The Guide to Major Trusts 2025-26. DSC (Directory of Social Change)

CAF takes dissenting opinion on Gift Aid reform

Howard Lake

Howard Lake | 5 October 2007 | Blogs

Charities Aid Foundation has taken , with a view that puts it at odds with the six sector bodies who last week announced a shared view.
Last week acevo, the Institute of Fundraising, Charity Tax Group, NCVO, Charity Finance Directors’ Group and the National Church Institutions jointly suggested that the way forward lay in allowing charities to claim a fixed percentage of their total voluntary income in Gift Aid, assuming an agreed figure for the proportion of donors who are taxpayers.
CAF’s submission to the Gift Aid review argues that this move turns Gift Aid into “a fixed pot of money available to the sector”, and removes the incentive for charities to promote tax-effective giving. John Low, chief executive of CAF, said: “It is within the gift of the donor and it is important that Gift Aid remains so. While it’s clear that incentives do not in themselves stimulate altruism, many donors consider them to be an important palliative to the ‘pain’ of giving and therefore they should be protected and nurtured.”
Although a lone voice, CAF’s view is sound. Turning Gift Aid into yet another automatic payment from government changes the system entirely, and is in many ways an admission of failure by the charity sector. “We couldn’t make this work after all these years, so can you just give us a lump sum?”, is hardly a strong argument.

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Howard Lake

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.

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