Vote for Climate Hope Congregation Toolkit

After having witnessed the wonderful Climate Hope art of UCC children and youth, we are now ready to kickoff our campaign to collect as many Climate Hope Voter Pledge Cards as possible between now and November 1st. To help you and your congregation participate, we have created this toolkit full of best practices, tips, and more.

GATHERING A TEAM

Forming a Team with a Purpose

Gather your congregation’s green team or folks who you think might want to become involved. Watch the video of the artwork from this year’s finalists. Connect the video to the reasons for why people might want to get involved in the campaign. Take time to share why each of you is motivated to be involved in this important work.

Understanding Why Pledge Cards Work

With your team grounded in its purpose, take a look at the pledge card itself. Note the rationale behind why voter pledge cards work:

(1) People are more likely to vote when it is connected to something they care deeply about.
(2) People are more likely to vote when they make a promise to someone else.
(3) People are more likely to vote when they get a reminder close to the time of the election.

Making Hope Contagious

In addition to increasing likely voter participation, our pledge card campaign is designed so that those who make the pledge can also invite others to take the pledge as well. The pledge confirmation email gives the opportunity to invite friends to take the pledge. Also, someone who fills out the pledge card can then be given a blank card which has a QR code on it. Anyone of their friends or family can take the pledge by going to the website connected to the QR code. The Climate Hope Voter Pledge is designed to be contagious!

Once everyone on your team is oriented to how pledge card gathering works, you can then begin to plan how and when you will seek to gather pledge cards by using these best practices and tips…

TIPS AND BEST PRACTICES

(1) Collect Pledge Cards in Worship: Make an announcement during your worship service that invites people to fill out the pledge card while they are in the pews. We have a sample announcement that can be used in crafting your appeal. It is best if you stuff each Sunday bulletin with a pledge card before the worship service, so that people have easy access to it. If that is not possible, then you can place pledge cards in the pews before worship. Pledge cards can then be gathered either via offering plates or by having volunteers collecting the pledges as people exit the sanctuary at the end of worship.

(2) Involve Children and Youth: A youth member of your church can be the one who makes the announcement during worship. Children can be the ones who collect the pledge cards as people leave the sanctuary. An entire youth group can make an outing out of collecting cards at a farmer’s market or outdoor festival. Use the children’s sermon to talk with the children about the pledge cards and how they can invite their older family members to participate.

(3) Give Your Entire Worship Service a Climate Hope Theme: Check out these liturgical resources composed and compiled by the Rev. Allyson Sawtell for crafting a worship service that will uplift your congregation and motivate members to act. For the sermon, write a letter to members of the next generation like this letter by the Rev. Angela Wells-Bean to her two sons. Let the next generation know what your congregation is doing today to make a difference. For the children’s sermon, have a short “theatrical performance” in which members of the church get a boost of hope from the children. Check out this script!

(4) Deepen Engagement and Broaden Recruitment with a Presentation: Pair card collection in your worship service with a presentation before or after worship. This presentation can be an opportunity to inform and motivate people at a deeper level. It can also be an opportunity to invite more volunteers. Finally, a presentation on Vote for Climate Hope can also be made to persons outside one’s church: clubs, associations, groups of friends and family, and green teams from other churches are all possibilities. You can either show this video of a slide presentation or utilize these slides and notes to give your own presenation. Both can be accompanied by this two-sided handout.

(5) Go Out into the Public to Collect Pledge Cards: Any public venue with lots of foot traffic can be a great place to collect voter pledge cards. Review our one-page resource document that discusses in depth where and how to collect in public. With those on your team, practice how you will make your pitch. This pitch worksheet will help you craft what you will want to say.

DATA ENTRY

As you collect pledge cards, enter the names, email addresses, and phone numbers into the online pledge form. After you have submitted the pledge information, you will be taken to a page that thanks you and says, “Click Here to Submit Another Pledge.” You can keep on submitting until the information from each of your cards has been added to our system.

CONTEST RULES

The congregation that collects the most cards will win a pizza party and be automatically nominated as a finalist for the UCC’s Dollie Burwell Prophetic Action Award that will be awarded at the UCC’s annual Earth Summit on April 26, 2025. When the card collection period ends on November 1st, churches will be asked to report how many cards they collected. While pledges made by sharing the QR code or the link to the pledge page are encouraged, the contest only applies to the number of physical pledge cards collected. The church that reports the greatest number of collected cards will be asked to mail their cards to the Cleveland offices of the United Church of Christ in order to verify the results. Churches should retain collected pledge cards until the winner is announced.

REPORTING PLEDGES AND NEXT STEPS

When your congregation has completed collecting pledge cards and entering the data in the online form, report the total number of cards collected through this form. Make note of this total for your own records as well. After November 5th, the final phase of the Vote for Climate Hope campaign will involve church members visiting their elected officials. We know that voter mobilization and government accountability are strongest when they are linked together. In these visits, members can let elected officials know of local support for climate action while also calling for specific policies. We will share further details on our post-election strategy at the UCC’s November 6th Climate Action Assembly. All are invited to join us for this online gathering!

NEED MORE CARDS?

To order more cards, send an email to Sue Mueller. In your email, include your church’s name, your mailing address, and how many cards you want (50, 100, 150, 200).