Research yields top 10 tips for converting donors to Gift Aid
Howard Lake | 13 April 2004 | News
Research by nfpSynergy commissioned by The Giving Campaign confirms that charities are still not making the most of the Gift Aid scheme, and makes recommendations on how to change this.
How can you get more donors to make their donations tax-efficient under Gift Aid? NfpSynergy’s research report for The Giving Campaign gives 10 practical ideas.
The report confirms that while most charities are pleased with the opportunities offered by Gift Aid, very few are persuading most of their donors to give using this method. According to the report, 93% of charities think that Gift Aid has made it
easier for them to reclaim tax on donations. Indeed, in 2002/3 UK charities reclaimed £506 million from the Inland Revenue using Gift Aid. However, The Giving Campaign estimates that if all taxpaying donors were to give in this way, charities could be
raising an additional £900 million.
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Joe Saxton, Director of nfpSynergy, is not impressed with Gift Aid conversion levels. “Gift Aid conversion levels are still astonishingly low,” he said. “When several charities have received an 80% take-up level, it is shocking that some charities have not even converted 40%, let alone 20%, of donors to the scheme. All charities really should be doing what they can to make the most of the scheme. It is hard to imagine a more cost-effective form of fundraising than gift aid conversion. If fundraisers aren’t making Gift Aid conversion happen, then chief executives and trustees should be piling on the pressure.”
NfpSynergy conducted its research in October 2003 with a paper questionnaire mailed to 500 charities, of which 139 responded. The charities surveyed have
achieved an average 45% Gift Aid conversion rate, (up from 40% in 2002), and
identified street fundraising and ‘solus’ mailing as the two most effective ways of promoting the scheme.
The research report publishes a list of 10 simple ways to increase Gift Aid
take-up.
- Appoint a Gift Aid or Tax-Effective Giving Czar who will be able to answer all related queries
- Have a clear idea of your Gift Aid statistics, how much tax you can reclaim and what this will enable your charity to do
- Build Gift Aid targets into your charity’s performance indicators
- Know your donors and identify their barriers to conversion using simple
questionnaires - Mail non-converters with a ‘solus’ mailing
- Follow up solus mailing with telephone calls
- Compile a simple briefing on Gift Aid for all supporters
- Put tax-effective giving on your trustee agenda twice a year
- Develop fundraising income streams that complement Gift Aid
- Brief new and existing staff and volunteers on the importance of Gift
Aid
Charities with high conversion rates realise it is an ongoing process that relies on a range of techniques. For example The Woodland Trust has succeeded in converting over 80% of donors to Gift Aid. Douglas Seddon, Marketing Director at The Woodland Trust explained: “From the start we’ve just been plugging away at every possibility. Because the Trust already mails its supporters regularly, gaining from Gift Aid that way has come at no extra cost at all…As a charity it’s our duty to go for
it.”
The research also looked at the Gift Aid brand, which the Giving Campaign launched in July 2002. Ninety per cent of charities are familiar with the logo, although only 60% of respondents are actually using the brand in their marketing strategies. Nevertheless, over half of those using it said that it had helped to increase take-up.
The report is available free from nfpSynergy. It includes a gift aid conversion self-assessment test ‘ How good a gift aid lover are you?’ as well as a spreadsheet showing the payback of gift aid
conversion activities including solus mailings.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.