Tag Archives: gift aid

Gift Aid

Is your charity making the most of Gift Aid?

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What is Gift Aid?

Gift Aid gives charities the opportunity to get an additional 25% for each £1 donated by their supporters.

Traditionally, declarations were collected via forms, with quite a lot of paperwork involved. Nowadays, it is friction-less, efficient and with a much faster turnaround.

Gift Ait is one of the most important tax reliefs for charities and it’s worth over £1.2 million to the charity sector every year, according to HMRC.

Are you promoting your donors?

Research from HMRC shows that people respond the most when they are prompted to include Gift Aid in their donation. They also responded well when they are told exactly how much was claimed the year previous and what the money went to.

You must be transparent with your donors and tell them exactly how this money is spent. Explain what more could be done if everyone claimed it on their donations.

You also need to ensure your volunteers, and supporters fully understand what the Gift Aid system is and the benefits of it. HMRC have also stated that people who understand Gift Aid are more likely to claim it when donating.

Make the right claims

Education is so important when it comes to Gift Aid. You want to make sure your employees or volunteers are explaining it fully to your donors and supporters in order to eliminate any flawed claims.  It is estimated that around £45 million is made in mistaken claims every year – more than £15 million lost due to fraud.

To ensure you are keeping on top of all your donations, regular audits and internal checks are the best practice. You should also contact long-standing donors who claim gift Aid to ensure they are still paying tax.

How can InstaGiv help you?

We have modernised the way you manage your Gift Aid from your supporters, by solely capturing it with SMS. This integrated system is completely automated, that reports in a user-friendly manner to successfully make your Gift Aid claim with HMRC.

There are two ways to capture it, via SMS or via a web form. You can select which one you prefer in the setup of your campaign in the overview area.

For both methods, the Gift Aid ask is sent via SMS at a delay after the supporter receives their thank your response message. Supporters reply to the text with their details, and for the web form method, supporters click the URL and complete the form.

The Gift Aid ask is sent out at a delay, for example, 5 minutes after your donors receive the thank-you response message. Gift Aid can be claimed on future donations and those made in the past four years.

Addresses are captured and stored in a dedicated area of your InstaGiv dashboard, where you can easily download all declarations, in preparations for processing.

Our form has been approved by the HMRC and is fully compliant. Both the form and the SMS capture all details needed and has the appropriate legal terminology.

Book a demo today

To find out more, request a demo or a call-back today. One of our friendly team members will go over everything in more detail with you.

Alternatively, for more information on this additional guidance on licencing, please contact us at any time on 028 7087 8220 or email us at help@instagiv.com.

Instagiv
Instagiv

A Look at UK Charitable Giving in 2017

The latest CAF report reveals a lot of info on Charitable Giving

The most recent Charitable Giving report from the Charities Aid Foundation has revealed some interesting information about how people in the UK choose to donate to charities.

They interviewed around 12,000 people to build up a picture of the charity sector in the UK in 2017.

The CAF UK Giving 2018 report reveals the extent of charitable giving and provides information on the most popular methods and frequencies of donations.

The report shows that the total amount given to charity in 2017 was £10.3 billion, an increase from 2016’s figure of £9.7 billion.

Charitable Giving – When and How

The CAF also found that November and December were the months that saw the most donations, continuing a trend from 2016. They believe that this can be attributed to various popular campaigns during these months, including Movember and appeals during the Christmas period.

Donating cash continues to be the most common way of giving money to charity, with around 55% of people using this method in 2017. Yet this is slowly becoming less popular.

The report shows that most donors tend to give “from time to time”, around a quarter donate monthly, while just 4% give weekly. Around 13% of those interviewed said they rarely give to charity and about 5% said that they never donate.

Giving online or via text both saw increases over the year, particularly in April, November and December. These increases tended to be related to popular appeals like Comic Relief and Children in Need.

There remains a consistent number giving less regularly, with 13% saying they give to charity rarely and 5% stating that they never give.

Charitable Giving – Who Gives?

Some of the most interesting information in the report concerned the donations of different age groups. The data shows that 16% of people aged 16-24 have not donated or worked with a charity in the past year, compared to just 8% of people aged 65 and over.

The stats also showed that of the younger group of donors, they were significantly less likely to donate on a regular basis compared to the 65+ group.

The older group tend to give the most money and generally donate by direct debit (42%), membership fees (24%), cheque (17%) or by credit card (8%). The youngest group were more likely to support charities through a fundraising event (31%) and by debit card (15%), while those aged 25-44 are the most likely to give via text (14%).

Charitable Giving via SMS

Looking at the stats, text giving is a great tool for charities. The use of cash is decreasing, while younger groups are more likely to donate via text.

Donating via SMS is a really quick and easy way for supporters to donate. There’s no fuss around bank details, or debit and credit cards, as their donation is simply added to their monthly phone bill.

Better yet, it’s a great way for charities to increase the frequency of regular donations. With a simple text, a supporter can sign up to make regular donations either monthly or weekly.

With instaGiv, charities can easily set up customised text giving campaigns using the fully-equipped self-service platform. This gives you the tools to organise competitions via SMS, send mass outbound SMS messages, organise Gift Aid and much more.

On top of that, you’ll get expert support and guidance on campaigns from the instaGiv team.