# Increasing Gift Aid takeup could help charities' VAT campaign

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/11/21/increasing-gift-aid-takeup-could-help-charities039-vat-campaign/
- Published: 2005-11-21T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The editor of Third Sector magazine suggests in the current issue’s editorial that
the poor Gift Aid conversion rates achieved by many charities can only harm the 
charity sector’s campaign to persuade the government to change the rules on irrecoverable
VAT for charities.
Stephen Cook, editor of Third Sector magazine, argues that “the
chink in the collective armour of charities as they ride forth in the great VAT 
campaign is described by two little words: Gift Aid.” He suggests that the poor 
conversion rate offers an easy riposte for government to requests to reform VAT 
rules. Despite high conversion rates of 80-90% achieved online, the sector average
for conversion of donations to Gift Aid is still around 30%.

He argues that whenever the VAT reform campaign delivers its message to Whitehall,
the answer will always be “We gave you Gift Aid five years ago, and you don’t make
the most of that. Come back when you’ve doubled the take-up”.

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