A series of tips for promoting PGS, both in person and virtually.
Many of our churches in the Diocese of York are planning to promote the Parish Giving Scheme this year and beyond. Here are some top tips when thinking about how to best encourage the use of it across your community.
If you'd like to find out more about the Parish Giving Scheme, please click here.
Former Generous Giving Adviser, Sammi Tooze, talks through a series of top tips to help churches who are planning to promote PGS this year and beyond.
Share your story. PGS is an excellent mechanism for planned giving, but in order to promote it well it must be paired with a motivator, and sharing your story as a church can help with this. Be specific about the mission and ministry which is enabled by giving, and shape a message which is inspires whilst also is transparent. To find out more about communicating about giving, please click here.
Promote PGS during a Giving Programme. This is a really good way to frame the PGS message through the lens of prayer, discipleship and mission, and is a good way to facilitate a focused period of reflection as a community. Giving Programmes also provide a good intentional platform for communication about PGS, and the clear beginning and end points are helpful for response. To find out more about Giving Programmes, please click here.
Engage people. Embed your PGS and giving message in your collective worship, private prayer, and conversation (both practical and through the lens of discipleship). These strengthen and deepen the practical message of PGS, encouraging a more fruitful response. Create opportunities for people to engage with - spiritual, social and practical - and don't forget to include joy and fun.
Endorse with Giving Stories. Encourage members of your community to share their giving stories, why they give to their local church, and their experiences of giving through PGS. This helps to give a peer to peer message, and advocates PGS as well as local giving. They can also be a good springboard into others reflecting on their own giving stories.
Make use of social media and website presence. Many churches like to distribute hard-copy materials to promote PGS and encourage local giving, but many people also engage well with social media and content on websites. You could create video messages to introduce PGS and to share giving stories, share these on social media along with other 'thoughts for the day', and your website can be a good static platform for sharing PGS information and other resources. If you are offering online worship, you could also include a virtual offering - to find out more, click here.
Make use of resources. Our Giving Officers are here to support you in planning your promotion of PGS - to get in touch with an Adviser please click here. There are plenty of resources available to help you, including material and website templates, PGS Guides, worship outlines and discipleship resources. One good example is The Generosity Week, a new national resource, which can be found here.
Remember to thank people. All our Christian giving begins with gratitude, as we respond to God's generosity to us. As churches, gratitude is a core Christian principle, and also is a good motivator as people tend to give more generously when thanked or acknowledged. You can be creative about this, including using gratitude to continue the conversation in promoting PGS going forward.