43,000 lives (a number which is only getting higher) and has caused thousands and thousands of injuries:
- People have lost everything;
- they have no shelter, no food, no clean water, no medical supplies -- no home
- they are sleeping in sub-zero temperatures;
- children are the most vulnerable -- at least 1,500 of them have been separated from their families and of these 250 have not yet been identified.
If you feel helpless when hearing about these children, women and men living through unimaginable circumstances, money given to trustworthy organizations working on the ground does help.
In response to this horrendous suffering, the Missions Giving ministry is donating $5,000 which will be split between Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF (as the UN seems to be able to get humanitarian relief into wartorn, rebel-help Northwest Syria as well as Turkey).
Each of you is invited to increase the size of our United Parish donation by matching our $5,000. Many of you may have already sent donations to help meet this humanitarian disaster, however if you have not yet made a donation or you would like to give again through United Parish, NOW is the time!
We will be sending out a check to both Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF soon. If you would like to help match our $5,000 donation, simply write a check to United Parish earmarked "Earthquake Relief" or "Missions Giving" (if you have a preference for Doctors Without Borders or UNICEF, please specify), or click here and select "Missions Fund of United Parish."
We are MOST grateful for whatever you can give. Many thanks!
The sixth annual Christmas Market will take place now through Saturday, December 31, 2022. Make a gift and/or tell your friends and family that you’ve made gifts in their honor to organizations doing good in the world. Perfect for gifts or stocking stuffers. You determine the amount you want to give. This year, Missions Giving will match all donations received.
Click here to view the brochure to learn more about the organizations we're supporting this year.
Then, choose which organizations you'd like to support with a financial contribution. There are two ways to do this:
1. Click here to fill out the online form. At the end of selecting organizations, you'll find a link to donate online through our website. On the donate page, enter your total amount next to "Special Gift Christmas Mission Market”.
OR
2. Download the order form as a WORD DOC or as a PDF. Print it out and mail it back with a check for your total gift amount, or fill it out electronically and email it back to missiongiving@upbrookline.org, and mail a check to the church office.
Lastly, download (WORD DOC or PDF) a gift card you can personalize and send to your friends and family telling them that a donation has been made in their honor.
Contact missiongiving@upbrookline.org.
