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:

Download our Plan for the Future booklet (pdf)
Download our Plan for the Future booklet (pdf)

On this page:

  1. Why do we need a plan?
  2. What’s needed?
  3. Your questions:
    1. What about the Friends money?
    2. What are our biggest outgoings?
    3. How is the church funded?
  4. What’s the plan?
  5. How has the plan gone so far?
  6. 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!

 

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.

We’ve already achieved 40% of our target annual increase.
We’ve already achieved 40% of our target annual increase.

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:

  1. By card (choose ‘regular donation’) at BT MyDonate
    or:
  2. 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?

 

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