Fundraising

In 2006 the Association of Holy Trinity Church received a generous donation from one of its members, and the foreknowledge of this donation gave birth to an outline business plan to improve the structure and appearance of all church properties. Such were the number of areas needed to be addressed and such was the necessity of ensuring that all works were carried out as cost-effectively as possible that only 25,000 euros was spent in 2007. However, the time spent that year in research and analysis was not lost, and at the AGM in early April 2008 the final plan, identifying an expenditure of just over 171,000 euros for 2008/2009, was approved by the members, and later that month the plan swung into action. As with much that happens on a warm sub-tropical island, where time is elastic, timescales for various works slid, but by Christmas 2008 some 130,000 euros of work has been completed with a further 33,000 euros of work scheduled to be finished in January/February 2009, with the outstanding 8,000 euros deferred until 2009/2010. The bulk of preservation work will by then have been done, and although it is still too soon to identify further necessary capital expenditure for 2009/2010, this will be a fraction of the sums spent in 2008/2009.

Having capital is a wonderful thing, but once spent it is gone; if there is no income to provide a continuous boost to the capital it is gone for ever. We have been happy to commit 171,000 euros to improvements on church properties, firstly because the donation added to our existing funds gave us a handsome sum and secondly, and most importantly, because our yearly income versus expenditure has been very positive for 2006 and 2007 (at the time of writing it is too early to identify the cashflow for 2008), giving us the comfortable knowledge that expenditure of capital is being offset by a surplus in cashflow. This does not happen by chance: our self-help painting team has done - and continues to do - an enormous amount of work at significant effort to themselves but at negligible cost to the church. Many of the activities we now take for granted - Saturday coffee mornings, Sunday morning reception and stall, Spring Fair, Harvest festival supper, etc - generate funds for the church, and our mutually satisfactory arrangement with the Mandolin Orchestra, which provides concerts inside the church on a weekly basis, not only generates funds but also introduces to the church visitors who might not otherwise have found it and may return for a service. We are hugely indebted to all the individuals who give so generously of their time to ensure that our finances remain healthy.

If you would like to join our willing band of volunteers and supplement our income, but by less energetic means, we would obviously be delighted. At the moment we have no charitable status in Portuguese law - we are taking steps to change this, but the road has been long and the end is not yet in sight - but we have an account in UK which has. A donation to our UK account therefore attracts an additional 25% if the donor is a UK taxpayer and the donation is made via a Gift Aid form. Alternatively join our growing band of Friends of Holy Trinity, whereby for a yearly donation of £20 or more we will send you a quarterly newsletter to keep you informed of activities in the church. If you would like to donate in either of these ways please click here for a Gift Aid form or click here to become a Friend of Holy Trinity Church.