Gift Aid is a government scheme that allows charities to reclaim the tax that you have already paid on your donations through UK income tax or capital gains tax.
All individual donations (excluding those made through the Charities Aid Foundation, which are already subject to tax relief) are eligible for the scheme – including regular gifts such as Standing Orders and Direct Debits.
We can claim Gift Aid on donations made in the last four years and on future donations once we receive your Gift Aid Declaration.
Am I eligible for Gift Aid?
If you are a UK tax payer, yes. Even if you don’t receive an income from working, you are still eligible if you are paying tax on any of the following:
- Personal or occupational pension
- Bank and building society savings accounts
- Rental income
- Overseas and UK investment dividends
or if you have paid capital gains tax when selling assets, such as stocks and shares.
You must have paid enough tax to cover the Gift Aid claimed on all the donations you made in a tax year. This will be 25% of the total donations.
Making a Gift Aid donation
If you make a donation online, JustGiving (who collect our online donations) will automatically collect Gift Aid for us if you are eligible. If you are making a donation in another way (e.g. by cheque) then please download and return our Gift Aid Declaration form with your donation.
Sponsorship forms
For sponsorship forms, please follow these notes to make sure your sponsors complete all parts of the form correctly:
- Write your name in full. Nicknames or incomplete names mean we can’t collect Gift Aid on donations.
- Complete your home address, not your work address. This must include your flat/house number or name, and postcode. We won’t be able to claim the Gift Aid on your donation if one of these is missing.
- Write down how much you are donating, so that we know how much Gift Aid to claim. Fill in the date you give your donation to ensure that the Gift Aid is valid.
- After reading the Gift Aid Declaration on the sponsorship form, make sure to tick the box to confirm you are happy for us to claim back the tax on your donation.
Please remember to return your sponsorship forms to us when you pay in your money so that we can claim the Gift Aid on eligible donations.
Gift Aid is even easier if you fundraise online
If you fundraise online using JustGiving then Gift Aid will be claimed automatically on all of your eligible donations.
Open an online fundraising page
More Gift Aid information
You can find out more about Gift Aid on our Gift Aid Frequently Asked Questions page.