Why I’m going to give more money to NYM
by Kat Griffith, Winnebago Worship Group
Many years ago, whether by nominating committee desperation or a God with a sense of humor I don’t know, I wound up on Madison MM’s finance committee. I found it bewildering. I argued back a lot, I recall, about the careful, antiseptic separation between finances and the life of the spirit — the oh-so-subtle box for donations discreetly tucked into a corner, the reluctance to suggest an annual donation amount, the discomfort among many in the Meeting to even talk about money at all.
After multiple go-’rounds of why the MM didn’t ask for money, I rather hotly announced my personal decision. I said okay fine, if you don’t need my money enough to ask for it, you won’t get it. I’ll park it someplace else, thank you very much.
True to my word, I didn’t give the MMM a dime for a number of years.
Later, even more improbably given this history, I wound up on the NYM finance committee. I guess it was around that time I went to El Salvador for the first time and I heard their take on money: “Giving money is part of the process of sanctification!” they said.
I came home to watch us wring our hands helplessly over the budget surplus that persisted year after year despite our efforts to spend it down. And I thought to myself, surplus? We have a SURPLUS? We so lack vision or a sense of urgency that we have more money than ideas about where to spend it? If someone accused us of being Quakers, would our budget provide anything like enough evidence to convict us?
Well, get out the noise makers! It’s 2025 and NYM has spent down its surplus! I’m very happy that we recently responded to several major capital campaigns and invested in significantly strengthening beloved Quaker organizations. They — and thus we — are richer for it.
Well, spiritually richer, that is. Financially, we are finally face to face with a new reality: to keep on giving our usual annual donations to Quaker organizations, we will need to step up our donations to the YM. Unless our Monthly Meetings start receiving unexpected windfalls, we’ll need to get these funds mainly from individuals.
Many of you may be thinking, why should I give to NYM when I give individually to those organizations? Well, here’s why I am going to up my donation to NYM.
As I see it, there’s a kind of spiritual energy in giving money. Giving it to NYM mobilizes more energy it seems to me than my individual donations do. First of all, NYM gets the blessing of receiving it. Second, NYM has the delightful job of deciding how to spend it — a process that involves love, shared discernment, getting informed about various Quaker organizations, etc. We do some work along the way, and I think there’s valuable spiritual struggle and growth in this process! I also think it may be particularly bolstering to the recipients of our donations to get them from a yearly meeting — it feels like a sturdier commitment perhaps, and one that involves shared discernment — a higher bar.
It also pushes us to make sure we have skin in the game with these organizations. It nudges us to stay in touch, read the newsletters, invite the representatives, look for collaborations, and share the news with each other. It spreads the good contagion.
There’s another reason why I’m going to send more money to NYM instead of directly to the organizations, though I donate to some of them directly too. If NYM has a crying need for my money, it’ll be there for NYM first, and I like knowing that. If NYM can afford to give it away, we’ll do that — and I like knowing that too.
I like that NYM had the faith recently to go out on a limb and give generously to some organizations doing good work with us, for us, and for our world. I’m glad we have risked stretching ourselves a bit. I like the energy of it, the boldness, the resolute YES WE CAN! of it. We dared to experiment and see what would happen. It feels like growth to me. Part of our process of sanctification, perhaps? Part of our own holy experiment.
I am newly inspired by NYM’s recent financial leap and vision. I hope that this small experiment brings us good news — that our commitment to giving will keep pace with our bigger vision. Let’s be the Quakers the world needs us to be!