For about the last 100 years the principal means of raising cash at our church to support the Methodist Home Mission fund has been the "glad bag".
This is a little bag made from waste cloth with a short and cheery poem on a name tag.
The idea is that the donor places a coin, usually a penny into the bag each day and then brings it into the church towards the end of the year. The Treasurer would count the coins, bank them and a cheque sent on to the Fund for Home Mission.
No doubt many years ago this was a good idea: a simple way of helping relatively poor people make a sizable donation. A glad bag could easily hold £1.10s in old pennies. Today, with smaller coins, it probably holds about £4.00.
If individuals are happy to continue collecting money in that way then I believe they should continue to do so. However in recent years I have noticed that fewer and fewer glad bags are being handed in. Some people do have problems with this sort of fund raising. Others, not from Methodist families, are unaware of the custom.
However the Fund for Home Mission still needs contributions. It pays for some very important work, not least of which was the provision of 2000 full colour leaflets that we will be distributing around Rotton park in future weeks.
So in order to give opportunities for people to contribute in a modern setting I (as church treasurer) have set up an online fundraising page. It hasn't cost us anything and will enable UK taxpayers to reclaim tax through Gift Aid. I've put a widget on the side bar of this blog and on the church's website.
If you want to make a donation to the Home Mission work feel free to use our fundraising page on www.justgiving.com/cityroad.
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7 comments:
We have a similar system at our church which are called 'Penny a day' boxes. Last year they brought in £279 and while people might think this is not a large amount I tend to hold the view that every little bit helps.
I do like the just giving idea and might suggest this to the people who are looking after our district project to support a hospital in Komera, Rwanda
The problem is that the charity you support must have its own account. Overseas Mission have an account so you may be able to do a deal with them.
Part of my motivation for setting this page up is to get a little experience of online giving.
PS If you want to try the system you are welcome to put a donation through our page!!!!
I thought a percentage went to justgiving - it certainly does when the kids sponsorship for The Great North Run goes through it.
Here we have Mission in Britain (ex Home Mission) boxes for those who prefer this way of giving. It seems a tidier method than your glad bags and doesn't limit the giving to a penny-a-day, FP. (I am Mission in Britain secretary.) I doubt if online giving would appeal to our folk here, but you might possibly gather in a few from outside.
Just by way of clarification the penny a day boxes are additional to the Mission in Britain boxes and the World Mission - many people save twenty pence pieces in old 35 mm film boxes for World Mission.
WE also have various other projects that we support either regularly or as a one off effort and there is a fairly steady income of £3 or £4 that is given for the District Project supporting a hospital in Komera, Rwanda.
Olive you may have a point that not many of our folk would use the just giving way but it is another way of attracting giving to the word of God and who knows it might mean people give a little more generously that there penny a day or whatever.
Moira, My understanding is that the charity itself pays £15 a month for the entire service - as many pages as they can get plus an effective system of picking up Gift Aid which enhances the donation by 25%. After which the Just Giving company take the transaction fee of 5%. I think there are some charges from some card companies.
Having worked for charitites I have seen some schemes where up to 60 or 70% of the go in administative costs. I think Just Giving offer a very cost effective method of fundraising. No doubt they will soon have competitors and the costrs will fall.
Olive and Fat Prophet: I was interested in your experiences of collecting loose change. I think we may need to look at that but we will have to convince our congregation that this is in addition to their tithes and donations towards the core costs of running the church.
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