Stewardship Recipient Accounts
Thank you for being a Stewardship Recipient. The following links will guide you through the conditions of use for our services, helpful explanations of key terms we use and other general guidance to help you fully understand how we operate our Recipient Accounts. Unless otherwise defined, the capitalised terms in these terms and conditions are defined in the “Helpful explanations” section.
Contents:
6. Helpful Explanations and Definitions
7. The Online Service: Terms of Use
9. Guidance for Specific Recipient Account Types
1. About Us
Stewardship is the operating name of Stewardship Services (UKET) Limited. We are a registered charity (number 234714) and a company limited by guarantee, registered in England (number 90305). Our registered office and main operating address is: 1 Lamb’s Passage, London EC1Y 8AB.
If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch with the Giving Services team on 020 8502 8560 or email [email protected]. Our website address is www.stewardship.org.uk.
2. About These Terms
This page contains the terms and conditions applicable to individuals and organisations who open any type of Recipient Account with Stewardship. By opening a Recipient Account with us, you agree to and undertake to comply with the obligations set out in these terms and conditions.
If there is a difference between a provision in these terms and conditions and any information in our website, application forms, brochures or any other documents or terms relevant to or in respect of your relationship with Stewardship, the provision in these terms and conditions is the one that shall apply.
For your own benefit and protection, we would recommend that you carefully read these pages. We also recommend that you print and keep these terms and conditions in a safe place, as you may wish to refer to it in the future; although you can access this at any time on our website.
If there is anything that you do not fully understand, please ask for further information or seek professional advice or guidance.
3. The Legal Pieces
Terms of Use
4. Privacy
Prior to using our Recipient Account services, please make sure to review our privacy notice which is available at stewardship.org.uk/privacy.
5. Terms of Use
Terms applicable to all Grants
All Grant payments from Stewardship to Recipients will be made on the basis of your understanding and acceptance of the terms in this section and the remainder of our terms and conditions for Recipients.
Basis of Stewardship Grant payments
Use of Grants
Reporting and records
Safeguarding and other obligations
Intellectual property rights
Data Privacy
Other
6. Helpful Explanations and Definitions
7. The Online Service: Terms of Use
Using the Online Service
. To help you manage the Grants you receive, we will provide you with access to your Recipient Account online (as long as we have a valid email address for you).
We will provide you with login details to get you started, but for security reasons, you will be asked to change these details when you log into your account for the first time. Don’t forget to keep your login details secure and confidential.
We have certain procedures in place to help protect you against unauthorised access to your account, but if you become aware of unauthorised access, or if you think your login details may have been compromised, we recommend that you change them immediately or contact us on 020 8502 8560.
Please note that you are responsible for the accuracy and genuineness of all information sent to us, from login to log-off. This means that you must ensure that all information is carefully checked before being sent to us
From time to time, it may be necessary for us to restrict access to the Online Service, for example when we need to do some maintenance to the site, or to make improvements or changes. We will always do our best to notify you if the service becomes unavailable for any reason, but we reserve the right to withdraw or amend this service without notice and will not be liable if access to the service is unavailable at any time, or for any period.
When using our Online Service, you must comply with our Acceptable Use policy below. Please note that accessing any part of the Online Services constitutes your agreement to be bound by these Online Services Terms of Use, as well as our privacy policy, available at stewardship.org.uk/privacy, which may be updated from time to time.
Intellectual Property Rights
The data and information you can access using the Online Service is protected by copyright, database and other laws relating to intellectual property. All rights in relation to such data and information and the design of the system (including but not limited to the organisation and layout of our Online Service and the underlying software code) are reserved by ourselves.
You may access, print off and download such data and information provided they are only used for your own information purposes.
We grant you this permission as a personal, non-exclusive and non-transferable download licence, which is given on the basis that no documents or related graphics on the Online Service are modified in any way, and copyright and trade mark notices appear in all copies.
Other than expressly provided in these terms, you may not otherwise access, download, copy or use any of the data or information on the Online Service, and under no circumstances may you sell it or otherwise seek to turn it to account, directly or indirectly. Similarly, except as provided in these terms, no part of the Online Service may be reproduced or stored in any other website or included in any public or private electronic retrieval system or service without our consent.
Information provided by third parties
Information about Recipients may be provided by them and we disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such information.
Where we provide links to other sites and resources provided by Recipients or other third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.
Our liability
Whilst we will endeavour to ensure that information provided by us is up-to-date and accurate we do not provide any guarantees, conditions, warranties or other terms in this regard (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and skill), in each case to the maximum extent permitted by law.
To the extent permitted by law, Stewardship (and each of its trustees, officers, directors, employees, contractors or agents) hereby expressly exclude:
This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence (as defined in the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977) nor our liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
Information about you and access to your Account online
We process information about you in accordance with our Privacy Notice, which is available at stewardship.org.uk/privacy. In general, we process information about you where it is necessary to do so in order to carry out the giving services and make Grants to you as a Recipient.
Providing information
Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to provide information about yourself or your organisation you must comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use policy. You warrant that any such contribution does comply with those standards, and you indemnify us for any breach of that warranty or for any claim from any other party that the information provided by you constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy. In the event of such a claim by a third party and in line with our Privacy Notice we reserve the right to pass your details to the third party.
Other than personally identifiable information, which is covered under our Privacy Notice, any material you upload or information you provide will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary, and we will have the right to use, copy, distribute and disclose to third parties any such material for any purpose. We will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any information or material provided by you or any other user whilst accessing your Recipient Account online.
We have the right to remove any information or material which you have provided if, in our opinion, such information or material does not comply with our Acceptable Use policy.
Viruses, hacking and other offences
We will report and pursue to the full extent of the law any unlawful or malicious activity, including unauthorised access to data, introduction of malicious software, or disruption of service to the appropriate authorities under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
Linking to the Online Service
You may link to our Online Service, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.
You must not establish a link from any website that is not both operated by you or on your behalf and controlled by you.
You must not remove, distort or otherwise alter the size or appearance of any graphics or logos, or create a frame or any other browser or border environment around that website.
Our facility must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any of our facilities other than the Online Service. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.
The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use policy.
Helpdesk
We will provide assistance and support to Users during standard office hours through our Helpdesk. However, we will not be liable for any loss resulting from interruption to this service.
ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
This Acceptable Use policy sets out the terms between you and us under which you may use the Online Service. This Acceptable Use policy applies to all users of the Online Service.
Prohibited uses
You may only access the Online Service for lawful purposes. You may not access, post or transmit to your Recipient Account or the Online Service:
You also agree:
Content standards
These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to the Online Service and to any interactive services associated with it. You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole. Contributions must:
Contributions must not:
Suspension and termination
We will determine, in our discretion, whether there has been a breach of our Acceptable Use policy through your use of the Online Service. When a breach of this policy has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.
Failure to comply with our Acceptable Use policy constitutes a material breach of the Terms of using the Online Service and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions (which may include but are not limited to):
We will not accept liability for any costs, damages or expenses incurred by you as a result of actions taken by us in response to breaches of this Acceptable Use policy. The responses described in this policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.
8. Our Giving Service
8.1 Recipient Accounts
Stewardship can support the majority of UK registered churches and charities, as well as many full time Christian workers, Bible college students and overseas charities. Part of what makes Stewardship unique is that Givers can request support for full-time Christian workers who are registered with us, tax effectively. Broadly, we can support most general charitable purposes and there are many charities already registered with us, but because we are a Christian charity, we are not able to support charitable activities that oppose the Christian faith or advance another faith. If we have not made a Grant to a Recipient before, we will need them to complete our application process so we can ensure they are eligible to receive funds from Stewardship. Although it is rare, there may be some occasions where we are not able to register a Recipient if their charitable purposes are not consistent with our own.
Applying for a Stewardship Recipient Account
Before our Givers can support any Recipients using their Stewardship Giving Accounts, we require all Recipients to complete an application form. This is so that we can review their activity and make sure that they would be eligible for support within Stewardship’s charitable objects and under UK charity law. The application process is different depending on the type of Recipient Account you are applying for, but in each case, for security reasons, you must provide us with an original item of bank stationery (such as a pre-printed paying-in slip or a bank statement) to confirm your bank account details. You can find the application form you need at stewardship.org.uk/receive. If your application is successful, you will be added to our database of Recipients so that our Givers can make Donations to you from their Giving Accounts. After this general information, please see the relevant section for the Recipient Account you are applying for which will provide you with account specific information.
Donations to your Recipient Account
Once we have determined your eligibility as a Recipient, we will set up a Recipient Account for you. When a Giver makes a Donation request from their Giving Account, we will make a Donation to your Recipient Account. Donation(s) then accumulate in your Recipient Account until we process Grant payments to you.
Gift Aid
Where we are able to claim Gift Aid on behalf of a Giver, they may choose whether they would like the reclaimed tax to be added to their Donation to the Recipient, or whether the funds will accumulate in their Giving Account balance. Therefore Donations to your Recipient Account may or may not be followed by the proportionate amount of reclaimed tax.
8.2 Grant payments to your bank account
Timing
On a monthly or weekly basis (depending on your preference), we will arrange a Grant from your Recipient Account into your bank account for the total available funds. If you need to change the timing of your regular Grant payment, please call the team to discuss the best option for you. We recognise that there may also be times where it would be helpful to have funds sooner, rather than waiting for your regular Grant payment. In such situations, you can log into your online account and select ‘withdraw funds’ to enable a Grant payment to be made into your bank account approximately five working days later. If a Grant is made to you incorrectly or in error, we may need to recover the full amount of the Grant from you.
Funding Targets / caps (payment limits)
As part of us ensuring that the Grants we make are charitable, we need to make sure that the value of the Grants we distribute is within our charitable purposes. To help manage this, we apply an annual funding target or ‘cap’, to your account. For individual Recipients, the assessment of the funding target (cap) will be based on a number of factors, including your income, ministry expenses, role and location. The specific funding target (cap) will be communicated to you in your welcome letter. We keep these limits under review and therefore we may need you to provide us with updated information from time to time so we can check that the funding target (cap) is still at the right level.
Bank account
If you change your bank details, for security reasons you must advise us in writing and provide us with an original item of bank stationery, such as a pre-printed bank paying in slip, bank statement or void cheque, to confirm the details of your new account.
Important notes
Once you have received a Grant from us, it is your responsibility to ensure that the funds are used only for purposes which are charitable under UK law and in line with the purpose(s) indicated to us in your Recipient application form.
As a Recipient, particularly if you are an individual, you may be subject to tax on the Grants you receive from us. It is your responsibility to determine this and we cannot accept responsibility for any issues arising on taxation of the Grants we may pay to you.
8.3 Fees
As a UK church, charity or individual Recipient, we do not charge a fee for setting up or administering your Recipient Account. Our administration fees are charged on the original gift from the Giver and further details can be found at stewardship.org.uk/pricing. There may be exceptional circumstances where we need to deduct an additional fee to help cover our costs, for example where extra work has been required, but we will always communicate this in advance.
Non-UK Recipient Accounts are subject to administration fees due to the additional administration and due diligence required for the set up and maintenance of a non-UK Recipient Account. Please contact us for further details.
8.4 Your account online
Our Online Service helps you view and manage your Recipient Account with ease.
Reports
Accessing your Recipient Account online enables you to access a number of additional services, including lots of handy online reports to help you keep track of your Recipient Account and the Donations into it. You can view the breakdown of your bulk payments, including the details of the Givers (unless they have chosen to be anonymous), see what Grant payments are on the way, get monthly comparisons of Donations and other helpful information. Simply log into your account online and go to the reports section to see what you can do.
Your information
As part of our Online Service a Giver may search for Recipients by name, Recipient Account number, postcode or charity number. This allows our Givers to be able to easily select who they want to make Donations to, as we have many thousands of Recipients.
If you are an individual Recipient, you will be required to indicate on your application form whether you would like to be searchable by our Givers using our online system. There are also options for additional confidentiality – please see the application form for further details.
Your confidentiality status can be changed at any time by logging into your account online and editing your profile. Alternatively, you can contact the team.
8.5 Using Give.net
What is give.net?
Give.net (pronounced give dot net) is Stewardship’s online fundraising website. It provides a space for individuals to create and share their own fundraising pages, for full-time Christian workers to raise financial support online, and for churches and charities to create and maintain online giving pages.
How it works
8.6 Communication
General information
The most secure way to contact us about your account is to login online and use the secure messaging facility. Alternatively you can contact us by email, letter or by phone, where we will go through our security procedures before discussing account details.
Publicity and announcements
If you plan to make any public announcements in relation to Donation(s) or your Recipient Account, please let us know in advance so we can make sure that this is done in a way that complies with our legal obligations and our internal procedures.
8.7 Additional users
We offer the ability for you to add other persons as Authorised Users on your Recipient Account if you would like. Any additional user(s) will be given their own online access and will be able to discuss account details with us. To add an Authorised User, log into your Recipient Account online and go to the ‘account details’ section. Alternatively, you can call the Giving Services Team. Please note that only Recipient Account holders and Authorised Users will be able to use the Online Service or discuss the account with us.
8.8 Closing your Recipient Account
You are free to close your Recipient Account at any time. Simply contact our team to let us know. In addition to voluntary requests from you to close your Recipient Account, Stewardship will also have the right to close your Recipient Account if you are no longer eligible to receive Grants from us, or there are any material or ongoing breaches of our terms and conditions. We will always try to discuss any problems with you first, but if these cannot be resolved we will have the right to close your Recipient Account. If your account remains unused for three years it will automatically be closed. Now you know all about how the account works, take a look at the relevant section below to find out other important information about the Recipient Account that is relevant to you!
8.9 JustSow
JustSow Giving Ltd (“JustSow”) operates an independent platform on which eligible Recipients can promote their ministry in order to seek financial support through Donations requested by participating Givers. Stewardship may confirm to JustSow a participating Recipient’s name, Stewardship Account Number and funding target (cap). Following any Donation request originating from the JustSow platform, Stewardship will share with JustSow the outcome of the Donation request, the name of the Giver, the name of the Recipient and the amount of any Grant made.
9. Guidance for Specific Recipient Account Types
9.1 For Individual Recipients
We are in a unique position to be able to support many individuals with tax-effective charitable funds. When you receive funds from Stewardship you are receiving charitable Grants to fulfil our charity objects, which are primarily, but not limited to, advancing evangelical Christianity, relieving poverty or distress, advancing education or otherwise promoting charitable work. (Please see the Charity Commission website for full information about our charitable objects.) In order to support individuals in Christian work and at Bible College, we need to be able to satisfy ourselves of your eligibility and meet the obligations of our regulators, HMRC and the Charity Commission. This means that there are some limitations that apply.
Our relationship with you
We believe in the importance of good stewardship by all who handle money for the Kingdom of God. For those who receive money, particularly individuals, we believe that there are three important areas to be considered:
Book your place on our training programme to explore these areas in greater detail or visit stewardship.org.uk/ffl to access a range of useful information for Christian workers.
9.1.1 Christian workers
Eligibility
In order to be eligible to receive support from Stewardship as a Christian worker, you must be in full-time (or substantially full-time) Christian work for no less than six months and we will need you to provide us with certain personal details, including your National Insurance number. You must contact us as soon as possible if you or your spouse’s level of income, your general circumstances or work change significantly, or if you are no longer in full time Christian work. We may need to ask you for additional information and reassess your eligibility to receive Grants. You might need to repay any funds that have been paid to you when you are not eligible in the event of undue delay in contacting us. Regrettably, we are not able to support you if you are a non-UK national and you are not working for an organisation based in the UK.
Ministry name
If you are eligible to receive support from us as a Christian worker, we will allocate a ministry fund name for your account which will usually include a description of your work and the geographic location for your ministry, for example: ‘Youth Evangelism, Birmingham’. Your ministry fund name will be visible on our online system and other locations. There are provisions for those who may be working in sensitive areas of the world. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this further.
Use of Grants
Grants from us are to be used for your ministry expenses and living costs. However if a Grant is made following a Donation request from one of your Close Relatives, the funds can only be used for ministry expenses and not for living costs. It is therefore important for you to monitor Donations made to your Recipient Account at the request of Close Relatives in relation to the total ministry expenses allocated in your Grant payment cap. If the Grants funded by gifts from Close Relatives exceed your ministry expenses, you must contact us. In the event of undue delay in you notifying us of this, you may be required to repay Grants received from Stewardship.
9.1.2 Retired Christian Workers
Eligibility
In order to be eligible to receive support from Stewardship as a Retired Christian worker, you need to be aged 60 or over, have been engaged in Christian ministry for at least 10 years during your working life, and have had an active (i.e. regular support received) Recipient Account with Stewardship for a minimum of three years. You must contact us as soon as possible if your general circumstances change significantly. We may need to ask you for additional information and reassess your eligibility to receive Grants. You might need to repay any funds that have been paid to you when you are not eligible in the event of undue delay in contacting us.
Ministry name
If you’re eligible to receive support from us as a Retired Christian worker, we will allocate a ministry fund name for your account which will usually be ‘Retired Christian Worker Fund’.
Use of Grants
You can use Stewardship Grant payments for general living costs, however we are not able to support you with Donations from any individual who would be considered a Close Relative of you or your spouse.
9.1.3 Bible college students
Eligibility
In order to be eligible to receive support from Stewardship as a Bible college student, you need to be studying full-time at a recognised UK Bible college, on a course of at least one academic year. You must contact us as soon as possible if you or your spouse’s level of income or your general circumstances change significantly, or if you are no longer a full-time Bible college student. We may need to ask you for additional information and reassess your eligibility to receive Grants. You might need to repay any funds that have been paid to you when you are not eligible in the event of undue delay in contacting us.
Course fees
We cannot make Grants directly to a Bible college for an individual’s college fees, but Donations can be made to eligible Bible college students themselves towards the cost of their fees or maintenance.
Ministry name
If you’re eligible to receive support from us as a Bible college student, we will allocate a ministry name for your account which will usually be ‘Bible Education at X College’.
Use of Grants
You can use Stewardship Grant payments for course fees and living costs, however we are not able to support you with Donations from any individual who would be considered a Close Relative of you or your spouse. We may also be able to support you if you’re combining Christian work with Bible College training, although additional considerations apply, so please contact us to discuss this with our team.
9.2 UK organisations
We work alongside churches and charities to help lighten the load by securely processing donations and providing helpful reports for Recipients to keep track of their Grants. Please read this section in addition to the general Recipient Account information.
Projects and specified purposes
The Grants we make to you as a Recipient are usually for general purposes. However you may wish to set up specific projects to which Grants may be allocated, for example, a building project. If this is something that might be useful for your account, just give us a call to discuss how it works.
Sometimes, Givers may also request that their Donation is used for a specific purpose, or sometimes, a specific individual. In these cases, whilst we will not make a restricted Grant unless specifically agreed in advance, we ask Recipients to give consideration to the Giver’s request and where possible, use the Grant for the purpose intended.
9.3 Non-UK Organisations
We are able to support the work of many charitable organisations registered outside of the UK, provided we can obtain sufficient information to confirm your eligibility to receive Grants.
Eligibility
As with all Recipients we support, as a non-UK organisation you will need to complete an application form for us to determine whether we can support your work with Grants from Stewardship within the charitable law of England and Wales. The registration process for organisations outside the UK is more complex than for those within the UK, and can therefore take a little longer to complete, particularly if documents need to be translated and posted from other countries.
Fees
To offset some of the additional due diligence and administration required to register a non-UK Recipient, a one-off fee will be applicable for all new non-UK Recipient Accounts. Further fees may also be charged, for example, where increased due diligence or a site visit is required due to high levels of funding. Please contact us for further details.
Grant payments
Where an overseas organisation operates a UK bank account, we would expect to credit Grant payments to that account. Where no UK bank account is held, a Grant will be made in sterling, directly to the organisation’s overseas bank account. Non-UK banks may also apply their own charges in respect of Grant payments we make. Unless by special arrangement, Grant payments to non-UK bank accounts will not be made until the available funds of the Recipient Account reaches a set level. Please contact us for details.
Due diligence
Rules surrounding charitable Grants overseas are very stringent and from time to time, we may request additional information and evidence from you.
Anti-Bribery, Corruption and Tax Evasion
Stewardship operates a zero tolerance policy towards bribery, corruption and tax evasion. In accepting Stewardship Grants you confirm that you have suitable policy and procedures in place to prevent any part of the funds granted by Stewardship being used for either tax evasion, a corrupt purpose, or to bribe any person or organisation in any part of the world, or otherwise in a way that would breach the requirements of the UK Bribery Act 2010 (or any other applicable laws in any jurisdiction).
10. Other General Terms
Last updated 1st January 2021