Regular Giving Scheme (RGS)

Welcome to the St Mary's Regular Giving Scheme! This site provides information, a self-service portal and associated documents, for both prospective and existing members. If you know what you want to do right now then please go straight to the Self Service Portal.

Introduction

St Mary's Church is expected to spend approximately £736,000 in 2022. The Lord provides the finances for all of this mainly through the generous giving of our congregations. We plan our spending carefully in order to make the best use of the resources God gives us. It is a great help for us to know how much income to expect from those who belong to our congregations, so that we can budget more accurately.

The Regular Giving Scheme (RGS) is the name given to St Mary's offering scheme. You tell us how much you plan to give on a regular basis, which in turn, helps us plan. This is a commitment not a contract. If your financial circumstances change you can increase or decrease your giving at any time.

Only the Treasurer and RGS Secretaries have access to the records of the RGS and all information that you provide remains confidential. The Church is covered by the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and does not share personal information with any outside individual or organisation.

We recommend that, wherever possible, payments should be made either by standing order, internet or phone banking. Alternatively, envelopes can be supplied for cash donations which can be placed into the collection boxes in the Church Welcome Area. This method is more complex to administer securely but is provided for those who prefer to give cash or cheques and are unable to use electronic transfer.

The RGS makes it simple for the church to reclaim Gift Aid from the Inland Revenue. Gift Aid is repayment to the church of tax paid by the giver at the basic rate of tax.

For your gift(s) to qualify for Gift Aid you must have:

Paid tax on the amount of your gift(s)
Completed a Gift Aid Declaration

This enables the church to claim - you don't need to do anything further and has no impact on the amount you pay.

For full details of how the money is spent, please look at the annual accounts, produced each year for the APCM annual meeting at the end of March. Copies of recent reports are also available to download from the private area of the Resources/Finance section, (i.e. you have to be logged in to see them).

In brief, St Mary's PCC currently supports:

Vicar, one Associate Minister and a Curate
Minister for the 6:30pm congregation, Minister for Women & Pastoral Care, Minister for Children's Work, Minister for Youth Work, Minister for Youth in Training, Music Director in Training, two part-time Operations Managers, a Facilities Manager and an Administration Manager
Church, Chapel, Church House Offices, Old Vic, Parish Halls, Garden and Drive
Two staff houses and two flats
Mission partners in the UK and overseas (12% of budget)
Ongoing activities of the congregations

The following letter provides an update to this year's financial situation here at St Mary's:

RGS letter to members 2022 rev 3.pdf

To start giving or make any other request for service, please visit the Self Service Portal.

Self Service Portal

Welcome to the Regular Giving Scheme (RGS) Self Service portal.

This has been designed to take you, step-by-step, through most of the frequently encountered requests for services related to RGS. Most matters can be completed online using the links below, including Gift Aid Declarations, however depending on how you usually transact with your bank, you may need a new Standing Order form, so a little paperwork and postage may still be needed, although the portal has been designed to try to minimise this where possible.

If you are logged in to the St Mary's web site, all of your contact details will be pre-populated for you, so it's advantageous to be logged in, although everything will still work if you are not logged in or not even registered.

Please do not complete any of these forms for anyone else, even if they are a spouse and/or you share a joint bank account. We can only take instructions on existing accounts from the person named on the account. Please enter the name of an individual - no joint names please, even if the donations will be made from a joint bank account.

To start the process, select one of the action options below:

I wish to start regular (or occasional) giving

I wish to cease my regular giving

I wish to notify you of a payment holiday

I wish to renew my pledge unchanged

I wish to amend my gift amount, payment method or timing

I wish to notify you of a change of name, title or contact detail

I wish to notify you of a change of tax status

I wish to notify you of a change of bank

I wish to request an ad hoc statement

I wish to request additional envelopes

I have another request not covered by the above

Downloadable Forms

If you have not yet submitted your request for service via the Self Service Portal, please do this first. It may be possible to satisfy your service request without the need for any further documents.

If your service request involves a new Standing Order form and you have opted to download this document in order to print and complete, you will find it here:

Standing Order Form (PCC)

Registering for Gift Aid is now done electronically via the Self Service Portal, however, if you would prefer to use a paper version, this is available here:

Gift Aid Declaration (PCC)

Please download, print, complete and return the form(s) in an envelope to:

RGS (c/o Church Office)
St Mary's Church
St Mary's Close
14 High Street
Maidenhead
Berkshire
SL6 1YY

Once any required document has been received and processed, you will be notified by e-mail or post.

Contact the RGS Secretaries

The central e-mail address for the RGS Secretaries is: .