Now Is the Time!
A Community Campaign For the Future of St. Paul & St. Andrew
Putting Love in Action
A Catalyst for Love in Action
St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church puts love into action every day on the corner of 86th Street and West End Avenue in New York City. A vibrant worshiping community, we live out our values inside and outside of our walls. Together with our interfaith partners and neighbors, we work to advance our longstanding commitment to radical welcome and service to the people of New York, especially the City’s poor and marginalized.
Our landmarked 1897 building serves as the engine for our work, a center of radical welcome and a catalyst for care and innovation.
Here we feed the City’s poor and working classes, welcome new immigrants, advocate for our LGBTQI siblings, educate neighborhood children, nurture arts and culture, and increase hope and justice in our city and world. Every week, several thousand people come through our doors. Long time New Yorkers and new immigrants alike are fed, clothed and linked to city services; dozens of community and interfaith groups find a safe and creative space for worship, meetings, and collaborative action; hundreds of young artists and supporters of the arts are inspired in our theater and sanctuary performance spaces.
Economic Impact of St. Paul & St. Andrew: $32 Million Annually
The Economic Halo Effect, an analytic tool developed by Partners for Sacred Places and the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice, measures the economic contributions of congregations housed in historic and older buildings. It quantifies their economic impact using factors such as support for local and regional businesses, building maintenance and repair spending, visitor spending, activities that promote community economic development, the impact on individuals’ lives, and values inherent to religious properties such as green space and recreation space.
A day spent at St. Paul & St. Andrew reveals the powerful human impact of our work. The Halo statistical analysis reveals the church’s remarkable economic impact. Because of the work done on site, St. Paul & St. Andrew generates more than $32 million of economic benefit not only for the Upper West Side neighborhood but the greater community of New York City and beyond. Comparatively, the average urban historic sacred place generates $1.7 million in economic impact annually.
“All around the city, if not the nation, people are talking about St. Paul & St. Andrew. Obviously (there’s) an amazing food program, West Side Campaign Against Hunger… (an) innovative, unbelievable partnership with B’Nai Jeshurun…(they) have led the entire city on supporting our newest residents, migrants and asylum seekers... nobody else is doing it to the extent that (they) are. It’s this particular congregation that the rest of the city is looking to for how to bring people together in a way that is congregational and compassionate and intelligent. All of this is something that is very, very special. In all of these challenging times, (St. Paul & St. Andrew) really is making a difference in our city.”
NYC Council Member Gale Brewer
Our Building, the Engine of Love in Action
After 127 years of service to the people of NYC, our building urgently needs restoration to secure the future of these programs and to prepare for the emerging challenges and opportunities of our city and world, including climate change. Time and again, our congregation has proven that when we invest in our building, we increase our impact in big ways.
For example, a $4 million capital campaign in 2004 renovated key interior social service spaces, increased handicap accessibility, and upgraded many building systems. In the 20 years since that renovation, our partner food pantry, The West Side Campaign Against Hunger, has increased food distribution by 400%, from 800,000 to more than 4 million meals annually.
In 2020, when New York City was ground zero to the worst pandemic in modern times, St. Paul & St. Andrew took action. Upgrades to our sanctuary expanded square footage for storage and distribution of emergency food and supplies while also launching our new, innovative online worship presence. Post-pandemic, these investments increased arts and cultural events in our sanctuary, such as the Carnegie Hall Citywide Concert series.
Restoring this landmark building is essential to our mission to increase "love and justice in the world" today and for future generations.
Investing in Our Future
Our critical next steps are to replace the roof, eliminate water infiltration and address immediate life safety concerns. Only after securing the envelope of the church will we be able to shift financial and human resources from day-to-day reaction to planning for the future.
Once we have made these necessary repairs, we can turn our attention to reimagining and upgrading the sanctuary, social service spaces, theater and arts spaces, meeting and teaching spaces; and to address critical infrastructure needs of accessibility, electricity upgrades, fire safety, and cooling. Additional exterior work will address terracotta facade restoration, installing a loading lift for our food programs, and lighting and signage.
Restoring and improving the building as the engine of our growth protects our current transformational work and positions us to lead in meeting the needs of future generations of New Yorkers.
To learn more about our programming and partnerships, our restoration scope of work, and our funding needs and fundraising plan, view our full case statement.
Browse our Case Statement
How Can You Help?
Give to the Campaign through cash, stocks, bonds, securities, and personal property.
Provide feedback about the campaign, renovation goals, and campaign materials.
Identify individuals or foundations who might be inspired to participate in this campaign.
Consider including St. Paul & St. Andrew in your estate planning to care for the long term support of our work.
Additional Information
A Capital Campaign is a fundraising effort aimed at upgrading, preserving and making needed repairs to our building to make it a safe and even more inclusive space for our ministry and community partnerships. Our 130-year-old building is well used and is in need of important repairs to our roof, façade, doors, stained glass windows, upgrades to our ventilation system and so much more. This will be a multi-million dollar campaign. The Leadership Team is working on identifying what the scope of work will cost.
Capital Campaigns gifts are generally "above and beyond" giving from regular tithes and offerings, which support the day-to-day operations and ministries of the church (our "Love in Action" campaign). Full participation by the congregation is important especially to outside funders who want to see strong internal support.
To tackle some urgent life-safety issues and replace the Spanish tile roof will cost in the area of six million dollars. We have re-engaged our architect, Walter B Melvin Architects (WBMA), to update the potential cost of the projects. We know that the roof will likely cost between $4-6 million. WBMA has completed their updated review of the building, so the next step is for our Trustees to prioritize our projects.
This amount of money would enable us to repair the entire roof of both the Church and the Parsonage and repair the walls of the church where water currently creeps in, therefore creating a safe environment not just for us to worship in but also for all who use our building or walk by our building. As the recent ceiling collapse above part of the balcony demonstrated, there is an urgent need for these repairs. Of course, there is more work to be done around St. Paul and St. Andrew (lighting and electrical upgrades, flooring, paint and so much more) but we must first repair our roof and façade to make our building safe.
A year ago, the Trustees engaged Ruotolo Associates to conduct a feasibility study to measure our capacity to conduct a Capital Campaign. Ruotolo estimated we had the capacity to raise between $6-8 million. To raise those funds we have contracted with Partners for Sacred Places, a Philadelphia-based national non-profit, to conduct our community-wide capital campaign.
Partners for Sacred Places, our fundraising consultants, have been working with us, hand in hand, to create a campaign strategy to raise the needed funds. Do they think raising $6M will be difficult – yes. Do they think we can do it – absolutely. With contributions, big or small, from every single member of St. Paul & St. Andrew leading the way, engagement of community partners & neighbors and applications to many different foundations, we believe we will be able to meet our goal.
In November 2022, the idea of raising $25 million in 5 years was announced and several people jumped right in and donated or pledged money (over $400,000!). The gifts received were set aside in a designated fund account to be used for capital expenses, such as the restoration of the Paul Before Agrippa window, expenses associated with fundraising, and doing the analysis to determine the scope and priorities of the work needed to repair the roof and facade. We realized in early 2023 that we could not manage a campaign of this size on our own and sought outside support. All of the money that was raised or pledged previously will be rolled into our newly branded ‘Now Is the Time’ Capital Campaign since it is a continuation of the same effort.
The most important thing is that everyone who belongs to or attends our church needs to give. There is no gift, even a dollar, that is not valued and important. Partners believes that, with each person participating at the level they are able, the congregation could contribute about $1.6-$1.8 million dollars.
Partners for Sacred Places is a national, non-profit, non-sectarian organization with expertise working with houses of worship to build capacity and raise funds to ensure that their historic buildings continue to play a vital role as civic assets. Founded in 1989, Partners is the nation’s largest organization dedicated to the sound stewardship and active community use of historic houses of worship.
What’s happening with the grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places?
St. Paul and St. Andrew is a 2023 recipient of the National Fund grant. St. Paul & St. Andrew was awarded a $250,000 matching grant to restore a portion of the church.
St. Paul & St. Andrew was one of only 16 out of 371 applicants to receive a grant. It is a matching grant which means that St. Paul & St. Andrew must raise $500,000 in order to receive the full $250,000 from the National Fund for Sacred Places.
The first $125,000 that St. Paul & St. Andrew needs to raise must be done by November 1st and we are just about there! In addition to money raised, we submit some paperwork from the architects by this date showing the work we intend to complete with the grant money.
As part of our grant, PSP has conducted an Economic ‘Halo Effect’ Studysm which will determine St. Paul & St. Andrew’s economic impact on our wider community. A preliminary estimate for that is in excess of $31,000,000 per year.
St. Paul and St. Andrew is a 2023 recipient of the National Fund grant. St. Paul & St. Andrew was awarded a $250,000 matching grant to restore a portion of the church.
St. Paul & St. Andrew was one of only 16 out of 371 applicants to receive a grant. It is a matching grant which means that St. Paul & St. Andrew must raise $500,000 in order to receive the full $250,000 from the National Fund for Sacred Places.
The first $125,000 that St. Paul & St. Andrew needs to raise must be done by November 1st and we are just about there! In addition to money raised, we submit some paperwork from the architects by this date showing the work we intend to complete with the grant money.
As part of our grant, PSP has conducted an Economic ‘Halo Effect’ Studysm which will determine St. Paul & St. Andrew’s economic impact on our wider community. A preliminary estimate for that is in excess of $31,000,000 per year.
The fee for Partners for Sacred Places to organize and lead our Capital Campaign is a flat fee of $140,000 which is 1.75% of what may in the end be a $8,000,000 project.
That depends. Of course, if there is money left over, we will use that to start some of the other projects that were identified as important to the congregation. However, this Capital Campaign is just Phases 1 & 2. There are many other projects that we hope to complete in the future – a ventilation system, lighting and electrical upgrades, flooring and painting, bathroom enhancements, and so much more! More money will need to be raised in the future in order to complete all of these projects but none of these projects can be done until we have a safe roof over our heads.
We are assembling a list of members & friends who want to help with the campaign. Please let us know if you would like to help out!
Of course, the point of our building is the work of love and justice the space enables us to do here. Thousands of people come each week to receive life-giving assistance, food, culture, and spiritual uplift.
Let’s keep putting our love into action!
Please, if you have any other questions, reach out to us and we will do our best to answer them.
In faith and excitement for all that lies ahead,
AJ Bosco, Campaign Co-Chair (ajbosconyc@gmail.com)
Amy Jo Scott Frischling, Campaign Co-Chair (roney.cynthia@gmail.com)
Cynthia Roney, Campaign Co-Chair (ajfrisch@me.com)