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The majority of our offerings are made by standing orders from your bank account to the church’s bank account.
There are also weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual envelopes, which are collected during the service.
These are picked up by the door duty team in the red bags, which are passed around for the collection at every service, usually during the first hymn.
With the standing orders and envelopes many of you who are taxpayers have arranged to Gift Aid your givings. ~ What is Gift Aid? ~ It is a government scheme that enables the church to reclaim the tax you have already paid on the money you give in your offering.
At the present rate of income tax relief we will gain an extra 25p for every pound given. So an offering of £20 gift aided becomes £25; £100 becomes £125 and so on.
Last year the part of our offerings which were gift aided enabled us to reclaim just over £10,000 from the taxman. A great boost to our finances.
However, with the cash collected in the little red bags, we don’t know who is using this method for giving their offering – so we cannot claim Gift Aid on this money.
What does this mean to us? ~ Well, last year we collected almost £6,000 in cash which was not Gift Aided. This means that we, as a church, if all these offerings had been gift aided, have lost out by £1,500 – yes one thousand five hundred pounds. If this money had been gift aided by taxpayers we would have had an extra £1,500.
Now, how can we sort this out and make your offerings work better for the church?
You do not need to promise to give a particular amount each week. There’s no commitment.
If, however, you are a regular giver, we can arrange for you to get an envelope from our Free Will Offering and Gift Aid Coordinators Jeff and Joyce Thomas. All that we ask is that you give them your details on a Gift Aid Form. You can download the form below.
When completed, we will then arrange to give you a supply of envelopes, which you can use for your offerings. Having your name and signed form means that all you donate to the church will be of greater benefit.
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