Ownership of the Parish Giving Scheme is transferring to the National Church and from 1 January 2024, the regular giving service will be freely available to all parishes throughout the Church of England.
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Beginning on a very small scale in the Diocese of Gloucester in 2008, today the Parish Giving Scheme manages the gifts of 55,000 to more than 3,100 churches, across 30+ dioceses. This next significant milestone will see ownership transfer to the National Church with central funding from the Archbishops’ Council via a Church Commissioner’s grant. This will make it possible for the PGS to enhance and expand the availability of its giving services for all parishes across all dioceses.
“As a charity currently serving many thousands of parishes, this transition into a deeper and closer relationship with the Church of England is fully aligned with our vision to advance regular giving in every church,” said Grant Forrest, Chief Executive, Parish Giving Scheme. “At a time when many churches are facing the challenges of high inflation and cost-of-living pressures for givers, we are encouraged by the retention and growth in regular giving experienced by our parishes who use the Parish Giving Scheme.”
At present 59.5% of the total number of parishes within the Diocese of Peterborough use PGS and for these parishes there will be absolutely no change to the way your giving is processed. For the 40% who are yet to sign up to PGS, this is an excellent time to register your parish and take advantage of the increased giving the service makes possible.
At the end of 2019 the average giving per person per week was £11.69, at the end of 2022 that had risen to £14.24 per person per week – an increase of nearly 22%. This is largely due to the benefits offered through PGS and particularly the option to choose to automatically increase giving each year, which currently 42% of givers do.
PGS is an established service for managing Direct Debit donations and is simple and secure for parishes to set up and manage. Watch Irene Alford from Whitefriars Church talk about using PGS with Parish Giving Office Pete Squires here.
If you want to take advantage of the PGS scheme, talk to the Generous Giving team by emailing Parish Giving Officer, Pete Squires