Thank you for seeking more information concerning how to give to the work of Opendoor Church. Apart from occasional grants to fund specific projects, we rely on the generosity of those in the church and we trust God to provide all the financial resources we need. We are most grateful for gifts received, both large and small. Where possible it helps us to receive regular systematic giving, so that we can properly make provision for staff, premises, activities, etc.
Giving is an act of worship and a further expression of our thankfulness and love for God. Everything we have is from God, and we honour Him when we give financially to bless and serve the church and those around us. For those who consider Opendoor Church to be their church family we believe that giving is part of our discipleship and heart attitude towards God. For this reason we do not take a formal offering in our meetings as we do not want guests to feel obliged to give.
Our preferred method is for you to set up a regular payment via your bank either online or via standing order. Regular giving helps us to plan our finances better, please fill in the contact form on this page and Ruth Powers will be able to send you details of our bank account to pay into. Note that we do not have a direct debit facility and we don’t believe that giving in this way would be biblical as direct debit is taking money from you rather than you giving money to us.
On a Sunday morning we have a card reader available to make payments by credit or bank cards. Please ask Ruth or Tony Powers to use the card reader. This uses the Square platform which takes 1.75% of your donation to cover their costs.
You can also give by cash or cheque either on a Sunday morning or by post to or in person at the church offices (the address and map is lower down this page). On Sundays we have a green box on the table at the back of the meeting hall where cash or cheques can be deposited.
If you want cash donations to be Gift Aided and you have signed a Gift Aid mandate form then you MUST put the donation into an envelope with your name on it, otherwise we cannot identify them as being from you and cannot claim the Gift Aid.
We also have an online one-time donation option via the CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) Online platform. This facility also has costs to recover so 3.6% of your donation goes to cover the costs of running this service.
Gift Aid
Gift Aid is an extremely important part of our church funding in any financial year. Gift Aid is a UK Government scheme where any UK charity can reclaim the lower rate tax that has already been paid by a UK tax paying donor on their donations. We can only do this if the donor has signed a gift aid declaration saying that we can do so.
For example – Davina has earnings around £24,000 per year and could pay income tax of around £2,280 in the year. Davina donates £200 per month to the church, the church can then claim 25%, that is £50 per month, from HMRC with no additional cost to Davina. As Davina has paid at least £600 (£50×12) of income or capital gains tax in the tax year then all is well and the church has an extra 25% income from Davina’s donation.
It is very important that a donor must remember to tell the church if:
The home address is important as the form used to claim the gift aid contains the address details and HMRC uses this to verify the individual taxpayer.
If you pay less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all of your donations in that tax year it will be your responsibility to pay any difference to HMRC.
From our example above if Davina gives more than £9120 (4 x £2280) in donations then she would not have paid enough tax to cover the Gift Aid reclaimed. For Davina, as with most people on PAYE, this is an unlikely event but could happen for those who are self-employed, retired or have unusual tax situations, if this is the case for you please check with your accountant or feel free to talk to Ruth or Tony Powers in confidence about your situation.
Please be aware that we cannot claim Gift Aid on donations made in the following ways:
There is also a potential additional win for you if you Gift Aid your donations and you pay tax at the higher or additional rate. In the same way as for the lower rate of tax the UK Government recognises that the money given to a charitable cause has been taxed at the higher rate and allows additional tax relief to be claimed on donations. In order to claim this tax relief you must include all of your Gift Aid donations on your Self-Assessment tax return or ask HMRC to adjust your tax code. In summary this means that you can personally reclaim the difference between the higher rate of tax and the lower rate of tax on any Gift Aid donations.
For further information on Gift Aid look on the UK Government website at https://www.gov.uk/donating-to-charity/gift-aid
Please note that where you have sent us a Gift Aid mandate we will keep your details on file until 7 years after your last donation in accordance with the HMRC guidelines.
