A Stewardship Health Check

In order to assess the health of stewardship and giving in your parish, you might like to use two tools that are offered here.  The Parish Stewardship Health Check below provides 24 indicators to see how well stewardship is developing in your church.  The giving profile (click here) offers a second diagnostic tool for evaluating levels of giving in the parish.

Parish Stewardship Health Check

There is no single reliable indicator of stewardship health and vitality for a parish. Good stewardship practice demands close attention to many different aspects, including non-financial ones. The following 24 indicators have deliberately been chosen as you can measure them fairly easily and objectively. At any one time most parishes are likely to be weak on a few individual factors, often for good reasons; eg developing ministry by spending reserves. But the more weaknesses that a parish exhibits, and for more consecutive years, the more serious the underlying position is likely to be. How many can you honestly tick for your parish? Do you need to discuss any with your PCC?

Wider stewardship concerns 

The PCC has a clear mission and ministry development plan with specific objectives

All the key roles in the parish are filled by willing (and competent) volunteers

The parish gives away more than 10% of its general funds to external organisations

The parish is a fairtrade parish

The church has reviewed its environmental impacts (eg through EcoCongregation)

The current financial situation: 

The PCC has an annual budget that reflects the ministry development plan above

More than 80% of regular adult worshippers use planned giving schemes

Income is not dependent upon a small number of donors e.g the top 10% of committed donors give less than 40% of the committed giving ££ total

There are one-off Gift Aid envelopes in the pews or prominently on display for visitors to use (or for one-off donations from church members)

The agreed parish contribution is paid monthly by direct debit or standing order

There are designated financial reserves for quinquennial repairs (eg building fund)

General reserves are between 3 and 9 months of normal operating costs

The PCC has a formal risk register that has been updated during the last year

Looking at giving in the last financial year: 

More than 70% the planned givers use bank standing orders

More than 90% of weekly (envelope) ££ pledges are eventually received

More than 75% of total planned giving is done tax-efficiently under Gift Aid, CAF etc

The average level of giving per planned giver (or church member) is more than 70% of the local deanery average

100% of the promised parish share was paid to the diocese

Every regular donor was personally thanked for their financial support

Looking back over the last three years: 

We have reviewed our vision and mission

We have invited our parishioners to review their giving each year

The number of planned givers has increased

More than 70% of the planned givers have increased their level of support

The level of voluntary general income has grown by more than 10%

Well done if your church ticked most of the indicators!