Advice on giving and grants from our Stewardship Adviser New resource - Bible studies on God's generosity and our response These Bible studies are designed to help small groups to consider God’s generosity and how as God’s people we should respond to this generosity in the way we live our lives and make important choices. Each session lasts for about an hour and a half and offers a range of different ways to engage with Scripture and to help participants to apply their learning to their lives. We hope that parishes and small groups throughout the Diocese will use this comprehensive Bible study to clearly focus on God’s generosity and will find it especially beneficial in considering how best to use all that God has given us. These well produced studies, based on stewardship teaching, are timely as we embrace the new Covenant Scheme and the principles on which it has been developed. We trust that God will richly bless you in all your thinking and praying together as you use these resources. Leaders' Version Word/PDF Participants Version Word/PDF Harvest 2021 - why not use the CofE’s Generosity Week material as your Harvest theme this year? A great way to augment the work of our Covenant Pastors "Generosity is at the heart of our faith. We believe in a generous God and our own generosity is a testament and hallmark of our faith in action. Every day we see generosity in our churches and Christian communities, reflecting the generous God we believe in. "It takes time, support and above all prayer to grow a generous culture. This Harvest we are launching Generosity Week to give us the time and space to reflect on God’s Generosity and celebrate God’s generosity within our church’s ministry and mission. We invite you to explore God's generosity through eight days of service and worship materials, as well as stories from our churches of God's generosity in action. "We hope that by the end of Generosity Week you’ll have a deeper understanding of God’s generosity towards us and how we can live more generously in our daily lives." The national team have provided a whole range of material for you to draw on. You can also find all resources and images you'll need for Social Media (Facebook. Twitter, Instagram and Instagram Stories), items for each day of the week, in this downloadable document. If you would like any help or guidance on this material, or any other help in relation to stewardship contact Hugo Cobham, Stewardship Officer Tel: 07885 968608. Webinars on Generosity Week material "In these we'll guide you through the resources available and recommend how you use them in your church. We'll also share resources and ideas to help you promote your church's Generosity Week. We hope that by the end of Generosity Week you’ll have a deeper understanding of God’s generosity towards us and how we can live more generously in our daily lives." Click on a date to register 29 July, 1pm 11 August, 10am 23 August, 1pm Sustaining Giving during COVID-19 We find ourselves in challenging and unprecedented times. Churches will be dependent on the generosity of individual giving more than ever as they serve the local communities and seek to be a place of hope, prayer and support during this difficult time. Our mission remains constant to be a beacon of light as we go out into the communities to live out our calling to be Christ in the World. In the past much of our giving has traditionally been through envelope or cash donations during church services but there are new and different ways that have been developed to accommodate the new world we find ourselves in. This page includes many ideas and also sources of grants you may be able to apply for. If you have any questions about anything you read here or want to talk through the needs of your church please don’t hesitate to contact Hugo Cobham by e-mail ([email protected]) or Tel 07885 968608 Encouraging Safe Giving in our buildings For our churches that are open it is important to enable safe giving within our buildings. Encourage regular giving. Consider joining the Parish Giving Scheme (PGS), and promoting it as a mechanism of planned giving to your worshipping community. Using PGS and Standing Orders provides a reliable and regular income for your church, and carries no infection risk like cash. Explore contactless giving options. These options are accessible and safe, often requiring no contact and meaning the donation goes directly into the church bank account. Where digital units include touch screens, we recommend putting hand sanitisers next to the unit, and cleaning wipes which can be used to clean the screen between each donation. Parish Buying have a really good list of recommended suppliers. When deciding which unit is most appropriate for your church, make sure you think about security, if you need a charging point nearby, and if you need a phone signal or Wi-Fi for the unit to work. However, some units do not need either. Get a QR code. QR codes are a really safe way to encourage simple giving - individuals simply use their phone to scan your unique QR code, which allows them to make a donation. QR codes are easy to set up and you can then put your QR code everywhere. On posters, your website, on notice sheets and emails, on cards and banners and welcome notices. Go to Parish Buying to set one up for your church - its free! Text Giving. Text Giving is a good way of asking for one off donations or to be used as a top up to regular giving. Make precautions for cash. It is important to say that handling cash increases the risk of infection. If you are going to accept cash donations, make sure you have assessed the whole process, including thinking of those who will be counting and banking the money, and so will be exposed to risk. For those people, provide appropriate precautions including gloves and hand sanitisers. Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) – Registration The Parish Giving Scheme was officially launched in the Diocese in October 2018 and is available free of charge to all parishes across the Diocese who wish to use it. The Parish Giving Scheme offers individual parishes the facility for all who wish to give money regularly to do so by Direct Debit, the simplest and cheapest and most effective way to give, and it handles the Gift Aid on those gifts. If your church hasn’t joined the PGS yet then a parish first needs to pass a PCC resolution and then complete the registration form which can be filled out, then scanned or posted and sent back to your Stewardship Officer along with signature authorisation from the incumbent, treasurer and church warden. The Stewardship Officer will then assign a PGS code and email it to the PGS office to be registered. Under normal circumstances PGS packs would then be posted to the treasurer with paper gift forms. Although this option is still available if requested, the PGS have due to COVID set up two alternative joining options. The first is a telephone method of giving so once your church has joined you can simply use the direct dial telephone number to set individual donations up which is 0333 002 1271 (standard landline charge). Alternatively, you can join by printing off an electronic copy of the PGS Gift Form sent by the Stewardship Officer and then once filled in it can be sent by post to the PGS Office in Gloucester. Wider Community support There is now a leaflet to encourage members of the wider community to support your church through the Parish Giving Scheme (PGS). We have been working with the Diocese of Truro to design a leaflet to appeal to our wider community audiences, including family, friends and those more on the fringes of church, asking them to ‘Support your church community for future generations’. This recognises that there is much goodwill towards the Church amongst many in our wider communities, who may wish to support the work of their local church, but whose motivations for doing so might be different from those within our worshipping congregations. As a rural diocese we welcome this opportunity, as we think it will be of benefit to many of our churches. Lincoln and Truro are the first dioceses to be able to offer these leaflets, having volunteered to pilot it. The leaflet itself has a built-in Gift Form offering people the option of contributing financially to their local church in a more regular and planned way; i.e. monthly, quarterly or annually. There is no extra work for the treasurer as the form is sent directly to the PGS office in Gloucester to process. PGS submits any Gift Aid claims and then simply puts all monies donated to your church, plus any Gift Aid claimed, into your church’s bank account in the same month. The only criteria that PGS ask is that you are registered and actively using PGS within your church first before you can have access to the wider community leaflets. If you are interested in using the PGS wider community leaflet, either now if your church is already registered with PGS, or in the future if it is not yet registered please contact Hugo. Online Giving Online giving uses a donations platform that is linked to your website, Facebook page, and other social media channels. The platform allows individuals to donate anytime or anywhere using a variety of payment methods. There are many different providers on the market offering an online giving platform. Parish Resources offer a comprehensive list. A new platform called “Give A Little” is offered by Parish Buying. This not only offers one of the best transaction rates on the market, but also comes with a lot of support to help you get started and set up with your online giving accounts. They also offer full details of how to set up a “Give A Little” account. There is also a quick set up Guide for “Give A Little” account you can download Once you have successfully picked your new online giving provider there is a useful blog on what to do next and how to promote it, including advice on setting it up on your own website or on your “Church Near You” page. The 'collection' spot in online Services A Church Near You have produced some short animations for churches to use during virtual services and more widely online to encourage giving. This will be really useful for churches less confident about talking about giving and an added bonus for those who are already doing lots of great things. Churches will be able to customise this video with their own details using ACNY. Video here: Other Online Giving Ideas Easy Fundraising During COVID we are all spending more money ordering on-line, so why not set up an Easy Fundraising account for your church and ask members of the church or wider community to consider helping out? It costs them nothing and over time can become a quite significant amount. A small percentage of the purchase price goes from the retailer to your church if you register on the link below. There are over 4000+ shops that are included in this scheme with most of the major high street brands and supermarkets Amazon Smile There are other ways to give such as Amazon Smile although, unlike Easy Fundraising, this is limited to Amazon itself. When you register you will be asked to select a charity. You can set up your church or you can also select the Diocese, who have set up an account with Amazon Smile under the name “The Lincoln Diocesan Trust and Board of Finance Ltd.” Donations will be gratefully received and, as with Easyfundraising, these are at no additional cost to individuals, but rather come out of Amazon’s profits. Mobile Phone Giving Text In the current climate this option may work well for people who don’t have access to the internet as a way to donate and is especially useful as a “top up” way of giving for regular church members or for visitors. Parish Resources provides a guide to setting this up. QR Codes This is a free, versatile, and easy set-up option to start accepting contactless donations from smartphone users. It can be posted on a website, social media or sent via email. Parish Buying offers full guidance. Digital Giving The Church of England has through Parish Buying, worked with various suppliers to offer discounted prices on card readers for your church. The range includes small hand held units, larger table top units that can be secured into furniture and even a new brass collection plate that will take cash as well as contactless donations. Please register with Parish Buying. It’s free and only takes a few minutes and then you will be able to view the full range of the units under the “Giving and Payments” category. Virtual fundraising Fundraising is often an essential part of a churches income and during lockdown this will have greatly suffered but as many of you will now be more used to watching Sunday Services via Zoom or Facebook it may now be easier to organise some fund raising events online to help raise funds as there are still many rules on social distancing and gatherings in public places. Rather than just cancel an event, and write-off the financial losses, are there any new things, or new ways of working that we can call upon? So, rather than cancelling all of your planned events perhaps you could consider whether you can turn your event into something digital or virtual. Virtual fundraising events can help mitigate the loss of income, as well as enabling you to keep connected with the people in your parishes and communities. Here are a few ideas for virtual fundraising events. Virtual book club - donate what you would have spent on refreshments. Zoom quiz night - donate to take part. Concert night - this could be pre-recorded, donations gain entry. Virtual flower festival or garden event. Online raffle or auction. You could even auction time and talents such as gardening, DIY odd jobs, washing cars and cake making! Zoom coffee morning - donate what you would normally have spent on cake. These events are very popular, as they are very simple to organise and connect your church community socially. Virtual Tour of the church with a donation – many churches are on the tourism trail so perhaps you could organise a virtual tour with a virtual entry ticket Legacies Legacies are a lifeline for our parishes. For many people, leaving a gift in their will is a final opportunity to make a lasting gift to God. It is also a way to make a lasting difference to the future of their church and community. The National Giving Team has launched two new products on Church Print Hub, a customisable legacy leaflet and a customisable bookmark. These resources are a great way to remind people about why legacies are important, and to share how legacy gifts will further your church’s vision into the future. Detailed guides are available to help you add your own text and images to the leaflet and bookmark. The customisable leaflet and bookmark are available at a small cost and there are lots of other legacy resources available to you church which you can order free of charge. Some detailed guidance is available through Parish Resources and Church Legacy. Grants Here are some links to potential grants that you may be eligible for. If you have questions or need help regarding any grant funding applications and church building projects, please get in touch with Matthew Godfrey, Historic Churches Support Officer ([email protected]) or Fran Bell, Church Development Officer ([email protected]) in our Church Buildings Team. They are happy to help steer you through projects relating to your church buildings and how they can be used to connect with the wider community. Grants for Community Projects National sources for grants include Allchurches Trust and Aviva. There is also a fund for local Lincolnshire projects Other useful Links Ecclesiastical Insurance has lots of good advice on fundraising and grants. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has lots of advice and a funding database - all of which is free to churches with an annual income lower than £100,000. Newsletters Stewardship Newsletter Number 1 Stewardship Newsletter Number 2 Manage Cookie Preferences