By Judy Van Cleave, secretary, Urantia Foundation, Idaho, United States
Books
The new English enhanced e-book was coded and is in the last series of testing before going live. It will launch in the next six months. The e-book includes The Urantia Book, an interactive index [2], a pronunciation guide [3], a term list [4], and a list of any corrections made to the original 1955 text [5].
Urantia Foundation has almost completed a new Android app containing The Urantia Book in eight languages. Considering that more than 85% of all smartphones in the world operate on the Android platform, this new app will significantly increase the availability of The Urantia Book.
Book sales slowed in March while downloads increased. We're not sure why the decrease but could speculate that book distributors in North and South America lowered inventories due to COVID-19. The Untold Story of Jesus and the Parables book, published by Urantia Press, continued to sell well.
Translations
A dedicated team of Filipino readers partnered with Urantia Foundation and initiated the Filipino translation. With a population of 104 million, 85% of which are Christian, the board is confident that the time has come for this translation.
After a decade of work, the revision of the Spanish translation will be completed by the end of 2020. It will be initially published on the website and is expected to be printed before the summer of 2021. Over the years, independent Spanish-language experts evaluated the work. Their appraisals were gratifying because the revision consistently received higher marks than the current translations.
Words can hardly express our gratitude for the revision team—who took on this 10-year project and is seeing it through to completion while adhering to the high-quality standards expected of Urantia Foundation. To read more about the team, click here [6].
Search Engine at Urantia.org
In March, 12 additional translations were added to the new and improved search engine at urantia.org, bringing the total to 16 languages. The team is working on adding Czech, Danish, Farsi, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean, which will be a total of 24 translations.
Finance
Responding to the economic challenges of the COVID-19 crisis, the board and staff felt it necessary to reduce spending in 2020. With careful analysis of every expense in the budget, line by line, a total of $114,500 was cut—without eliminating mission-critical programs or cutting staff.
As of the beginning of May, the Foundation’s market investments had decreased $549,302 since January 1, 2020. However, the portfolio's profile is moderate to low risk, which provides some protection during volatile market swings. With donor financial support, we will work our way through 2020 despite the uncertainty in the economy and market.
Independent auditors completed the 2019 audit. You can see the annual report on our website at urantia.org/sites/default/files/docs/annual-report-2019.pdf [7].
Building
Urantia Foundation rents the coach house and the top floor apartment of 533 Diversey Parkway, the historic home of the Urantia Revelation. These rentals provide enough income to subsidize the use of three floors by the Foundation. When the leases recently terminated, the board had concerns that few people would be interested in moving during the coronavirus crisis. Thankfully, both units rented without a loss of income.
Five-Year Goals
The board spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning presenting, reviewing, and discussing "who does what, by when, and for how much cost" to accomplish the goals and strategies in the 2020–2025 plan. This plan is detailed and will be completed by July.
Here's a high-level look at the prioritized five-year goals.
• Books: Increase global book sales and distribution by 7% every year.
• Fundraising: Increase Revelation Bridge, Hales Fund, and Perpetual Printing Fund to $12,000,000.
• Global Initiative: Foster a more culturally diverse and culturally sensitive Urantia Foundation that will impact the way we disseminate the book and its teachings globally.
• Translation: Initiate and/or complete new quality translations and revisions. Use and fine-tune our translation process.
• Education: Focus on inner education—prayer, worship, and soul work. Focus on outer education—create opportunities to foster knowledge, enhance appreciation, and promote global understanding of The Urantia Book.
• Succession: Implement a five-year succession plan for the Board of Trustees. Increase the number of trustees by 2025 and transition to a more global organization.
• Digital Outreach: Triple Urantia Foundation's digital presence in the world.
The Coach House