Parish Giving Scheme - A Continuing Success

Published on: 4th June 2019

The amounts flowing into the parishes across the Diocese continue to grow at a significant pace. From the Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) alone some £71,000 went into PCC bank accounts in May 2019 alone - an annual running rate of c £850,000 pa. For the same month in the previous year, these figures were £20,000 in the month and a running rate of c £240,000. Very impressive annual growth and take-up by parishes and donors, which simply transforms the finances of PCCs if done well.

In the Kington & Weobley Deanery, to pick one example, 14 of the 27 parishes have signed up for the PGS, and already one-third of the planned givers in the Deanery are giving in this way. More than half of the donors are auto-inflating their gifts annually and more than 80% have signed up to Gift Aid on their donations. More parishes are in the pipeline, and more 'launch' events are planned to learn from the experiences of other parishes which have already implemented PGS.

A couple of parishes in K&W Deanery have not only bolstered their recently-depleted reserves but have also had notable success at 'repairing' their Parish Offers, now fully-funding their costs of professional ministry after significant hiccups in the previous years. Eardisley parish now has a very steady flow of giving income, complete with Gift Aid, having already moved two-thirds of its regular donors onto PGS. Weobley parish was an early adopter of PGS, and its finances have been transformed to give a solid set of reserves, a full Parish Offer in which the PCC can have confidence, and financial confidence in facing an imminent vacancy. It has seen its absolute level of planned giving income increase from some £11,300 p.a. in 2017 up to around £21,400 p.a. in 2018. Both parishes have experienced increases in generosity as individual donors give serious consideration to reviewing their giving levels.

If your parish has not yet embraced the PGS but would like to, please contact Stephen Herbert for advice:
phone: 01432 373305,

email: s.herbert@hereford.anglican.org

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