Examples from the Diocese: organ restoration
Examples from the Diocese – Organ Restoration at All Saints, Thirkleby.
All Saints Church, Thirkleby, near Thirsk, started fundraising for their organ restoration in April 2011, and needed to raise £35,000. Jill Gillanders, Churchwarden, has listed how they raised funds, and where their money came from.
Fundraising
PCC
Most Grant bodies require that the PCC are raising funds themselves.
Therefore consider asking individual PCC members to take on a fundraising idea themselves and run it. (Sponsor-a-Pipe, Cake stall, Gardening, homemade cards to sell, baby sitting.)
- Sponsor-a-Pipe: for a special event (anniversary, birthday etc) or for yourself = £3449
- Gift Aid = £685
- Cake Stall & Quiz = £633
- British Legion Band Concert in church : unfortunately this had to be cancelled due to severe bad weather.
- Organ Recital = £600
JustGiving
Consider opening a JustGiving website page, which allows people to donate online, from around the world and the giftaid is automatically done for you.
PCCs automatically have charitable status. If your income is less than £100,000 / year and you are not registered with the Chairty Commision, then HMRC will give you a Tax Reference number, required by JustGiving.
Google your area, for Trusts/Charities that may be willing to give grants.
By doing this we found 2 trusts. One is registered in Scotland, but run by a family in our own village, that no one was aware of. We approached them, and they donated *£500 on condition it was kept anonymous.
The other was a trust of the former family estate owners of this village, whose ancestor built the church in memory of her husband. They awarded **£2000.
Some Trusts only help in certain counties (Sir J Priestman, Jack Brunton, YHCT, Normanby)
Try every option – it’s surprising who gives.
Advertise your project in local papers, parish magazines, local radio etc. Someone in the next village had a specific interest in our restoration project, so she persuaded the village to give £500 from their annual fete. (Kilburn Feast Committee)
Suggest to people that, if they have a party/celebration coming up and feel they don’t need a present, to ask people to donate to the project instead.
An 80 yr old’s birthday party raised about £350.
Look at the parish registers and contact those in recent years who have used the church for Baptisms, Weddings etc.
A disappointing response, but approx £400 raised in this way.
Grant Bodies
All Grant bodies we approached required copies of audited accounts.
Our Treasurer prepared Notes on General & Reserve Funds to help explain our shortfall, and how we wished to use the money we already have.
Some will not consider making a grant if work has already begun, so it’s important to check this before you start the restoration work.
Most bodies meet only once or twice a year, so check when the application deadlines are. Most seem to keep correspondence to an absolute minimum, and don’t reply to mail.
A lot can be learnt by phoning them and getting an idea of what they will and will not support, discussing the project etc.
Don’t be disheartened, and if in doubt, give them a ring.
Your organ restorer may give you a list of bodies you can apply to for help.
Some will only consider helping if your organ is of a certain era.
As we’re a small rural parish church, presently in interregnum and only have one service a month, it seemed important to make the point that we may be small, but we’re active, and growing! I included a letter About Us with every application, to make the point that we are serious about our vision and mission for Church in this community.
Trusts and organisations we approached were: (grants given in brackets)
Sir John Priestman Charity Trust, c/o McKenzie Bell, 19 John St, Sunderland SR1 1JG, Tel 0191 5674857 (£4000)
The Jack Brunton Charitable Trust, David Swallow, 10 Bridge Rd, Stokesley, N Yorks. TS9 5AA (£2000)
Church Buildings Council, Church House, Great Smith St, London SW1P 3AZ (£1000)
David Knight Conservation and Grants Officer: 020 7898 1885 (direct line)
www.churchcare.co.uk. This is the C of E grant making body. They ask you to apply on line. The process is long, and I had trouble uploading all the photos and documents. In the end I spoke to David Knight who is very helpful and let me post them. Probably best to phone him before you start the application.
(The Pilgrim Trust is controlled by CBC now.)
Diocesan Board of Finance (£1573) Russell Hodgson, Senior Finance Officer, Diocesan House, Aviator Court, Clifton Moor, York YO30 4WJ Tel 01904 699500. If you’ve paid your Parish Share, you can apply for 10% of net costs.
The ON Organ Fund (£300) Dr A Thurlow, 8 Old Bakery Gardens, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8AJ Tel 01243 533092
Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust (£4000) Jonathan Stamp Grants Sec is very helpful. Best to email him first. yhctgrants@sky.com. Their website gives all the info you need and an application form to download. www.yhct.org.uk
The John Pilling Trust, (£5000) Mr P J Bridge sec, Beever and Struthers Chartered Accountants, Central Buildings, Richmond Terrace, Blackburn BB1 7AP Tel 01254 686600. Require 6 copies of everything!! And although they sound like they only support very highbrow churches, in fact they are really supportive of small village churches too, so don’t be put off! They gave us our largest grant so it was well worth the effort.
The Manifold Trust, Helen Niven, Studio Cottage, Windsor Great Park, Windsor SL4 2HP Tel 01784 497787 (£1000)
Anonymous donation (*£500)
Payne-Gallwey Charitable Trust (**£2000)
Kilburn Feast Committee (£500)
John Laing Charitable Trust, 133 Page Street, London NW7 2ER (unsuccessful application)
The Diapason Trust, No 1 Cottage, Mount Pleasant, Upper Colwell, Malvern, Worcs. WR13 6DH (Didn’t reply)
The Normanby Charitable Trust, 52 Tite Street, London SW3 4JA (didn’t reply)