Question

To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what assessment the Church of England has made of the potential merits of establishing an app to enable contactless donations to be given via a QR code in the context of the covid-19 outbreak.

The Church of England’s central purchasing facility ‘Parish Buying’ has been rolling out electronic and contactless giving across the parishes and cathedral since 2018. Parish Buying has negotiated a discounted rate for churches to take online donations given through GiveALittle. Nearly 2,000 churches have set up GiveALittle accounts so far.

The national Church is funding premium membership of this service for all parishes, enabling people to make gift aid declarations and to make regular monthly donations online. The GiveALittle system allows a church to publish a giving page or make a QR code available to enable people to give quickly and simply. Guidance for parishes is available here.

Training is available online for parishes on many giving issues, including online giving, and there is extensive guidance on both Parish Buying and Parish Resources websites. GiveALittle also has an app available for contactless devices, and this enables the public who may wish to donate to churches to continue to make donations. This year the Church will begin the rolling out of free contactless devices to half Church of England parishes, and many have already installed them following the successful trials in 2018.