Read about the financial situation of our parish church, have your questions answered, and find out about our plan for the future…
You can also download the Plan for the Future booklet here:
On this page:
- Why do we need a plan?
- What’s needed?
- Your questions:
- What about the Friends money?
- What are our biggest outgoings?
- How is the church funded?
- What’s the plan?
- How has the plan gone so far?
- How can you help?
1.
A Summary of our situation
We need a plan to put the church on a good financial footing so that we can continue our 900-year history of being there for the life moments of those who live in the parish.
We are incredibly grateful to our Treasurer, whose work over the past two years has given a clear picture of where we stand financially.
The first year saw us get on top of Gift Aid claims, up-to-date with expenses payments, and generally get us on a good administrative footing.
The past year has enabled us therefore to see a year played out clearly in our accounts. For the first time, what we may have suspected before has become very clear – we are running year on year at a deficit that is not sustainable.
To continue to offer weddings, christenings, funerals, and simply a place for weekly worship and seasonal services at Christmas and Easter, we have come up with a plan.
2.
What’s needed?
In order to be sustainable, our treasurer’s estimate is that we need to increase our income on the daily running account by £7000 a year (c.£600 a month).
Our strategy is to break this down into smaller chunks, so that we can set realistic targets using a number of potential sources of funds.
When you do that, as you’ll see under What’s the plan?, the vision of being a sustainable church for our local parish can very feasibly become a reality.
But before we turn to the plan, we wanted to answer three common questions people have.
3.
Your questions
Before we delve into the plan, I’ve thought of 3 questions you might have, so we’ll answer them for you!
The Friends of Caldecote Church was established to meet a need for money to fund urgent repairs to the church and to improve the church building and grounds to make it a more welcoming place.
The biggest two projects so far have been the replastering work and the window restoration. Anyone who’s been in the church recently will have seen (and felt – it’s warmer without holes in the windows!) the difference this has made.
Although there is still a good balance in the Friends’ bank account, all money raised by the Friends is ring-fenced and cannot legally be used to fund daily expenses. It is therefore the daily running account that we need to address.
The biggest single outgoing is what’s called Ministry Share. As a member of the Church of England, Caldecote Church does not have to deal directly with the salary, NI contributions, pension and housing for the vicar – these, together with a wide range of other administrative and legal functions, are undertaken on our behalf by our local Diocesan office at Ely.
Ministry Share is a contribution (just under £9,000 annually) towards these costs, and is based partly on the size of the congregation.
Electricity, insurance for our Grade 2* listed building and churchyard maintenance are the next biggest expenses (around 22% of total expenditure).
For a breakdown of the expenditure shown in the pie chart, see our Finances page
Like all parish churches, we receive no funding from the national church or from central government.
90% of our income is from donations, grants and fundraising. In addition, in recent years we have received a £500 grant from the Parish Council to help towards the costs of maintaining the hedges, grass and public footpaths in the churchyard.
Most of our fundraising in recent years has been by the Friends of Caldecote Church, and is directed into the church building restoration fund which is held in a separate restricted account. See Q2 above for more information.
4.
What’s the plan?
We’ve broken down the target of £7,000 into small achievable chunks, none of which are over-ambitious. The key to a successful plan is that it can be sustained for many years to come.
5.
How has the plan gone so far?
The plan has, in fact, already started, and we’ve already increased our annual income in the running account by £2,800. Here’s how that additional annual income of £2,800 breaks down, with reference to the four headings in the table above.
1. Fundraising: Largely through a new approach to publicising our events, we have over the past year raised the additional £1000 required.
2. Regular Giving: The plan has already been shared with a handful of people, and four have already set up direct debits, which have increased our annual income by £1320:
3. Sunday Collections: Over the past year, we’ve achieved the target of a £120 increase in the collection plate at Christmas and Easter services.
4. Gift Aid: The additional income from regular giving and Sunday Collections has raised an extra £30 per month (£360 annually) in Gift Aid income.
That’s before most people even knew about this financial plan, so as you can see, the target of £7,000 really is achievable – we now need to increase our annual income by £4,200 to achieve the remaining 60%.
6.
How can you help?
Please join us in making a regular gift – however small. As you can see from the table under ‘What’s the Plan?’, every donation makes a difference and can help put our parish church on a sustainable footing for the future.
There are two ways you can give by direct debit:
- By card (choose ‘regular donation’) at BT MyDonate
or: - From your bank account using our Parish Giving Scheme (PGS). Click here to email us your name and mailing address and we’ll send you a Parish Giving Scheme direct debit form.
Questions about direct debit?
Your debit or credit card company will take a small card fee out of your donation if you choose option no.1 above, but, other than that, both schemes are free of charges and both collect Gift Aid on our behalf, reducing our volunteers’ admin time. You can read more about each scheme by clicking the links below:
Direct Debit is easier for you to control and easier for us to manage than standing orders or cash in the collection plate, so if you are reviewing the amount you give, do consider making the switch to direct debit at the same time.
If you currently give by standing order and would like to switch, simply cancel your standing order and set up the direct debit to start the following month.
If you currently give in the collection plate (either loose in the plate or using the Gift Aid envelope scheme), once you’ve set up the direct debit, instead putting money into the plate, put one of the Parish Giving Scheme tokens. You’ll find them on the table next to the hymn books – just pick one up on your way in. It’s a simple way to dedicate your gift to God each Sunday.
A “thank you”
Caldecote Church is a special place serving the local community in a quiet but committed way, offering a place to worship, a caring congregation and a place for the key moments in the lives of the people who live in the parish, from special seasonal services to christenings and weddings.
If you decide to set up a monthly direct debit – however small – thank you for helping to make Caldecote Church sustainable so that we can continue to serve and minister to the parish of Caldecote and Childerley.
Dona McCullagh
Churchwarden and Parish Giving Officer