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Giving Programmes

Guidance and resources on how to facilitate a giving programme, both virtually and face to face.

Basic guide

Giving Programmes are a great way of encouraging generosity in our churches, by ring-fencing a period of time (usually two or three Sundays) in which to focus and reflect on giving. Due to the impacts of COVID-19, we have designed a way of facilitating these giving programmes virtually - the important thing to remember when planning anything virtually is adapting what works. Every Giving Programme will be different, shaped to each parish's needs and context, and planned by a small group from the church alongside a Diocesan Giving Adviser.

As a guide, the basic shape might be:

  • Opening Sunday. This is where everything is introduced. You may also want to invite your Giving Adviser to preach.
  • Include an offering in worship. If you are offering online worship, there are plenty of ways to weave generosity through liturgy and music, and one of the most important is an offering - one of the most tangible expressions of our giving as Christian people. Guidance on how to go about this can be found here.
  • Email - and where needed, post - supporting materials. We suggest that materials include a covering letter, a leaflet about why giving is important for your church, a card to encourage prayer and means of responding. Examples of these can be found below.
  • Encourage personal reflection. There are lots of ways you could do this, so that when people respond it is prayerful and fruitful. A new video series will be available from the beginning of July which explores generosity in the context of discipleship - these could be used for private reflection at home, or in homegroups for discussion.
  • Thanksgiving Sunday. This is the closing Sunday of your programme where people are encouraged to respond, and the church gives thanks.
  • Thank people. This could include an emailed card or letter, a suggested form of words and prayer within an act of worship, a fun activity such as Bible Bingo, or tea and cake over Zoom with a short talk.

Next Steps

Our Giving Advisers are able to guide you through the process of planning and facilitating your programme, designing materials, and are available for preaching. To make contact with an Adviser, please click here.

Top Tips

  • Share your story. Communicate your vision, and inspire people by talking about what their giving is enabling in your church.
  • Engage people in prayer and discipleship. Send out prayers card, and think of other creative ways to encourage your community to pray together or individually. Point people towards resources which help them reflect on generosity in the context of discipleship.
  • Have clear beginning and end points of your programme. This helps to focus people's minds, gives a clear day for people to respond by, and a clear point to send out your message of thanks.
  • Weave generosity into all aspects of worship. As Anglicans, we learn so much of our theology through our worship. Think about parts of the liturgy which could be adapted, music you might sing, and include a virtual offering.
  • Think carefully about the language you use - such as 'collection' or 'offering, 'pay' or 'give'.
  • Create eye-catching materials. This can help capture people's imagination, and show that this is a message that the church values. See below for example materials.
  • Make it clear how you want people to respond. This might be signing up to the Parish Giving Scheme, increasing their Standing Orders, or offering their time and skill for an area of church life.
  • Thank people. This could be marked with a Service of Thanksgiving which centres around God's generosity to us, and gratitude for all that continues to be given by your community to enable mission.

If you would like to a Virtual Giving Programme to launch the use of the Parish Giving Scheme in your church, please click here for more information about the Scheme.

If you are interested in running a Virtual Giving Programme, please click here to make contact with an Adviser.

Resources

The following resources are available to download as example materials, and your Adviser will help you to edit these to include your church's vision, ministries, photos and response details.

If you are using a virtual giving programme to launch PGS, you might also want to use: