CHURCHES embarking on fund-raising efforts to scale back carbon emissions can make the most, from next month, of a C of E pilot scheme that would help them to double their money.
Under the scheme, Give to Go Green, first piloted over six weeks within the dioceses of Leeds and Exeter this 12 months, churches can raise as much as £10,000 to fund “quick-win” projects reminiscent of LED installations, insulation, or a recent heating-control system. The funds raised will then be matched through by the Net Zero Programme.
In the pilot, 27 churches were supported to boost £162,155 for small-scale projects. Seventy per cent of them raised greater than their goal amount — some by as much as 200 per cent. The Rural Dean of Plymouth City and Team Rector of Plymstock and Hooe, Prebendary Jennie Appleby, said that the scheme at St Mary and All Saints’, Plymstock, in Devon, had caught people’s imagination not only within the church, but locally. It would “help us reach out, because environment and climate change are issues that everyone is worried about”, she said.
The Bishop of Ripon, the Rt Revd Anna Eltringham, commended the scheme. “Encouraging giving is a challenge for the church, especially in such financially uncertain times. But persons are more likely to provide to something tangible,” she said. She described the pilot as “a improbable and rewarding option to make things occur”.
A case study of Christ Church, Upper Armley, in Leeds, wherein the age of participants on a sponsored walk across the parish ranged from ten to 80, showed that a complete of just about £6000 had been raised through the scheme. The Vicar, the Revd Philip Arnold, said that the explanation that it had been so successful was its grounding in “one easy challenge that everybody could get behind and work towards”.
Chester, Derby, Exeter, Leeds, Sodor & Man, Southwark, St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, and Winchester dioceses will all be a part of the second pilot. The C of E’s national fund-raising adviser, Helen Simpkiss, said: “Once now we have checked out the outcomes from our second pilot scheme, we hope we are able to then roll the scheme out nationally to other regions to assist as many churches as possible get the support they need.”
