‘Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18). 

I have been fortunate enough to have grown up in a world where the American festival of Thanksgiving has grown in popularity (in no small part due to the TV sitcom ‘Friends’ and their almost routine annual Thanksgiving catastrophes!).  Thus, for me, thankfulness, Thanksgiving and generosity all become associated with the smell of cinnamon spice, pumpkin pie and the clamour of dozens of people crowding into my house on cold wintery nights.

We use Thanksgiving (the third Thursday in November), to invite the hungry, the hopeless, local students and CEOs to share around a single table all the things that the previous year has brought them – the good, the bad and the ugly (the memories, not the people!).  As we name these things together, the hospitality of the laden table before us helps us to remember that we are called to be people who offer the hospitality and generosity of the heart as well as the home.

As we feast together, we do so having first feasted on the word of God – words that tell us to ‘give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  We offer sentences and prayers of thanks to God for all that we have received over the past year, and we begin to dream about the possibilities to be hope-filled and generous throughout the year to come.

What are you thankful for today?  What glimpses of the Kingdom has God given you today?  And how does this help you to become a person of great generosity, offering hospitality of home and of heart?

Hospitality and the Diamond Jubilee

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations provide an ideal opportunity for churches and church members to offer hospitality to neighbours and friends, celebrating the event together.

The Queen has invited the nation to join the Big Jubilee Lunch on Sunday 3 June. Millions of people will eat together with neighbours and friends as part of the official Diamond Jubilee celebrations marking the Queen’s 60 years of service. A specially-written Grace – a prayer of thanks -- starts the lunch. Churches have a key role at the heart of their communities to make this happen.

The 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations give churches an opportunity to help build community relationships, plus lots of ways to help people see that that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a party… a banquet… a big family celebration.

Churches at the heart of communities

Register your Big Jubilee Lunch at www.thebiglunch.com and visit www.hopetogether.org.uk for free resources so what you do locally is part of the national picture of churches serving their neighbourhoods, putting faith into action.

It’s not too late to plan a party to remember

Venue: you can hold your event in a back garden or car park, a shopping precinct or school playground. You don’t have to close a street.

Food: your lunch can be a simple bring-your-own picnic or a barbecue, spit-roast or banquet.

Planning: you'll be amazed at how local people will join in if you take the first step.

Help: your church could offer teapots, chairs, microphones, musicians, a wet-weather venue…

HOPE can help you

Visit the HOPE website for:

Find out more at www.hopetogether.org.uk

Take a look at our six tips to consider when deciding which charitable cause to support.

1. Pray!

The Bible calls us to present ourselves as “cheerful givers” (2 Corinthians 9:7) but also to be faithful stewards of the resources that God has given to us. While we may understand what the Bible teaches us about giving, putting it into practice isn’t always easy. If you are struggling to decide what, how much, when and where to direct your resources, hand it over to God and ask that he guides your big, booming generous heart.

2. What are your priorities?

Perhaps you feel led to give primarily to your local church? Or perhaps you view giving to the Church as supporting a whole multitude of ministries, at home and abroad? Maybe you care about the environment? Have a heart for a particular country or want to support the work of a Christian mission worker linked to your church? It’s important to choose a cause whose work you value so that, ultimately, you become an advocate for that cause and encourage others to get involved. Make a list of issues or areas that are important to you and go from there.

3. Draw on your own personal experiences

It’s likely that at some point in your life you have personally encountered a charity who has worked with you, a family member or friend.

Perhaps at some point in the past you have been in debt, suffered an illness, or have experienced loss. A charity came alongside you and made a real difference to your circumstances. You may not, at the time, been able to ‘give back’ to the charity financially, but now feel in a position to do so.

4. What sort of work does the charity do?

Many charities operate in order to respond to an immediate need. Soup kitchens, for example, are set-up to care for the day-to-day needs of the homeless.

Other charities often look to prevent and respond to long-term issues. There are many charities, for example, who look at the root problem of homelessness, and work to help individuals off the street altogether. Likewise, there are charities who work to make a difference in both the long-term and short-term, however most charities usually have a particular emphasis to their work.

In your giving, it may be helpful to consider whether you looking to make a different to the needs that exist in peoples lives NOW or are looking to contribute to longer-term change.

5. Do you want to give to a small or large organisation?

Large charitable organisations can often be very well run, forward-looking and efficient with their money. Just because large charities can have bigger overheads, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider supporting them. Giving to large organisations can often ensure that your money is being put to good use in targeted areas that have been well-researched as a result of the work that has gone on behind the scenes. That said, you may feel it important to research a charities overheads before you start giving to them.

On the other hand, when giving to a smaller charity or individual Christian worker, your gift may constitute a considerable percentage of their annual budget. It may feel that your money is making a bigger impact to the work that they do. You may also find to easier to interact with a smaller charity set-up and even have the chance to get involved yourself with voluntary work.

This leads us nicely onto...

6. Volunteer

Volunteering for a charity can be a great way to get to know a charity more and understand the day-to-day work that the charity puts in to accomplish its mission. If you don’t have time to regularly volunteer, why not dedicate some holiday time to volunteer either locally or abroad? Some charities even organise teams of volunteers to visit other countries; learn about life in disadvantaged communities and encourage you to provide practical help to particular causes.

So it's Monday morning and you've successfully made in to the office without falling asleep. Result!

Then that classic post weekend conversation starter kicks off. You know the one. It sounds a little bit like: "Morning Roger/Betty/Simon [insert name here]. How are you? Good weekend?"

Select your standard response from the options below:

A. Good, yours?

B. Oh yeah, good thanks. Did the usual stuff, bit of this, bit of that... had a nice day on Saturday, went for a jog in the morning, did some shopping... erm... went to church on Sunday... erm... so how was your weekend?

C. I had a great weekend! I had a nice day out on Saturday and then had an awesome time at church on Sunday - there was a great speaker. If you’re ever free on a Sunday you would be SO welcome to pop along!

D. You're unable to answer. Your head has just hit the desk and you've fallen straight to sleep.

Honestly, honestly, HONESTLY, this is an area that I have really struggled with over the years. Sharing faith at work can be extremely challenging in an area of life in which we work hard to build a good reputation.

Now that I work for a Christian organisation, talking about faith in the workplace has, well, got a lot easier, but to say I no longer struggle in this area would not be true. There are still people in my life who I find it hard to talk to about my faith.

There are, however, a few good tips that I've picked up over the years which have genuinely helped me in this area and I would like to share them with you now:

Tip number 1: keep it real

Don't force discussions about faith. Rather find ways to 'be' Jesus in your workplace through the simple things. Offer a listening ear to someone or try to spend time with your colleagues over lunch. Often it’s the little things and a good relationship with your colleagues that can lead to the 'why' questions.

Tip number 2: practice your testimony

There is nothing worse than being asked your ‘story’ and getting into a cold sweat because you don't know where to start. Practise your testimony - remind yourself about how you came to be a Christian and what God has done in your life, and then rehearse it until you can deliver your testimony in less than two minutes.

Tip number 3: serve

No matter what your position is, be willing to serve others. Offer to make the next round of coffee, refill the printer if you've noticed its run out of paper, or simply smile and hold the door open for others.

A common theme about being a positive witness in our workplace is generosity: being generous with our time, resources, and putting others before ourselves.

Could you do with a little more inspiration in this area?

If you work in central London, join us for a special Pentecost breakfast on Tuesday 22 May 2012 from 7.30 -9.00am.

The event will be taking a fresh look at how we can witness in our workplace. It will be hosted by Stewardship and the folks from Pentecost Festival 2012 and located at the Salvation Army Regent Hall along Oxford Street, London.

Sharing their experiences of being a Christian in the workplace are guests speakers, Richard Gough (Chair of Trustees at Stewardship) Gavin Poole (Ex CEO of The Centre for Social Justice) and Social Entrepreneur and former advisor to the government, Lord Nat Wei. You can hear how God has influenced their career decisions, challenged them to put him at the centre of their work and powerfully answered prayers.

We would love for you to join us. For more information or to register for the event please visit http://www.pentecostfestival.co.uk/ai1ec_event/prayer-breakfast/?instance_id=1035.

Stewardship backs campaign demanding that the Government reconsiders controversial plans to cap tax relief on charitable giving.

Stewardship has signed up to the giveitbackgeorge campaign to ask the government to make a U-turn on its proposal to a cap on big charitable donations.

We urge readers to find out about the issues, the threat to charities’ income as a result of the introduction of a cap and to support the campaign, both as individuals and organisations.

What is it all about?

If the recent Budget announcement goes ahead, as of April 2013, relief will be limited to the tax on £50,000 of charitable giving, or a quarter of the donor’s income, whichever is greater.

Under current rules, taxpayers can claim tax relief on the income from which they make charitable donations. For basic rate taxpayers, the relief is claimed by the charity. For higher rate taxpayers, they can personally reclaim the difference between the tax they pay and the basic rate claimed by the charity.

Why does this matter?

Within the church, and the faith sector in general, personal levels of giving are much higher than amongst charities in general. Many donors give quietly and sacrificially and some donors even work out how much they need to live on, and from their very significant income, choose to give the rest away to charity.

In a survey conducted by CAF, nine out of ten top charity executives said that the planned cap would hit donations hard and revealed that Britain’s richest seven per cent were responsible for almost half of their total donations received last year. The latest Sunday Times Giving List also reports that the top 100 donors gave a total of £1.67 billion out of the UK’s £11 billion annual giving total.

Because major donors give very intentionally, a withdrawal of tax relief will mean not only less tax relief to charities, but a reduction in the actual gifts that come to charity.

Our preliminary calculations suggest that this reduction could mean 30% less giving coming into the charity sector, including churches. And that is before any tax relief is given.

This measure is not about tax avoidance, or fraud on charitable gifts, nor is it about charities not operating for the good of society. And it is not really a bid to stop the rich from using charitable donations to cut their tax bills because the Government’s own estimates of the resultant savings are just too small.

Our hope is that this measure was a last minute, ill-conceived addition to a budget designed to demonstrate to the public that the government is prepared to be tough with those it believes should be paying taxes, but are able to use the assortment of tax reliefs available to reduce this obligation to well below the basic rate.

In so doing, tax reliefs available to those giving most generously and sacrificially have been innocently swept up in the process.

Stewardship’s response

In engaging with major donors over the last few weeks, we have been struck by the humble approach of these people; by their compassion and love for their neighbour, and their clear motivation, far from obtaining tax relief, is to personally contribute to making society a better place to live in. But, they are sadly reflecting that the cap will inevitably mean that they will have to reduce their giving from next year.

One donor indicated that they would emigrate, with their family, to enable them to restore their philanthropic objectives. Others may hold back from making larger gifts until more favourable measures are in place, or throttle back their giving during their lifetime and instead leave a larger legacy many years in the future.  If this is repeated by others, the Government will lose more than their support for society; they will lose tax revenues from whole families that would otherwise have continued in the years to come.

Stewardship is keeping the pressure up to see this measure removed. We are engaging with HM Revenue & Customs, with HM Treasury and with Treasury Ministers directly to help represent the voice of Christian giving in the UK, where we know sacrificial giving is most prevalent.

Concluding thoughts

The UK has long been recognised as one of the most generous in the world. However, if George Osborne’s changes take effect in April 2013 it will not be the rich who suffer, but the poorest in society.

Please join us in seeing this proposal defeated before it is too late:

For more information…

General enquiries, please contact Bethan Walker on 020 8418 8167.

Individuals who are directly affected by this proposal, please contact Kevin Russell, Technical Director via kevin.russell@stewardship.org.uk.

Whether you’re excited about the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics or not (and I speak as someone so un-athletic that the mere sight of a running track induces queasiness), there’s no doubt that the Games will be the most talked-about event of the summer.

Up to 800,000 people are expected to travel through London on the busiest day of the Games and with 20 official Olympic sites across the UK, London is just the beginning.  The Olympic torch will pass through the hands of 8,000 people in a thousand communities, covering nearly all of the UK.* Why does this matter? Well, aside from having major traffic implications, it also presents the UK church with a glaring opportunity.

Why?

The Olympics give us all an opportunity to show generosity and hospitality, kindness and community. Traditionally these qualities are already found in church environments; but the Olympics is a golden ticket to take church to the streets. More Than Gold is the initiative founded to mobilise the church throughout the Olympics; to enable them to reach out to the community in areas of Outreach, Service and Hospitality, and show them something of Jesus’ love.

How?

If you’re into the creative arts, you can volunteer your drama, vocal or art skills to a local church outreach event. Use your football and rugby skills to set up a sports holiday club for kids. If hospitality is your gifting, you could consider hosting an Athlete’s family, saving them the astronomical cost of accommodation throughout the Games period. There’s also the opportunity to become a Games Pastor: essentially assisting visitors with practical advice and support at several key transport terminals and Games venues.

If you can hand out free cups of water or point someone in the direction of the nearest toilet, you can represent Jesus in your community this summer. And that's great news for those of us who can't tell our athletics from our elbow. 

Visit the More Than Gold website for resources and application forms.

How are you planning on reaching out in your community during the Games this year? Do you think initiatives like More Than Gold will make a lasting difference in your town? Let us know in the comments.

*Figures and image courtesy of More Than Gold.

The Government proposes, from April 2013, to restrict the tax relief for charitable gifts – whether under gift aid, payroll giving, or gifts of shares, and land and property. Whilst this will not impact on most donors, major and sacrificial giving will be impacted. Anyone who gives a gift aid gift or gifts in a year of over £40,000 may see their tax relief restricted, and may even find that they have to pay HMRC for the privilege.

If you do personally make large gifts to charity that could be affected, would you be prepared to help us resist this measure? We need evidence of the potential impact to take to HMRC and the Treasury. If you would be prepared to speak to us about your personal experience, send an e mail to Kevin.Russell@stewardship.org.uk with a contact telephone number. Anonymity can be protected where requested.

image courtesy of www.giveitbackgeorge.org

The Christian festival of Lent has had a recent reinvention. It’s no longer just the annual opportunity to forgo chocolate or caffeine. These days you can give up chocolate and give out free hugs, or plant trees, or cut your carbon footprint, or ask the big questions, or read a section of the Bible alongside hundreds of others online.

Lent has become a time for generosity and thoughtfulness. This month, we celebrate the charity campaigns that have helped thousands of people to reconnect with Lent in a meaningful way.

Christian Aid: Count Your Blessings

What it is:

This brilliant campaign from Christian Aid has encouraged thousands of people to help end poverty this Lent. Last year’s campaign raised over £300,000 for the charity, and this year they launched an android app to help people connect and give on-the-go.

Why we love it:

With daily suggestions such as ‘give 10p for every light in your home’ and ‘give 20p for every time you have accessed free healthcare this year’, the Count Your Blessings campaign uses simple stats to highlight exactly how blessed we are.  And we all need a reminder of that from time to time!

Tearfund: Carbon Fast

What it is:

Tearfund’s Carbon Fast campaign asks us to consider what effects our energy-intensive lifestyles have on God’s creation. Again taking a daily action approach, the Carbon Fast focuses on environmental tasks such as buying energy monitors, creating a compost-heap, and walking or cycling to work.  

Why we love it:

It offers a good amount of flexibility, and the daily actions are achievable. There’s also the option to simply do an ‘Action of the week’. A great campaign for the environmentally-conscious among us, and they’ve put together a nice promo video too.

BigBible: Big Read 2012

What it is:

This year’s Big Read focuses on the gospel of Mark, with material written by Profession Tom Wright. It is put together by BigBible – a project that promotes bible reading in a community setting, whether online or offline.

Why we love it:

It’s primarily an online-driven campaign, making use of Google+ Hangouts, online homegroups, blogging and twitter hashtags to keep up momentum, as well as downloadable resources. BigBible are traditionally great at making connections with other organisations and initiatives, and we love their ability to reach out and promote other campaigns as well as their own.  

Stewardship: 40acts

What it is:

40acts has returned for 2012, and this year we’re encouraging people to ‘do Lent generously’. With daily inspirational contributions from likes of Nicky Gumbel (Alpha course), Rob Parsons (Care for the Family), and Andy Frost (Share Jesus International), 40acts gives subscribers 40 nudges in a generous direction. So far 5000+ people have signed up to take part.

Why we love it:

Our 40acts challengers never fail to surprise us. Whether they set up daily blogs to chart their 40acts journey, or anonymously send Easter eggs into the office, or nearly get arrested for offering free hugs: all of them remind us of the transformational nature of generosity.

Consumer Detox: Lent 2012

What it is:

Mark Powley’s book, ‘Consumer Detox’ offers practical solutions to combating the consumerist culture we live in. The Lent campaign is designed for small groups and churches, and takes a week-by-week approach. There are also daily blogs and online talks.

Why we love it:

There’s a great emphasis on doing Lent alongside others with this campaign. That sense of accountability and honesty makes for an interesting journey, as the group travels together into the heart of the difficult questions: ‘How can we prevent our stuff from choking our faith?’, ‘Why do we find it so hard to set limits on our consumption?’, ‘If God is so generous, why does He ask us to surrender everything?’

So there we have it, a round-up of Lent 2012. What have your favourite Lent campaigns been this year? What would you like to see next year? Let us know in the comments.

“We’ve crossed social divides in the playground, and bought cups of tea for the homeless. We’ve sent thank you notes by the hundreds and prayed for our enemies as well as our friends. We’ve bought fair-trade chocolate from local shops, switched off our TVs, and left our comfort zones for the sake of spontaneous kindness.

Why?

Because we believe that what we do during Lent, and beyond, should reflect the incredible generosity of the Easter message.”

We hope that taking part in 40acts has been a real blessing to your Lent experience this year, but more than that – we hope that it has ignited a spark of God-inspired generosity that will last a life-time.

It doesn’t stop here!

40acts will be back again in 2013, but you can continue to journey with Stewardship throughout the year.

We’ve got three final acts for you:

Thank you for taking part in 40acts 2012. We hope it has inspired you to do life generously.

With love,

The 40acts Team

You can email Mike at info@oscar.org.uk for more info on any of the topics above.

Well, perhaps not.  However, risk assessment is an oft-maligned, sometimes misunderstood creature seen to be wrapping churches up in time-consuming unnecessary red tape whilst the real work of ministry remains dormant.

It does not have to be so.  Rather than being a constraint, trustees could consider the more positive aspects of an assessment, not least its desire to ensure that the ministry aims of the church are better achieved.

We understand risk assessment better than we think.  We cross the road when the traffic lights are red, because we assess that this eliminates most of the risk of being hit by a car.  The risk remains, but the control (in this case the traffic lights) is deemed sufficient.

Basic risk management for churches follows the same simple pattern.  Identify what the risks are, and then see if there are straightforward controls that can be adopted to reduce them, and move forward.  Trustees require discretion, but for most churches, in most environments, adopting sensible guidelines and following common sense procedures will mean that most activities can be enthusiastically and safely pursued.

A risk assessment tool

There is no single prescribed way for a church to consider and manage risk.  It is more important that a church undertakes an assessment of some kind, that it records its findings, and that it reviews the assessment from time to time.

Stewardship offers a recently revised and updated risk assessment tool.  It does not remove the responsibility or discretion required by the trustees but provides a structure to enable them to make informed choices.

The tool itself includes an introductory section showing how it works and provides a couple of worked examples to help trustees in their thinking.  The main body of the tool is divided into different topics and areas, allowing churches to focus on those areas that are most applicable to the circumstances in which they find themselves.  These topics and areas are:

The tool can be purchased either in its “stand alone” form or in association with a half-day or full day visit from a Stewardship consultant.  A specially discounted rate is offered for churches making contact before 30 June 2012, wishing to arrange a visit sometime during the year.   Please contact Alan Hough on 0208 418 8166 or email alan.hough@stewardship.org.uk if you are interested in any of the packages offered.

Inclusive of VAT at 20%.

1 – Members of Stewardship’s consultancy helpline

2 – Travel costs will be added (either public transport or applying the HMRC business mileage rate – currently 45p per mile)

Viewed in the right light, risk management can be very beneficial and quite liberating to a church even if it is still not the reason that you became a trustee.

To find out more about our Risk Assessment Toolkit, visit our consultancy services web page .

If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones; Luke 16:10a (NLT).

This is really another article about Internal Controls written by a former auditor with experience as a Charity Commission investigator; I want to emphasise how important it is that those “little things” are done well.

Little things, like counter-signing cheques after they have been signed (rather than signing blanks in advance), using bank mandates that are up-to-date and properly implemented, ensuring where possible that the division of duties are appropriate or there is adequate supervision, completing Annual Returns properly, making sure that accounts are submitted on time, being seen to be accountable, declaring personal interests in transactions, keeping proper minutes of the trustee or board meetings and ensuring that conflicts of interest are properly managed by absenting those who are conflicted etc. etc. Oh, I know (yawn) that these little things are not very exciting!

However, If these little things are not done well (or at all) it can lead to a general slackness and a weakening of the organisation’s culture potentially resulting in irreparable damage to (particularly the reputation of) a charity. Imagine how difficult it is to seek to restore a damaged reputation or continue to govern a charity where there are serious allegations, perhaps with high profile media interest, resulting in the suspension by donors of much needed funds and the presence and involvement of outside investigators while you try to do the day job.

I know that such disasters are often caused by serious (even criminal) misconduct, rather than a mislaid cheque book here or there, but even in minor investigation situations where a charity is not found to have been “faithful in the little things” the trustees may experience tremendous difficulty in clearing their names, and restoring reputations, when things do apparently go wrong.

For example, getting the accounts and returns in on time is a small thing but it goes a long way to showing how well your church or charity is being run. Failure to submit accounts (at all or on time) or the submission of poor quality accounts is a strong indicator of (possibly major) risk to outsiders (including the Charity Commission) because it is a symptom of poor governance. If these little things are not attended to, what else might be going wrong?

Can I draw your attention to two publications? Stewardship’s Briefing Paper “Financial controls in churches and small charities” (June 2009) explains how to do all of those little things well. On the other hand, the fourth edition of the Charity Commission's annual summary of issues arising from its investigatory work, "Charities Back on Track" (September 2011) was recently published. It gives some examples that illustrate the breadth of serious issues that were investigated, at some considerable cost to the taxpayer, during the financial year 2010-11.

The Government’s Review of the Charities Act 2006 and of the legal and regulatory framework for charities is now well underway. Stewardship’s Technical Director, Kevin Russell is participating in several meetings with Lord Hodgson who is leading the review.

If you have any ideas for improving charity law, or have experienced difficulties with existing law, you can feed into the review either by emailing kevin.russell@stewardship.org.uk or responding to the specific questions raised in one or more of the ‘Calls for Evidence’.

The Calls for Evidence comprise a number of separate short papers which explain each issue being considered, followed by a series of consultation questions and a means for you to respond. To date, 13 papers have been issued covering:

They can be accessed from here.

Payroll procedures are changing! From April next year, employers and pension providers will need to provide ‘Real Time Information’ online, to HMRC. Submissions will provide HMRC with tax, national insurance and other payroll deductions for each employee, together with changes to the payroll (starters, leavers), every time the payroll is run.

Additional information will also be required to support the new Universal Credits system such as the number of hours a person is expected to, or regularly works in a week.

HMRC have prepared some employer FAQ’s which can be viewed here.

Did you know? Stewardship run an excellent Payroll Bureau service which is significantly more comprehensive than most commercial bureaus and tailored specifically to Christian charities and churches. For details click here

A recent survey calculated that charities paid £78m of unnecessary tax on their energy bills in 2011. A staggering 46% of charities surveyed didn’t realise they only have to pay 5% VAT on their energy costs.

Energy suppliers do not apply the 5% rate automatically. Charities must send them a certificate to claim this. It is, however, possible to make a retrospective claim for up to 4 years for VAT overpaid.

Our Briefing Paper ‘VAT for Churches – a detailed guide’ covers the rules for energy supplies in more detail as well as setting out further potential cost savings for churches. To obtain your copy, priced £19.50, visit www.stewardship.org.uk/vat.

Churches should note, if they have not already done so, that the law on copyright licensing changed with effect from 1 January 2012. Any church that plays sound recordings, or has groups (for example a youth group, or coffee morning) that use their premises during the week and who play sound recordings, must, by law, purchase a Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) Church Licence. This follows a 12 month period of grace from the new laws introduced for others from 2011.

If the only recorded music played by the church is during an act of divine worship, the church is  exempt from the new rules.

The cost of the licence is determined by the average aggregated number of people in the congregation at your main service, and varies from £21.68 through to £180.64 for churches with over 500 but less than 1,000 people. Larger churches will pay more.

Note: churches now need both a Performing Rights Society (PRS) for Music Church Licence and a new PPL Church Licence in order to play sound recordings. Both Licenses can be obtained from Churches Copyright Licensing International  (CCLI).

More information can be found here

Charities do not need to pro-actively seek replacement declarations for those that are already in place.

HMRC has also corrected previous guidance to make it clear that declarations must be retained for six, rather than four years. Charities will not be penalised, if before 1 January 2012, they destroyed declarations relating to donations more than four years but less than six years previous.

Further details can be found here and here.

Today is International Women’s Day, an opportunity to remember the achievements of women throughout history and to commit to those women around the world whose rights are not yet protected.

To mark this occasion we take a look at six great ladies from the past who took generosity to the extreme in their devotion to sharing money, skills and time with others, in ways which left an indelible mark on the world.

1. Florence Nightingale 1820 - 1910

Florence Nightingale came to be known as “The Lady with the Lamp” and was instrumental in founding the modern nursing profession. Florence Nightingale is most famous for her contributions to counteract the horrors faced by injured soldiers in the Crimean War. With her dedicated team of nurses, she greatly improved the conditions and substantially reduced the mortality rate. Nightingale's theories, published in 'Notes on Nursing' (1860), were hugely influential with many practices still in existence today.

2. Emmeline Pankhurst 1858 - 1928

Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Franchise League in 1889, followed by the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1905 and fought tirelessly for Women’s Suffrage in Britain. The tactics Pankhurst used for drawing attention to the moment led to imprisonment many times. In 1913, fellow WSPU member Emily Davison was killed when she threw herself under the king's horse at the Derby as a protest at the continued failure to grant women the right to vote. Breakthrough came when, in March 1918, women over the age of 30 were granted the right to vote. It wasn’t until 1928 that women were given the same voting rights as men in the United Kingdom.

3. Helena Rubinstein 1870 - 1965

Helena Rubinstein formed one of the world’s first cosmetic companies in the world. Born in Poland, Rubenstein emigrated to Australia and opened her first beauty salon in 1902 with just $1,500. Her business became extremely successful and in her later years she used her enormous wealth to support charities in the field of education, art and health.

4. Helen Keller 1880 - 1968

At the age of 19 months Helen became deaf and blind but, with the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan, broke through her isolation and went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. She is remembered as campaigning tirelessly for people with disabilities.

5. Mother Teresa 1910 - 1997

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Macedonia and, at the age of eighteen, left home and joined a community of nuns with missions in India. Mother Teresa personally cared for 1000's of sick and dying people in Calcutta. She was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1979 and famously said;“It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving."

6. Rosa Parks 1913 - 2005

On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks became famous for refusing a bus drivers order to give her seat up for a white passenger. Rosa went on to become a civil rights activist and named the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement” by the U.S. Congress. After her death on October 24, 2005, city officials in Montgomery and Detroit informed that the front seats of their city buses would be reserved with black ribbons to honour the life and death of Rosa Parks.

Chris and Dil Tapp are relative newcomers to Stewardship so we wanted to find out a bit about their work at the Living Waters Village on the island of Borneo and how early mornings and electrics are the order of the day.  Chris spoke to us about their involvement with the project:

Tell us a bit about Living Waters

I first visited Living Waters Village in West Kalimantan with my son and his wife in 2006, and kept going back for more - October 2011 was my 12th visit.

The project is the outworking of Ronny Heyboer’s vision, received in 2002 to build a village to accommodate 1000 underprivileged, neglected or orphaned children from the jungle of West Kalimantan, Borneo, and to school a further 1000.  Today about 450 children live there, and nearly 50 buildings are completed so far, including a primary school, children’s homes, dormitories, clinic, workshop, bakery and The Training Centre (where children first stay to learn basic living and social skills).

Why did you keep going back?

It is wonderful being with these youngsters, (aged 5 – 25, but appearing much younger in looks and demeanour) and seeing God transform their lives.  There are now some older ones too who are marrying and starting their own families.  Their background is mainly animistic (worshipping the trees, sun, moon, river etc.) and they often arrive very malnourished and sick carrying with them additional influences such as witchdoctors, alcohol, drugs and cigarettes.  There are many testimonies of God’s deliverance and healing.

What sort of work were you involved in?

Initially my main work was wiring up buildings and maintaining the IT infrastructure.  I have also been privileged to preach and teach in the worship meetings as well as encouraging the young people in their own walk with the Lord, individually and in groups.

Last year your wife joined you on one of the trips, tell us about that.

Yes, in March 2011 my wife, Dil, accompanied me for the first time.  We had a very demanding journey. It takes 2 – 3 days to get there – the final part of the journey being a 14 hour drive crossing the equator, along potholes joined by road!  We were there a week before moving to an Asrama (Children’s Home) for 10 days.  Our task was to look after 32 children (boys and girls) with two Indonesian leaders while the usual house parents were away renewing visas.  The days started with a 5.30am prayer meeting (yes, 5.30 in the morning!) then breakfast, school, lunch, evening meal and meeting or homework, all interspersed with household chores such as washing and cleaning.  Dil was involved with the household stuff and I continued with the electrical and data work.

 Have you learnt anything from being part of this project?

Over the past 5 years I have been training a group of lads (15-19yrs old) in electrical work; they can now wire up basic buildings with minimal supervision.  They, in return, have taught me about the simplicity of their lives and I have seen how far our western lives deviate from God’s original intentions.

What’s next for you both?

We are currently seeking the Lord about our own future involvement with the work out there.

If you'd like to support Chris and Dil, you can find them using account number 2012 1038.

Photo by Sara Korf

In these hard pressed times, and with an unfortunate rise in metal theft, churches in any part of the UK may be interested in grant funding that is available for repairs to their buildings. At the foot of this article, I am also reminding readers of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, which aims to reduce the impact of VAT on church repairs.

National Churches Trust Opens its Grants Programmes (UK)

The National Churches Trust, which supports projects at a wide range of places of Christian worship, has announced that it is offering the opportunity to apply for a limited number of grants towards urgent structural repair projects. In 2012 the Trust will concentrate on projects involving urgent repairs to roof and rainwater goods with estimated costs of at least £50,000 (including VAT and fees). In addition, the Trust hopes to be able to provide grants towards installing facilities such as toilets and catering facilities to benefit places of worship and local communities.

Applications can be submitted up to the 1st September 2012.

For more information, visit http://nationalchurchestrust.org/supporting-you/grants/overview.php

Repair Grants

This funding, which is ongoing, comes from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will be controversial for some. However, for others, it will be seen as acceptable to turn ‘tainted’ funds to Godly use. The programme is designed to help conserve and sustain heritage at risk, through urgent repairs to places of worship. Regardless of where in the UK the church is situated, the following key criteria apply:

In Northern Ireland and Wales deadlines are either  31 March or 30 September each year. Deadlines for Scotland are 28 February and 31 August. In England deadlines are normally the end of June for Grade I places of worship, and the end of September for Grade II places of worship.

For more information, click here.

Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme

This Scheme similarly covers repairs (including non-urgent repairs) to listed places of worship. The original idea of the Scheme was to effectively refund all the VAT cost of qualifying repair work. However, the Scheme Rules have changed a number of times over recent years with changes both to the types of work that qualify and the level of grant which is likely, now, to cover some but not all the VAT involved. To find out more, visit http://www.lpwscheme.org.uk/

Image by Howard Lake. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

You've decided to fundraise for a cause - well done! Now begins the hard work to encourage others to share your vision and support you. Read our top ten tips, and share your own in the comments below.

1. Tell your story

Successful fundraising is all about telling a good story. Invest time letting people know why you are raising money. What will the impact be if they support you? Give them plenty of information about your chosen charity or church as well, so they can really get on board with your chosen cause.

2. Set up a fundraising page

Setting up an online fundraising page is an effective and easy way to get sponsored for your favourite cause. Add photos to make it more interactive and make sure that you keep adding fresh information so people keep coming back for more. Set up your own fundraising page with Stewardship from July 2012. Stay tuned as we bring you the latest information about give.net.

3. Get social with your fundraising

Add a link from your social media pages to your give.net page to make it easy for all your friends and contacts to support your efforts. Don’t forget to upload pictures and regularly update your profile status detailing your latest fundraising activities so that people can follow your journey.

4. Think of creative ways to fundraise

Not everybody is cut out to run 26.2 miles for charity, or for that matter, ride their bike from Lands End to John O’Groats. For creative ideas of how to fundraise, think about setting yourself a challenge based on your hobbies or things that you enjoy. Why not set up a knitting marathon, organise a dinner party, take part in a swimathon or draw peoples portraits to raise money for charity?

5. Don’t forget the Gift Aid

Gift Aid allows charities to reclaim the basic tax rate on donations made. That means that every £1 that you raise could potentially increase by another 25p. If you choose to create a give.net fundraising page, your supporters gifts will have the tax reclaimed automatically, (so long as they are UK tax payers and confirm they are happy for us to do this!).

6. Carry on – even after your event has finished

Once people have seen for themselves the effort that you went to in order to raise money for your chosen charity, they may be even further inspired to donate to your fundraising.

7. Put a link in your email signature

Add a link to your online fundraising page into your email signatures so you can communicate your fundraising efforts every time you click ‘send’. Alternatively, why not add something about your fundraising in your answer phone or voicemail message.

8. Contact your local media

Send a short press release to your local media briefly detailing your fundraising efforts. There may be many people in your local community who will be inspired by your fundraising story and keen to provide some support.

9. Say thank you

Don’t forget to thank the people who have supported you along the way. In every fundraising story, there will be people who have provided different levels of support, so don’t forget those who have been generous with their time and talents; not just those gave money. This would be a good time to let people know if you have reached, exceeded or are still working towards your fundraising target.

10. And finally... don’t give up!

Everybody receives knock-backs when fundraising, but the key is to keep going. The more energy and passion that you bring to your fundraising, the more people will be inspired by your cause.

Have you used any of these tips? Do you have any of your own? Let us know in the comments below.