CASPAR

Less Admin, More Ministry

Save time managing your Parish Website - spend more time being a Parish Priest!

Donations

People can donate online (once, weekly or monthly), Gift aid donations, and you can view Accounts/Gift Aid reports.

Sunday & Daily Readings

These change every day on your website, giving the feel of a constantly updated site

Photo Library

Upload your own photos, or use our library of photos to make your site look professional from the outset.

Constantly Changing

Each section can choose from a group of photos, so your website looks different each time parishioners visit.

Pre-built Sections

Use our pre-built sections to easily include information, which is updated just by doing your day-to-day admin.

Carbon Neutral

CASPAR is not only Carbon Neutral, but also has facilities to reduce your Carbon Footprint.

Parish Website

The quickest way to get started is to send your 4 most recent newsletters to websites@caspar.church and we'll get it set up for your website set up in 2 working days for FREE!

Design

Choose a colour scheme:

Add your own images or use our pre-prepared picture library.

Change the Fonts, colours, styles, layouts and sections of your page.

Automation

By updating your directory information, you will update your website and various other places this information is used. If we publish your Diocesan directory, your directory entry will be updated when you update your website.

This will update your Mass Times section, contact details section, safeguarding, People etc.

You will also have Daily and Sunday Readings, Christmas and Easter Mass Times sections.

You can also upload your newsletter, and if you want to you can include a sign up form for your parishioners, and your newsletter can be sent out to your parishioners when you upload it to the website.*

You can even include an online Parish Census or an online Sacramental Sign up System for parishioners.*

Webite Address

We have a free options when it comes to the address of your website: your-parish-name.rcparish.uk

So as long as it is unique you can choose your website address and let your parishioners know straight away. Again you can either contact us to get access to your editing system, or send us an email with 3 options for your website address (in case one isn't available) and we'll get it set up for you.

Cost

You can try out the website builder for as long as you like for free. If and when you are ready to publish the website it costs £25 per month for the standard website and £30 for the website with the ability to take donations and all the reporting that goes with it.

Support and FAQs

What Support is available?

We provide support via phone, email or video calls - as well as having written and video guides available.

Do I need to give payment details before seeing my website?

No - its completely free to use the CASPAR website system to create your website. You only start paying when you publish your site. So if its not for you, it doesn't cost you anything.

How much does it cost?

It costs £25 per month - once you publish your website.

Will you start taking payments if I don't publish my website?

No. We won't have your payment details, so we can't take any payments. You will only be charged if YOU choose to publish your site!

What is it included?

It includes the CASPAR website building tool, hosting, website address and security certificates.

What content is included?

Sunday and Daily Readings, you can include section that are kept up to date from our Catholic Directories - such as Mass Times, Contact Details, local schools, religious houses and chaplaincies and even Diocesan Safeguarding information.

What other CASPAR facilities are included?

You will have access to CASPAR's directory update tools and the ability to upload and store newsletters. You can also use the library of professional photos, and you can upload your own photos.

Do I need to be a website expert?

Absolutely not. The idea is that the website can be updated by anyone who is given access to it. If you choose to use more of CASPAR's admin tools, you will find the website is just updated automatically in the background.

Does it work on all devices?

It will certainly work on laptops, desktops, tablets and mobiles. All devices are different but it has a design that responds to the size of screen the reader is using. And there are preview options so you can see how it looks on different devices.

How do the donations work?

We partner with a company that specialises in taking payments by card. A donation page is created automatically for you. People can choose how much they want to donate. They can set up weekly or monthly donations, and they can choose to Gift Aid them.

How do withdraw Donated Money?

In CASPAR you will see the donations appear as soon as they are made. You will see a balance of all the donations and you can transfer that over to your bank account. It can be set to transfer regularly, but to simplify your accounting, we provide a button to make a transfer which produces donor/gift aid reports that will exactly match the transfer.

How do you set up Donations?

This is potentially a bit more complicated. Any donations system requires proof of ID etc. We automatically get your account with the payment company set up. You then need to fill out the details of the Parish Priest and provide suitable proof of ID. This process is managed between you and the payment company.

More Information

If you would like some more information or if you would like to start a Free Trial, please contact us at websites@caspar.church

CASPAR is created and maintained by CathCom Ltd. Therefore, the privacy policy for CASPAR comes under CathCom Ltd's Privacy Policy:

This privacy policy sets out how CathCom Ltd uses and protects any information that you give CathCom when you use our websites or advertise in our papers.

CathCom is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

CathCom may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 22/05/2018.

What we collect

We may collect the following information:

name, contact deta
contact information including email address
demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests
other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers
information added to CASPAR by individuals themselves, or by church organisations that will agree to seek permission to enter any personal information.
Social media account credentials (usernames, access tokens) for connected platforms (Bluesky, Facebook)
Newsletter content and AI-generated post drafts
Post scheduling and publishing data

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

Internal record keeping (such as for accounts purposes)
We may use the information to improve our products and services.
We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests. Security
Process newsletter PDFs using AI to generate social media post suggestions
Store encrypted credentials to post approved content to your connected social media accounts
Maintain scheduled posts until publication or deletion

Social Media Integration

When you connect social media accounts, we encrypt and store authentication credentials to post on your behalf. You can unlink accounts anytime, and we'll delete the data. AI-generated content is provided as suggestions only - you review and approve all posts before publication. You are responsible for all content posted through our platform.

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes
if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us at info@cathcom.org

Deletion of Information

Should you find we are holding personal information about you without permission, please notify us immediately. We will make all reasonable efforts to delete information immediately, except in the following circumstances:

If we are required to hold this information for financial, business, compliance purposes.
If we need to explain the repercussions of deleting your information - to check you are happy with this - this would be in your best interests.
Any conflict of interest where informtion is needed to be held out of necessity, legal or otherwise, and it is not possible to delete it. If this is the case we will notify you of the complication.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to info@cathcom.org.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible, at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.