# Ten million people give to charity through Gift Aid, says CAF

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/01/31/ten-million-people-give-charity-through-gift-aid-says-caf/
- Published: 2006-01-31T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

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A new report from Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) states that Gift Aid has become
the UK’s most popular method of giving tax-efficiently to charity, with £2.8 billion
given to charities through the scheme in 2004/05.
Of this £2.8 billion, £625 million
was charitable tax-relief on gifts paid back by Government to charities.

CAF has analysed trends in the use of Gift Aid since 2000 when all gifts by UK tax-
payers became potentially eligible for tax-reliefs. Its report shows that the Gift
Aid scheme has brought “much wider access to tax-breaks on charitable giving”, with
more women, younger and less wealthy donors now giving tax-efficiently.

The value of donations via Gift Aid has grown at an average 11% per annum ever since
it was set up in 1990. In the five years since the changes of 2000 alone, charities
have received £12.2 billion in total through Gift Aid. About one-third of the value
of all donations is now made through Gift Aid.

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Cathy Pharoah, Research Director at CAF and one of the report’s authors commented:“
It is very gratifying to see so many more people taking advantage of the Government’s
generous tax-breaks on giving. The UK now has one of the most favourable tax regimes
for charitable giving in the world.

“However, the public could still seriously increase charities’ income through ensuring
that much more of their gifts are made tax-efficiently. We estimate that a further
one third of existing giving could be converted to Gift Aid. To make all giving 
tax-efficient is a major challenge for the sector because much fundraising is still
done in ways which do not easily lend themselves to conversion.”

The report, “Analysis of giving through Gift Aid” can be downloaded free of charge
from CAF’s website.

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