Parish Giving Scheme 

The Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) is an established service for managing One-Off and Direct Debit giving, designed to support churches to fund their mission and ministry. It reduces the burden of work on church volunteers and provides a simple and secure service to givers.

The service is freely available to all parishes, their churches and donors, within dioceses that have chosen to participate. Uptake is growing every year, with the majority of dioceses in the Church of England - and many of their parishes - now members of PGS and experiencing the benefits. You can use the search button on this page to discover whether your church is already in the scheme. The PGS makes it possible for givers to:

• Give One-Off amounts by Credit/Debit cards and Apple/Google pay wallets
• Give monthly, quarterly or annually by Direct Debit
• Sign up to inflation-linked giving annually
• Enhance your gift to your church by having Gift Aid at 25% added to your giving
• Give securely and donate anonymously, if you prefer

In addition  you can set up a Direct Debit to give regularly to your church, via gift form – available from your PGS parish representative or via telephone on 0333 002 1271, Monday to Friday, 9 - 5
 

How it works

Givers can set up a Direct Debit with PGS online, over the phone or by filling in a gift form at church. This can be made on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. Each gift is restricted to a parish church chosen by the giver and cannot be used elsewhere. The gift will be passed back to the church of the giver's choosing by 10th of the month. Any eligible Gift Aid will be sent separately once it has been received from HMRC.

A unique feature of the scheme is the option for the giver to commit in principle to increase their gift annually in line with inflation. This is entirely at the giver's discretion on an opt-in basis, but it is proving popular - with more than 55% of the cash received currently index-linked.

Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme

The Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme protects gifts and is easy to set up and manage. All the PCC needs to do is pass a resolution to start the Scheme and show leadership by joining and encouraging others to join. The diocese covers the administrative cost, so it is free to churches and the Parish Giving Scheme does all the work.

How is Gift Aid claimed?

The gift is claimed through the Parish Giving Scheme and will be passed back to the parishes bank account by the 10th of the month. Any eligible Gift Aid will be sent separately once PGS has received it from HMRC (this usually takes 5–8 working days).

PGS is a charity and therefore the Gift Aid declaration is made to, and held by, the charity. If HMRC audits a church, they will audit PGS for all its PGS gifts to that church. However, you will still have to claim Gift Aid for any other gifts received directly by your parish.

If one of your givers becomes eligible to claim Gift Aid after starting their gift through the Parish Giving Scheme, they must complete a PGS Gift Aid Declaration.
 

Benefits of PGS

This secure and simple method of giving serves givers and churches in many ways.

The individual benefits from:

• Retaining control of how much they give, how often and to which church
• Using a simple giving method that means regular financial support to their church
• The option to increase giving annually to protect their gift against inflation
• Anonymity, if preferred
• Peace of mind that the Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme protects their gifts
   

The treasurer benefits from:

• Reduced administration and paperwork
• Easy access to monthly and annual (both tax and calendar year) statements
• Saving time; for themselves and those who count the money from plate collections
   

The church benefits from:

• Stable and often increased planned giving, by launching PGS alongside a Giving Review
• Efficient and regular reclaim of Gift Aid, improving cashflow
• Protection against static giving, by offering givers the option to index-link their gift

The administrative cost of operating the scheme is covered by each member diocese, making the service free to use for churches and givers.

As a charity whose origins are within the Church, PGS is dedicated to serving givers and churches in a shared ministry of giving. Every pound given through PGS can be put to Christian service in the local community, free from time-consuming admin.

Diocesan PGS Advisors

Diocesan PGS Advisors are there to support your parish as it plans and prepares to launch PGS.  For further information, guidance and resources please contact:
 

Lincoln Diocese: Hugo Cobham or Andy Wright

• Email: Hugo or Andy
• Tel: 07495 315402 or 07701 364464

Our Vision: Advancing regular giving in every church

At the Parish Giving Scheme, our vision is to advance regular giving in every church. This is our guide for the future and everything we do today. We support the Christian community to engage in a culture of generosity through regular giving. By enabling and inspiring committed regular giving, we are helping to grow the Kingdom of God and transform the life and ministry of churches. Our approach is to support all givers, in whichever way they choose to give, to become regular givers.

Our Values

Through much prayer and discernment, we have identified four key values that underpin our culture, how we operate and how we make decisions: generosity, relationship in community, learning and excellence.

Generosity:

At the heart of everything we do lies the spirit of generosity. We believe that by fostering a culture of generosity in its many forms and being servant-hearted with a genuine desire to make a difference, we will continue to see the Kingdom of God grow in our communities. By making it safe and easy for people to give to the thousands of churches using PGS, we enable generosity and enrich the life of the Church and local communities.

 

 

Relationship in Community:

Our relationships should be the same as Christ Jesus: demonstrating humility, integrity, and obedience. We recognise that relationships are key to our success in supporting the Church through our ministry. In building relationships, we build a community to encourage generous giving, knowing that we can deliver more together than working alone.

 

 

Learning:

We approach each day at PGS with the intention of learning, recognising that to be better tomorrow, we need to learn today. We invest in the team to prepare for future challenges and opportunities. We listen to all those with whom we have relationships so that we can adapt and grow our services, aligning the pursuit of our vision and mission with their needs.

 

 

Excellence:

Our creator God inspires us through the excellence of this world that He created to deliver all aspects of PGS with excellence. We commit our plans to God, we seek His will to help us be the best we can, living the vision of PGS. Recognising that excellence is different to perfection, we aspire to be exemplary in our approach to people, the planet, and prosperity, being excellent in all we do as stewards of the resources we are entrusted with.

 

PGS Information Security

The security of our website, all electronic systems and data held by PGS is an absolute priority.

PGS uses a customer relationship management (CRM) database and fully integrated secure software packages. All connections between it and the website are encrypted and regularly undergo security testing. Many of the UK’s largest fundraising charities rely on the same software to securely manage their gift income. Access to the PGS systems is strictly limited to PGS employees and system partners.

The website and software systems comply with HMRC requirements and help the PGS process Gift Aid donations though an automated online submission process. The Gift Aid portal has successfully passed security tests by external independent experts and data is securely uploaded directly to the Government Gateway.  

Click here to view our Privacy Policy

 

Setting up your regular giving

By phone:

When you are ready to set up a new regular gift, you will need to have your personal bank account details, church/parish name and PGS parish code to hand (available from the PGS representative for your parish).

Then simply give us a call on 0333 002 1271, Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm, and we will take down all the information we need to complete your Direct Debit instruction for you. We will also ask about your preferences for opting in to Gift Aid, if you are eligible, and whether you would like to increase your gift annually by the rate of inflation.

The call usually takes about 10 minutes to complete. We will then send you a confirmation of your new gift by post or email.

Online:

The process starts on the unique page for the church you’d like to give to. Your church may have given you a QR code or URL link to take you straight to their page. Alternatively, you can use the ‘Find your parish’ search tool and type in the name of your church, parish and location. Click on your chosen church and you’ll be able to cross-check that it’s the right place, using the map, address details and description on that page.

When you arrive on the page for your chosen church, you simply click on the Give now button and follow the instructions on screen to set up your regular gift.

First, you’ll be asked to set up and activate a website account with us so that you can log-in securely.

Next, you’ll be guided through a simple form to provide your personal bank details, the value and frequency of your gift, the option to add Gift Aid, you can choose to increase your gift annually by the rate of inflation and decide whether you would prefer to give anonymously.

It only takes a few minutes to complete these steps online. Then, you’ll be able to log-in at any time to review your giving and personal details.

The  QR code below will take you directly to Christ Church's Parish Giving Page.  The link will take you to a PDF version of a gift form if you wish to set up your donation this way. Please print it off and complete.  Thank you:

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The link below will take you directly to Christ Church's page on the Parish Giving website:
 

Reviewing your gift

If you currently give through the PGS and wish to review your giving, you can do so in the following ways:

• Online by setting up an account on this website (see the section below)
• Contacting our team here by email
• Calling us on 0333 002 1260
• Or you can write to us at:

Parish Giving Scheme
76 Kingsholm Road
Gloucester
GL1 3BD

In all correspondence, please provide your PGS reference number. This number is located under the address on any written correspondence from the PGS team.

Managing your giving online

All existing givers can review and manage their current giving and add new gifts online, even if they originally set up their giving by post or phone.

If you are using this website for the first time, you will need to set up an online account. Go to ‘Sign in’ on the menu, and then select ‘Activate Account’ and you’ll be invited to activate your account by email.

If you wish to use the same email address that you have previously provided to us for correspondence, the website will recognise your email address when you enter it. However, if as a giver you have not yet provided the PGS with an email address, please contact us first so that we can update your records and verify your identity. You can do this by calling us on 0333 002 1260, or by email.

All information here is from the Parish Giving Scheme website.  A direct link to this can be found below: