Recently Alice Staley (IGRC President of United Women in Faith) reminded us of the vital need for supporting mission efforts both locally and worldwide, especially in light of recent federal budget cuts .  Following is her letter: 

“ To: Entire Conference

Subject: A Call to Action on Mission Giving

Date: July 1, 2025

Dear Members of United Women in Faith,

I am writing to express my heartfelt thanks for all you have given to our sisterhood. In these uncertain times, your prayerful and financial support is changing our world for the better in ways our foremothers may have only imagined.

In 1869, when those eight women in Boston grew a network and funds large enough to send Isabella Thoburn and Clara Swain to India, they began a legacy of love that you help to continue through your pledges and gifts to mission. How are your mission dollars at work? Perhaps you’ve recently read on the United Women in Faith website or in response magazine about how our deaconesses demanded justice in the Philippines and how their work led to the arrest of a ruthless president. Or maybe the article about Bethlehem Centers, our National Mission Institution in Nashville, showed you how vital Mission Giving is to the seniors who depend on them for their next meal and the children who learn there. Did you see the story about Imayam Social Welfare Association in India, where we’re helping to decrease the school dropout rate and let young women know they don’t have to fall victim to child marriage and abuse? Mission Giving made that possible!

Our Mission has been and still is minister to women, children and youth around the world helping them to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. UW Faith supports 89 missions and colleges, has Regional Missionaries doing amazing work, provides college scholarships to young people, supports Deaconesses and Home Missioners and more.

National also provides a multitude of programing and leadership development. I credit United Women in Faith with transforming my life, nurturing me, training me, and giving me so many great opportunities. Illinois Great Rivers Conference is blessed with two of the almost 90 United Women in Faith National Mission Institutions, Cunningham Children’s Home and Lessie Bates Neighborhood House which make an impact each and every day on the lives of women, children and youth. When your pledges and gifts to mission are combined with those from sisters from within our conference, we fuel a mission that transforms lives! But there is more work to do and more love to share. Will you share your love by fulfilling your pledge early this year and/or increasing your giving, thereby helping our conference meet or even exceed its yearly pledge? The need to make mission possible is as great as it has ever been. I know that together we can fill some of the gaps left by these difficult financial times. With your pledge, you are in loving solidarity with thousands of women of faith who are ensuring the continuity of United Women in Faith’s vital mission efforts here and around the world. Thank you for all you do to put love into action. Please reach out to your district treasurer to fulfill your pledge early, increase your gift, or donate online. (Our conference will be credited for online gifts!)

In deepest gratitude,  Alice Staley

President, Illinois Great Rivers Conference, United Women in Faith “