The Finance & Stewardship Teams would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year!

Generosity at Christmas

Christmas is nearly here, and the church calendar is filling up with different services and events. This is the time of year where we see increased attendance in our church buildings, with visitors typically feeling more generous. There are many resources designed to equip churches on how to celebrate and encourage giving and generosity over Christmas. The birth of Jesus, one of the greatest acts of generosity, is a great time to consider how we can live out generous lives, inspired by a generous God.

The National Giving Team have put together two check-lists to help make sure you are set up and ready to make the most of this generous season. There is a Generous Christmas checklist, with ideas on how to invite people to give, and how to make giving easy and accessible. There is also a Digital Giving checklist going through the process for making digital giving easy and visible to givers in your church.

Give To Go Green - Round 3

The next round of Give To Go Green has started and we are encouraging all churches, those already on their Net-Zero Carbon journey as well as those just starting out, to get involved. 

Give To Go Green is a match-funding grant programme from the National Church, matching locally raised donations for carbon-reducing building projects.

Applications are open now, and will close in March 2025. Further information, including the Application Pack, is available at the link below.

The GTGG team are holding two information webinars in January for churches to find out more and ask questions about the project. You can register for these at the links below.

Five Top Tips for Saving Money and the Environment this Advent:

1. Check your Church heating timers! Are they programmed correctly for the weather and service times? Funding is available for wireless heating control upgrades so you can turn the heating on and off without being in the building.
2. Create an eco friendly advent wreath! Are your floral displays sustainable? Beautiful and festive displays can be made without the use of harmful floral foam. Tips on how to do this can be found here.
3. Turn off the lights! Are all the Church lights turned off when not in use? Take time to make sure nothing is left on unnecessarily when the church is empty. Installing PIR sensors can help with this; these only turn on lights when movement is detected and are great for offices, toilets and little used rooms.
4. Keep warm! Can you keep a chilly congregation warmer without turning up the heating? Offering a basket of blankets by the door for the congregation to borrow can help everyone feel more comfortable. Heated pew cushions are a great way of warming people further and are available through Parish Buying. You can also source blankets and jackets heated with battery packs to heat the person not the space.
5. Make giving easy! Can you use this season to encourage donations from your congregation and wider community to help reduce the carbon footprint of your church? Contactless giving is a great way to allow people to donate without using cash. Help and support are available here.

It's not too late.....to make the most of Digital Giving this Christmas.

If you missed the National Giving Team's recent special webinar on setting up contactless and online giving in time for Christmas donations you can still watch the webinar recording at the link below.

For further help with getting the most out of Digital Giving this Christmas email the Stewardship Team at resourcingparishes@leeds.anglican.org

SumUp Verification

There has been updated guidance around the new verification process for SumUp accounts. This guidance is included as part of the onboarding pack available to view on Parish Buying. Please see the link to this below, note you will need to log in to Parish Buying before you can view this guidance.

For proof of account owner link to the church (for Treasurers and Church 

Wardens), SumUp have confirmed they will accept:

▪ APCM / PCC meeting minutes

▪ Power Of Attorney letter signed by incumbent

The onboarding flow now includes questions about source of funds which has been added to the SumUp instructions.

Excess Data Usage in CollecTin & Payaz Contactless Devices

CollecTin & Payaz have spotted a change in Google Play settings that have caused higher data usage in some SIM using devices. They have put together some advice for churches who are noticing higher data usage than expected.

See the advice linked below.

New Give A Little Gift Aid Features

Give A Little have added in a feature to improve Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme (GASDS) claims from contactless donations. These features include a new GASDS report that can be exported and uploaded to HMRC in the same way as the usual Gift Aid report. All eligible donations will be automatically put into this report.

There is also now an option for Give A Little app campaigns to only offer formal Gift Aid declarations to those donations over £30, automatically putting the rest in the GASDS report. This is designed to reduce the time taken for the giver to leave their donation, making the process less complicated while ensuring you can still benefit from the Gift Aid.

You can read about these changes on the Give A Little blog at the link below.

2025 Parochial Fees

The 2025 Parochial Fees have recently been published by the central Church of England. We are currently updating our forms and these will be made available on the diocesan website shortly. If you have any questions regarding parochial fees please contact fees@leeds.anglican.org

Parish Share Update

If you missed last month's Parish Share report update please see details below. November's Parish Share report will be available on the Diocesan website later in December at the link below.

Year-to-date receipts have reached £8,785k, a £100k (1.2%) increase compared to the same period in 2023, although monthly receipts for October are down 1.2% compared 2023.

You can find the latest Parish Share report on the website here.

Next Treasurer Forum Meeting

January 28th 2025

Our next Treasurer Forum meeting will take place online on Tuesday 28th January at 6.30pm. All parish treasurers will receive an individual invitation by email, from the Diocese, in the coming weeks with a Zoom link to the meeting. At the January Forum we will be focussing on guidance towards the preparation for end of year accounts and the Annual General Meeting (APCM). If you haven't already joined our Treasurer Forum meetings do come along in January and meet with your fellow treasurers for guidance and discussion.

If you need help with your role as a Treasurer, please email the Stewardship Team on resourcingparishes@leeds.anglican.org. Use the links below to visit our Treasurer Forum page on the Diocesan website where you can view previous Forum meeting presentations and register to become a Treasurer Ambassador

Open the door to a £1,000 donation

Back by popular demand, easyfundraising’s Advent Calendar returns to bring some festive cheer. Ask your congregation to Open the Advent windows from 1st – 24th December for daily chances to win up to £200 for your church. Plus, every window opened is an automatic entry to win a big Christmas Day prize of £1,000! .

To take part in this festive fundraising idea register with easyfundraising on the link below.

Funding for Church Building Projects

The Jack Brunton Charitable Trust is a small grant-making trust which was formed in 1986. The Trust aims to support the rural villages, towns and communities within boundaries of the old North Riding of Yorkshire, by offering grants to charities, community groups, enterprise groups and a range of other organisations who are working to benefit these areas. Churches can apply and projects including refurbishments and building upgrades are eligible. There is no deadline for applications and the maximum grant award is discretionary. For more details and to apply click on the link below.

Fundraising Webinars

Are you planning a large scale Church decarbonisation project in 2025? Get ahead of the process by planning your fundraising strategy! Help and advice on environmental fundraising is available in these three Church of England webinars. Whilst they focus on funding Net Zero Carbon projects, these will be useful to Churches undertaking any large project that requires external funding.

The webinars can be found at the links below:

One Stop Community Partnership Fund Open Now

The One Stop Community Programme is designed to support community groups or organisations operating within two miles of a One Stop store with an initial donation of £1000 and a long-term tailored programme of support. Churches need to be running programmes which are:

• Tackling food poverty
• Supporting the vulnerable, elderly or low-income families
• Running youth sports teams
• Reducing / recycling waste or improving the environment

Applications open on 2nd December and close on 24th of January (although they may close early) and full details of the scheme can be found below.