“Each of you should give what you
have decided in your heart to give,
not reluctantly or under
compulsion, for God loves a
cheerful giver”
2 Corinthains 9:7
We’re delighted you’re exploring how generosity can help sustain and grow mission and ministry across the Diocese of Coventry. Generosity is at the heart of our faith it reflects the generous love of God, and enables our local churches to serve their communities, maintain beautiful church buildings, offer worship, pastoral care, and support mission locally and beyond.
To support this, the Church of England’s National Giving strategy uses two complementary frameworks:
• MINT - Mechanisms, Impact, Need, Trust
This focuses on enabling giving: making it easy and meaningful for people to give, and showing how giving makes a difference.
• IDEA - Inspire, Discipleship, Embed, Activate
This focuses on growing a culture of generosity rooted in discipleship and lived out in everyday church life.
Digital Giving Rollout
As one of 43 Dioceses working with the CofE National Giving team rolling out contactless giving devices, in July 2024, 40 churches benefitted from a contactless device with support, guidance and encouragement provided as they journeyed through introducing or improving contactless and online giving within their parish. The project has been extremely successful with over £100,000 received in donations so far. 45% of churches have already received close to or over £1,000 in donations. The average contactless donation is £10.08 (9,204 total transactions) with online donations at £11.28 (237 total transactions).
Dave Proctor, Treasurer at St Peter’s, Grandborough said:
“It took a while to get going with the device, but since then we have found it easy to set up campaigns and report on donations. We’ve reduced cash holding, value of donations has shown an increase as people carry less cash. We set up separate campaigns on the device for different services during the year, a fundraising concert, and an online campaign for the church clock and altar frieze, donations made through a QR code and URL to our own Give A Little campaign web page."
Digital Giving Project Impact
The digital giving project has acted as a springboard for many other churches to contact us as they investigate mechanisms to enable and/or build on giving within their church. St Andrew’s, Eastern Green is one of several churches recently investing in a contactless device.
Nick Tooby, Churchwarden, commented:
“We decided as a church to invest in a CollecTin: a contactless device has moved from a" would like to have" to an "essential" requirement in church. The individual campaigns allow people to easily identify the cause they are donating to. Giving at weddings, baptisms and funerals has certainly increased because a contactless device is available. It has also provided the opportunity for people to donate if they drop into the church during the week. Within five months we’ve received over £1,500 through the machine and its popularity is increasing all the time”
Having led the Digital Giving rollout since February 2024, Simon Jones continues his role as the Diocesan Stewardship Advisor, working 3 days a week on a flexible basis. He specifically leads on the MINT strand - Mechanisms, Impact, Need, Trust - and works with parishes to:
- Mechanisms: help churches offer a variety of giving options (e.g. direct debit, contactless, online, QR codes, legacy gifts) so people can give in ways that suit them.
- Impact: support churches to tell the story of how gifts make a real difference locally and beyond.
- Need: help explain clearly why giving matters and how it supports ministry, mission, buildings and community life.
- Trust: encourage good practice in stewardship so givers know their gifts will be well cared for and used wisely.
Simon is available to advise on stewardship plans, giving reviews, launch of digital and regular giving tools, and best practice for communication and fundraising.
Contact Simon: Simon.Jones@Coventry.Anglican.org