Community MicroGrant Program

1. Purpose

This guidanceprocedure outlinessets theconsistent structureexpectations andfor accountability ofhow the Community MicroGrant Program works at Foothills - what donors are told, how the offering is divided, and how it relates to the procedures governing any specific fund (formerlysuch as the Food Security Fund) that occupies the recipient slot for a given series.

The Program is Foothills' standing practice for the weekly offering: it runs every Sunday, so this procedure covers the church's regular Sunday giving as a whole.

2. The Basic Mechanism

Every Sunday, the offering is split 50% to the current series' designated recipient and 50% to the church's general mission. The recipient rotates by worship series, not week to week - a series typically runs somewhere between 4 and 8 Sundays, and is named at the start of the series it serves. The "general mission" half is not itself a specific fund; it always supports Foothills' own operations, regardless of which recipient is designated for that series.

A given series' recipient is usually an outside community partner organization, but the same slot can instead be filled by one of Foothills' own internal funds (see Section 7), or by a UUA program or fund (see Section 8).

3. Timing & Scope of a Designation

A recipient's designation runs from the first Sunday they are introduced through the Saturday before the next recipient is introduced. This window - matching the length of the current worship series - rather than a fixed calendar period, is what defines which Sundays count toward a given recipient.

A designation is a commitment of a share of the collective plate over that window, not a pass-through of any individual person's specific gift to that organization. Foothills is not routing a particular donor's money to a particular recipient; it is designating 50% of the offering, in aggregate, for the duration of that recipient's window.

Because of this, requests to direct a gift to a recipient whose window has already closed are not accommodated. A gift received after a recipient's window ends counts toward whichever recipient is currently designated, not a past one - there is nothing to "redirect," since no individual gift was ever earmarked to begin with.

Program giving is also entirely separate from pledge giving. A gift given through the basket, QR code, or Church Center App during a Program offering does not count toward, reduce, or fulfill any pledge a donor has made to Foothills' annual giving campaign. Pledge fulfillment and Program giving are tracked as two distinct funds.

4. Giving Channels

Donors may give through the offering basket (cash or check), a QR code, or the Church Center App. Basket cash generally cannot be traced back to an individual giver; QR code and Church Center App gifts can.

5. What Donors Should Be Told: the Standard Script

Foothills uses a common script each Sunday describing how the offering is shared with the current series' community partner. It should be used consistently (minor wording variation is fine, but the elements below should always be present):

 In our congregation, we share in a practice of generosity by giving away half of our offering plate every Sunday to a community partner who shares our values. This month, our designated Share the Plate),Plate recipient is ___________.

 (Community MicroGrant slide showing the recipient's name and logo, with information about their mission, their impact, and how it connects to Foothills' mission.)

  Everything you place in the basket or give via the QR code or Church Center App will be shared equally with ______________ and to support our mission to unleash courageous love in our lives and all across Northern Colorado, and beyond. We will now gratefully receive your generous offering.

At minimum, the script should always name the current series' recipient, describe its mission/impact and connection to Foothills, and state plainly that giving is shared equally between that recipient and the church's general mission. This spoken script is the primary record of what donors were told for any given window.

6. Selecting Series Designations

Recipients are chosen series by series, not month by month. The Senior Minister generally selects designations as part of planning the worship calendar, and tries to choose a recipient whose mission connects to the theme of the upcoming series.

The Senior Minister retains ongoing discretion to add a new recipient, end an existing recipient's status, or replace a planned designation at any point. This includes redirecting a series toward an urgent, short-term need; a redirection of this kind may be determined by either the Senior Minister or Executive Minister, without needing to redo the broader plan. Any such change still follows the transparency requirement in Section 5: whoever leads the ask must clearly state the recipient and purpose to donors that Sunday.

7. When an Internal Fund Is the Designated Recipient

For some series, the recipient slot is filled by one of Foothills' own funds (for example, the Food Security Fund) rather than an outside organization. In that case:

The fund receives the 50% recipient share for every Sunday within its designated window, on the same terms as an outside partner would. The script's description of the recipient's "mission, impact, and connection to our congregation's mission" should describe the fund's current purpose in plain terms, consistent with that fund's own procedure. The fund's own administrative procedure - not this one - governs how its share is subsequently used, who may authorize disbursements, and how it is reported on.

8. Eligibility of Designated Recipients

Recipients are not selected from the general public or from cold outreach. To be eligible for a series designation, an organization or group must be one of the following:

An active partner of one of Foothills' justice teams, or a partner in active relationship with the congregation as a whole, in an ongoing, regular, and accountable relationship with Foothills - not a one-time or nominal connection. This relationship is itself the vetting mechanism, rather than a separate application or approval process. A UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) program or fund, which reflectsis Foothills’eligible valuesby virtue of partnership,Foothills' generosity,ongoing anddenominational sharedrelationship impact.with Bythe directingAssociation, awithout portionneeding to separately meet the justice-team/congregational-partner test above. One of Foothills' own internal funds (see Section 7).

9. Handling & Recordkeeping

A designated staff person, usually the Groups Coordinator, counts the Sunday offering toand mission-alignedrecords partners,it wein livethe ourSunday commitmentreport in Base Camp, alongside attendance headcounts. From there, the bookkeeper handles the accounting: cutting the check to communitythat collaborationseries' external recipient, and resourcerecording redistribution rootedtotals in lovethe andWorship justice.Coordinating Hub Spreadsheet once the check has been cut. When the recipient is an internal fund, the bookkeeper credits the share to that fund's records instead of cutting an outside check.

2.10. OrganizationalRelationship Guidanceto Fund-Specific Procedures

When

the

Donationdesignated Allocation

recipient

is an

Donationsinternal collectedfund, throughthat fund's own procedure governs its further use, eligible purposes, disbursement authorization, and reporting once its share is received. This procedure governs only how the Community MicroGrant Program itself works: what donors are splittold, 50/50:how the offering is divided, and how a given window's recipient is chosen.

11. Reporting

50%Program activity - recipients, windows served, and amounts raised - is reported to Foothills’the generalExecutive operatingTeam fund

50% to a designated recipient, which may include:

Partner organizations

UUA programs/funds

Urgent short term need response as determinedquarterly by the Ministers. 

EligibilityController, and Partnership

Funds should be distributed to partnersthe with whom Foothills Unitarian is regularly engaging in shared work.

Partners are designatedBoard by the Senior Minister, basedas onpart alignmentof withthe Foothills’quarterly missionfinancial report, and values.summarized again as part of annual reporting.

12. Annual Review

PartnerThis statusprocedure mayshould be addedreviewed orannually ended atby the Senior Minister’sMinister discretion.
and revised as needed to reflect actual practice.

Transparency13. Board Policy Basis: This procedure is issued under the Senior Minister's global delegation of authority (Board Policy 2.2) and interprets the following Board policies:

• 2.2.3

  Each(Information offering must clearly state the intended recipientRetention and purposeDistribution)

   - written procedures for how Program proceeds are counted, recorded, and transferred. 

2.4.1 (Financial Accountability of the fundsSenior duringMinister) - preventing unauthorized use of designated funds, which is the service.basis for Section 3's rule

3.that Relateda Content

designation

cannot be

Boardredirected Policyafter 3.3.5a –recipient's Fundraising

window closes. 2.4.5

–- the Senior Minister's responsibility to ensure fundraising activities that further the Mission, Values, and Vision.

2.4.8 (Financial Transparency and ReportingReporting) - quarterly and annual reporting to the Board.

Note on fiscal agency: Policy 2.4.7 describes fiscal sponsorship as Foothills supporting a new organization that doesn't yet have its own 501(c)(3) status, acting as its sponsor under Foothills' own tax-exempt status. Distributing Program proceeds to an already-established 501(c)(3) partner organization is ordinary charitable giving, not fiscal sponsorship.

Issued by: Rev. Gretchen Haley, Senior Minister
Effective Date: July 20, 2026