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(left to right) Arliss Ungar, longtime Starr King volunteer
and supporter who serves as chair of the school's Balazs
Scholars Program; Alex Poinsett, former member of the
SKSM board of trustees and longtime supporter; and Csaba Todor, Starr King 2004-2005 Balazs Scholar.
Dear Friends:
It is a thrill to announce that Starr King School has received $500,000 to launch our new educational model!
This gift — the largest cash contribution for programs in the school?s history — will serve as a dollar-for-dollar match to raise $1 million over the next year. The monies will be used to make multi-faith engagement and understanding the hallmark of Starr King?s educational imagination and excellence.
The plan is to ?fling wide the portals? of Starr King! We will increase enrollment and diversify access to the school by hiring recruitment staff, initiating marketing strategies and expanding educational technologies for in-house and low residency students.
In the two weeks since our $500,000 donor (who asked to remain anonymous) made the gift, three other donors have pledged $40,000 toward the matching dollars. We are well on our way to $1 million!
This is the time to give, and give generously, to the innovative work of Starr King School. Click here to make an online gift and it will be doubled by the matching funds.
Click here to learn more about our new educational model, designed to embody Unitarian Universalism at its best and open the school to new ways of engaging students.
For planned gifts or gifts of stocks, call me at 859-221-3107 or e-mail me at kflood@sksm.edu and I will be happy to help.
If you?d like to receive our monthly e-mail communications, send your e-mail to communications@sksm.edu.
We look forward to hearing from you,
Rev. Kelly Flood
VP for Advancement
Starr King School gratefully accepts donations by cash,
check or credit card. Gifts of stock and property are
also welcome, as are deferred gifts.
You can send contributions by mail to:
Advancement Office
Starr King School for the Ministry
2441 Le Conte Ave. Berkeley, Calif., 94709
Please make checks payable to “Starr King School
for the Ministry” and note any specific program
you would like to support in the subject line.
To make a credit card gift, contact
the Advancement ofice, 510/845-6232 x:107.
Listen to SKSM M.Div. student Elizabeth Marsh eloquently describe why you should help support the education of diverse and committed Unitarian Universalist leaders for the future.
Supporting excellence, inclusion and justice-making
in ministry is at the heart of our scholarship program.
As you can see from the list below, our current scholarship
funds honor Unitarian and Universalist saints, prophets
and cherished leaders:
Josiah and Laile Bartlett Scholarship
Mark Mosher DeWolfe Scholarship
Aron and Eve Gilmartin Scholarship
Earl K. Holt, III Scholarship for parish ministries
Olympia Brown Scholarship for women and ethnic diversity
at Starr King
Gordon and Phyllis McKeeman Scholarship for study
of Universalism
Harry B. Scholefield Scholarship
Charlotte Shivvers Fund for Ministries for Social
Change
You’re invited to join our scholarship founders
by making a contribution to honor one or all of these
models in ministry. A gift in their honor will support
theological education for the next generation of progressive
religious leaders.
For more information on giving to these scholarships,
or establishing a new scholarship in honor of someone
you admire, contact
the Rev. Kelly Flood, Vice President for Advancement.
The hallmark of a theological education at Starr King
School is the close, personalized attention our students
receive from a core faculty who engage our students
in a learning process that embodies Unitarian Universalist
values.
To ensure this educational strength remains central
to our work, we’re currently raising funds to
expand our core faculty. We aim to:
- meet the needs of our growing student body
- advance our commitments to the practice of Unitarian
Universalist ministry
- increase the racial and cultural diversity of our
faculty
- support the scholarly study of liberal religion
- emphasize the public character of religious leadership.
Gifts are invited for the following:
Preaching and Worship Professorship
We're seeking patrons who will pledge $5,000 or more
per year for the next five years to support Starr King’s
Professor of Preaching and Worship. This professorship
will ensure the presence of a gifted, seasoned and successful
Unitarian Universalist parish minister on the school’s
faculty, one who will work closely with students as
they develop their gifts for preaching and leading worship.
Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Professorship
This professorship was established in 1981 to ensure
a feminist presence on the Starr King faculty, thanks
to the able leadership of Rosamond Reynolds, a Unitarian
Universalist lay leader and former Starr King trustee.
Dr. Clare Benedicks Fischer served the school as our
first Reinhardt professor and retired at the end of
the 2004-2005 academic year. Dr.
Gabriella Lettini joined the SKSM faculty in August
2005 as the school's new Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Director
of Studies in Public Ministry.
Til Evans Professorship of Religion and Education
Named in honor of the Rev. Dr. Til Evans -- a Unitarian
Universalist minister, longtime teacher and former Starr
King president -- this professorship reflects the school's
enduring commitment to liberal religious education.
The professorship is designed to promote Dr. Evan's
encompassing approach to the practice of religion and
education, one emphasizing that the church teaches and
learns by what it does.
We eagerly anticipate the good work we’ll accomplish
when we can bring additional faculty to Starr King.
Your financial support is needed and most welcome.
For more information on supporting these Starr King
professorships, contact
the Rev. Kelly Flood, Vice President for Advancement.
Our $200,000 Annual Fund is our “living endowment,”
the result of hundreds of supporters across the continent
who choose to make giving to Starr King School an annual
investment that helps promote their most cherished values.
The Annual Fund sustains our mission by making possible
the salaries of our capable faculty and staff; the maintenance
of our small, beautiful building; and the development
of our effective curricula.
Key to the recent growth in our Annual Fund giving
is the President's Circle, an open group
of supporters who contribute $1,000 or more each year
to advance the school's work.
President's Circle members receive periodic letters
from Starr King President Rebecca Parker that keep them
up to date on school affairs. They also receive invitations
to Starr King events in their geographic area and to
the annual President's Circle reception at the UUA General
Assembly.
To become a member of the President's Circle, or to
learn more about Annual Fund giving, contact
the Rev. Kelly Flood, Vice President for Advancement.
Starr King School wants to be as accessible as possible
to a diverse student body. We're raising funds to:
- provide student housing
- install an elevator for better disabled access
- equip a "smart" classroom with sophisticated presentation
equipment and Internet access.
For more information about supporting Starr King’s
capital needs, contact
the Rev. Kelly Flood, Vice President for Advancement.
We care about the vibrancy and relevance of the Unitarian
Universalist message. We also care about the future
of progressive religious leadership to carry that message
to the wider world.
Through Planned Giving, our donors choose to leave
a legacy of lasting value by supporting the work of
Starr King School.
Planned gifts come in all shapes and sizes to accommodate
each estate plan. There are three basic gift types:
- bequests of cash, securities or property
- life income arrangements
- transfers of assets, such as life insurance or pension
plans.
Starr King School is happy to respond to your questions
and help you prepare for a consultation with your accountant,
financial advisor or other tax professional.
We welcome your call anytime for a no-obligation conversation
about your estate planning options. Thank you for remembering
Starr King School for the Ministry in this important
decision.
For more information about planned giving, contact
the Rev. Kelly Flood, Vice President for Advancement.
The Benefactors Circle is composed of
SKSM friends whose giving totals $100,000 or more.
The Legacy Circle is made up of
SKSM friends who have remembered the school in their
planned giving -- a practical way to support the ongoing
vision of this progressive educational institution without
affecting a donor's current finances.
The President's Circle is composed of
dozens of SKSM supporters who contribute $1,000 or more
each year. These generous, ongoing gifts to our operations
budget represent a "living endowment." President's Circle
members receive periodic letters from Starr King President
Rebecca Parker that keep them up to date on school affairs
and invitations to Starr King regional events and the
annual President's Circle reception at General Assembly.
See below for information about the Balázs
Circle.
For more information Starr King’s giving circles,
contact the Rev.
Kelly Flood, Vice President for Advancement.
The Balázs Circle supports the Balázs
Scholars Program at Starr King, named in honor of Francis
Balázs, a Transylvanian writer, social reformer
and Unitarian minister who attended the school in the
1920s.
Every year the program brings a Unitarian minister
from Transylvania to study at Starr King. These visiting
scholars, selected by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania,
are among the new religious leaders working in a country
where Unitarianism dates back to the 16th century.
The Balázs Scholar infuses the education of
all Starr King students with the deep faith, commitment
and endurance of our Transylvanian Unitarian brothers
and sisters, who live with the daily threat of religious
and ethnic persecution.
These scholars also enhance North American Unitarian
Universalism through their preaching, teaching, lecturing
and worship with congregants in home churches and at
Unitarian Universalist gatherings.
Read
more from Balázs Scholars about their Starr King
experience and how it influenced their Transylvanian
ministries.
For more information about Balázs Circle giving,
contact the Rev.
Kelly Flood, Vice President for Advancement.
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