Support Us
There are a number of ways to support St Laurence: through worship, through the giving of your time and through the giving of your talents. We appreciate enormously the support we receive from those who assist in a wide variety of areas, ranging from flower arranging and gardening, through music and singing to finance, administration and sitting on the PCC(Parochial Church Council).
If you would like to support St Laurence Church in any of these aspects, please contact office@stlaurence.co.uk.
In addition, there are various ways of giving financially:
by donating directly to the Church or by supporting our Fund Raising initiatives:-
Free Will Offering
In common with all C of E Churches, St. Laurence relies on the generosity of people within the Parish to provide the income necessary to pay for the work of the Anglican Church locally, nationally, and internationally throughout the world.
There are several methods available for people to make their offerings. These are:
a) Freewill Offering Envelopes
b) Bank Standing Orders
c) One-off Gifts
d) Open Plate Collection.
With the introduction of the Parish Giving Scheme way of making donations, offering via Open Plate Collection will continue – all other methods should now be made via accessing the PGS link;
https://www.parishgiving.org.uk/donors/find-your-parish/hawkhurst-st-laurence-hawkhurst/
Freewill Offering Envelopes
Whilst envelopes (yellow) will still be made available for the near future to accommodate Open Plate Collections, The Freewill Offering Envelopes will be replaced by the PGS method– the significance of this being a Freewill Offering remains unchanged.
The form to be filled out for submission to the PGS allows you to set the amount of your offering and to elect whether it is eligible for Gift Aid. As with the previous method, this is entirely anonymous with only the Freewill Offering Recorder having oversight for administration purposes. However, should you wish to remain entirely anonymous (other than to HMRC should you elect for Gift Aid), then you can also elect to do so by ticking the relevant box on the form.
Bank Standing Orders replaced by Direct Debit
This will be replaced entirely by the PGS method of accepting offering which uses Direct Debit. The fundamental difference is that a Standing Order is for a fixed amount authorised by you (the donor) whereas a Direct Debit allows for changes which can be requested by the payee (PGS on behalf of the Parish) – the only change in this case relates to whether you agree to have your offering adjust for annual inflation (a tick box on the form). In any event you will be notified 30 days in advance of the donation date.
One-off Gifts
As the name implies, all one-off gifts are always welcome and again can benefit from Gift Aid. These one-off gifts can be made via the Gift Form or online using the PGS link;
https://www.parishgiving.org.uk/donors/find-your-parish/hawkhurst-st-laurence-hawkhurst/
Open Plate Collection
As the collection bags are passed round, the congregation can drop their offering into the bag, either a Freewill Envelope or cash on its own. All loose cash is known as Open Plate and under new rules, gifts of £20 or less are also able to be enhanced by 25%.
Gift Aid
Gift Aid is a government scheme available to charities which enables them to recover income tax on donations deemed to have been paid by the donor at the basic rate. This tax recovery can only be made on offerings recorded against individual donors who pay sufficient tax to cover it. The new PGS method will do all the reconciliation with HMRC thus removing a tremendous amount of administration from the Parish. As stated above, this information is confidential to the Freewill Offering Recorder.
The effect of Gift Aid is to increase the individual offering by 25% at no additional cost to the donor. In fact, for donors who pay income tax at the higher rate, Gift Aid provides a method of saving some income tax as the donor’s basic rate income tax band is increased by the value of the annual offering provided.
Thank you to all who contribute in any way to our income.
100 Club
You are welcome to join the St Laurence 100 Club, another one of our fund-raising initiatives. The Club is open to those over 16 years of age and membership costs £10 a year. There is a monthly draw for three prizes, with first prize being £20, the second £10 and the third £5.
The St Laurence 100 Club Rules and St Laurence 100 Club Entry Form may be found by clicking on the PDF icon of this section. Forms are also available in the Church, the Church Office at All Saints Lodge or from the Vicar, the Church Wardens and Alison Parsons.
Easy Fundraising
St Laurence Church is a member of Easyfundraising, an on-line shopping charitable organisation. Over 2700 well known stores - including Marks & Spencer, JohnLewis, Sainsburys and Tesco - will each donate a percentage of what you spend on your on-line purchases to St Laurence Church, without it costing you a penny.
www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stlaurencehawkhurst
By shopping via this link you will be helping to raise funds for the Church without it costing you any more than what you spend on your purchase.
How it works
easyfundraising.org.uk helps charities, schools, sports clubs, community groups, and other good causes to raise money when their supporters shop online. So far we've raised over £3 million for causes throughout the UK.
It works in a similar way to many other loyalty shopping sites, but instead of earning points when you shop, you raise a donation for your cause instead. It's as simple as that!
You can shop with over 2,000 well known stores and each will donate up to 15% of what you spend. For example, John Lewis will donate 1%, Amazon 2.5%, The Body Shop 6%, some insurance retailers will even donate up to £30 simply for taking out a policy with them!
It doesn't cost you a penny more
The great thing is it won't cost you any more, plus we've got lots of voucher codes and special discounts so you can actually save money while you help your good cause. There is no cost for the good cause either – our service is totally free.
How to generate donations
It's very simple - once you've registered with us, when you shop with one of our retailers, our system makes a note of your purchase, collects the donation from the retailer and passes it to your chosen good cause. That's it! No hassle for you, we do all the hard work while you shop as your normally would.
Get started
It's really easy to get started (we don't call it easyfundraising for nothing!)
If you would like to support a cause:
- Click on ‘Find a cause’ and select the cause you wish to support.
- Fill out the quick form to register your details.
- Find the retailer you want to shop with.
- Click to visit the retailer, then shop as you normally would.
- Your donation will be shown in your easyfundraising account within 30 days.
If you would like to register a cause:
Website address : http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk
In the Find a Good Cause box type St Laurence Church - Hawkhurst