How Much Should I Give?
Giving by individuals is essential to secure your local church’s ability to serve its community and for the Church of England to minister across the country. How much you give is a matter for your personal and prayerful reflection. We can however offer some thoughts which you may find helpful.
“The world will never be won to Christ with what people can conveniently spare” - Bernard Edinger
Our giving should reflect not only our willingness to give but also our ability to give and since individual circumstances differ significantly, so will our individual gifts. A starting point when reflecting on our Christian giving is that when giving to others we should give in proportion to what we ourselves receive from God i.e. in proportion to our income. This practice of tithing has Biblical origins and the “tithe” literally means a tenth.
The Church of England General Synod has for some time now encouraged individual Christians to review our giving annually and to give a proportion of our income. The initial target suggested by General Synod is 5% of post-tax income to and through the church and a similar amount to other charities.
You can choose to calculate your proportionate giving on pre-tax, post-tax or disposable income but do whatever feels right for you and this basis may indeed change over time.
Using the table below you can find the nearest annual or monthly post-tax figure in the left hand columns, then move across the monthly giving figures of 10%, 5% and 1% to assess whether you are able to meet the Church of England target or whether a different proportion of your post-tax income would be appropriate:
| After Tax Income | Monthly Giving | |||
| Per annum | Per Month | 10% | 5% | 1% |
| 6,000 | 500 | 50 | 25 | 5 |
| 12,000 | 1,000 | 100 | 50 | 10 |
| 18,000 | 1,500 | 150 | 75 | 15 |
| 24,000 | 2,000 | 200 | 100 | 20 |
| 30,000 | 2,500 | 250 | 125 | 25 |
| 36,000 | 3,000 | 300 | 150 | 30 |
| 42,000 | 3,500 | 350 | 175 | 35 |
| 48,000 | 4,000 | 400 | 200 | 40 |
| 54,000 | 4,500 | 450 | 225 | 45 |
| 60,000 | 5,000 | 500 | 250 | 50 |
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver
2 Corinthians 9:7