Stewardship: Share Magazine Issue 28 - The Difference

SHARE the stewardship magazine | issue 2 8

THE DIFFERENCE Discovering the potential for transformation Plus: Olivia Barker, from student to social entrepreneur The pursuit of viral What’s our potential?

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#adventwonder

ENTER THE WONDER OF ADVENT We all know that Mary was the bearer of a special gift: the baby Jesus. But what other gifts are waiting to be unwrapped in the Advent story?

This Advent we will be exploring the meaning of the gifts leading up to Jesus’s birth, inviting you to marvel at the unfolding drama of generosity and sacrificial giving in the nativity story.

Sign up by 30 November to explore Advent with us afresh.

Nine short email reflections, sent each Monday and Friday throughout Advent, will bring fresh insight to this familiar story and help you meditate on your own, personal giving.

PLUS! Free sermon resources also available to download and use in your church.

Register for emails, or download resources, at: www.stewardship.org.uk/advent

NEW FOR

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BRAND NEW INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIONS

FR EE

SERMON NOTES FOR CHURCH LEADERS

SIGN UP BY

30 NOVEMBER

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about us We are Stewardship, a charity that effectively releases resources to support individuals, charities and organisations worldwide. Our mission is to enable you to live and give generously, advancing God’s Kingdom.

We believe that generosity is transformational, for the giver and for the receiver. Our work inspires and supports a generous resourcing community, with transformational results.

We are delighted to partner with you in your journey of generosity.

contact us

editorial My children tell me I shouldn’t sing until I’m in

heaven. “While you’re on earth,” they plead, “you should only sing when you’re alone.”

A year ago my family and I left an established church to join a small church plant. Recently, as some of the congregation gathered to reflect on our first year, our pastor wanted to open with a song. Conscious of my limitations, the absence of any musical accompaniment and the stares of my children, I fell back on my typical response at such gatherings: I mouthed the words.

To my surprise, one of the first comments after we finished singing came from a lady named Ruth. She spoke of how she enjoyed her previous church, with everything a large church has to offer, but she was conscious that if she stopped singing no one would notice.

“My voice would not be missed,” she said.

Ruth has a beautiful voice but, of course, she wasn’t referring to her singing. She was talking about something far more precious. Here in this small community she is needed, valued, engaged, giving, and serving sacrificially. She is an important part of our community who, if she were to stop ‘singing’, would be missed.

This issue of Share introduces us to people who have refused to simply go through the motions and mouth the words. From food banks across the UK to kids’ clubs in sub-saharan Africa, I hope their stories inspire you to make even more noise with your life.

Michael O’Neill, CEO Stewardship

1 Lamb’s Passage, London EC1Y 8AB 020 8502 5600 enquiries@stewardship.org.uk stewardship.org.uk You can contact the editor by emailing editor@stewardship.org.uk Editor: Craig Borlase Design: adeptdesign.co.uk Stewardship is the operating name of Stewardship Services (UKET) Limited, a registered charity in England and Wales no. 234714 and a company limited by guarantee no. 90305

we’ve moved Please use our new address on all correspondence: 1 Lamb’s Passage, London EC1Y 8AB

like what you read?

Use your Stewardship account to lend your support 3

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news in brief who cares?

Home for Good aims to change the culture in local churches throughout the UK by making adoption and fostering a significant part of their life and ministry. Launched in September, we were pleased to help Home for Good register as a charity in its own right, and also support their start up fundraising on give.net.

Find out more at www.homeforgood.org.uk

greater love has no one than this…

In 1914 there was a Christmas truce on the battlefields. Soldiers stopped fighting. The carol ‘Silent Night’ rang out across No Man’s Land in English and in German. Some troops even played football. One hundred years later, HOPE Together has commissioned a specially written version of Silent Night for churches to use in their Christmas services, as part of their ‘Greater Love’ resources, designed for churches wishing to mark this important centenary in their communities.

To download free resources and other mission materials visit www.hopetogether.org.uk

food for thought A new downloadable resource for churches has been released by BUGB, the URC, the Methodist Church and Church Action on Poverty. Faith in Foodbanks? aims to help churches to take action to help with the growing issue of food poverty in the UK. It’s a hot topic.

Food banks are currently feeding over a million people each year. To find out more, visit: www.jointpublicissues.org.uk/faithinfoodbanks 4

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features 6

give.net in action

9

40acts

10

what’s our potential?

we’ve moved!

We seem to have been planning it for ages, but Stewardship finally has a new home. We are now based at our brand new offices at 1 Lamb’s Passage, London, EC1Y 8AB. One of our aims in making the move was to create a meeting space that others could use, and we started as we mean to go on. Here’s what one of our first visitors had to say: “I wanted to say a massive thank you for allowing us to use your wonderful new offices for our meeting yesterday. Many of your people worked extremely hard to make it possible for us to be there with the facilities we needed. We experienced generosity in both attitude and hospitality today, and your staff couldn’t have been more helpful.”

If you’d like to find out more about our new premises, you can visit: www.stewardship.org.uk/lambs

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the pursuit of viral

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Olivia Barker: social entrepreneur

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what makes you give?

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legal and financial roundup

28

consultancy helpline

The magazine is printed on paper from farmed forests: for each tree felled, another is planted. The paper is ­­­­chlorine-free and environmentally friendly.

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Photo credit: Chris Phutully

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enerosity never stands still, so here at Stewardship we love working on new ideas to help make giving easy and strengthen Christian causes. The big news back in September 2012 was the launch of our new online fundraising website, give.net, and the project has grown into an invaluable tool for Christian fundraising since then. In just over 18 months more than £1.5million has been raised on give.net!

To help charities and churches get started with give.net, our team has hit the road, running beginners’ workshops all over the country. To offer yet more support, the team has produced a PowerPoint presentation for users, as Stewardship’s Charlotte Jones explains: “It gives our users hands-on help, taking them through the procedure step by step. We’ve included screenshots and a list of give.net benefits.” On the website, fundraisers can also access a free fundraising toolkit containing downloadable posters and flyers, a letter template for contacting local businesses and fundraising tips.

Regular giving is now available on give.net too…

Over the summer we’ve also added a big new feature to give.net; regular giving by Direct Debit. In just a few clicks, supporters can now search for their chosen charity or church and set up a secure, monthly donation. All donations are handled by our giving services team and are backed by the Direct Debit guarantee.

For charities and churches wanting to encourage online donations, give.net now offers the complete package; fundraising, one-off donations by debit or credit card and now, regular giving

by Direct Debit too.

And that’s not all. A new search function and other improvements have also just been rolled out to help visitors find and support their favourite charities, churches and Christian ministries direct from the give.net website.

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Adoption and fostering campaign Home for Good have been enthusiastic users of give.net for the past six months. Malini Colville, Home for Good Campaign Co-ordinator, has been delighted by the amount raised. “We had a target of £20,000 to launch the campaign as a stand-alone charity, and within six weeks, we had raised over £24,000 including Gift Aid. We found give.net so easy to use and very accessible.” Give.net has clearly had a significant impact on Home for Good. “It raised our profile massively, and we were able to put the campaign on Twitter and Facebook which also made a huge difference.”

I’ve found give.net much simpler from an administrative and financial perspective than the service we used before.

Our donors also find it very easy to use

Another recent convert to give.net is Teesside based global movement Lionsraw, which works with football fans who want to make a difference. Since 2004, the charity has mobilised and helped football supporters to volunteer for local community projects and work overseas on Legacy Tours for the duration of the World Cup. During the recent World Cup in Brazil, the team were working with children in the favelas to help improve their lives. Ian Goodrick is the Finance Manager for Lionsraw. He changed to give.net last June and is very clear about the impact it has had. “I’ve found give.net much simpler from an administrative and financial perspective than the service we used before. Our donors also find it very easy to use and I can honestly say that it’s never given me any problems. Working with Stewardship has been great – they are so supportive and helpful. We’ve raised over £6,000 including Gift Aid through our donation page so far.”

To find out more about what give.net can do for you and your organisation, visit www.give.net or call us on 020 8502 5600. We’d love to help.

And don’t forget to use give.net the next time you fundraise!

Home for Good 20139871

Lionsraw 20103647

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40ACTS 2014 WHAT HAPPENED?

THE FOURTH YEAR OF OUR LENTEN GENEROSITY CAMPAIGN WAS BIGGER THAN EVER…

589

698

1,727

46,000

CHURCHES

SMALL GROUPS

FAMILIES

INDIVIDUALS

Joined our community of godly giving and generous living in the lead-up to Easter this year.

Statistics only tell part of the 40acts story; read about changed communities and transforming generous acts at 40acts.org.uk Sign up now at www.40acts.org.uk and join us in 2015

facebook.com/40acts

twitter.com/40acts 9

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WHAT’S OUR POTENTIAL? Forget all that broadsheet talk about the decline in church numbers, the truth is far more optimistic than some would have us believe. We have incredible potential to meet some of society’s most pressing needs.

Homelessness

Food poverty

85,700

families (most with children) deemed homeless by local authority and in ‘priority need’

500,000

people reliant on food aid (church-poverty.org.uk)

(Crisis)

5.5m

4.9m weekly church

members of UK churches

attendees

(British Religion in Numbers, 2005)

Debt

25,955

UK houses repossessed each year (The Money Charity)

37,500 UK churches (EA, 2008)

Isolated elderly

5m

over-75s say television is their main source of company (NHS)

7.6m

number of monthly church attendees (Tearfund)

Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless the godless world. [James 1:26-27, The Message] 10

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relig in th

d of less

HOW BIG

Youth crime

IS THE UK CHURCH?

5.5m

2,040

8,000

UK public sector workers

(British Religion in Numbers, 2005)

(Office for National Statistics, 2013)

Ministers

paid youth workers in UK churches (National Centre for Church Youth Workers, 2014)

(British Religion in Numbers, 2005)

36,000

average number of under-18s in custody (gov.uk, 2010/11)

Adoption and fostering

5.5m

Members of UK churches

21,300 Midwives (Royal College of Midwives, 2012)

57,000 Pubs in UK

(CAMRA, 2011)

37,500 UK churches

14,600

15,000

(EA, 2008)

children in need of adoption or foster care

Churches in EA, Care for the Family and CCPAS network

(Home For Good)

religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, in their plight, and guard against corruption from

3.4m

3.4m

Songs of Praise viewing figures

Eurovision viewing figures in Sweden

(BBC, 2010)

(the internet)

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VIRAL APPEAL HOW FOODBANKS WENT NATIONAL

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If you had a bucket of icy water slooshing down your back this summer, you’ll know what happens when genuine public concern collides with social media traction.

Yet once upon a time, and we’re not talking too long ago, quirky viral campaigns were different. They were simpler affairs and they generally took the shape of a brightly coloured plastic wristband. Like bright-eyed pop groupies we wore our charitable allegiances on our sleeves, dutifully advertising the product of our choice.

But not any more. These days a charity that sells wristbands is dangerously out of touch. These days, supporters need to be invited in to play their own part in the charity’s story, to have their own influence leveraged across all digital platforms.

For some, this all amounts to the gamification of giving; a watered down version of philanthropy that tickles the ego and is easy on the wallet. For others, viral marketing is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

So while an increasing number of folks in marketing are now trying to find a way of helping their quirky charity campaign to become the next big thing, it’s worth remembering that not all viral movements are the same. Stephen Sutton’s fundraising for the Teenage Cancer Trust tapped in to the fundraiser’s old friends, compassion and inspiration, while No Make-up Selfie and Movember both play to the selfie-loving, status-updating ‘socialmediarista’ within us.

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But it is the last five years that have seen the biggest explosion in their numbers, with almost 450 foodbank centres now at work across the UK, providing almost 1million people with emergency food to last three days.

£

These last two may appear to be beautifully simple, but in truth they are deceptively hard to emulate. Like YouTubing bedsit balladeers hoping to become the next Ed Sheeran or groupies tweeting Lord Sugar with their latest business idea, many try to take their charity viral, but few succeed.

Despite not having much of a social media presence as recently as two years ago, this last Easter The Trussell Trust found themselves riding a wave of social media enthusiasm and support. Their Help Crack UK Hunger campaign was given a colossal boost when the Mail on Sunday sent a journalist undercover to see if he could get free food. After lying to a Citizens Advice Bureau volunteer to obtain a foodbank voucher, he was given food and the paper ran a piece that claimed the system was open to abuse.

The Trussell Trust know more about this than most. Having started in a garden shed and a garage back in 2000, they are now one of the country’s most talked-about charities. Rarely a week goes by without them appearing in a national newspaper, and they are adding new foodbanks every week.

On Easter Saturday, the Mail told the Trust that they’d gone undercover to do an exposé on foodbanks and that the charity had a matter of hours to respond. After giving them a statement, there was nothing more to do than wait and see what was written and how the public would react.

Even before the financial troubles of 2008 they Trussell Trust Chief Executive were experiencing impressive growth, with 50 David McAuley says: new foodbanks starting in their first seven years.

“On Easter Sunday a prayerful friend texted to say ‘expect the unexpected’. At about 1pm on Sunday I got a text from our they are driven by PR manager saying you people, and for them need to go onto social media to see what’s happening. Eva Wiseman from social media is all The Observer had read the piece and was about engagement, appalled by how the Mail on Sunday had listening and tried to discredit a charity. In response she took to Twitter and said that she’d donated conversation. to The Trussell Trust and encouraged

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level of engagement with the community, and removes any need for people to wonder what proportion of the donation the charity will keep back to pay wages and office costs.

The whole tin is donated, simple as that.”

others to do the same. Soon hundreds of people got involved too, with author Mark Haddon donating £500 and journalist/ producer Jon Ronson and Billy Bragg tweeting their support. We watched as our online fundraising page went up by £200 every minute and by the end of Tuesday people had donated £97,000.”

The roots of such social media traction lie not in some strategy mapped out on a flipchart, but in the very DNA of the foodbank project. The Trussell Trust has always been driven by need, from the early days of feeding 1,500 people in Salisbury to their 2007 drive to raise awareness of hidden hunger in the UK. They have also always worked closely with local communities, working from a social franchise model where local communities are at the heart of the action, and with The Trussell Trust focus on supporting and training rather than delivering the service itself. And they love to make giving simple.

“We provide long life food, over 90% of which is donated by the public,” explains David. “One of the main ways we collect food is by holding supermarket collections.

As people go into the store, we talk to people and hand them a shopping list explaining what we do and asking them to buy an extra tin or two. This gives a different

This is the root of the work of The Trussell Trust; it’s all about communities taking action to meet a need. It’s not hard to believe David when he explains that they are driven by people, and that for them social media is all about engagement, listening and conversation. Would they still be hard at work with the surge of interest last Easter?

“Yes,” says David. “There are still thousands of people who are struggling right across the UK. Year on year we want to report that fewer people needed our foodbanks. The community will make or break that. If they buy into it, that’s your problem part solved.”

Viral campaigns are all well and good, but the social media spotlight doesn’t always ensure that the good, the generous and the virtuous win out. Fame can be a fickle friend, melting every bit as quick as ice in a plastic bucket. Charities, just like starstruck teenagers and former celebrities planning their comeback, forget that at their peril.

The Trussell Trust 20031215

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OLIVIA BARKER SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR While most students on their post-A level gap year turn their thoughts to money – either the spending or the earning of it – Olivia Barker did something different. In the months before she started at Manchester University she took the first steps towards setting up a charity.

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God spoke incredibly clearly to me, telling me that He had brought me here and that I could make a difference to this community.

“I was in Uganda when a friend of mine told me about Katanga, the biggest slum in Kampala,” she says. “I had a day off, and despite the warnings that it was a really dangerous place, I decided to go. I wanted to try to help in any way I could.”

What Olivia found when she entered the slum shocked her. “The conditions were heartbreaking. There among the open sewers, the filth and the dirt was where malnourished children played and lived.”

Olivia was determined to do something about the lives of those children living in Katanga. Once she got back to the UK, she wrote and pleaded with various charities and churches, asking for their help. “I had no response from anyone. Maybe it was my age or the priorities of other organisations, but I hit a brick wall.”

Her experiences in Uganda had a lifechanging effect on Olivia. Undergraduate life came as something of a culture shock, and soon she was saving up for flights back to Uganda.

“I had such difficulty trying to get others interested in Katanga, but eventually I was able to return with a friend a year after my first visit. But nothing had changed there, and I was really angry with God about it. Yet God spoke incredibly clearly to me, telling me that He had brought me here and that I could make a difference to this community.”

And so it began. With the help of two other friends – one British and one Ugandan – the three under twenty-year-olds set up Kids Club Kampala (KCK), their aim: to bring hope and love to children living in desperate situations in Katanga.

That was back in 2009, and their initial work brought them into contact with 200 children in one slum community. Five years on KCK has grown to reach over 4,000 children in 17 different communities.

The main focus is the provision of a weekly Kids Club, which includes games, drama, football and a Bible teaching session. KCK is grass roots and community-based, and the vision has responded to other needs, growing

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to include feeding projects, education, clothing and now women’s and men’s cooperatives.

It’s hard to imagine how much of this would have happened without Olivia’s hard graft, steely determination and huge work ethic. “While I was at university, my parents saw it as a bit of a hobby, and in some senses university life seemed trivial and self-indulgent. Many of my friends didn’t really understand, but luckily my course was Development Studies and my fellow course-mates had a real empathy for what we were doing.”

Part of the journey that Olivia has been on has been one of self-discovery. “I have discovered loads about myself,” she says, “like the fact that I am very stubborn, very determined and refuse to give up. But more importantly we have all discovered more about God. God is incredibly faithful, He has answered prayers time and time again. His faithfulness is not only all-encompassing but also personal. I know I am doing God’s work and I am incredibly blessed by that.”

On graduating, Olivia got a job working for an International Development Consultancy, a highly demanding job involving long hours.

“I spent all my money and annual leave visiting Uganda, and my weekends writing emails and fundraising for KCK.”

I always thought we had to prove ourselves and be independent and professional.

A turning point came last year when Olivia was selected as one of the winners of the 2013 Vodafone World of Difference Awards.

“They funded my salary for a while so I was able to work full-time for KCK. It was a sea change in our organisation.” This was a significant boost up the steep learning curve that they had been on.

Olivia and her colleagues are not stopping, and their vision is huge. “The big dream is to roll out our model to other places with much need. For example, there are thousands, if not millions, of children living in refugee camps. The key is that we are grass roots and community-led, using and enabling local people to run different projects.”

Though still tiny and in its early days, KCK is clearly having an impact. “In the last year we doubled our income and I and Corrie Fraser won the Global Champions Award at the Cosmopolitan Ultimate Women of the Year Awards.”

Splitting time between UK and Uganda presents its own unique challenges, as well as opportunities. “Here I am raising funds and awareness, applying for grants, organizing events and championing KCK within the church. But my heart is back in Uganda.

Seeing how our projects are making such a difference and having an impact on individual children’s lives, gives me so much joy and pleasure. I am so grateful to God for that.”

Olivia now works out of some rented space in her church in North London and divides her time between the UK and Uganda. “It hasn’t been an easy ride, and I have made some mistakes along the way. The biggest I think was not asking for help and the fear of not being taken seriously, mainly because we are all quite young and I always thought we had to prove ourselves and be independent and professional.”

Kids Club Kampala 20145225 19

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Photo credits: Freedom House. flickr.com/photos/syriafreedom

WHAT MAKES YOU GIVE?

If you don’t remember the video that accompanied Save the Children’s Syria fundraising campaign earlier this year, there are a few possible explanations. Perhaps you didn’t see it. Perhaps you did see it but were turned off by the shocking nature of the mocked up footage of a young girl’s life falling apart before her eyes. Or perhaps you saw it, felt a momentary stir of interest but eventually moved on to focus on something slightly more engaging.

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The film itself caused a stir. Some called it manipulative and claimed it was ‘everything that was wrong with charity advertising’; others defended the piece, declaring that it was entirely appropriate for a conflict that has killed more than 11,000 children and created more than 1.2 million child refugees.

What’s clear, however, is that as the charity approached the third year of the conflict, Save the Children felt the need to try a different way of grabbing people’s attention.

charities can find themselves having to compete by creating ever more compelling (and eventually disturbing) content.

Things are not what they were in the world of charity communication. Using guilt is nothing new, but the extent to which we are exposed to heart-rending tales of suffering and tragedy is clearly at something of a high.

Appeals hit us from multiple sources – our phones, letterboxes, TV screens, newspapers and high streets, not to mention family, friends and friends of friends who happen to be fundraising for a worthwhile cause and would just love us to support them as they run/walk/climb next month.

the case for support. Instead, these donors are more likely to be encouraged to part with their cash by a strong photo, some emotive video or a touching story that demonstrates the need for support.

For people who shy away from emotive charity appeals, these tugs at the heartstrings can be something of a distraction. They want to know what works, to be sure that their money is going to be put to good use. It’s hardly surprising that these givers tend to give larger amounts than those who give on gut instinct.

According to Bernard Ross, co-author of The Influential Fundraiser, guilt can be a powerful way of making someone pause and focus on your message, but it rarely translates to real engagement. Instead, he suggests, guilt produces a knee-jerk response, a quick reaction rather than a long-term relationship.

After too much playing on the emotions, charities can find themselves having to compete by creating ever more compelling (and eventually disturbing) content. It becomes a drug, and like all narcotics, the short-term highs always wear off.

For some of us, it’s all a little exhausting.

For others, it’s compelling. A recent article

by Cass R Sunstein on bloombergview.com argued that for many givers, the decision over whether or not to donate is based purely on the strength of their emotional response.

“Giving produces a kind of warm glow, and we give in part because we want to enjoy that glow.” To such a donor, it matters little whether the statistical evidence strengthens 22

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The least. The lost. The last. The outsiders.

The outcasts. The wrong people. The sort of individuals from whom our cozy lives can keep us insulated. They are the ones we must care for.

Not all thinkers mark guilt down as a negative emotion. Philosopher Peter Singer argues in his book The Life You Can Save that those of us enjoying the affluence of the West – even if we’re not that far up the ladder compared to others – have a duty to turn our backs on even the most basic of comforts and use our money to alleviate suffering instead. To some – but by no means all – theologians, scripture backs him up.

In Matthew 25 Jesus describes God’s final judgement as being like the separation of sheep and goats by the shepherd. They – we – will be put into one of two groups. Those on one side will be welcomed, while those on the other will not. Instead, “they will go away to eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46, NIV).

And how do we get on the right side?

According to Matthew’s retelling of Jesus’ story, the sole criterion to spending eternity with God is this: responsibility. Did the people feed the poor, befriend the stranger, clothe the naked, help the sick, or support the oppressed? If so, they made it through. If not… they didn’t.

Few Christians would argue against the idea that God wants us to look beyond ourselves, noticing and responding to the needs of others. And not just any old set of “others,” not just the nice ones who might be able to get us some kind of promotion or recognition if we treat them right, but the other sort of others. The least. The lost. The last. The outsiders. The outcasts. The wrong people.

The sort of individuals from whom our cozy lives can keep us insulated. They are the ones we must care for. They are the people God’s gravity draws us toward.

How we, as rich Christians living in an age of hunger, allow ourselves to be directed is a matter for personal prayer, discussion and accountability. But it is worth remembering that not all people give for the same reasons.

Some are driven by altruism, others through a desire for reciprocity, others still because they know that the world will be better as a result.

Writing in The Guardian following the death of Claire Squires as she took part in the 2012 London Marathon – prompting 80,000 people to give more than £1million – Peter Maple suggested that, “we give first and foremost not to the cause but to the person who asks us to give.”

In Maple’s example, the person asking for the donation could be anyone from a family friend to a work colleague. It is a good point that might help make sense of the deluge of requests for sponsorship that many of us experience. But viewed through the eyes of Christian faith, the quote takes on an even greater resonance…

Why do we give?

We give to the person who asks us to give.

Ultimately, all our giving is a gift back to God. What better motivation could we have in mind when we choose to act generously?

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RELIEF AND SORROW How Open Doors UK responded to events in Syria and Iraq We were one of the first organisations to start working in Syria once the war broke out, bringing food and medical supplies to Christians there and we were also able to respond very quickly in Iraq. We had been working in both countries for several years before, building relationships with the church. Today we continue to be feeding about 8,000 families a month inside Syria itself and 3,000 families in Northern Iraq.

But it’s a shame that people need to know about us. We’re both relieved that people respond so generously and terribly sad that we need to ask in the first place. People are becoming more aware of us and religious freedom is becoming more in the public eye and it’s right that it should be the case - but it saddens me that it’s necessary.

Lisa Pearce, Deputy CEO Open Doors UK and Ireland

Tents and refugees at Mar Elia Chaldean church in Ankawa, a neighbourhood of Erbil, Northern Iraq.

Families fled Mosul, Qaraqosh and Nineveh plain after the violence caused by fighters of IS.

Photo credits: Open Doors UK and Ireland

We’ve seen an extraordinary response from people in the UK, far bigger than we anticipated, which is a huge encouragement to us. At times it has felt as if the persecuted church is the best kept secret, but recent media coverage has highlighted it. We’re not having to educate people; they’re informed. That makes it quite simple to offer people the chance to do something practical as well as to pray.

Open Doors UK 20021689 25

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legal & financial roundup Kevin Russell explores what’s new and noteworthy

Visit www.stewardship.org.uk/share28 for more on each of these items, plus full links

FOR DONORS

Higher rate tax relief As we enter the tax return season once more, it is a good time to note that many Gift Aid donors that pay tax at the higher rate or additional rate can claim a personal tax repayment just by telephoning their tax office! And once you have your repayment, why not consider giving some or all of it to charity? Under Gift Aid, of course!

Social Investment tax relief (SITR) SITR is a new relief for investors that wish to invest in newly issued shares or qualifying loan finance of an ‘eligible social enterprise’. The conditions for relief (both on the social enterprise and the investor) are quite restrictive but the Government hope to widen the scope for relief once negotiations with Europe have been concluded.

FOR CHARITIES

Online Gift Aid claims: More help from HMRC HMRC has recently updated its Charities Online Demonstrator. The Demonstrator, which includes actual screen shots that you will encounter, helps you to avoid problems, and will answer many of the questions associated with claiming Gift Aid and other charity reliefs online.

Charity Accounts – new SORP The charity regulators for England, Wales and Scotland have recently published two new accounting standards, known as ‘SORPs’ that will apply to charity accounts from the New Year. It is expected that compliance with the new rules will be required in Northern Ireland a little later.

Stewardship will be analysing the issues and producing a guide for churches and Christian charities, shortly.

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Charities and campaigning in the run-up to the General Election Following the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act, which comes into force on 19 September 2014, charities that undertake any form of campaigning of a political nature, will need to be aware of the Act’s provisions in the run-up to the General Election.

The Electoral Commission, along with the three UK charity regulators, has produced a Charities and Campaigning Guide to help empower charities to campaign effectively whilst meeting their legal obligations, including under the new law.

Charities with net current liabilities

PAYE warning: ceasing to be an employer

The Charity Commission has recently published a report concerning the financial risk faced by charities that have net current liabilities on their balance sheet. It makes clear that the Commission expect trustees to explain why the situation has arisen and how it is being managed.

It is not uncommon for very small churches and Christian charities to move in and out of being an employer for Pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax purposes. But employers in this position need to be aware that their PAYE scheme must be formally closed if the scheme is no longer required. HMRC can issue penalties if this is not done.

Abolition of National Insurance Contributions

Northern Ireland – Charity Registration

From 6 April 2015, employers will no longer have to pay NI contributions in respect of employees under the age of 21. Our Blog article contains a warning on the potential for errors where an employee passes the age of 21 whilst in your employment.

Compulsory registration of charities in Northern Ireland is now in progress.

However, only organisations that have been called by Charity Commission Northern Ireland to submit an application can register at this time.

Twitter updates Stewardship’s Technical Director is now on Twitter. Keep up to date with all the Tech Tweets by following Kevin @KevnRussell (no ‘i’ in Kevn!)

Kevin Russell, Technical Director

For the very latest news, subscribe to our free Sharpen email bulletin (formerly known as Legal Eagle) by visiting our website stewardship.org.uk You can also check our Blog pages for technical updates on law, accounting and tax stewardship.org.uk/blog 27

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ask Steve…

Professional advice for churches and charities

Stephen Mathews heads up the Stewardship consultancy helpline team, a specialist service offering expert knowledge to churches and charities.

PAY Q: We have a great bunch of highly skilled trustees.

We know that we can’t pay them for being trustees, but can we pay them for their other contributions?

A: The Charity Commission makes it clear that one of the attributes that makes charities distinctive is the voluntary principle. It believes that this principle helps to sustain trust and confidence in charities and that it should remain the norm. Other than in rare circumstances, trustees can’t be paid for acting as trustees, but can have expenses incurred on behalf of the charity reimbursed. The payment of trustees (or connected parties; spouse, close family, and business partners) for services provided to the charity requires consideration.

Firstly, check the charity’s governing document as some specifically prohibit the payment of trustees in any circumstances. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, consider whether any proposed payment is in the best interests of the charity; then whether that payment poses a conflict of interest for the trustee; and finally consider any conditions attached to a payment. Assessing risks and managing conflicts of interest are important factors when considering whether to pay trustees. Regardless of any other considerations, the Charity Commission will not allow the majority of trustees to be paid under any circumstances.

Where a payment has been made, full disclosure should be made in the annual accounts. CC11 – “trustee expenses and payments” found on the Charity Commission website provides extensive guidance.

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ENDING

EXPENSES

Q: The charity that I am involved with appears to have run its course. What should I consider as I set about closing it down?

Q: From time to time, our church employees incur expenditure in the course of their duties. Do we have to include this on the year end P11D?

A: Charities close for many reasons and

A: Without an HMRC dispensation or a PSA,

CLOSED

are more likely to close because they have achieved their aims rather than because of failure or mismanagement. As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens” and as such trustees should not normally approach closure with a heavy heart.

Unlike start-ups, closures are by their very nature bespoke with each charity having followed a different path and developed different relationships during the course of its existence. There can be no “one size fits all” closure checklist.

However, there are some common threads that run through any closure and each has the aim of leaving the organisation clear of any residual liabilities or responsibilities that could surface in the future and cause embarrassment to the trustees or require financial recompense. Our blog broadens this discussion.

What is clear is that there are some particularly high-risk areas. So, should your organisation own property (buildings), hold endowments or restricted funds, or employ staff then it is important that you seek qualified legal advice before following a course of action that could turn out to be both time-consuming and potentially costly.

then any taxable expenditure that you as an employer reimburse to your staff should be included on the P11D or P9D (return of expenses and benefits) and should be included by the employee in their own tax return. The reimbursement is treated as taxable income, however, the employee can claim a deduction if the expenditure qualifies as an ‘expense of employment’. To address this waste of time, employers can apply for a dispensation, and if successful a notice will be granted by HMRC which removes that reporting requirement and any requirement to pay tax or national insurance. Once granted, dispensations last indefinitely but are kept under review by HMRC.

Dispensations do not cover all types of expenditure but are limited to those items for which your employee is able to get a full tax deduction. In short, this is expenditure that is incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in pursuit of the work of the church or charity.

So, work related travel costs can be included, as opposed to paying for the pastor’s annual holiday which can’t.

For more on PSAs; how to apply for a dispensation and the types of expenses that can be included see our blog.

If you have a question you would like addressed in a future edition of Share, please write to us at editor@stewardship.org.uk

Stephen Mathews, Head of Accountancy and Consultancy Services.

Struggling to keep up with payroll changes? Worried your church or charity is not paying staff correctly? Our Payroll Bureau team can help lighten the load. Visit www.stewardship.org.uk/payroll-bureau to find out more.

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online fundraising from

Find your cause and start fundraising at give.net small Charities

Give.net is the new online fundraising website from Stewardship, a registered charity (234714) serving the church since 1906

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target “ I smashed my for d e is a r and Mission.”

Gloucester City

“ I dyed my hair and for raised JARS (Jesus & Relief Supplies).”

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@give 22/09/2014 12:34:14

charity: water // Stewardship recipient 20122503 Photo by Esther Havens. Property of charity: water Soul Survivor // Stewardship recipient 20032886 Image courtesy of Soul Survivor 2009

organise all your charitable giving in one online account:

stewardship.org.uk/givingaccount

transforming generosity

Stewardship is a registered charity 234714.

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