Four In Ten Small Charities Yet To Make A Gift Aid Claim

Howard Lake | 6 November 2006 | Newswire

Research unveiled today by the Institute of Fundraising (‘Institute’) shows that small charities are significantly under-using Gift Aid.
Findings show that 39% – almost four in ten – of the UK’s smallest charities (those with a voluntary income of less than £100,000) have not made a Gift Aid claim over the last year. Furthermore, the research found that 71% of these small charities consider the sums involved in claiming Gift Aid too insignificant to fully utilise the mechanism, compared to only 23% of larger charities. On average, charities consider that they are currently missing out on a further 8% in additional income per year by not making full use of Gift Aid – but, on average, they could be claiming Gift Aid on a further 40% of donations.
Almost all of the large charities and three-quarters of the small/ medium-sized charities surveyed used Gift Aid for some of their fundraising. The proportion of charities claiming Gift Aid was highest in the South West and South East of England (at 95% and 92% respectively) and lowest in the North East (where the percentage of charities in the region having claimed some Gift Aid in the last financial year is 63%).
Religious, international and benevolent funds/ ex-services charities have been found to have the highest proportion of Gift Aid claims – 100% of those organisations surveyed made at least one Gift Aid claim. Environment and animal charities showed the highest proportion of Gift Aided income, where one half of all voluntary income had been converted. In contrast, only 73% and 50% of housing and community development, and rights/ law and advocacy organisations (respectively) had made at least one Gift Aid claim last financial year.
The average amount of tax relief reclaimed in the sample on Gift Aided donations last year was £45,000 per charity, although this ranged from £5,000 – £500,000.
Lee Grant, Tax-Effective Giving Project Manager at the Institute of Fundraising commented:
The message is clear – charities continue to underestimate the worth and potential of Gift Aid. The Institute of Fundraising continues to provide the support charities have indicated would be helpful in maximising their Gift Aid income – but ultimately it’s up to individual charities to ensure that they turn their current apathy into positive action in making full use of this income stream.”
To read a copy of the summary report ‘Promoting tax-effective giving’, visit www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk.
For further information, call 0845 337 3801 or email ta*****@in**********************.uk
-ENDS-
MEDIA QUERIES
For further information please contact:
Diana Mackie Tel. 020 7840 1027
Institute of Fundraising email: di****@in**********************.uk
Out of hours enquiries Tel. 07712 045 308
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. Institute of Fundraising
· TAX-EFFECTIVE GIVING HELPLINE -Call or email the tax-effective giving team (Call: 0845 458 4586 or email: ta*****@in**********************.uk) with your queries and to find out what support is available.
· TRAINING COURSES – Sign up for a place on our tax-effective giving training sessions, call the booking line on 0845 337 3801
· FREE GUIDANCE MATERIALS – Order your free guide to tax-effective giving ‘Making Giving Go Further’ (available as a guide book or CD).
· WEBSITE – For more information about the tax reliefs available to charities and how they work, visit www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk
For more information about the tax reliefs available to charities and how they work, visit www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk
2. The research
The report ‘Promoting Tax-effective giving’ surveyed a sample of charities with cut-offs of income below £10m and above £100,000 to establish the strengths and gaps in the current patterns of tax-effective giving and fundraising.
3500 postal questionnaires were sent out to samples of charities drawn from existing published lists, and enhanced by the member database of REACH, to ensure smaller charities were accessed.
Telephone interviews were carried out in April and May 2006, at the same time as the postal survey. Twenty interviews were carried out with charities, and five with stakeholders.
Charities were chosen at random from the same sample as that used for the postal surveys. Stakeholders were chosen from a number of the representative bodies to do with tax-effective giving.

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.