Church launches online giving site

Donating to churches and parishes is now easier than ever thanks to the launch of the Church in Wales’ fully digital online giving site.

From today, people can give digitally to any parish or project registered for Gift Direct through the Church in Wales website.

They can manage their donations themselves, choosing where their donation goes, how much they want to donate, how regularly they want to give or amend existing donations. They can also Gift Aid their donation to make it go even further.

The development of the Gift Direct site has been accelerated as part of the Church’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic in order to make it easier for people to support parish ministry.

The Bishop of Bangor, Andy John, who chairs GenRus, the Provincial Stewardship Group, says, “The Church in Wales has been blessed by generous giving for many years. I am delighted that new technology is expanding the potential for this generosity to continue long into the future. GenRus has worked hard alongside colleagues from the provincial office to make this new giving platform available . ‘Gift Direct’ will mean individuals will be able to support all sorts of new projects, as well as their local church community and I am glad to commend its use across the province.”

The Gift Direct scheme was partially digitised last year to enable people to sign up online. As a result, many parishes and churches have since registered their details with the scheme. In one diocese, where there has been a major move to register, there has been an increase in donations equivalent to an extra quarter of a million pounds per year.

Bishop Andy adds, “We hope all our churches will register for Gift Direct now so that donors will be able to find them on our scheme if they wish to make a donation. These are difficult times for everyone and we are extraordinarily grateful for the generosity

To register your church for Gift Direct contact the Gift Direct team on giftdirect@churchinwales.org.uk