# Gift Aid rule change highlights our acquisition v retention culture

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/05/01/gift-aid-rule-change-highlights-our-acquisition-v-retention-culture/
- Published: 2009-05-01T15:11:24+01:00
- Author: Guest Blogger

The news that the Gift Aid reclaim period is [dropping from six to four years](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/news/2009/04/27/gift-aid-reclaim-period-drop-six-four-years)
should be a huge ‘fit up yir @rses’ for a lot of people (excuse the Scots but I’m
sure you can work out what it means).

 

In the 1990s, this sector fought hard for the Gift Aid system. But like a lot of
stuff that comes from free, you tend to take it for granted. I recall a move a few
years back from charity finance staff to get rid of Gift Aid claims so that instead
the Treasury would automatically top up your individual donations by 28 per cent.

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Although this was really ‘free money’, it was still too much effort for some charities
to claim it. It wasn’t enough that it was free money, they wanted it delivered free
of charge (and effort) too.

 

Now that this reclaim period has changed, we’re hearing all sorts of stories about
charities not having claimed six figure sums in Gift Aid. And I reckon we’ll be 
hearing more of them over the summer as there looks like being a spate of conferences
looking at how you can Gift Aid your way out of the recession.

 

I looked at the programme for the IoF’s ‘Fighting the Recession Through Gift Aid
Conference’ next month. What I notice about this is that it’s focused on new sources
of Gift Aid, such as lotteries, events and donated goods.

 

I suppose it might change now, but where is the case study showing how a charity
reclaimed several hundred thousand by claiming Gift Aid and then explaining the 
most efficient way to ensure donors were signed up.

 

As so often happens, this seems to me like another example of the acquisition versus
retention culture we have in our sector, where more effort is placed on getting 
donors in than it is on retaining and stewarding them once you’ve got them (I can’t
help thinking about that NatWest TV advert where the manager ‘hoicks’ people in 
with great offers and then throws them in the ‘keep’ net with much less attractive
offerings).

 

I know the telephone is an excellent way to make sure that you can catch people 
who aren’t Gift Aided because and you can call them even if they’re TPS registered.
In fact, we’ve done several campaigns were we’ve called specifically people to get
their signatures for Gift Aid as well as getting Gift Aid signatures as part of 
upgrade campaigns.

 

But what I’d like to know is how other charities have done this, what works for 
them and how email, SMS or social networking such as Twitter all compares. Or even
good old snail mail.

 

This again goes back to my first post about testing. If we are going to make the
most of Gift Aid reclamation in this shorted time, we need to know what works most
efficiently.

 

**Gordon Michie**

 * **[Gift Ease offers free tools to calculate retrospective Gift Aid](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/08/gift-ease-offers-free-tools-calculate-retrospective-gift-aid/)**(
   8 June 2009)
 * **[Barry Gower offers expanded training course on Gift Aid](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/10/barry-gower-offers-expanded-training-course-gift-aid/)**(
   10 June 2009)
 * **[Call to Government to Reform Gift Aid for Higher Rate Taxpayers](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/08/17/call-government-reform-gift-aid-higher-rate-taxpayers/)**(
   17 August 2009)