1. Registered England No: 8824540
Registered Charity Number:

2. PGS – What is it?: Giving by Direct Debit Common Sense
Straight Forward
Up to date
Useful Tool
Modern
New method of giving by direct debit. It is a new method to the Church but in the charity sector as a whole, direct debit giving really isn’t new.
In the context of our church life and the many things we are trying to achieve in our parishes, it makes sense as it can bring benefits without masses of effort and can then reduce the demand on already stretched volunteers
It is remarkably easy. I hope by the end of today, that the whole process can be implemented easily and maintained with ease also.
It is a useful tool – PGS does not mean that you launch it and then never have to talk stewardship again. Rather as part of good stewardship practices it can bring significant benefits. Having launched PGS in parish use that momentum to embrace a good and regular message around stewardship moving forward.
It is modern and update – it is a quality product that has a look and feel to it that fits with the world in which we are placed. The resources speak of a quality and communicates that we value those who support our churches.

3. How PGS Work: The cycle of a PGS gift:
On the 1st of the month the gifts from each donor are made by direct debit to the PGS bank account
On 3rd month the gifts from donors is received by PGS and held in a restricted fund for each parish
On 4th month the month the gift aid is calculated and claimed by PGS
On 10th working day the lump sum of all donations and all eligible gift aid is paid as one lump sum into the parish nominated bank account
For the rest of the month the parish can be utilising those funds for ministry 3

4. Monthly Payment: month
The statement arrives before the payment is made into the parish bank account and goes to the person the parish nominates on registration to receive the statements. All the information is there:
Donor Name or anonymous if they have chosen to remain anonymous at parish level
The donors ID number which is individual to each donor
How much their gift was in that period
The amount of gift aid claimed
The total amount therefore from each donor as gift and gift aid.
Please note that donors who are not tax payers can still give through PGS if they wish. The statement would simply show a zero in the gift aid column (as Dr Black at the bottom).
The columns are therefore totalled. When entering these into the accounts the Treasurer would only need to enter the planned giving figure and the gift aid figure. If these donors were all Standing Order Givers, then instead of processing 9 entries on a bank statement becomes one.
The statement also indicated whether a donor has chosen to give monthly, quarterly or annually. The most popular option in our Diocese is monthly and this is unsurprisingly the case nationally.
The column on the far right also indicates whether a donor has chosen to increase their gifts inline with inflation.
He statement also shows joiners and leavers.

5. Aids Succession Planning Improved Cash Flow Potential For Anonymity
Benefits PGS Can Bring?
Reduces Workload
Efficient
Aids Succession Planning
Improved Cash Flow
Potential For Anonymity
Inflationary Increase
The nature of the scheme means volunteer workloads are reduced. Less money to count, fewer envelopes to process, fewer spreadsheets to maintain, less admin around gift aid processing, fewer bank statement lines for the Treasurer to process and reconcile.
Because it is run centrally it is an efficient way of processing gifts. It is a system we would struggle to run at Diocesan level in such a cost effective way and it certainly could not happen at parish level. As it grows with the new Dioceses joining we are benefitting from economies of scale.
As the work of treasurers and gift aid officers is reduced the more people that sign up to the scheme it has the potential to ease succession planning as you are talking about people having to commit fewer hours. This is potentially significant regardless of how well your parish handles these volunteer posts. Another way to look at it is more time to devote as volunteers to other aspects of parish life – growing the kingdom
Anonymity and Inflationary Increase require a little more exploration and explanation

6. Unique benefit: Donors Can Remain Anonymous at Parish Level
Some people previously declined regular giving
This may or may not be significant in your parish.
Some people may previously have shied away from planned giving due to this issue so it may attract additional people.
Experience is showing that people don’t mind treasurer etc knowing they do give but just how much is where the anonymity is required.
You can still communicate with donors via PGS who will forward letters on to the anonymous donors.

7. Clear Gift Form
It does not mean that if you don’t tick the box on the form somehow all confidentiality in parish around giving levels will be lost. If donors don’t tick the box, current confidentiality mechanisms remain unchanged. However, if the box is ticked, no one in parish knows who the donor is.
Take up of this option will depend how hard you promote it in parish. Nationally there is a take up rate of around 15%. The line to not prominent on the form. It makes sense to reassure people that the same levels of confidentiality around giving in your parish will still exist even if they do not tick the box. 7

8. Unique benefit: Giving to rise in line with inflation annually
A Good Response to the Challenge of Static Giving
One of the biggest challenges for the church nationally is static giving

9. How the PGS can help: Extra £302.40 a year
2001 = £60 + £16.80 Gift Aid = £76.80
Gift increases in line with Retail Price Index (RPI)
2014 = £ £20.40 Gift Aid = £ tax efficient gift a month
Extra £ a year

10. Static Giving v Inflationary Increase
Jan 2000
Jan 2005
Jan 2010
Jan 2014
20.00
17.88
15.85
13.95
22.32
25.25
28.49
The top line shows what a gift of £20 becomes in real cash terms to your church if it hasn’t tracked RPI. Quite an impact on buying power
The bottom line shows the increase following RPI over a 14 year period.

11. Clear Gift Form
It is easy for a donor to OPT IN to having their gift increased annually in line with inflation.
This increase would be applied on the anniversary of the donor joining the scheme
A month before it is to happen, the donor receives a letter from PGS confirming what the RPI was at January of that year, what that would mean for their giving. If the donor is happy with the amount then they simply do nothing. If they want to change the amount up or down then all they need do is ring, or write a letter to PGS direct.
Nationally 56% of donors are increasing their giving inline with inflation. In Portsmouth Diocese at the mid point of the pilot almost 70% of donors were inflating their giving inline with inflation.
The success of this option does depend on the amount of explanation given at parish level, so the donor control is significant as is the amount of the annual increase, in that the earlier slides show relatively small changes happening over a long period so the annual steps are much smaller. (Obviously this will depend on the amount of the original gift). 11

12. Potential Impact: Level of giving
It has long been accepted in the Church of England that the method of giving has an impact on how much people give. For example:
Those who use a weekly envelope as a form of planned giving tend to give more than those who put money in the open plate or use a one off gift aid envelope
Those who sign up to a monthly direct debit tend to give more than those who use a weekly envelope
The PGS seems to be following this trend and having a positive impact on levels of giving

13. How the PGS can help: How we give is linked to how much we give.
National Statistics
Portsmouth
Average Weekly Giving (ex GA) through PGS
£15.85
£16.44
Average Weekly Giving (ex GA) via other methods
£11.10
£9.50
This table is based upon the National Finance statistics and the Statistics generated each month for the PGS trustees.
The National Statistics show that the average weekly gift per planned giver across the country is £11.10 yet through the PGS it is currently £ These figures are excluding Gift Aid
For Portsmouth the diocesan average per planned giver is £9.50 but through the PGS in June was £ Again this is excluding gift aid. Those Portsmouth figures come from the 9 parishes involved in the pre-launch phase and so are individuals who were already giving to churches in our Diocese (and were therefore part of that £9.50 average) and this increase was achieved purely from a shift of method without there being a stewardship programme.
A couple of pre-launch parishes have done some analysis to see what the increase has been from the actual donors in their parish – one said 9.1% and another 12%
Exciting and speaks of the potential the scheme can bring to parishes across the Diocese.
Gloucester
Winchester
Chichester
Guildford
PGS
14.04
18.12
14.91
25.22
Other
9.60
12.00
11.10
16.50

14. Portsmouth Experience- Project Leader Views:
“ I found the whole process easy & professional” Churchwarden Brighstone
“PGS is a simple & easy to use system which has been welcomed & embraced by those who have tried it” - Anonymous Project Leader
“It saves time for both the Treasurer and the Gift Aid Coordinator & encourages donors to assess their giving annually” – Treasurer Gurnard

15. Portsmouth Experience- Donor Views:
“It is less of an administrative burden on the parish and is more secure than standing orders…”
Pre-Launch Donor
“I thin the scheme is current flexible and transparent. I am pleased to be part of a forward thinking scheme which will benefit my own parish and encourage inflation-proofed giving”
Julie, Pre-Launch Donor
Hear from Randall Cross and Wendy Peskett

16. Portsmouth Experience- Donor Views:
“PGS is a very good idea and it is easy to use. It makes donating much easier and gives the parish a regular donation”
John – Portsmouth Pre-Launch Donor
“The Scheme is very impressive”
Anonymous Portsmouth Pre-Launch Donor

17. The People of PGS
Steph has recently joined the team as a second PGS officer
Helen Taylor PGS Operations Manager – she oversees the systems (IT and data protections etc) as well as the gift aid claim and ongoing relationship with HMRC.     
Gail Harrison
PGS Officer  
Jean Wilkins and Adam – both two days a week PGS Administrator
You are looking there at the real assets of the scheme. Their personalities shine through in their interactions with parishes and individuals and they are regular recipients of praise from within our Diocese and the others participating too.
Some of the comments that have been received in the pre-launch phase about them:-
We have been impressed with the response and the ease of operation.
When asked whether the dealings with PGS team was clear, straightforward and timely, the responses have been:-
Yes impressively so
Excellent
The Stewardship Adviser has been there when they have been taking calls from those advising that a donor has passed away or when a donor has had to reduce giving in difficult circumstances – they have been brilliant.

18. The Trustees
John Preston Ben Preece Smith Helen Richardson Gordon Randall John Sherlock Neil Williams Helen Taylor Victoria James
As it is now a separate charity and ltd company there is a board of trustees which are made up of individuals with varying roles in the participating Diocese. This gives a voice to those participating. At the moment we have the following.
John Preston – National Stewardship Officer and he works with the network of advisers across the country supporting us in the promotion of best practice
Ben Preece Smith – he is now the Diocesan Secretary for Gloucester. At the time PGS was devised in Gloucester he was the Finance Director and was instrumental in devising the PGS. He had previously worked for Christian Aid and worked on a similar system there and used that experience and knowledge to bring such an important scheme first to Gloucester but now much more widely across the Church of England.
Helen Richardson – is now the Assistant Diocesan Secretary in Gloucester but at the time PGS was introduced was the Stewardship Adviser for Gloucester. She therefore was instrumental also in the creation of PGS, the quality of the resources and the successful role out for Gloucester and then into Winchester and beyond.
We therefore are benefiting from Ben and Helen’s expertise, creativity but also their generosity in allowing PGS to become a national enterprise and not just a Gloucester success story.
Gordon Randall – Stewardship Adviser for Winchester and brings a wealth of experience in PGS having been instrumental in Winchester Diocese being the first to take the scheme outside Gloucester, with great success.
John Sherlock – Stewardship Adviser for Chichester but also has experience in systems management and efficiency
Neil Williams – Director of Finance for Exeter Diocese
Helen Taylor – Operations manager as met on the previous slide
Victoria James – Stewardship Adviser for Portsmouth. Brings legal knowledge to the Board as well as experience rolling PGS out as a Treasurer.
PGS’s finances are separate from Gloucester DBF.
Were it made local to the participating Diocese it would grind to a halt and cost a fortune and would become unviable.

19. Resources: For PCC and Church Officers: For Donors:
Implementation Handbook
Parish Action Checklist
Stewardship Programme Summary
Parish Registration Form
Resources Order Form
For Donors:
Donor Gift Form
Pre-printed labels
Donor Booklet
Giving Tokens
PGS Explained Leaflet
The PGS Implementation handout has everything in it to enable a parish to launch and sustain PGS at parish level. One pre-launch parish tested the process without any input from me and have done the whole thing successfully with just the handbook. This resource is available for download from the Diocesan website on the Stewardship pages. It can also be photocopied. The other resources listed are also available for download.
Donor resources are being professionally printed to maintain the quality of the resources. You will receive packs of donor gift forms which are supported by donor information booklets. Also sheets of printed labels with the church name and number pre printed on them to ensure that gifts are processed and paid to the right parish. These are to be put on the forms before they are given to donors. Parishes are encouraged to consider put an envelope with the donor form which is pre addressed to go to the PGS office to aid return rate and adding a stamp may further increase the return rate.
Your parish can decide whether they use the giving tokens . These are only provided when requested on the registration form. These are for PGS donors to place in the plate each week.
There are also PGS explained leaflets which summarise the system for those who might be interested but are not ready to sign up. On the website there are also Frequently Asked Question Sheets for download..

20. Stewardship Resources
TRIO
GIVING FOR LIFE
Experience in other Diocese show that the take up of PGS is best when it flows from a stewardship programme. This is both in terms of giver numbers and giving levels. There are a variety to choose from and you can choose what suites you best in parish.
If want PCC to sign up first then launch stewardship programme thereafter then that can often bring results. Leading by example is always good. May want to factor this in. Have a look at the different programmes and see which suites you best. The links are provided in the handbook.

21. Implementing PGS: PCC pass a resolution to join
Plan Stewardship Programme
Register your parish for PGS
Decide whether you will launch parish wide straight away with stewardship programme or have PCC lead by example first then parish wide
Snap shot of the process. The Parish Action List gives a more detailed process.

22. Once Registered The What:
You will receive resources from Stewardship Adviser
PGS will confirm registration details;
First donors can start registering to give through PGS
Month turn around from receipt of donor forms
Donors send forms themselves
Donor Gifts start to flow through the system
10th work day of month payment into parish bank account

23. Moving Forward: Continue to seek to move existing planned givers over
Offer it as the only method of planned givers to new donors
Promote it as part of annual renewal programmes
Continue period stewardship programmes

24. Question & Answers
Don’t forget the Stewardship Adviser is available to help with any with any tricky questions
Victoria James – ;