Cornerstone is a new initiative freely available to all our churches to help them with their stewardship and finances which has been funded and provided by the national Church.
All our churches can already access the first phase of Cornerstone - a database that contains details of over 800 grant-making bodies suitable for churches.
The database can be filtered by the activity you need money for, or your location, or even by the method of application. Do contact the diocesan stewardship team if you don’t currently have access. Cornerstone also includes guides to different aspects of the funding process including ‘Building a Case for Support’ and ‘Applying for Grant Funding’, both vital parts of most applications.
Robyn Rooney and Chris Ottershaw from the diocesan stewardship team are currently running a series of deanery workshops to help parishes make the most of Cornerstone. Alongside the list of grant-making bodies, phase two of Cornerstone can support parishes in taking a wider look at their finances, understand where their income and expenditure is and provide step-by-step guidance on different elements of a stewardship programme.
Robyn said: “The Cornerstone database can do so much more than just offer a list of grant-making bodies. Once signed up, churches will be able to see data from the last 10 years of their parish returns, see exactly where their income comes from and where expenditure happens – for example, this could help parishes understand the impact of their digital giving machine. Churches can then follow different steps to improve giving and increase generosity.”
Cornerstone suggests a modular approach to running a stewardship programme and has step by step guides on a variety of topics including saying thank you and building trust, preaching on giving, or setting up QR codes for donations.
The deanery workshops organised by Robyn and Chris began last week in Redditch and Bromsgrove and between two and four people from each church were invited (including the incumbent). At the end of each workshop, each church had a clear idea of what their next steps should be.
One clergy member present at the training said: “This is going to make things so much easier!” Others commented that they loved seeing all the data and that it would be a great help during a vacancy. Another person commented: “It was great to look at all this but not make it all about the money.”
Robyn and Chris will be in touch to confirm the date for your deanery’s workshop as they roll this functionality out over the coming months. If you have any questions, please do contact Robyn at rrooney@cofe-worcester.org.uk.
