If your community is a registered charity in the UK, Gift Aid is one of the simplest ways to make every gift go further. For every £1 a UK taxpayer gives, you can claim an extra 25p from HMRC. A £20 gift becomes £25, at no cost to the giver.
Yet many communities leave Gift Aid unclaimed, usually because collecting declarations and preparing claims feels like paperwork nobody has time for. Here's what's involved.
Who can Gift Aid a gift?
A gift is eligible when the giver:
- pays enough UK Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in that tax year to cover the Gift Aid on all their gifts, and
- has made a Gift Aid declaration to your charity.
The gift has to be the giver's own money, and they can't get anything significant back in return for it.
What goes in a declaration?
A declaration needs the giver's full name, their home address (at least the house name or number and postcode), your charity's name, and a statement that they want you to claim Gift Aid. It can cover a single gift, future gifts, gifts from the past four years, or all three.
Givers should also be told that if they pay less tax than the Gift Aid claimed on their gifts, it's their responsibility to pay the difference.
Claiming from HMRC
You claim through HMRC's Charities Online service, once your charity is registered with HMRC for Gift Aid and has its HMRC charity reference. Claims must be made within four years of the end of the accounting period the gifts were made in, so older gifts can still be claimed if you have the declarations.
Keep your records: HMRC can ask to see the declarations behind a claim, and you need to be able to match each claimed gift to one.
How Givana helps
- Declarations as they give. On your giving page, UK givers can add a Gift Aid declaration before they pay. After a Tap to Give gift, they can scan the QR code on the thank-you screen and add one on their own phone.
- Gifts, not charges. If your givers cover the fees, Gift Aid is worked out on the gift itself, not on the fees.
- Claim batches. Givana groups eligible gifts into batches, makes sure no gift is claimed twice, adjusts for refunds, and exports each batch in the format Charities Online accepts.
Gift Aid in Givana is an integration you switch on in Settings → Integrations once your community is registered with HMRC. If you're not sure whether you're registered, your HMRC charity reference is the place to start.
This article is a general guide. For the full rules, see HMRC's guidance on Gift Aid for charities.