Research into impact of new Gift Aid rules on charitable visitor attractions
Howard Lake | 13 March 2007 | News
How have the new Gift Aid rules relating to charitable visitor attractions affected these charities since they were introduced in April 2006? A new research project is aiming to assess their impact.
Charities nationwide which allow the public to view their work, including small and large visitor attractions, museums, galleries and heritage properties, are being surveyed through quantitative online surveys and qualitative telephone interviews.
The initiative, which is being undertaken by Tourism South East with the support of major charity, tourism and cultural bodies and the other regional tourist boards, will provide the first national indicator of the financial and operational implications of the new rules on charities.
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Charitable organisations which make admissions charges or invite donations can participate in the research, whether they are currently claiming Gift Aid or not, online.
HMRC is responsible for implementing the new legislation. Some attractions, that are registered charities, are able to accept donations from visitors and provide free admission in return – in other words, donations that attract the right of free admission. The attraction can then claim an amount from HM Revenue and Customs equal to the value of tax on the donation – 28p for every £1 given.
Chris Melia, a Director at Tourism South East, who is leading the initiative, said: “We aim to discover whether the sector as a whole, across the country, is better, or worse, off as a result of the new rules and what other impacts the changes have had on charitable attractions.
“The results will be shared with the attractions sector and we hope they will be useful both to operators as well as to policy makers. The research will help us understand the value as well as the costs of Gift Aid under the new rules and will provide ‘baseline’ data for the sector.”
The research is due to be completed by the end of May 2007. The results will include feedback from case studies, which will be shared with charitable organisations throughout the sector to help them determine the most effective strategies for encouraging donations and claiming Gift Aid under the new criteria.
Tourism South East has worked with organisations including AGALG (Attractions Gift Aid Liaison Group), the Museums Association, the Association for Independent Museums (AIM), the Historic Houses Associations (HHA) and EcSite UK (the trade body for science centres) to develop the research structure and help encourage participation.
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.