What is Cornerstone?
Cornerstone is a new online learning platform designed to support churches in all aspects of giving and generosity by using clear, step-by-step practical actions to grow giving and develop a deeper understanding of generosity.
Watch the video below to find out more about Cornerstone
The platform has three main functions, called Insights, Pathways and Grants.
The Insights page pulls together financial data from the annual returns, as well as mission data, to identify what is going well already and what are areas to focus on.
Insights help to determine which Pathways to work through, these are different tasks that a group can work through that either stand alone or work as part of a wider campaign to improve finances in the church. There are over 40 pathways on the platform ranging from 'Getting Started with Contactless' to 'Thanking Your Givers' and 'Preaching and Teaching on Generosity'. Each pathway is broken down into bitesize chunks, that should take no longer than 30 minutes each, and can be assigned to different people to work on.
Finally, Cornerstone holds a grants database with over 650 grants curated for churches. The list can be filtered down, and shortlisted, and is designed to make it easy to work through individually or as part of a group as you can keep track of your fundraising progress.
How to Get Involved
Firstly, register to attend one of the introductory webinars held by the Stewardship team:
Monday the 23rd June at 1pm, register here.
Wednesday the 25th June at 6.30pm, register here.
After attending the introductory webinar, you can book in a 1-to-1 session with a member of the Stewardship team to set up your Cornerstone account and learn more about how the platform can be used to support your church. These meetings can be held in person at Church House, or on Zoom. Use this link here to book in a meeting with the team.
Cornerstone Testimony - Starbeck St Andrew
15 churches in the Harrogate deanery took part in our pilot for the Cornerstone platform in the autumn of 2024. Following the workshop in October, the group from Starbeck St Andrew [pictured left to right: Colin Hancox (Finance Team), Mick Leach (Church Warden), David Leonard (Treasurer) and Revd Phil Carman (Incumbent)] have worked through many pathways and have engaged the PCC in embedding generosity in the church.
Churchwarden Mick Leach said they took part in the pilot as they 'wanted to become a more generous church' and shared that as a result of joining Cornerstone, 'the PCC carried out a Generous Church Review, one of our house groups used the Living Generously video resource, we will be holding two Generosity services and will then relaunch the Parish Giving Scheme.'
Revd Phil Carman has said 'One of the main learning points for us has been about how we communicate our impact and not just our need. We have started to better share with the church and the community the impact that the church is having, the good things that the church is doing and the difference it makes. This then encourages generosity towards need'.
Watch this short testimony from Revd Phil Carman to hear how Cornerstone has worked for them: