New requirements on donors' addresses for Gift Aid
Howard Lake | 18 May 2004 | News
Charities must now gather at the very least the postcode and house number/name of all Gift Aid donors, including those making sponsorship donations, if they are to qualify for Gift Aid.
The Inland Revenue has issued new ./guidance on the minimum requirements for a donor’s address on a Gift Aid declaration. Paragraphs 3.11.6 and 3.15.8 of their Gift Aid ./guidance notes have been changed.
The first of these now states: “Ideally, the charity should obtain the donor’s full name. At the very least it should get his or her initials and surname. And it should also get the full postal address, including the postcode. However, we are prepared to accept that the home address has been provided if donors enter, as a minimum, the name and number of their home, and their full postcode.”
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The second change refers to names of Gift Aid donors gathered on sponsorship forms. The Inland Revenue acknowledges that “where a sponsor form is being passed around a workplace some donors may be reluctant to give their full home address”. Consequently, “we are prepared to accept that the home address has been provided if donors enter, as a minimum, the name and number of their home, and their full postcode.”
In practice it is only a minor change from the previous wording and if anything it is a slight relaxation of the requirements. The change comes in the form of not requiring the full postal address as an ideal minimum. Nevertheless charities should check their donation forms and sponsorship forms to see if they make it clear what is now the recommended minimum data required.
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.