Last November, the Generous Giving team announced details of an ambitious new Digital Giving Project, which thanks to funding from the Archbishop’s Council, provides free equipment to enable contactless donations to be made in 30 churches across the Diocese.
We’re delighted to say that this project reached a conclusion earlier this month when we were able to allocate all devices over the course of two action packed training days. The training sessions covered both contactless and online giving to maximise the potential impact for parishes.
Our digital roadshow began at St Thomas’, Newcastle who elected to install a GWD Skinny. This is a larger than average donation station, for which St Thomas’ will pay a monthly fee to run - one of the reasons why the Skinny is best suited to churches with high footfall and a large number of expected donations.
Churchwarden Margaret Proud who worked closely alongside us to deliver the project at St Thomas’ said: “St Thomas’ is open during the week and we can now easily accept donations from visitors to the city who drop in to see our church, those who come in to pray, and attendees at our regular weekly activities and Holy Communion service.
“The new device offers a quick, easy, and intuitive way for people to give to the work of St Thomas’, as we reach out to those who live and work in Newcastle.”
From St Thomas’ we travelled to Gosforth Parish Church of St Nicholas where we allocated Payaz Giving Stations and CollecTin Mores to a further ten parishes. Both of these devices come without a monthly fee (other than a nominal data SIM charge if WiFi is unavailable in the church) and low transaction charges, making them a popular choice. Indeed, many churches in our Diocese have already been using these devices since they were first made available through Parish Buying during the pandemic.
Later we ran training sessions at St Mary the Virgin in Stamfordham, for a further eight churches including Holy Trinity, Matfen whose Church treasurer Brigid Dennison told us:
“We feel really enthusiastic about our new contactless giving device. So many people do not carry cash these days. Now visitors to the church, such as those attending weddings and baptisms, as well as people who are not regular givers, have the opportunity to donate.”
Our roadshow ended the following day at St Mary the Virgin, Longframlington where the last eleven parishes received their devices.
The Generous Giving Team would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along to the training sessions and in particular to all those who were involved in the pre-collection set up work for their parish. We are also very grateful to the churches who allowed us to use their buildings and facilities to deliver the last stage of the project and of course to the Archbishop’s Council for providing the funding.
The Digital Giving Project, along with ongoing work to supporting parishes purchasing contactless equipment from their own funds, has resulted in a huge step forward in the digital giving capability of our diocese. Our ultimate goal, and one we think can be achieved in the near future, is to see digital giving in all places where we believe it can have an impact.
If your parish is still yet to get started with digital giving, whether because of a lack of funding, lack of expertise or both, please get in touch with the Generous Giving Team and we would be delighted to support you.
By Joanne Christie, Generous Giving Team Leader