PCC News

The Listen stream of the diocesan Mission Strategy 2021 have offered to fund a full year of iKnowChurch for the first 25 benefices to sign up for it (up to £234 per benefice), and in addition iKnowChurch will give five months free. Benefices who decide to go ahead in October/November 2020 would therefore have free use of the software until March/April 2022.

iKnow’s usual price depends on the number of church members you have, and the diocese’s offer is to fund the cost of up to the 100 Sunday attendance level (which is £234 for a year). Benefices who have more than 100 regular church members will be asked to pay the additional cost for the price band they fit into, for example if you have up to 150 church members the usual price is £312pa and after the diocese’s funding of £234 you would be asked to pay just £78 per year. Further information about the ongoing costs can be found in the table at the end of this article.

To sign up to this offer complete the online form here.

Many benefices will already be using the Church of England’s free Life Events Diary system – an online administration tool to help churches streamline the administration of Baptism, Weddings, Banns, and Funerals. The Life Events Diary is developed by the same company as iKnowChurch and the two systems complement one another with iKnow; adding additional and more advanced functionality to the diary.

How can iKnowChurch help?

• People – iKnow stores all of your church contacts in one place so that you can easily communicate with the people you’d like to. You can create custom access levels so that PCC members can see information which is relevant to them.
• Finance – the finance module can track any giving you receive. Input all cash giving and process card payments too. You can separate donations into categories such as for the new roof, missions or an upcoming outreach trip, as well as claiming Gift Aid quickly using its full HMRC integration.
• Teams and rotas – let church members log their availability online, and have oversight of any clashes, then simply send your rota out by email. Automatic reminders can be sent without you lifting a finger!
• Events – manage your church meetings and events, from your first plan, to invitations, tickets, and eventually event check in. A dedicated room booking module is also available.
• Reporting and stats – trusted volunteers can input church attendance figures, and leaders can have the oversight.
• Service and event planning – create plans that can be accessed and edited by those who are involved in the service or event
• Multiple churches – each individual church can have a calendar, room booking, groups and teams. Users can have access to one church, or multiple, depending on their role and responsibility.
• Journey and processes – track the journey of your church as they mark off milestones in their discipleship. Whether it be their first communion, the completion of a discipleship course or other major life events such as a wedding, you can walk with your church members. You can also use their journey to trigger different workflows and tasks for your team. Whether it be following up with someone after a loss, or remembering to celebrate with them, you can set tasks for your team so that the little things are not missed.
• Communication – send emails, text messages and create letters to communicate messages big and small with your church. The communication suite is fully GDPR compliant, and you can specify specific groups of people to communicate with, e.g. ‘anyone who has not been baptised’ or ‘anyone who can drive a minibus’.
• Podcasts – use the podcasting module to publish your podcast.
• App – use the iKnow app to keep church members up-to-date; if you make a change to an event, or to a rota, your app users will see the change right away.

Comments from churches already using iKnow include:

“Being an administrator for a church is very challenging! We needed a system that would make life easier for us, a one-stop shop for administration! We adopted the iKnow system and boy, it has certainly transformed our administration processes and made life a lot easier for me! Long gone are the days where spreadsheets are used to capture information and we know the data is securely held, complying with GDPR. We also use the app which is a great tool for all members to use and to get messages out quickly. I would highly recommend iKnow to any church.”

You can read all about it at www.iknowchurch.co.uk and one of their key benefits is telephone support, alongside email support and online tutorials.

To sign up to this offer complete the online form here.