Developed by the National Giving Team, Cornerstone is an online generosity tool available free of charge to all Church of England churches. It offers three separate functions: Insights, Pathways and a comprehensive Grants database.
To understand how the platform works, please watch this useful walk through here.
Cornerstone is designed to help churches develop the most detailed picture they’ve ever had of their financial situation – whether that’s a source of joy or concern. Using Parish Returns data, Cornerstone identifies different types of giving and shares comparisons with other churches, both in the same diocese and nationwide.
Equipped with detailed information, churches can then pursue two different ways of changing or enhancing the picture – Pathways and Grants.
The information a church receives from the Insights phase gives them a picture of where they can focus their efforts. Some may only have capacity for one or two ‘quick wins’, while others are ready for a full-on campaign. There are over 50 Pathways on the platform and churches can undertake as many or as few as they wish.
A Pathway takes a single topic and breaks it down into steps, none of which take longer than half an hour. Templates and links to videos and instructions are provided. You can skip bits that you’ve done already or aren’t suited to your setting. They’re a great way of encouraging people to volunteer who are uncertain about something they haven’t done before.
All churches have completely free access to over 1000 grants, curated for churches. Covering a range of purposes, values and geographic areas, this searchable, filterable database is updated weekly and is the biggest range of grants currently available to churches. Each grant is described and there is a link to the grant making body so you can read further and apply.
For more information about the grants database, see here:
https://issuu.com/churchofengland.org/docs/cornerstone_grants_guide?fr=sYzI1OTg5ODcxOTk
If you wish to have access to the platform in order to have access to the grants database, please contact Liz Brooks (Liz.Brooks@chichester.anglican.org) with the name of your church along with the email addresses of who you would like to have access to the platform.
If you would like a more in depth understanding of how the platform works, as well as the opportunity to look at your church’s culture of generosity, please contact Liz Brooks (Liz.Brooks@chichester.anglican.org) to register your interest in attending a Cornerstone workshop.