Raising money to fund our Christian ministry is our most important undertaking, but often the one we find the hardest. It is much easier, after all, to ask people to give to help fund church repairs and restoration, or to hold fundraising events.
The key is to raise as much unrestricted income as possible; it gives the PCC the flexibility to spend funds wherever your need is greatest. The Giving Team offers this simple fundraising diagram to show how to maximise the sources of both unrestricted and restricted income. Simple strategies underpin this approach, to help increase income from Parish Giving Scheme, Grants, Friends, Legacies, Contactless and Online giving.
Advice is provided on the Diocesan website, but we encourage you to contact the Giving Team for a more in-depth discussion, so we can better support you in your own context.
We’re not raising funds for Share, but for our shared ministry.
Working together
Share is set at Benefice level, representing the cost of being a church, according to your clergy deployment and worshipping community. The share request figure, at the parish level, is for guidance only, and we encourage all treasurers to come together for a Benefice discussion to see if the request is being fairly apportioned to each parish. It may be that one parish feels able to pay more, to support a parish that is struggling.
This is how St Paul advises us in his letter to the Corinthians:
“Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn, their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little."
2 Corinthians 8:13-15 NIV
Don’t forget to pray
Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”, so when things feel difficult, don’t forget to pray. We’re not supposed to achieve this on our strength alone. And why try, when God is on our side?