Make Every Gift Count

Make Every Gift Count?

Gift Aid is worth ￡1.3bn a year to the charity sector. However, the Charity Finance Group estimate a further ￡500m remains unclaimed annually.?

There are various reasons a charity may not claim Gift Aid, simply unaware they are eligible to claim Gift Aid or potentially needing more resources or expertise to administer the Gift Aid scheme's processes correctly.??

A charity may also wish to refrain from claiming Gift Aid for strategic reasons, such as the burden of the additional reporting requirements or the perceived need to receive more donations from individuals to make the process of claiming Gift Aid worthwhile.?

While claiming Gift Aid is relatively straightforward, HMRC does require charities to maintain certain records and meet specific requirements. These requirements are not particularly complex, but they can be time-consuming and need additional resources to manage them. As a result, some charities look at Gift Aid as needing to be more cohesive and manageable as a viable alternative income stream.

For charities who claim Gift Aid, there is a reliance on the charity's customer relationship management (CRM) software to determine the gift aid eligibility based on the pre-defined set of HMRC rules. Whilst, in the main, the CRMs will correctly identify eligible gifts, the purpose of the system's algorithms is to select data based on the HMRC eligibility rules and not to identify opportunities to increase or maximise Gift Aid.?

At Giftease Solutions, we believe the predominant contributing factors to the estimated ￡500m annually in unclaimed gift aid, considering the generous retrospective nature of the scheme, fall into the following categories.?

• Awareness
• Administration
• Technology

Awareness

We recommend contacting your accountants as a first stop for organisations uncertain if they are even eligible to claim Gift Aid. Additionally, HMRC's website offers resources to determine your organisation's eligibility to claim Gift Aid. Of course, you can also contact one of our Gift Aid Team for help and advice.

Administration

We understand that some charities need more resources to manage their Gift Aid scheme effectively or believe the effort in cost and time outweighs the scheme's returns.

Since 2004 our Team has been assisting charities of all sizes to claim Gift Aid efficiently and effectively?using a combination of experience, technology, and training, which allows us to provide a cost-effective service to enable your organisation to maximise gift aid.

We encourage you to talk to one of our team to help you assess the potential of your scheme against the HMRC requirements to enable you to make an informed decision on whether claiming Gift Aid is suitable for your organisation.

Technology

We have assisted charities in increasing Gift Aid income?by an average of 20%?in Gift Aid growth.?

We've managed this by simply adjusting the characteristics of our algorithm to include a focus on "potential" unclaimed Gift Aid. In addition to the pre-defined set of HMRC rules, we calculate the gift aid you can claim using our powerful proprietary exclusions engine.?

The exclusions engine will identify repairable gift aid currently failing the HMRC rules and the value of gift aid from your supporters with a current unknown Gift Aid tax status. By analysing your organisation's last four tax years, we can also track any anomalies in your claims history, which may identify historical but repairable problems with the scheme.

In a period of forecasted prolonged austerity, our mission is to ensure every charity in the UK maximises Gift Aid as a vital, reliable income stream to support your organisation's important work. We encourage you to bridge the Gift Aid gap, act today and make every Gift count.