St Brandon’s runs on generosity.
Everything we do together is possible only because people are generous with their time, their energy, and their skills.
We also depend upon people being generous with their money.
- It costs more than £1,000 a week to keep St Brandon’s open, and to sustain our life together.
- We depend entirely upon donations, and on the money we raise ourselves.
- We don’t get any financial support from the diocese or the national church.
Please consider setting up a regular gift, or making a one-off donation, or using the ‘easyfundraising‘ service when you shop online so that the companies you buy from donate to St Brandon’s at no extra cost to you.
Regular giving
If you are able to give regularly, there are two ways to do it. The simplest – for you and for us – is via the national Parish Giving Scheme.
The process starts at St Brandon’s Parish Giving page. Simply click on the ‘Give now’ button and follow the instructions on screen to set up your regular gift.
You will be given the option to add Gift Aid, and you can choose to increase your gift annually by the rate of inflation. It only takes a few minutes to complete these steps online. You will be able to log-in at any time to review your giving and personal details.
If you prefer, you can set up a Standing Order yourself with your bank. You can do this online if you use internet banking, or by making a simple phone call to your bank.
You will need to tell your bank how much you want to give, and how often, and you will need to give them our account details. Tell them to make the payment to:
Brancepeth Parochial Church Council Sort Code: 08-90-70 Account number: 50021204
If you do set up a regular gift, but are not a UK taxpayer, please can you email our treasurer to let him know about your gift.
If you are a UK taxpayer, please send us a Gift Aid declaration. This means that we will be able to claim an extra 25p for every £1 you give. (If you click on this link, it will open an email already partially filled in; please simply add in your personal details and details about your gift in the spaces provided, and then send it.)
Please remember to notify us if you:
- want to cancel your Gift Aid declaration;
- change your name or home address; or
- no longer pay sufficient tax on your income and/or capital gains.
If you pay Income Tax at the higher or additional rate and want to receive the additional tax relief due to you, you must include all your Gift Aid donations on your Self-Assessment tax return or ask HM Revenue and Customs to adjust your tax code.
One-off donations
If you are not able to set up a regular gift, please consider making a one-off donation.
Please go to our online donation page.
Easyfundraising
Whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for St Brandon’s with easyfundraising.
There are over 4,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds.
All you need to do is:
- Go to the easyfundraising website and join for free. (Click the ‘Support this cause’ button.)
- Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want, and then start shopping.
- After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to St Brandon’s Church – Brancepeth at no extra cost to you whatsoever.
There are no catches or hidden charges and St Brandon’s Church – Brancepeth will be really grateful for your donations.
What happens to the money?
Your giving allows us to cover the costs of
- supplies for weekly services and special events;
- our work with children and young people;
- maintaining the fabric of our historic Grade I listed building;
- heating, lighting, security, and insurance; and
- our support for various charities.
We work hard to minimise all our costs, so that your gifts will go as far as possible.
We also pay our ‘parish share’ to the diocese, which helps cover the costs of
- supporting current clergy and other staff working across 300 churches around the region, serving 1.5 million people, and supporting 56 church schools;
- training future clergy;
- safeguarding;
- running events and training programmes for our young people;
- providing parishes with legal support, and all kinds of practical support; and
- supporting parishes in far worse financial positions than ours;
… and much more. If you have any questions about how we spend our money, please contact the treasurer.
Our income apart from giving
We obtain some income from church hire (for various musical events, quiet days and meetings) and from wedding fees. We do nevertheless rely mainly on generosity of giving.
Confidentiality
Only our treasurer will see details of any amounts you choose to give. The list of those who give regularly may on occasion be shared with our priest-in-charge and with the chair of our Fabric and Finance committee, where that is necessary in order to help us with planning, but they will not see how much each person gives.
Our stewardship of your giving
Good stewardship of people’s giving is a high priority for us. Our treasurer (see Contacts), manages our accounting records and produces the Annual Accounts Reports in January each year. Following independent examination, the accounts are presented at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, normally held in April, and anyone is welcome to attend and ask questions about our spending. Through regular reports from the treasurer during the year, the Parochial Church Council monitors the financial position of the church.