The Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) remains ‘open’ for business during this third national lockdown, and is available to support all member parishes and donors. The team is working in socially distanced ‘bubbles’, taking it in turns to work from their Gloucester-based office, as well as operating remotely.
Telephone donation service
Telephone lines are available during standard office hours, Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm. The telephone service for donors (0333 002 1271) continues to be busy taking calls from new donors. It takes just a few minutes for a member of the PGS team to take someone through the process of setting up a new, regular, Direct Debit donation.
Online donation service - pilot update
Five dioceses are participating in an online donation service pilot. This new online method of giving is progressing well, and successfully received the first ‘live’ donations over the Christmas period. The PGS team has been gathering feedback from the pilot participants so that enhancements can be made where appropriate, ready for the roll-out of communications resources to all member parishes on 01 March. We are certainly looking forward to this – it is something many of our churches have been asking about!
There are a couple of actions all member parishes can undertake ahead of 01 March, in preparation for the widespread introduction of this service. These actions relate to the introductory profile for each parish, which will be visible on your unique PGS ‘parish landing page’ - this page is viewed by all donors using the PGS website, when they are selecting the parish to which they wish to give.
The PGS communications team will be in touch directly with PGS Statement Receivers, providing a simple step-by-step visual guide for how to update your parish landing page. Statement Receivers will need to involve the person in their parish who manages access to the ‘A Church Near You’ (ACNY) website. This is because information about their church that appears on ACNY is pulled through directly to the PGS website.
Questions
If you have any questions, or want to know more about signing-up your church (free of charge) to the Parish Giving Scheme, please contact Martin Kenward by email at martin.kenward@elydicoese.org.