Please feel free to use the following text in any of your communications (newsletters, mailings, website etc.).

Every UU congregation in our Association is asked to contribute a specific sum of money annually to the Annual Program Fund to support all of the congregations in our Association. The Annual Program Fund makes up the single largest source of funding for the work of the Unitarian Universalist Association. In turn, the UUA utilizes these funds to provide resources, programming and support to all of the congregations across the Association. Your giving makes this possible. Thank you!

Started in 2018, a new formula was implemented to calculate what is asked of every congregation in Central East, New England, and the Southern Region. In 2019, congregations in MidAmerica and the Districts of Pacific Western Region implemented the New APF.

The APF formula is different in two significant ways.

First, the APF request supports both APF and what your congregation formerly contributed to your district and/or region. The APF is a unified program, demonstrating that we are all one UUA. The APF is also based upon a congregation’s ability to pay, and it therefore is based on a congregation’s certified expenditures rather than number of members. The APF is a fair and equitable way for all of our congregations to both support, and be supported.

The APF formula asks for a contribution of 6.75% of your congregation’s certified expenditures. There are built in adjustments to the formula for congregations in high wage rate areas (utilizing the national UUA Geo Index), or for congregations who have extremely high expenses per member (whether this is due to the high cost of your building or other circumstance). Additionally, there is a transition collar applied so that no congregation’s requested contribution amount will go up by more than 10% in a year. At the same time, no congregation’s requested contribution amount will go down by more than 10% in a year.

How Did the APF Formula Orginate

The APF Task Force of the UUA Board (with the help of the UUA Staff and the congregations in the Southern Region who piloted the GIFT program) has been working for a number of years to shape congregational giving in a way that is most fair and most responsive to the realities of congregational life, while at the same time providing sustainable financial support so that our congregations can be well served. The APF formula is the result of this work.

Our Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes close with this promise: “As free congregations we enter into…covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support.” APF makes that covenantal promise real. All 1,041 congregations in our Association are uplifted by your congregation’s full support of the Annual Program Fund. Thank you for your generosity!

For more information on the APF Formula, please click on the downloadable copy of the APF Formula Packet (PDF).