Financial Support
Holy Trinity has solid financial support from Church members and other regular donors, mostly from monthly, quarterly or annual standing orders, others from envelope collections, and these together with related Gift Aid recoveries from the Inland Revenue cover some 70% of our normal annual expenditure. The balance of income comes from other fund-raising activities (annual fete and ad hoc events such as a flower festival or concerts), special one-off donations, fees, and a grant towards Churchyard maintenance from Westerham Town Council.
The Church building requires regular maintenance and repair, for which we have a reserve account, held by the Diocese on our behalf. These repairs are usually specified following quinquennial inspections.
Our general outgoings are carefully monitored - the largest cost (about 40% of the total) being contributions to Diocesan expenditure. This money goes towards paying for clergy stipends and pension contributions within the Diocese as a whole, also to cover other Diocesan staff and clergy costs. External giving accounts for nearly 20% of our income, with the remainder being spent on heating, lighting, day-to-day maintenance costs (both of the church and the vicarage), church music, administration and the like.
Contact: Tony Rogers - Hon Treasurer (01959 564370; email tonycanrogers@gmail.com)
Planned Giving
Planned giving is when we give money to the Church on a regular basis. There are two main ways of doing this: by bank standing order – which can be monthly, quarterly or annually, or
by donations placed in the envelopes provided in the Church and collected at services.
Because planned giving is regular it allows the PCC to budget for today and plan for tomorrow and it provides a very convenient way of gift-aiding our contributions.
Gift Aid allows the Church to recover 25% of your donations from the Inland Revenue so long as you sign a Gift Aid Declaration which will then cover all your future donations to the Church.
Bank standing orders and Gift Aid forms available from Tony Rogers - see above.
Income and expenditure, year ended 31 December 2019
Total receipts on unrestricted and restricted funds were £64,142 and £14,892 respectively. The former included £38,460 unrestricted planned voluntary donations, £1,847 from cash collections, and a further £9,563 was from gift aid. Summer fete receipts were £7,253 before costs (£6,106 net after expenses of £1,147) and the fees charged for weddings and funerals amounted to £4,171. The restricted fund income included special appeals of £7,667, gift aid donations (including related tax benefit) of £3,125 for specific purposes, and grants received towards churchyard and other costs of £4,100.
£61,512 was spent from unrestricted funds to provide the Christian ministry from Holy Trinity. Within this figure, an amount of £30,000 was paid as a "parish offer" towards Diocesan expenditure, a major element of which is the cost of clergy stipends and pension contributions.
The net movement in unrestricted funds was a surplus of £2,630, increasing the total of unrestricted funds from £54,763 to £57,393.
During the year a new restricted fund was launched to contribute towards meeting the expenses of repairs and maintenance of the Church buildings - the funds may not be used by the church for any other purpose - as a means of attracting financial support from residents and other people who are not themselves members of the Church of England but who would be prepared to contribute towards the Church as a part of village life in general.
Click here for full accounts, reported on by the Independent Examiner and adopted at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting on 8th April 2019.