Parish giving

Giving in Grace

At St John’s, we serve many people in many ways: providing the opportunity for worship to those attending our regular services; sharing the joy of a couple coming to be married or a family bringing their child for baptism; comforting the bereaved. To all these we seek to be a channel of God’s love to those looking to our church for help and encouragement. Our impact is also felt well beyond the church building itself, sometimes to those who may not normally look to the church for help. Through our outreach into the community, often in partnership with others, we are constantly seeking to meet the needs of the marginalised and vulnerable in our society, aiming to be the salt and light in our communities that Jesus challenges us to be.

All this costs money. St John’s needs approximately £15,000 per month to maintain its mission, service and outreach.  This year our expenditure is forecast to exceed our income by £12,000. Our church is entirely self-supporting, so we must increase our income by just over £1,000 per month to cover our costs. 

Please read our leaflet about our Giving programme for more information.

Did you know?

St John’s welcomes all members of the congregation. Whether you are worshipping with us short or long-term we encourage you to make a contribution to the life of St. John’s, spiritually, socially, practically and financially as your means allow.

St. John’s is funded almost exclusively by donations from our congregation.  We do not receive grants from the government, the diocese or the rest of the Church of England, or from other charities.

Some ways to give to St John's

Our Planned Giving scheme: If you can help us this way, that would be particularly appreciated; we encourage giving through the Parish Giving Scheme and have response forms available for completion (PDF | Word).  All responses are confidential. Thank you. Please email, Andrew, our Stewardship Recorder, if you have any questions.

Remember St John’s in your will Remembering St John’s in your will is one way to help ensure the future of our church for the next generation.  St John’s was blessed to receive a significant legacy more than 20 years ago, the 'Ted Ward bequest', which has funded a number of major projects we would not otherwise have been able to afford. 

Make a one-off donation? If you cannot commit to regular giving or if you wish to top up your regular giving, you can make a one-off donation. There are two easy ways to do this:
  1. For smaller amounts, please use our Just Giving link on this page
  2. Via a Bank Faster Payment - Our bank account details are here (PDF | Word); if you are a UK taxpayer, please consider completing a Gift Aid return (PDF | Word) and emailing it to our Stewardship Recorder to enable us to reclaim some of the tax on your donation.

Our own giving

Our policy is to give 10% of our income to charitable causes. For both 2020 and 2021, 90% of the money will be divided between:

Young Carers in Hertfordshire
Azalea
Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability
Rennie Grove Hospice Care

We keep back 10% of our charitable funds to meet urgent needs and sudden emergencies (such as a new refugee crisis).

We also support a number of other charitable causes through special collections - eg Crisis, which we support at Christmas, and the Bishop of St Albans Harvest Appeal - and we provide ongoing help to Christian Aid, supporting, in particular, Christian Aid week each May.

Fundraise for St John's at no cost to yourself

Many internet retailers including John Lewis, M&S, Amazon,pay commission for business and St John's can receive this commission (which does not increase the cost to you).

Mostly, this is is achieve through www.easyfundraising.org.uk; you register and visit shops via their site and then visiting there just before you shop; here are some helpful hints to maximise your giving:

  • Make sure you select the Gift Aid option when registering (if this applies to you).
  • Consider downloading the special toolbar. Each time you visit a website that participates, you will be prompted to collect funds for St John's - see www.easyfundraising.org.uk/donation-reminder/.

For Amazon, this is achieved by using smile.amazon.co.uk rather than www.amazon.co.uk.  The first time you do this you’ll need to select your preferred charity - search for ‘St John’s Harpenden’ and you should find it (the full charity name is The Parochial Church Council Of The Ecclesiastical Parish Of Harpenden St. John). On subsequent times you visit smile.amazon.co.uk it will remember your choice of charity.  Purchase items as usual and eligible purchases will see a portion of the value donated to St John’s.