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Winter 2021 Issue 48 #ModernGivingForAModernDiocese

NEW TRAINING EVENTS AND DATES

The Gift Aid Lite team are pleased to announce our

ambitious training plans for 2021. We’ll be making

greater use of online technologies to build upon the

interest and enthusiasm demonstrated by many

clergy and laity following last year’s giving

conference.

The topics we are planning to cover include:

• My Giving Online training

• Introducing new giving options at your

church

• Using the Regular Giving Initiative via My

Giving Online

• Registering and using the Open4Funding

external funding tool

• Writing successful external funding

applications

• Legacy giving

The pandemic has sadly caused the cancellation of

all face-to-face training events at Church House,

whether with individuals, or larger groups of

people. However, the use of videoconferencing

has enabled us to continue to provide guidance

and support on a one-to-one basis, or to small

groups.

Please be assured all training sessions will be

recorded, so they can be uploaded to the Gift Aid

Lite YouTube channel and watched at a time and

date of your choosing.

Further training events will be added to this list as

we progress further into 2021. The topics and

dates will be announced in this newsletter, social

media posts, and in the diocese’s eNews.

The first dates for your diary are as follows:

If you’d like to attend please click on the

hyperlinks shown above. You will be taken

directly to a registration page in Zoom, and here

you’ll need to input your contact details to book

your place. Afterwards, the full Zoom meeting

details will be sent directly to your email inbox.

Sue Warren, Diocesan Gift Aid Advisor, will retire

from the Diocese of Manchester on Friday 26th

February, after over 30 years of service to our

churches and parishes.

Sue has written a message to you all, which can

be found on page 5 of this newsletter. This

includes an outline of her plans for an enjoyable

and active retirement.

Full details of the diocese’s plans to manage the

transition between Sue’s retirement and the

appointment of a new member of the Gift Aid Lite

team can be found on the same page.

We are confident you will all join with us in our

prayers wishing Sue, and her partner Andy, a

healthy and fun-filled retirement together.

TIME AND

DATE

TOPIC

2 p.m. on

Saturday 20th

February

A beginner’s guide to My Giving

Online

7 p.m. on

Thursday 25th

February

Training for regular users of My

Giving Online users

7 p.m. on

Tuesday 2nd

March

How Diocese of Manchester

churches can raise free funds,

and receive direct donations,

using easyfundraising

AFTER 33 YEARS, FAREWELL TO SUE WARREN

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EASYFUNDRAISING UPDATES

• MY CHURCH HASN’T REGISTERED YET

It’s time to start thinking about your fundraising

plans for 2021. As we don’t know how long COVID

restrictions will be in place, we recommend you

register your church with easyfundraising so your

congregation can raise money for you easily and

safely from home. Over £3.5m was raised through

easyfundraising in 2020 - make sure you get a

share of free donations for your church in 2021 by

creating your easyfundraising page.

How does it work?

Everyone is shopping online more than ever, and

easyfundraising turns that shopping into donations

for your church. By using the easyfundraising

website or app to shop with leading retailers, your

congregation can raise a free donation for your

church, safely from home and at no extra cost.

Which retailers are involved?

Over 4,300 retailers will make donations from

online shopping, ranging from everyday retailers

like Amazon, eBay, Argos, John Lewis, and M&S,

to travel sites like Trainline, Booking.com and Tui,

and even takeaway and grocery retailers like Just

Eat, Dominos, Uber Eats, and Waitrose.

Your congregation can also raise large donations of

up to £60 when they buy insurance, broadband,

utilities and mobile contracts with retailers like

Aviva, Sky, Vodafone, Uswitch, and BT. And

because it’s all online, it means everyone can raise

money for you easily and safely from home. It

won’t cost your supporters anything extra either,

because the retailers pay the donation, not the

shopper.

easyfundraising is already trusted by over 140,000

good causes in the UK, and has a 4.7 star rating

on Trustpilot.

Donate feature

In addition to raising free funds with online

shopping, your church can also use

easyfundraising to collect direct donations from

your congregation. A donate now button from

easyfundraising enables members of your

congregation to donate directly to your church.

easyfundraising offer this service completely free

of charge - there is simply a card provider fee

applicable of 1.4% plus 20p.

Getting started

Click the button, shown above, to set up a free

easyfundraising page for your church. It only

takes a couple of minutes and once you’ve done

that, the easyfundraising team will be on hand to

help you to let your congregation know about this

very easy, free and safe way to support your

church in 2021.

• MY CHURCH IS ALREADY REGISTERED,

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE?

easyfundraising have created a three step plan to

make the most of easyfundraising this year:

Spread the word

easyfundraising is a very simple way to raise

money, but you won’t raise much if your

congregation doesn’t know about it! Use the free

tools easyfundraising provide to keep them

informed, including ready-written social media

posts and emails, downloadable flyers, hand-out

cards, and even a PowerPoint presentation to

explain how it works.

Get your free tools here

2. Get the donation reminder

The Donation Reminder makes sure shoppers

never miss a donation by alerting them when they

visit a retailer that will donate. It’s safe and

completely free, and shoppers who have it

installed on their computer raise up to 5 times

more.

easyfundraising provides the wording to help you

to explain how it works and ask people to

download it. Get your wording here (and don’t

forget to download the Donation Reminder

yourself!)

3. Thank and encourage

Thanking people for the donations they raise will

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encourage them to keep on using easyfundraising

because they can see it works!

Use the new ‘Supporter Communications’ section

of the easyfundraising website to set up automated

messages to thank people when they sign up, raise

a donation, or raise their first £5. You can also

send a message to people who have stopped

raising for you to encourage them to continue.

Set up your supporter messages

The button below will take you directly to your own

easyfundraising account, and you can get started

straightaway.

MY CHURCH IS REGISTERED, HOW CAN I

ADD THE DONATE NOW BUTTON?

It is easy to add the online donate now button to

an existing easyfundraising account. All you need

to do is contact either Gift Aid Lite (see the back

page) or easyfundraising (see below).

HOW CAN I GET HELP AND SUPPPORT?

If you have any questions about easyfundraising,

or need some assistance, get in touch with

roisin@easyfundraising.org.uk who will be happy

to help.

INPUTTING EASYFUNDRAISING DONATIONS

You can only input and claim Gift Aid on the direct

donations received by your church via its

easyfundraising donate now button. They are not

claimable through the Gift Aid Small Donations

Scheme (GASDS), because they are not cash or

Contactless. Donations received via your

supporters’ online shopping purchases are not

claimable via Gift Aid or GASDS.

Step 1

Request a report showing your Gift Aid donations,

and online declarations, from the easyfundraising

helpdesk (support@easyfundraising.org.uk).

This will be sent to you as a CSV/spreadsheet file.

The Gift Aid Lite team has requested other

information be added to the spreadsheet. For

example, unclaimable direct donations received,

and any messages from donors. If this isn’t

provided, and you need it, please do not hesitate

to request it from the helpdesk. Please note, this

is a developing partnership between the diocese

and easyfundraising. The easyfundraising team

are keen to work with us to get this right for all of

the charities who are using their platform. Your

feedback will be used to shape the major

improvements planned for their website in 2021.

For example, this will include the ability to

download the details of your direct donations

directly from their website and app by the person

who is recognised as the cause administrator for

your church.

Step 2 - using My Giving Online

Data Developments are working on a method to

import the easyfundraising spreadsheet file directly

into their software. This will automate the

inputting of donations to existing donor records,

and create new donor records using the one-off

digital Gift Aid declaration. However, in the

meantime you’ll have to do this yourself. Firstly,

you’ll need to ask the Gift Aid Lite team to add a

new donation method called easyfundraising for

you to use when inputting donations.

Secondly, start inputting the donations from your

recognisable regular Gift Aid donors (where you

can match their name and address to a donor

record. The easiest way to do this is via the add

gift button, which is found at the bottom of the

donor’s record (see page 14 of GAL 12). Please

ensure you use appropriate comments (e.g. one-

off donation), and batch references (e.g.

easyfundraising Dec 2020 donations).

Thirdly, if the donor doesn’t have a donor record,

please create one using quick add donor and gift

(GAL6). Only do this if you’ve received

confirmation of a digital declaration from

easyfundraising. Please send a copy of the

spreadsheet you’ve received from

easyfundraising to Gift Aid Lite, so we can verify

the declarations you’ve received.

Step 3 - using quarterly paperwork

Record your regular and on-off donations in the

usual way. Please send a copy of the

spreadsheet your church received from

easyfundraising to the Gift Aid Lite team. This is

similar to the process you use for your one-off

Gift Aid envelopes.

Non Gift Aid Lite members

Please ask for assistance if you are struggling to

claim these donations.

Finally, and importantly, you cannot claim Gift

Aid on online donations like these unless you

have a clear audit trail to follow. You may think

you can identify a member of your congregation

because they verbally told you they made a

donation on a specific date using easyfundraising.

However, unless a digital Gift Aid declaration is

provided it cannot be claimed.

If you have any questions or queries, please do

not hesitate to get in touch.

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NEW DIOCESAN WEBSITE

BUILDING A GENEROUS CHURCH WEBSITE

Developments have also been made to Church of England’s website to include more information and

advice on generosity and thankfulness. The page can be found by clicking on the image and website

address shown below:

www.churchofengland.org/resources/building-generous-church

The website includes sections on how to enable giving, encouraging generosity, a generous church blog,

and details about webinars and training.

STOP PRESS - LATEST STAFFING NEWS

The Diocese of Manchester is delighted to

announce some great news about the future

staffing arrangements in the Gift Aid Lite team,

and specifically two new appointments.

Paul Bailey, who has been a valued member of the

team for the last three years, has been appointed

as the new Diocesan Giving Advisor. He has over

20 years experience working in the charity and

voluntary sector, plus he is an active member (and

former office holder) at St Michael’s Church,

Flixton.

Liam Birchall has been appointed as Gift Aid and

Giving Support Officer. He has lengthy experience

working for national charities on Gift Aid.

Further details on both appointments to follow in

the next issue of the Gift Aid Lite newsletter.

The Diocese of Manchester recently launched a

brand new website, and this can be found by

clicking on the image shown on the right, or by

using the website address

www.manchester.anglican.org

This new website has been designed to be easier

to navigate, and the search function has also been

improved. A new addition is the online diocesan

directory, which replaces the printed versions that

were distributed annually.

A section covering Parish Finances has been

retained, and this includes information on Gift Aid,

digital giving, and grants.

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GOODBYE FROM SUE WARREN

Although Sue Warren’s retirement date is not until

the 26th February, some interim measures are

being put in place from the end of January

onwards. During February, Sue’s time will be

mainly spent on preparing to share her extensive

knowledge before leaving the employment of the

diocese. This will include writing handover papers

and briefing notes, sorting out old papers, and

tidying up online data.

We’d be grateful if you could make some

allowances whilst these changes are taking place.

As a result, from February onwards the Gift Aid

team’s capacity to assist you will be reduced for a

short time. Although there could be a period of

delay in processing claims, we’ll ensure our

colleagues in the Finance team at Church House

are kept aware of any issues and impacts on your

church’s Parish Share payments.

We’d be grateful if you could make yourself aware

of the interim arrangements as outlined in the

following bullet points:

• Claims sent in before the end of January will

be processed in the usual way

• Claims sent in after the end of January may

not be processed and claimed in our usual

timely manner until the recruitment process

has concluded

• From 1st February onwards, please send all

claims to the

giftaid@manchester.anglican.org email

address (please do not send them to Sue

Warren’s email address)

We want to reassure you this will be for a short

period of time only. Liam Birchall, Gift Aid and

Giving Support Officer, will start in his new role on

Monday 15th February, and will benefit from a

handover and training period before Sue’s

retirement date.

TEMPORARY ARRANGEMENTS IN THE GIFT AID LITE

TEAM

As my retirement has nearly arrived, I guess it is

natural to reflect on the almost 43 years of

working life across both Salisbury and Manchester

Dioceses. This has covered many aspects of life

within the church – Accounts clerk, Pastoral re-

organisation, Patronage and Clergy Vacancies,

Redundant Churches and of course Covenants/Gift

Aid.

I started work in Salisbury Diocese, being offered

a job as office junior after two weeks work

experience. The job included using the boss’s

bicycle to deliver post across the city and the

endless printing of stencils. My journey with tax

efficient giving started shortly afterwards;

Covenants, R185s, Deeds of Assignment (sealed at

the Post Office), Deposited Covenants, the

introductions of R248a forms (claiming by lists)

and the first type of ’Gift Aid’. You may recall

some of these!

My work in Manchester Diocese commenced with a

quick chat and a cuppa with the Stewardship

Officer for the Covenant Assistant role. Since

then, again, so many changes – introducing three

new computer programmes, the transition to Gift

Aid, Transitional Relief, GASDS arrival, two

Diocesan Self Audits, the HMRC Audit Agreement,

the many trainings, workshops, audits, and

recently the Gift Aid Project.

The challenges along the way have given me

immense job satisfaction, particularly when

working with our church volunteers. Together we

have made so much progress.

Now there is a new personal journey – my early

retirement precipitated by my engagement to

Andy (see below). A wedding to plan, when

possible, and more than likely a move to a new

area. I have been blessed with working with

wonderful colleagues and people in our churches,

who I will miss tremendously. For now, I pass on

the baton to Paul and Liam to continue to evolve

the Giving Journey in our Diocese.

Thank you all for your work, keep safe and God

Bless.

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ENSURING YOU ARE INPUTTING AGGREGATE AND

ANONYMOUS DONATIONS CORRECTLY IN MY

GIVING ONLINE

A small number of our Gift Aid Secretaries and

Treasurers have made errors when inputting

donations into My Giving Online using ‘view and

edit aggregate donation’ and ‘view and edit

anonymous donation’.

Data Developments, who provide the My Giving

Online software used by our diocese, have added

an explanatory note on each of these inputting

screens. These changes were requested by the

Gift Aid Lite team.

View and edit aggregate donation

This inputting method is used for recording

multiple Gift Aid donations as a single donation

amount. Each individual donation must be of £20

or less, and a valid one-off Gift Aid envelope must

be provided for validation purposes. See GAL9 for

further details.

View and edit anonymous donation

This inputting method is used for donations

received via your church’s open plate, wall boxes,

or collection buckets/boxes. They are GASDS

eligible, because they are donations of cash.

Please note, due to the £30 or less rule, any £50

notes you’ll need to exclude from the total you’ll

be inputting. See GAL8, page 16 onwards, for

further details.

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Gift Aid quarter end dates

This year’s quarter end dates

are:

• Mon 5th April 2021

• Wed 30th June 2021

• Thurs 30th September

2021

• Fri 31st December 2021

Online support and training

Although working from home the Gift Aid Lite team

can still provide advice and support via email or by

using a number of online tools, and they include:

• Zoom which is used for audio and video calls

using a computer, tablet, mobile or landline

phone. It allows online meetings to be

scheduled in advance. The free version

allows two people to speak without a time

restriction. A meeting with three people or

more can last for up to 40 minutes in the free

version.

• ‘The Giving, fundraising and finance’

Facebook group has been created to allow

churches within our diocese to ask questions

connected to the title of this publicly

accessible group. The questions could be

answered by diocesan staff or members from

other churches.

A reminder about the changes to GASDS

claiming during the pandemic

Has your church made a Gift Aid Small Donations

Scheme (GASDS) claim since the start of the

lockdown period in March? If not, please make

yourself aware of a temporary relaxation of the

HMRC rules related to GASDS donations.

Normally, if multiple envelopes are brought in on

a single donation date (and the total amount of

cash is then above the £30 GASDS limit) they

wouldn’t be claimable. This has now changed.

This will enable your church to include within their

claim the donors who placed cash (still £30

maximum) in their weekly envelope throughout

the lockdown period. Please contact the Gift Aid

Lite team if you need guidance on how to do this.

ACAT membership

The diocese has renewed its group membership of

the Association of Church Accountants and

Treasurers (ACAT). As such, your church gains

the benefits of being an individual member of

ACAT for free.

Full details were recently sent out via email from

the diocese. However, if you didn’t received

these details please email

giftaid@manchester.anglican.org

Reminders for My Giving Online users

• Please remember to transfer your inputting

so the giving information is added to your

church’s individual donor records. This is

only applicable if you are using ‘quick add

donor and gift’, or ‘enter donations by

name, envelope or reference’.

If they are not transferred, your inputting

remains in the input holding screen, until it

is transferred. This often sows seeds of

confusion, for both Gift Aid Secretaries and

the Gift Aid Lite team, as to whether the

donations have been added to donor

records, or not. Please check to see if this

is the case for your church on a regular

basis, and either delete or transfer as

required.

• Please remember to send a copy of your

church’s ‘claim report’ from My Giving

Online, along with a ‘claim authority’, when

you are ready to claim on a monthly or

quarterly basis. Please do not send in other

examples of reports from My Giving Online.

The Gift Aid Lite team also uses the ‘claim

report’ to ensure we can replicate your claim

figures before online submission to HMRC

(see pages 8 and 9).

Online training from Data Developments

Data Developments’ training is being provided

online due to the pandemic. Sessions are broken

down into individual modules, and they relate to

both My Giving Online and My Fund Accounting

Online. Live sessions are free of charge, but if you

would like the video file to be sent to you there is a

charge of £12 for each one. Full details are

available at www.datadevelopments.co.uk/Training

If you are planning to use their online finance

package, Gift Aid Lite users will benefit from a

discounted price of £10 per month.

Thank you letters and refunds

Producing thank you letters to recognise your

donor's generosity is an important annual task to

complete, but particularly during the current

pandemic (see GAL guide 19). It is vital we

recognise that some donors will have been in and

out of employment, or working reduced hours,

during 2020 and 2021. As a result, it is essential

donors have the ability to check they have paid

sufficient tax on their donations.

If refunds back to HMRC need to be made, please

contact the Gift Aid Lite team.

BITS AND BOBS

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CHECKING THE ACCURACY OF YOUR CLAIMS

• USEFUL CHECK FOR ALL CHURCHES

All churches, regardless of whether they are Gift

Aid Lite members, should be checking the

accuracy of their Gift Aid and GASDS before they

are submitted to HMRC.

There should be an inbuilt balance (or

reconciliation) check between the Gift Aid

Secretary and Treasurer. For example, the total

amount of giving received by your church should

match the figures provided of the cash received.

This provides an internal audit process, and an

accurate ‘paper’ trail for HMRC.

All giving to your church should be recorded,

whether Gift Aid, GASDS, or unclaimable. As well

as the reasons above, it also enables an accurate

thank you letter to be sent out annually to each

individual donor. A record of the total amount of

donations also provides an easy way to check the

accuracy of Gift Aid and GASDS recording before

they are submitted to HMRC. Your church could

be claiming too much or too little!

What types of records can be used?

Your church doesn’t have to be using computer

records. At the Gift Aid Lite team, we are aware of

some churches who use a mixture of paper

cashbooks, envelope registers, and vestry sheets.

These figures are then checked with their

Treasurer to ensure accuracy. Some churches

have a mixture of paper and computer records.

The common elements between these churches is

an excellent working relationship between the

Treasurer and Gift Aid Secretary, with both people

having an awareness of the abilities, knowledge,

and experiences of the other. For example, a

Treasurer could print out online bank statements

containing regular giving information if the Gift Aid

Secretary isn’t a confident computer user.

Gift Aid Lite template spreadsheet

Using a spreadsheet to ensure accurate recording

of all giving methods is often used in churches.

However, different channels of giving can be

omitted accidentally.

The Gift Aid Lite team has created a template

spreadsheet, shown below, which can be easily

updated with the dates of services in given time

periods (e.g. monthly or quarterly). It records the

donations received by your church, and whether

they are eligible for Gift Aid and GASDS claims, or

unclaimable. If you would like a copy to use in the

your church, please download the file via this link

choose ‘template reconciliation spreadsheet’.

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• MY GIVING ONLINE USERS

If your church is a Gift Aid Lite member and is

directly inputting your giving into the My Giving

Online software, there are a number of reports

which can be produced which will allow you to

complete the same checks.

Audit trail report

The audit trail report produces a record of all the

donations you have inputted into My Giving Online.

It can be accessed via the reports/thank you

letters/audit trails and thank you letters menu.

You’ll need to specify a date range for the report.

Also, the donation methods can be specified. The

final report can include all donations, or three

separate ones can be produced (showing non

claimable, Gift Aid claimable, or GASDS eligible),

as required.

For example, the non-claimable version is

particularly useful to identify any donations that

could be claimable (via Gift Aid or GASDS), so you

make any changes required before sending in your

claim report. Some donations will remain

genuinely unclaimable.

The report can be downloaded and printed off in a

variety of file types (PDF, Excel, CSV, and Word).

Donation excluded from claim

This report includes any donations which are

marked as being eligible for Gift Aid, but for some

reason are being excluded from your claim report.

It can be accessed via the reports/claims/donation

excluded from claim menu.

You’ll need to specify a date range for the report,

and the results will highlight the reason why a

donation is being excluded, for example:

• Invalid declaration date

• Donation before valid from date

• Donation after valid to date

The report can be downloaded and printed off in a

variety of file types (PDF, Excel, CSV, and Word).

This means you will have to send in valid

declarations so these donations can be claimed.

Claim report

You are required to generate and send this report

from My Giving Online, with a claim authority

form, before we make the claim on behalf of your

church.

The figures on the claim report show the total

amount of giving that is claimable for Gift Aid and

GASDS in the monthly or quarterly period you

have chosen (and donations now claimable from

previous periods as well). Therefore, it is

important you check to make sure the total

amount of claimable donations match the Gift Aid

and GASDS donations your church has received.

If it doesn’t, use the two reports as shown above

to check your inputting. The claim report also

includes a breakdown stating the total amount

donated by each individual (including last donation

date). This allows you to check if your inputting

matches the total amount donated by each

individual.

Please be aware, the claim report will also include

any historic donations that are now claimable if

you have made any changes, for example, based

on the contents of the ’donation excluded from

claim report’. The claim report will separate out

donations from earlier calendar years, and these

will be shown with different sections highlighting

the year and claimable totals for Gift Aid and

GASDS donations.

Screenshots showing parts of the first and final

page of the claim report are shown below:

Finally, a check to ensure your inputting balances

against the total amount of giving recorded by

your Treasurer for the same time period is still

required.

• Further help and support

If you need any assistance with these issues

please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Our contact

details are shown on the back page of this

newsletter.

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Sue Warren

Diocesan Gift Aid Advisor

T: 0161 828 1424

E: susanwarren@

manchester.anglican.org

Paul Bailey

Diocesan Giving Advisor

T: 0161 828 1464

E: paulbailey@

manchester.anglican.org

Susan Lomas

Administrative Assistant

T: 0161 828 1464

E: SusanLomas@

manchester.anglican.org

PARISH SHARE UPDATES

Especially in the current pandemic situation, it is

vital that all claims are up to date to assist with

your church’s cashflow. We are aware of a

number of churches who are behind with their

claims. As a result, the small number of churches

who are significantly behind, will be reminded of

their responsibilities via other communications

channels.

If your church is struggling with your claims

please get in touch. The Gift Aid Lite team has a

‘number of tricks up its sleeves’ to tackle these

issues. For example, we have ‘buddied’ a church

with a near neighbour, helped clergy and

churchwardens to resolve their issues, and

inputted giving directly from Church’ records.

Please don’t sit there on your own hoping it will

just go away!

On behalf of our colleagues in the Finance Team at

Church House, if you have any issues or queries

regarding Parish Share, please do not hesitate to

contact them at finance@manchester.anglican.org

Please don’t forget to follow us on social

media or join our Facebook group:

@manchesterdiocesegiftaidlite

@giftaidlite

@mancdiocese_giftaidlite

www.facebook.com/groups/

dioceseofmanchestergiving/

www.youtube.com/channel/

UCVb_xE3rvBZ_jIYZX6IWxHA

KEEPING YOUR GIFT AID

CLAIMS UP TO DATE

FIT AND PROPER

PERSON DECLARATION

Please make sure your new PCC members have

completed a fit and proper persons declaration.

This enables your church to check whether they

are eligible to serve as charity trustees. For

further details, and a downloadable template

declaration, please visit the Parish Resources

website. Gift Aid Secretaries, even when not PCC

members, are required to complete a fit and

proper persons declaration.

REGULAR GIVING

INITIATIVE TRIAL

A small number of Gift Aid Lite member churches

were emailed in December with full details of our

new Regular Giving Initiative (RGI). As we are

running a small initial trial of RGI, before it is fully

rolled out, we requested this select group of

churches to add RGI to the agenda of their PCC

meetings early in the 2021. We’d like to remind

these churches to do this as soon as possible.

If any other churches are interesting in using RGI

please get in touch using the details below. For

information, RGI enables your donor’s regular

giving to keep pace with your church’s increasing

costs year-on-year with the benefit of extremely

low transaction fees (2p per donation).