GIVING FOR LIFE PARISH GIVING SCHEME PLANNING YOUR EVENT Introduction... 1 Part One: Preparation... 2 Part Two: Delivery... 8 Part Three: Evaluation... 12 Prepared by the Giving and Resources Group The contents of this document may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of Gloucester DBF, Church House, College Green, Gloucester, GL1 2LY
Introduction If you are reading this booklet, you have decided as a PCC that you want to deliver Giving for Life to your parish and introduce the Parish Giving Scheme. In conjunction with the diocesan workshops and other support materials, this planner will help you to ensure you get the very most out of your event. This resource is laid out into three sections. Part One: Part Two: Preparation Delivery Part Three: Evaluation There are a series of questions for you to consider in each section. These are designed to act as prompts to help you think about and consider the general aspects of planning an event, along with some suggestions from us where appropriate. We fully recognise that all parishes are different and don t believe there is a one size fits all approach in running a Giving for Life event. This document is not prescriptive and may be usefully treated as a check list. Tick boxes have been provided on the left hand side to help you use it in this way. If you have already attended a workshop you will have seen all the other resources being made available to support you with your event. If you need to check however there is a list of what is available on page five of the Getting Started booklet. All resources are available free to parishes within the Diocese of Gloucester. Please take what you need and leave what you don t. 1
PART ONE: PREPARATION 2
Preparing for your event From exams at school, to your wedding day, to painting the kitchen, most things in life go much better when we have prepared for them properly. Sadly preparation is also the easiest thing to skip when we are short of time. Please take the time to go through these questions and reflect thoughtfully on them. We know that time is precious but whatever you can invest as a group at this stage will be well worth the effort when your event goes ahead. What does our church want to achieve from Giving for Life? The big question! What do you want out of this event? We think you should consider setting goals and measuring your success in four ways: 1. Increasing the total value of regular giving: Set yourself a target for how much you want/need to raise on an ongoing, monthly basis. It might be the full ongoing cost of your parish ministry (matching regular income with regular costs), it might be your Parish Share, it might be more, it might be less, but set yourself an ultimate financial goal. 2. Increasing the number of regular donors: As well as a total amount this is about engaging people with your church for the long term, so it s as important to have good numbers donating on a regular basis as it is to have good amounts being donated. 3. Improving the culture of giving: Less tangible than the other targets but very important to reflect on. Have you made a real change to attitudes to giving and the way in which people see the church being funded? Are people comfortable to let the offertory plate once again become the poor plate (i.e. be used for outward giving), or dropped altogether? 4. Communicating the impact of activities: We think the best and most meaningful targets you can set are to decide what new or existing things you will be able to do or improve on if this event is successful. Confidently plan your quinquennial works, not just essential repairs? Offer more support for your local school? Fund a part time youth worker? Buy new hymn books? Heat the church properly? Provide a free group/event for children and young families? Help local people cope in the recession with practical support? This really is the most important part of your preparation so take time to do it well, for the clearer you are in your own minds the clearer you will be in communicating your vision to your church and the wider community. We have tools to help you practically like a budget 3
setter (to help decide how much you want to aim for) and a donor profiler (to think about how many people you need to fund your target), but also we have more rounded support with the Ministry Department and Diocesan Missioner who can help you think about what you really want to do in future. What are our key messages? Christ s message is not just about the individual or just about the community, but about the individual in community. Giving for Life carries these two aspects of faith: the way in which our faith changes us (Giving in response to God / God gives to us) and the way in which our faith has an outward manifestation in changing our communities (Giving in response to need / We give to God). In shaping your messages about giving in response to God it is important to affirm the place of giving as part of our faith and part of our discipleship. This is such an important message but we know sometimes it can be difficult to deliver. Make sure you are comfortable and confident in what you do say and ask for help if you need it. In shaping your messages about giving in response to need, you must be able to confidently share the vision of your local ministry and mission to engage people with the impact their giving can have: how people s lives and your community will be improved and helped through personal generosity. In the Getting Started booklet there was an exercise on page nine-ten where we asked you to reflect on the mission and ministry of your church. This may be a helpful place to think again about what you are asking people to give towards. Ideally your vision needs to be communicated several times both in the written and spoken word. Are PCC members able to personally back the PGS? Do all members of the PCC understand how the PGS works and will they consider giving through the PGS in order to be advocates when it is offered to the whole congregation? We believe that having a small group willing to trial the scheme with their own personal giving, gives others confidence in doing it when approached at a later date. Therefore why not get the whole PCC to sign up two to three months before you launch the PGS more widely, so they can share their experience with your church? 4
What are the dates for our Giving for Life event? Are we going to do three Sundays or two? Sunday 1) Sunday 2) Sunday 3) Have we told the DBF we will be delivering the Giving for Life event and offering the Parish Giving Scheme (PGS)? The PGS registration form is a simple but important form, informing the DBF of your wish to offer the PGS to your parish. It gives us basic information (such as your PCC bank details) to ensure we are ready to receive any gifts from your donors and pay them back to you. Have at least two of us attended a Giving for Life workshop? This planner/checklist has been designed to go over again what is covered in the workshop, but unlike the workshop it is not interactive. By attending a workshop you will meet with the diocesan staff that developed the scheme and can ask questions and investigate concerns. You will also meet other parish representatives and have the opportunity to see the full range of support resources available. Are we familiar with the FAQ s about church funding? A really useful resource we have made available is a set of A5 cards that address the Frequently Asked Questions we hear and we re sure you do/will. Not being able to answer them well leads to misunderstandings or misconceptions which can restrict people s willingness to give. Whilst copies are available for you to hand out, do make sure you have read and understood the answers to them so that you can helpfully inform your donors, giving them confidence to commit financially to the church. Who is not to receive a PGS donor pack? The PGS is a way of supporting giving by those your church already has a good relationship with. If people are not committed to the Church offering them the PGS will not suddenly make them so, therefore be very careful about using it with occasional attendees and first timers. It is not designed for mass mailings or use at baptisms and weddings, where the majority of those you are asking are likely to feel lukewarm (or worse) towards the Church. 5
We are looking, in time, to provide resources to help you invite those groups of people on the edge of our churches to support its work financially, but our first approach must be to those who are closest to us. Who is to receive a PGS donor pack? We suggest you draw up a list of those who you would want to receive a pack; this will help you gauge a realistic financial target from the scheme as well as monitor who may have missed receiving a pack or being involved. The PGS is designed for people who are regularly engaged and involved with the life of your church. Normally this will be regular worshippers, but there will be others committed to your church in different ways, particularly in smaller, rural communities. The PGS is particularly suitable for all those who currently give in a regular way, whether by standing order, envelope or cash in the collection plate. Who is the PGS donor pack from? Whilst financial matters are often handled by the parish treasurer (or for us the DBF Finance Department) Giving for Life has been developed by a diverse group made up of both clergy and laity. We believe that acting together has made our support for you stronger and more rounded, not just about money, but about the whole Church. Therefore we encourage you to send the packs not simply from the vicar or the treasurer but from the vicar and the church wardens or even the PCC as a whole. Giving for Life is about making the Church better, not richer. We have provided a template letter which can be adapted for your purpose to go inside the donor pack in front of the gift form on the right-hand side. The purpose of this is for you to explain succinctly your parish s mission, your hopes for the parish and what the donations you receive will be spent on. We suggest you keep it to one side of A5. What do we want to include in the PGS donor pack? There are the obvious things, such as the gift form and A5 letter from the parish, but there is a space on the left hand side of the pack which should contain literature that focuses on what people are giving towards. There are three leaflets available free of charge from the diocesan office which could be inserted: You Belong (who the church is) Where is the Church? (what the church does) Thank you (how a typical donation to church is spent and what Parish Share is) 6
If you have other leaflets about your work locally these would obviously add a lot to people s understanding and engagement with your parish s work and life. It is your decision as to what you insert, however the folder is primarily for any correspondence and information they receive should they agree to sign up to the PGS. So whilst it s great to share, try not to overfill it. Will we offer our PGS members the option of an offertory token? Whilst ultimately the PGS marks a step change away from funding the Church through cash collections at services we want to make the change as flexible and accommodating as possible. Some parishes in the pilot scheme felt that certain donors may feel uncomfortable about not putting anything in the offertory plate, so to help these people feel comfortable donating through the PGS we have commissioned offertory tokens which may be reused each week in place of an envelope or cash. 7
PART TWO: DELIVERY 8
Delivering your event This section deals with the period when you go public and run Giving for Life. You are now hopefully well prepared and ready to consider the practicalities of delivering your messages and materials to the people you want to receive them. How are we going to communicate this event to our congregation? Planning how you will communicate this event is vital. If you don t give people enough time to plan their diaries, or you don t make them interested, then they will be less likely to attend. However, you can do a number of things to ensure a good turnout. Try sending out invitations by email or letter, including an article in your service sheets and parish magazine and promoting the event on posters, which can be displayed on your notice boards. You need to start communicating Giving for Life at least two months in advance of your first service. How are we going to deliver our key messages at our services? Are you going to rely on the sermon alone to relay the messages? Or is there an alternative that you feel your audience would readily respond to? Refer back to page four in the Getting Started booklet for suggestions on what should be included. Are we planning on using any of the liturgical materials provided? The Diocesan Worship Officer, the Revd Tom Clammer, has put together a range of liturgical materials including three sample orders of service. These are available both in hard copy and on the website. If you wish to use them, we suggest you download them from the website and edit them for your particular requirements. Do we wish to preach about giving at our family service? We believe the messages within Giving for Life are really important and need to be translated to all ages; therefore the Diocesan Children s Officer, the Revd Sandra Millar has compiled some wonderful suggestions which are both really engaging and thought provoking. You never know the adults might learn something new too! How are we going to deliver this outside services? Not everyone you wish to reach will be able to attend each service, therefore consider providing them with an alternative opportunity to hear about Giving for Life and the Parish Giving Scheme. Consider putting on an evening meeting or other events in the week which fit in with the availability of your congregation. If possible these should be social occasions with 9
the focus being on the key messages of your local ministry and mission, with clear, articulate messages on how to give to support this work. Good food will also help make the meeting enjoyable! When do we want to distribute the PGS packs? If you choose to follow the three Sunday format suggested in the Giving for Life Liturgical Materials, then we would advise the packs are distributed on the second Sunday. If you are a small parish and choose to do it in one Sunday, distribute them then. How will the PGS packs be distributed? Clear thought needs to be given to this. As a parish you are asking people to take a serious decision in offering a generous regular gift to church, therefore the presentation of these packs should be done in a planned and thoughtful way (putting them in a pile at the back of church won t do). Consider handing them out as people leave, or having them distributed during the service by PCC members. If you have chosen to personalise the letters inside, then these obviously need to reach the right person. We strongly advise that these packs are not just delivered to every household in the parish, or just put through congregation members letter boxes without forewarning and a covering letter explaining what they are. Who can donors talk to if they need help with the PGS packs? Some donors may wish to discuss their giving with someone or may need assistance in completing the form. Make it known to the congregation who will be available (and when) to help people in these circumstances. Make sure these volunteers are well briefed so that they can answer any questions effectively. The gift form is available in large print upon request. How do we plan to distribute the packs to those we may have missed? If you have made a list of all those you hoped would join the PGS and know for whatever reason some may not have received a pack make sure someone is ready to deliver these, preferably in person, so they can help put it into context and share your key messages at the same time. 10
When and how do we want people to respond? Once you have distributed the PGS folders we recommend that you encourage donors to send their forms to the Parish Giving Scheme address provided straightaway. If you distribute the packs on the second Sunday, we recommend you delay the third Sunday for Giving Thanks to take place five-six weeks later. With some co-ordination with the Diocesan Giving Officer it may even be possible to announce a figure for the value of donors signed up. If there is not enough time this can be arranged for a later date. The Giving Thanks Sunday is not the place to collect the forms. How do we wish to thank and recognise our donors generosity? Thankfulness is so important. We strongly recommend holding the third Sunday event to express gratitude to God for all that he has given to us and to our congregations for all that they have given to our church and communities (and not just money). We believe that this event should become an annual event in the life of your church. Saying thank you is such an important thing to do and an annual celebration of the generosity of your congregations and what it has done is a wonderful affirmation of faith. This will also tie in with the annual letters from the PGS, which thank your donors and inform those who have agreed for their gifts to increase with inflation of their donations in the coming year. It will obviously be so much nicer to have a local celebration of this rather than just a legally required letter from the PGS! If you wish to personalise your thanking (which would be great) the PGS will be providing you with monthly statements of all donations, so unless some have ticked the anonymous option you will have an easy checklist of those to thank. 11
PART THREE: EVALUATION 12
Evaluation When the event s over there comes the time to reflect on how things went. We suggest you have a formal review around a month to six weeks after your Giving Thanks Sunday and reflect on the following sorts of questions: Was it a success? If you followed our earlier recommendations you will have set yourself some specific outcomes you wanted from the event. Did you achieve them? What contributed to success? What prohibited success? Have we thanked everyone involved? Particularly yourselves! What and who contributed to success? Even if you didn t manage everything you wanted to, what and who made a real contribution to what you have achieved? Have they been thanked/recognised properly? Could they do it again another time? Would sharing this with other parishes be helpful? What inhibited success? Even if you did manage everything you wanted to, what made achieving success more difficult? Is there anything useful to be gained seeking to address these difficulties for another time? Would sharing this with other parishes be helpful? Do we wish to consider a follow-up? By follow up you could relay to the congregation six months after the campaign the numbers of people who have switched to giving by the PGS. Alternatively you could communicate how much more your church is now receiving thanks to them. However please never name donors publicly or remark on individual levels of giving. In terms of following up with individuals who you think may not have responded, remember there is the option with the PGS to give but to remain anonymous to the PCC. Avoid making any assumptions for fear of offending them. 13
Have we shared our experience with others? We would love to hear about your experience and successes, particularly where we can help you share it with other parishes to enrich their experience. Perhaps you had a great sermon, or a special symbolic way of recognising people s generosity. Whatever it is please do share it with us because if it worked for you it could very well help others. We would also want your feedback and suggestions for how we could improve Giving for Life and the Parish Giving Scheme, to ensure that we continue to offer a service which parishes really need. GOOD LUCK! 14