wfn.org | UCC / Associate director of special giving named

[powellb@ucc.org]

March 26, 1997
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ
Laurie Bartels, press contact
(216) 736-2213
E-mail:  bartelsl@ucc.org
On the World Wide Web:  http://www.ucc.org

Tennessee woman named national church agency's
associate director of special giving

CLEVELAND -- The United Church of Christ's Commission
on Development has named Barbara Everett of Lakewood,
Ohio, as its Associate Director of Special Giving.
      Everett, who spent 22 years in administration
and development with the University of the South in
Sewanee, Tenn., will oversee completion of "Make a
Difference," the UCC's churchwide capital campaign,
and assist in the development of major gift fund-
raising strategies.
      Until now, encouraging bequests and planned
giving development has been the core of the Commission
on Development's approach.  While the church has
received major gifts ($25,000 or more) in the past,
the Commission has not concentrated on this area of
fund-raising as a major source of support from its 39
regional conferences throughout the United States and
Puerto Rico.
      "The Commission on Development is turning in a
new direction," says Everett.  "As we approach the
idea of major gifts as a means of funding Christian
ministry, our continued commitment remains to foster
helpful relationships with our conferences."  Everett
says special giving is one way "we can work together
to support our collective ministry."
      Everett will spend one-third of her time
coordinating the final stages of the "Make A
Difference" campaign, which began in 1991 with a
minimum goal of $30 million and so far has raised $19
million.  Thirty-seven of the UCC's regional
conferences agreed to take part in this endowment
project and are at various stages of the campaign,
Everett said.
      During the planning stages of the campaign, each
conference approved basic and challenge goals in order
to support four ministry areas in the UCC -- care for
clergy and church leadership; building, repairing and
renovating church structures; social justice and peace
ministries; and conference mission needs.  According
to the Commission on Development, of the six
conferences that have completed their campaigns, all
have achieved their basic goals, and all but one have
exceeded their challenge goals.
      "This is quite a testimony to how our
congregations respond to a call for support and
deserves recognition," said Everett.
      There is a common thread between the "Make A
Difference" campaign and special giving, said Everett. 
"The real object is to help people get what they want
done," she said.  "To do that, we have to show them
what is already being done and let them know what is
possible.  Special giving is one way to make their
faith tangible."
      Everett, 55, worked in several areas of
management at the University of the South.  While
managing more than $9 million of assets in housing
units for faculty, staff and graduate students, she
increased annual housing revenue from $80,000 to more
than $700,000.  She established a conference services
operation at the university to market its campus
facilities and served as its first director from April
1986 to December 1990.  In three years, she doubled
the number of conferences held at the university. 
>From 1989 to 1991 she also was the contract liaison
responsible for the University's $1.3 million food
service contract.   Everett served as credit and
collections officer (1975-1979) in charge of all
receivables totaling more than $10 million.
      Everett's work with national and regional bodies
of the UCC spans many years.  From 1989 to 1995, she
was a member of the UCC's Executive Council, which
conducts denominational business between the biennial
meetings of the church's General Synod.  She was a
board member of the UCC's Office of Communication from
1993 to 1995.  From 1986 to 1990, Everett served the
UCC's regional Southeast Conference in several
capacities, including terms as moderator and
chairperson of its Board of Directors.  Prior to this
she served in numerous leadership capacities in the
UCC's regional Alabama/Tennessee Association.
      A member of First United Church of Christ in
Belvidere, Tenn., since 1973, Everett was the first
woman to serve as Sunday school superintendent and was
also the first woman president in that congregation's
120-year history.
      Everett was born in Denver and raised there and
in Billings, Mont.  Like so many women of her
generation, Everett said, higher education was
"interrupted" when she decided to marry and raise a
family.  She later resumed her undergraduate work,
earning a Bachelor of University Studies degree with
honors from Middle Tennessee State University,
Murfreesboro, in December 1996.
      The 1.5-million-member United Church of Christ,
with national offices in Cleveland, has more than
6,100 congregations in the United States and Puerto
Rico.  It was formed by the 1957 union of the
Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical
and Reformed Church.
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