Hi Lorraine Hope all is well with you. I miss Winchester Friends, and you and Andy - but, all is going well up north.We do both cash collections and give Friends the details so they can give to the charities directly - the details go out in the weekly notices email. Like you, we have no idea, and no way of knowing, what amounts have been paid directly by Friends.The weekly cash collections are for the local Meeting, BYM, and the cause/charity which changes each month. The various collections are recorded on a spreadsheet each week by the Deputy Warden and banked monthly, along with the small amounts we get donated towards post Meeting refreshments and a few room hire cheques (we dont accept cash for room hire anymore). I suspect the time it takes to record the collections on the spreedsheet, send that to the Treasurer, record in Quickbooks, then take to the bank along with the few cheques, costs more in staff time than makes it financially viable (it's a Building Society, and I've never been in there for less than ½ an hour on the odd occasions I've gone myself).Our Finance Committee is still working towards getting a card reader (thank you to all the Friends here who contributed to my question about card readers), and I'm still hoping this might be the way forward for us. We need to find a way to simplify how Friends give, and recognise that many don't carry cash which has meant our collections have decreased (that's my understanding anyway), and we have no way to know how much Friends are giving to the causes we are supporting. Occasionally the Meeting as a body give donations to charities, so not acting as agents. That's a very easy process either as a BACS payment, or if that's not possible, by using one of the Meeting's debit cards.As an aside, I'd be interested to know which card reader Winchester decided on in the end, and how it's working out for you.All the bestTashaNatasha Heny Manager/WardenLancaster Quaker Meeting House -------- Original message --------From: Winchester Quaker Warden <winchesterquakerwarden@gmail.com> Date: 27/06/2024 21:19 (GMT+00:00) To: Quaker Wardenship Support <wardenship@lists.quaker.eu.org> Subject: [wardenship] External charities Hello Friends and colleagues,We would be interested to know if your Meetings donate to external charities, in which case how that is done.At Winchester we have in the past collected donations, on a regular basis, to pass on to chosen charities - cash, cheques or BACS.This created a lot of admin for the Treasurer, and now we have the added problem that our local bank (HSBS acting on behalf of CAF Bank) no longer accepts cash.What we are doing currently is invite Friends to donate to chosen charities, but not through our bank account, i.e. straight into the other charity's bank account.We do not know how many people do that, we have no idea how much money goes to the charities, and we don't know if the charities are aware that those donations are connected to our Meeting.We have recently bought a fund-raising card-reader, which can allow for donations to be earmarked for specific purposes, but we are not using it for external charities.If any of your Meetings passes donations on to external charities, it would be great to hear about your process for that, and if it works well.Thanks very much,LorraineAndrew and Lorraine O'HanlonWarden-ManagersFriends' Meeting House16 Colebrook StreetWinchester SO23 9LH01962 864184https://winchesterquakers.org.uk