The Parish Giving Scheme works like this:

  • You enrol (details below), including setting your level of giving.
  • The PGS takes your donations by Direct Debit, and passes them on to St Andrews.
  • Every year, the PGS reclaims Gift Aid on your tax, and passes that on to St Andrews. You will complete a Gift Aid declaration as part of the enrolment process.
  • If you tick the appropriate box, PGS will increase your donations each year, in line with inflation. This matters: some faithful donors have not changed their donations in 20 years, and over that time inflation really adds up. Please tick the box!

Once enrolled, the PGS works with no further work on your part, and by dealing with collecting direct debits and claiming Gift Aid, PGS saves the Treasurer a lot of administrative work.

How to Enrol

The actual mechanism is called the Parish Giving Scheme, run by the Church of England. The donors section is the main bit you may want to read.  All of your donation, including Gift Aid, comes to the parish: the PGS does not take a cut!

Here’s what to do:

  • Online. You can set up a direct debit online, through PGS, on this link. You can update, change, or cancel your direct debit at any time.
  • Phone. If you’d prefer to speak to a person, call the PGS dedicated phone number 0333 002 1271 to set up a direct debit; lines are open Mondays to Fridays 9am-5pm. You will need to have your bank account details, church/parish name (St Andrew’s Chesterton) and PGS parish code (140614046) to hand.
  • In writing. Alternatively, email admin@standrews-chesterton.org to ask Rachel and/or Jess to post a Parish Giving form to you, which you then complete and send by post to the PGS office (the address is on the form).

Once you’ve done that, please email Simon and/or Michael to say what you’ve done, so Michael knows to look out for your donations.

Crucially, please don’t forget to tick the box for “automatic RPI increase”. 

If you are tax payer, please complete the Gift Aid part of the form too.

Making changes

Each year, around February, the vicar writes to the entire congregation, inviting them to review their giving in the light of the particular opportunities or challenges of the moment. If you want to increase, decrease, or cancel your donation, you can do so through PGS, online (at the link above), by email, written letter, or phone.  Contact details are here.  Please also let Michael and/or Simon know.