Last updated: February 2026
For many of us, New Unity is a beacon of hope and community in challenging times. With financial support, we can work together to achieve the important goal of building love and justice in our community and our world. Please see below for the many ways you can support New Unity, as well as other local charities.
What is a pledge? A pledge is simply a promise to donate money in the future. Pledges help us to be able to plan for the future. A pledge can be anything from £1 upwards; some people pledge in this region, while others pledge four-figure sums (and everything in between). You can pledge any time of the year, but we especially appreciate you doing so around February/March, so that our trustees are best equipped to plan for the upcoming financial year starting April 1st.
Pledging involves informing us of your intentions, which you can do here, followed by fulfilling your commitment via whatever payment method and cadence is most convenient for you. We provide our bank details in the pledge form because most of our pledgers prefer to set up automatic recurring transfers, but we also accept cheques, card payments and cash. It’s vital to make sure you both fill out the form and make the payment you pledge.
What is a donation? A donation may or may not be the fulfillment of a pledge. Sometimes, people make donations on top of their pledged amount. In this instance, you can make a donation at this link.
What’s the offertory? The offertory is held during every Sunday gathering. A long-held tradition at NU is for collections to be passed on to local external charities.
Offertory donations can be made using the same online form as donations made to New Unity. How do we know which donation is for NU, and which is for the external charity? Any donations sent using that form between 11am and 1pm on Sundays will automatically be passed on to the chosen charities - so if you donate then, you can be confident your donation will reach the right place. You can also donate to the offertory in person using the donation bag or the SumUp machine. If you donate outside of this time slot, New Unity will keep your donation for its own general funds.
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New Unity has a proud history of building love and justice which stretches back centuries. Mary Wollstonecraft’s influential feminist ideals were born and nurtured within the walls of our Meeting House, and the actions of our ministers and campaigners over the centuries have inspired revolutions and major social change. We’ve campaigned recently on everything from legalising same sex marriage to fighting climate change. We want to take our work of community-building and justice-seeking to the next level, and to be able to fund the staff and the resources required for that. “Justice,” said Cornel West, “is what love looks like in public”. In an age of political and climate uncertainty, we want to make sure that we are doing all we can to make our communities and world as just as possible.
To bring our budget in line with our collective ambitions, we are asking you to share your treasure as generously as you can. New Unity is a democratic organisation, and everyone is free to contribute within their means. No pledge or donation is too big or too small.
Pledging
A pledge is different from a one-off donation. A pledge is a financial commitment to donate a certain sum of money over the course of the financial year.
You can let us know using the pledge support form that you would like to commit to donate a certain amount of money. We need you to update this commitment every year (even if you've joined in a previous year or already have an ongoing Direct Debit set up).
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By far the easiest way to tell us about your pledge is to provide your details in the pledge form. This is the form accessed via the "PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT" button. The form further down that says "DONATE TO NEW UNITY TODAY" is used for actually making a donation (one-off or linked to an existing pledge), rather than pledging to donate in the future.
If you cannot use the form you can also email your pledge details to nick@new-unity.org.
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Your pledged donation(s) can be paid at any time during the 2026-27 financial year, which begins on April 1st 2026. The best way is to pay is in regular instalments via Direct Debit or standing order. You will need to fill out the form to renew your pledge for 2026-27, even if you already have an existing Direct Debit or standing order set up, and even if you filled out the form in a previous year.
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The bank details appear at the end of the pledge form process online, or are here:
Account name: New Unity
Account Number: 00028377
Sort code: 40-52-40If it is at all possible for you pay using online or telephone banking, please choose this option. If you would like to send a cheque, please email nick@new-unity.org first; our office isn't staffed every day, so we'll need to co-ordinate times for safe delivery.
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Pledging is a personal decision based on your financial situation and level of commitment to New Unity. We know that if you are a newer member of the community, making any first-time pledge can be a big step in itself. If you already pledge annually, please consider increasing last year’s pledge by at least 3-5% to keep up with rising costs. Congregants typically pledge amounts from £1 to several thousand pounds per year, with about half the congregation pledging between £100 and £500.
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You don’t need to be a New Unity member to pledge. In fact, it is very helpful for planning our budget to have everyone planning to support the congregation financially let us know their intended donation.
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Once the budget for next year is complete, the Trustees will be glad to share it, and you can always contact a Trustee to inquire about the budget and spending priorities. We are also about to begin holding open trustee meetings on a regular basis to provide transparency into our decision making.
Leave a legacy gift
You can also support New Unity through a gift in your will. Legacy giving is one of the most meaningful ways to express what this community has meant to you, and to help ensure it is here for the people who will need it in the future.
New Unity is a community of many different lives and circumstances. A legacy gift does not need to be large, what matters is the intention. Every gift, of whatever size, helps sustain the ministry, the social justice work, the arts events, the online gatherings that reach people who cannot be with us in person, and the hundred quiet things that make this community what it is. And it helps care for the Newington Green Meeting House - 350 years old, and still standing.
If you are considering a legacy gift, or simply want to know more, we would love to have a quiet conversation. Please get in touch with the trustees. Any conversation is entirely confidential and there is no obligation of any kind.
Practical details
To include New Unity in your will, ask your solicitor to add a bequest to:
New Unity CIO
Registered Charity No. 1161363
Gifts to registered charities are exempt from Inheritance Tax. Many people find it simplest to leave a percentage of their estate rather than a fixed sum — your solicitor can advise on what works best for your circumstances.
