If you are unsure where to begin when it comes to improving giving at your church, the ‘Giving, Generosity, and Thankfulness at your church: self-assessment toolkit’ is a great place to start. This is a toolkit to support the individuals leading discussions at your church and includes guidance on how to run these sessions via online or in-person meetings. It helps to identify the needs of your congregation and the local community it serves. To access the toolkit, please email Paul Bailey, Diocesan Giving Advisor: paulbailey@manchester.anglican.org.

Anglican Giving Survey

In 2020, NFP Synergy on behalf of The Church of England surveyed 2,000 Anglicans who attended church at least once a month, to better understand their attitudes to giving. The results demonstrated consistency across different geographies, traditions and settings. You can view the findings and recommendations here.

In response to the survey’s results, the National Giving Team created a series of ‘giving profiles’ and personas representing some of the different motivations and habits we see within our churches. The profiles include recommendations on how to respond to these typical donors and suggestions on how to communicate with them to meet their needs. These profiles can be downloaded here.

Training

We are encouraging all clergy to access web-based training in the Generosity Learning Hub, a resource created by the National Giving Team. The Hub contains worship materials, courses (e.g. Theology of Giving), inspiring stories, and case studies.

The ‘Generosity and thankfulness at your church’ self-assessment toolkit is very helpful online training that will help get your church ready to implement the Giving Strategy. The session is designed to train the facilitators to lead this process, enabling your church to evaluate where it is, what it would like to improve, and agree on its future goals.

Diocesan training materials will be developed to cover the responsibilities of Parochial Church Council trustees. In the meantime, the following are recommended:

• The Church of England – Code of Fundraising Practice: a simple guidance document for churches and a Guide for Churches on Vulnerable Persons

For details of forthcoming training, please contact Paul Bailey.

Online courses

We regularly offer online training on how to write successful funding applications and strongly encourage clergy and laity to attend these sessions. 

The course covers the preparatory work required to gather information before writing an application and provides hints and tips on creating funding proposals that recipient organisations will want to support.

Trainees receive a copy of the training slides, plus two guides:

Background information to grant funding

Community funding jargon made easy

The next training dates with registration links will be added below when they are available.

Open4Community

Open4Community, provided by Idox, is an external funding search website that is free for users in the Dioceses of Manchester, Chester, and Leeds. It provides detailed information on individual funders, including maximum value, deadlines, background information, how to apply, downloadable documents and links, contact details, and more. 

Parishes are encouraged to register and use it regularly for maximum benefit. You can register here.

Open4Community helps you browse funding opportunities through a variety of different filters including:

• Organisation type
• Area of work
• Funding requirements
• Different types of expenditure

Once created, your funding searches can be saved and amended for future use, and updates on your search results can be sent directly to your inbox. This useful Funding Search User Guide can help you get started.

Online training on Open4Community is regularly hosted by Idox, and Paul Bailey, Diocesan Giving Advisor, during which you will be taught how to:

• Register to use Open4Community
• Search for potential funders and find out more about them
• Utilise the other tools provided
• Set up regular email updates on potential funding sources.

After the training, attendees can also arrange a 30-minute one-to-one consultation for further guidance on using the website.

Training Dates

The next training dates and signup links can be found below:

Giving, Generosity, and Thankfulness resources

Several resources are available to help us nurture Giving, Generosity, and Thankfulness in our church communities.

Diocese of Manchester video resources:

The Ministry of Giving, Generosity, and Thankfulness - The Rt Revd Mark Davies, Bishop of Middleton, speaks about why it is important for our clergy and lay leaders to preach about Giving, Generosity and Thankfulness.

Preaching on Giving, Generosity, and Thankfulness - This session helps us to think about what generosity is and aims to provide some handy hints and tips to help you along the way. Revd Trevor Marshall, formerly National Giving Ministry Advisor on the Church of England Giving Team, and Revd Ian Bullock, formerly Vicar of Littleborough, speak about this subject.

Communicating Giving, Generosity, and Thankfulness – these are tough topics to communicate, yet we must learn to adapt our conversation in person and online around giving as our churches and communities depend on it. Led by James Newman, Digital Communications Officer, Diocese of Manchester.

Giving and Generosity with Bishop Matthew Porter – The Bishop of Bolton outlines his thoughts on developing giving and generosity within our churches in this short film. This is covered in greater detail in his book, ‘The Art of Giving’. 

National Church and other diocesan resources:

Generosity Learning Hub – provided by the National Giving Team, this online resource contains short courses, case studies, and service materials. It is free to use, but users will need to register. The Using the Church of England Generosity Learning Hub webinar hosted by Revd Trevor Marshall, formerly National Giving Ministry Advisor, outlines the contents of the hub.

Building a generous church – these pages from the National Giving Team on the Church of England’s website provide many resources to support your church with Giving, Generosity, and Thankfulness.

Living Generously - In this eight-part Bible Study Group series, Jonathan de Bernhardt Wood, the Church of England’s National Giving Advisor, explores the simple yet powerful moment in which Mary, a friend and follower of Jesus, displays the kind of astonishing generosity God Himself pours out on us. All of the resources are available via the Church of England website using this link.

Generosity Week – the National Giving Team’s resource can help your church run a Generosity Week. It includes service materials, discipleship resources, podcasts, reflections, and activities. This Organising a Generosity Week at your church webinar is hosted by Sophie Hodge, Stewardship Enabler at Carlisle Diocese, who has supported dozens of parishes in running Generosity Weeks across her Diocese.

Giving in Grace – developed by the Diocese of Liverpool, this section contains useful information about preaching on giving.

Preaching Generosity – this site from the Diocese of Rochester provides a weekly, bite-sized preaching resource. A short sermon idea is available via each week’s Common Worship lectionary readings. You can also register to receive an email straight to your inbox.

Teaching and Nurturing Generosity – this online resource from the Diocese of Newcastle provides sermons, stories and reflections.

Reimagining the Offertory – this downloadable resource includes prayer examples for when the Offertory is taken at your church and suggestions of hymns and songs that can also be used.

Generosity Fika – a Fika is a half-day programme for small groups to explore God's generosity to us; Biblical generosity; and generosity around the world.

Get in touch

	Paul Bailey Diocesan Giving Advisor paulbailey@manchester.anglican.org Tel: 0161 828 1464		Emma Lomas Gift Aid and Giving Support Officer emmalomas@manchester.anglican.org Tel: 0161 828 1424
	Debbie McKee Administration Assistant debbiemckee@manchester.anglican.org Tel: 0161 828 1407