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Glenn Wycherley
New member
Username: Gwycherley
Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 - 2:55 pm: |       |
We've been discussing charitable giving at our PCC meetings and I'd be interested to know how other churches approach this topic.
We aim to give 10% of our income (net of Parish Share and donations for specific use) to charities.
So, if total church income was £100,000, Parish Share was £50,000 and we'd raised £10,000 for a roof appeal, the net income would be £40,000. We'd therefore allocate 10% of this - £4,000 as charitable giving.
This figure is in addition to emergency appeals. (e.g. sunami last year) and other long standing collections for charities such as Christian Aid etc.
What do other churches do? |
Hugh Fisher
New member
Username: Hfisher
Post Number: 2
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, October 14, 2006 - 12:03 am: | |
We allocate 22% of all income to the Church General Fund to Mission (ie: external to the church's own outreach activities). This is administered by a Mission Partners group, who reports back to the PCC. The 22% was based on historical levels of charitable giving, but is open to review. Most income goes through the General Fund apart from that given for specific purposes, such as support of our Ordained Local Minister and other specific personnel. There is no deduction for the Parish Share! In 2005 £15,431 was passed on to our mission partners, both at home and abroad, by this means. A similar figure is expected for this year. |
David Workman
New member
Username: Dworkman
Post Number: 3
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, October 15, 2006 - 4:40 pm: | |
We allocate 10% of our Pledged Income, Plate Collections and Tax Rebate to Mission Giving.We support mostly national Christian charities and 2 or 3 local ones, eg our Hospice.
David Workman
Banbury St Hugh's |
Nigel Rode
New member
Username: Nrode
Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - 8:44 am: | |
We allocate 15% of our Pledged Giving plus tax recoverable to our Team Outside Giving Committee that is responsible for distribution.
Additionally we support the Christian Aid appeal and emergency appeals as they arise.
Nigel Rode
St Michael & All Angels
Beaconsfield |
Steve Smith
New member
Username: Ssmith
Post Number: 3
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, October 22, 2006 - 8:34 pm: | |
Very similar to David Workman's parish. All Saints Wokingham gives 10% of its congregational income (including gift aid taxback) to church related charities. We have several retiring collections during the year - pre-planned ones go directly towards our "10% obligations", whereas some others go to other charities or emergencies. |
Alan McCullough
New member
Username: Amccullough
Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - 8:23 pm: | |
At St Matthew's have a policy of setting aside 10% of our unrestricted income for world mission (which starts at the church door!). In addition, we run special appeals (usually at harvest & pentecost) for specific mission projects, and this means we give around 20-25% of our total income away, although this year I have had to hold a harvest gift day in aid of general funds to complete the years planned activities - so we wont be able to give quite so much away this year. |
John Whitaker
New member
Username: Jwhitaker
Post Number: 2
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 5, 2006 - 9:43 am: | |
At Iffley we have a policy of allocating at least 10% of unrestricted gifts (General Fund Church Collections, General Donations, Committed Gifts and the tax recovered from these categories) to Mission in addition to restricted sums raised. This is allocated to Missions of the Month (4 international, 4 national and 4 local p.a.) which are described in church and in the magazine to encourage extra gifts - although only about a quarter receive much extra. In practise we exceed the policy target in many years through additional Mission grants voted by PCC. We are fortunate to be able to continue this. At a recent Deanery Treasurers meeting it was mentioned by several that the dual pressures from declines in regular givers and increases in Parish Share are restricting the amounts available for Mission grants. |
David Evershed
New member
Username: Evershed
Post Number: 3
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, December 21, 2006 - 11:32 am: | |
Our unwritten principle is that the doner should know in advance if their donations are going elsewhere than the local parish activity.
So we mostly only make charitable donations when parishoners have known where their contribution is going and have the choice of not donating. For example, collections at the annual Remembrance Service are split 50/50 between the Poppy Appeal and Ex Service Mental Welfare and this is shown on the order of service.
It would seem wrong for a PCC to decide to pass Pledged Giving on to other charitable causes when the doners can choose to give directly if they so wish. Why should we think the PCC knows better than the doners where to give their money? |
David Spencer
New member
Username: David_spencer
Post Number: 1
Registered: 3-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, March 4, 2007 - 10:51 am: | |
Having just received the Charities Act SORP 2005 from Nigel for the 'smaller' parish, I am surprised by the statement on page 14 about the exclusion from the accounts of monies collected during church services for charities. It states 'In these instances these receipts are NOT to be included in the PCC's income as the PCC is acting as agent for the charity'. I appreciate the reasons. However, we have quite a few such collections in our church services eg RBL(Armistice Day), Christingle, Toybox etc. These collections are made with the consent of the PCC in formal services, the donor may have consented to Gift Aid being claimed, and they represent a significant part of our charitable giving. Whilst the sentence in SORP 2005 goes on to say that these amounts should be inculded in the annual report, I feel that their exclusion from the accounts doesn't then give a fair reflection of either our true income or the extent of our charitable giving. I wonder how other treasurer's account for such collections? |
David Spencer
New member
Username: David_spencer
Post Number: 2
Registered: 3-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, March 4, 2007 - 10:52 am: | |
Having just received the Charities Act SORP 2005 from Nigel for the 'smaller' parish, I am surprised by the statement on page 14 about the exclusion from the accounts of monies collected during church services for charities. It states 'In these instances these receipts are NOT to be included in the PCC's income as the PCC is acting as agent for the charity'. I appreciate the reasons. However, we have quite a few such collections in our church services eg RBL(Armistice Day), Christingle, Toybox etc. These collections are made with the consent of the PCC in formal services, the donor may have consented to Gift Aid being claimed, and they represent a significant part of our charitable giving. Whilst the sentence in SORP 2005 goes on to say that these amounts should be included in the annual report, I feel that their exclusion from the accounts doesn't then give a fair reflection of either our true income or the extent of our charitable giving. I wonder how other treasurer's account for such collections? |
David Evershed
New member
Username: Evershed
Post Number: 7
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 6:51 pm: | |
Regarding the accounting treatment of money collected for charities at services, they are included within our Church general funds as an IN and an OUT.
The cash is banked in our church account name and cheques made out from our account to the respective charity. To do otherwise would mean no control or transparency over such monies.
So the principles of control and transparency take precedence over the Charities Act SORP which are only recommended rules. |
Nigel Wearne
Moderator
Username: Nwearne
Post Number: 43
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 4:05 pm: | |
I completely agree with David's comment on financial control and transparency. Although I send out the published SORP guide, I would not advise anyone to follow it slavishly. As far as I am concerned, accounts are not a box ticking exercise. they are meant to communicate what is actually happening |
Kevin Ryan
New member
Username: Kpryan
Post Number: 4
Registered: 5-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 2:46 pm: | |
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