CFU Fundraising Update 2025 JAN

CFU Fundraising – 2024: Our Most Successful Year, So Far

By Rick Lyon

From the fundraising team at CFU, we want to first and foremost thank all of you for your prayers, encouragement, sharing, and donations. We ask that the first thing we do, the most important thing we do, is pray, pray for our success in stepping into the future with this revelation by using modern technology and methods of communication to bring the life and teachings of Jesus to the world, especially to our younger people.

It is often difficult, especially when on a spiritual mission, to ask for financial support. None of us enjoy asking others for money but when the purpose for asking for financial support is important enough and we believe deeply enough in what we are doing and why we are doing it, then making such a request becomes easier to justify and perform.

If we can demonstrate the value and results of all that we do, if someone shares the "why" of our efforts and considers the results to be worthy of their support, the funding will come. We firmly believe that if our Paradise Father, Christ Michael, our Universe Mother and all the angels and midwayers guiding us, are spiritually supporting all that we do, then our mortal family will provide all that we need materially to accomplish our shared goals for this revelation. I can personally attest to the fact that over the past three years we have been blessed by all that our spiritual friends and mortal family have provided to us and enable us to accomplish.

A couple of years ago, I shared a message of how all projects, including projects with a spiritual mission and purpose, need three things. I illustrated this as a three-legged stool where one leg is the dream, the vision, and the "why" of the project. The second leg is "action"; the people, time, energy and commitment to do the things that need done. The third leg is the material resources needed to accomplish spiritual goals; that is, the money needed to buy the things and expertise we need to enable the actions that make the dreams come true. All three legs support the platform upon which our mission and purpose stand.

I want to share with you our efforts and the real results we have produced in this past year and give you a preview of our plans for 2025. But first, let me talk about our current highest priority.

That is, Divine Mother Productions and "The Divine Within Films" project. We have been meeting with people and companies who are getting seriously interested in our film project, especially after we show them the "Equal" trailer. Santiago can speak to this much better than I but concerning the third leg of this film project, there are two paths forward. One is an investor supported project where entities put up the money to do this but they will understandably want to control the project, even perhaps to make it their own. Or, a donor funded project by the Urantia community with total control over the content and quality of the films. With investor funding the priority becomes profit. With donor funding the priority is the message and mission and service to God and mankind. Probably since 1955, many people have dreamed of making films about The Urantia Book. Well, it is now possible and this opportunity is now in our hands. It is today, within our reach and grasp to accomplish within our lifetimes.

I know that for most people, we are just another group of Urantia students with big dreams. Who are we to think that we can make big things happen? But in the history of the world, even within the pages of The Urantia Book, it is ordinary people who do extraordinary things. And they do it one bite at a time. We are getting the attention of capable and talented people and companies. One producer/director said that: "There are over a hundred stories of all new material here that need to be told." Our message with "Equal" is resonating with the people who have the ability to convert this long held dream into reality. This is becoming much bigger than just our small team of dedicated Urantia students and volunteers.

This is a real deal and not just another wish list project but a "here it is on a silver platter" deal. Few of us are able to provide significant contributions but many of us know someone who knows someone who can. Can you help us find the people who can fund this? Can you make this part of your legacy to say: "I helped build that."? Donate to: The Divine Within Films One last note from recent news stories. Someone recently paid $32.5 million for the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz movie. Another person just paid $6 million for banana duct taped to the wall as artwork. I am certain that there are people who will donate the money for a film series about The Urantia Book or for The Jesus Experience museum in Israel. We just need to help them find us.

Others can speak to the accomplishments of the individual projects but for the fundraising team, let me give you a short review of our fundraising efforts in 2024:

· Our Google Ad grant campaign of free ads online had over 571,000 views, 50,048 clicks on our ads, and 4835 events.

· Sent EDDM postcard (Every Door Direct Mailing) mailing to zip code in Chicago northside listed at the wealthiest zip code in the USA.

· Sent out fundraising letter by postal mail. Spent $2545 and brought in over $15,000.

· Sending out 65 emails per day to churches with links to our projects. Using GMASS with the hope of being the spark that ignites the reformation of the Christian church that brings them back to the unadulterated teachings of Jesus.

· Joel Garbon was on Coast to Coast AM radio program talking about CFU and The Urantia Book. He was also on Jim Watkins "Urantia Radio" podcast. These brought lots of visits to our CFU websites and some new donations. We are working to get Gabriel Rymberg on other podcasts to share our efforts and our message.

· Sent out Black Friday (we called it Blue Friday) and Giving Tuesday emails.

· We are forever grateful for a significant bequeath from the estate of Ted Blaney.

· We created our Light and Life Legacy Endowment Fund to provide long-term support for CFU and in the future, other worthy Urantia projects and start-ups. ($38,000 so far)

· We opened an Edward Jones money-market fund to make our money work for us.

· Maintaining most of our day to day operating funds in a WISE checking account paying 4.9% interest on all funds.

· Created more merchandise items to generate income and increase public visibility of CFU and Urantia teachings. Check out the new items and artwork!

· Reaching out personally to Urantia students for all forms of support: prayers, sharing, and donations.

· Sent out calendars and bumper stickers as "thank you" gifts to donors. Calendars were provided through an "in-kind" donation given specifically for this purpose.

· Hosted CFU booth at UAI international conference in Baltimore. We were unable to attend the Fellowship SSS24 after relocating, for health reasons.

· Received Second Miler grant from the Fellowship.

· Invested $10K in bitcoin. Has made about $1200 so far this year.

· We ran ads for DiscoverJesus.com in a local university student newspaper.

· We hosted a private, by invitation only, Zoom meeting to give our donors a first exclusive viewing of our "Equal" film trailer. The trailer went public after this.

· 136 individuals, corporations, or Urantia organizations contributed to our success in 2024. We had 33 new first time donors.

· We set up the process for accepting stock donations and other non-cash donations.

Our fundraising plans for 2025 are developing. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please send them to us at contact@thecenterforunity.org. We do encourage you to be a CFU Ambassador sharing what we are doing. As I often say, we can have the greatest Urantia widget ever created but it doesn't benefit anyone unless they know about it. So, please share these tools, resources, and projects with anyone you can.

Some of What We Plan to Accomplish With Your Support in 2025:

Urantia Book Tutor: After a period of testing by about eighty experienced Urantia volunteers, we will host a professional launch of this wonderful new study aid, resource, and tool for applying the teaching to the solution of everyday problems. Our resident AI master, Gabriel, is leading the way on this project, and others.

DiscoverJesus.com: We will complete adding the audio discussions for all pages and include AI translations of the entire website into Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German. Mike Robinson is leading a team of people who have created something wonderful.

UrantiaBookpod.com: The podcast website will get a cosmetic make-over to enhance the visual attraction of the website. Susan Lyon has recently take the leadership of this project.

DivineMotherProductions.com: The Divine Within Films project will promote the AI trailer through various means to bring attention and awareness of the projected film series to those who can produce and fund this project of four seasons of the streaming series. Meetings with such entities are developing. Santiago Kneeland is working hard to lead this team, create the content, and open the doors that will produce something truly wonderful.

AskJesuschatbot.com: State of the art only 18 months ago is not almost obsolete in the AI world. What we learn and develop with the last technology in UrantiaBookTutor.com will be applied to upgrade AskJesus or to incorporate it into DiscoverJesus.com or the tutor.

Promotion: We will continue to expand our effort to share these resource we have created with those within the Urantia community as tools and support for their own efforts to study The Urantia Book and their efforts to introduce it to more and more people. Lisa Crawford and myself are leading this part of our projects.

We will also continue to grow our endowment fund for long-term support for this revelation and the "start-up" projects in the future. We will strive to provide opportunities to serve for those who want to be actively involved in service. This is how we will put your donations to work for this and with this revelation.

Just as the apostles had to take time to go fishing and sell their catch in yonder markets in order to accomplish their spiritual mission, The Center For Unity and all Urantia organizations and projects need material resources to achieve our shared spiritual goals. May we suggest that you consider the opportunity to donate to CFU and, in the spirit of unity, to your other favorite Urantia organizations as each of them and all of you are a part of the whole of this revelation. Let us work together in unity to be a force for truth, beauty, and goodness in this world. We will never be finished but we shall never stop learning, growing, progressing.

And may all we do continue to be according to our Father's will, in accordance with Michael's plan for this world, in service to all mankind.

Mosaic as Desktop

Here is another astounding work of art from Gary Tonge for DiscoverJesus.com. May we suggest that it makes a wonderful "desktop" image for your computer?

CFU Annual Team Celebration

On December 14th, The Center For Unity hosted our third annual team celebration. Each active team member, approximately thirty eight in all, received a certificate of appreciation for their efforts and service. All of these members of our CFU family are contributing to advancing this revelation in a world that so desperately needs it. We offer a huge "shout out" and our most sincere appreciation to those who have invested their time and talents to our purpose and cause.

Donor Appreciation Event

Our donor appreciation event for 2024 will be held on Saturday, December 21st, at 1:30pm Eastern. We have over 200 individuals, corporations, and Urantia organizations that have helped to financially fund our efforts for the past three years. We want to share our gratitude for your prayers, encouragement, and support by sharing with you an exclusive viewing of our film trailer called "Equal" before it is released. If you are a financial donor anytime during the past three years, you should have received a Zoom link invitation.

Sharing the Revelation Quick and Easy

Many of you have seen and used our new UrantiaBookpod.com website or listened to these podcasts on YouTube, @thecenterforunity , or other social media sites. We are getting lots of really nice comments about these. Several study groups are using them to add something new to their study time together. We believe that these podcasts are a wonderful new way to share this revelation with others in a quick, easy, and comfortable manner. All you have to do is suggest that someone you know or meet should listen to a particular podcast. Then invite them to share their opinion with you. Few people can resist an invitation to give their opinion, especially if they think they are contributing to something.

Social media is the greatest tool for sharing the teachings of Jesus with the world. One post by you can be seen by thousands of people or groups. We want to invite all of you to listen to one of the podcasts each day and then share that podcast on Facebook or your other social media sites. It only takes a few clicks to share it. Email the link to your family, friends, and local religious leaders. Remember what it says in 178:1.14.

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