Coutts & Co launches charitable giving bank account
Howard Lake | 3 November 2009 | News
Coutts & Co, the UK private banking arm of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has introduced the “Coutts Charitable Giving Account”, a bank account for making and managing donations to charity.
The service is run in the same way as a Coutts bank account, and has been designed to make it easier for clients to track their donations in monthly statements. This should help make the process of claiming back tax relief easier to manage.
In addition to receiving a Coutts Charitable Giving Account cheque book and cash card, clients will be able to make their charitable donations by telephone through Coutts’ 24 hour call centre service and online.
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Mark Evans, Head of Philanthropy at Coutts, said: Now, instead of trawling their bank and credit card statements at the end of each tax year, Coutts clients will be able to see how much they have given at a glance creating a bigger incentive to reclaim the difference between the higher and basic rates of tax. And what,s more there are no administration fees.”
Martin Brookes, Chief Executive, New Philanthropy Capital welcomed “this kind of product innovation in order to promote and support charitable giving”.
Dame Stephanie Shirley, the Government’s Ambassador for Philanthropy also welcomed the launch, saying: “Philanthropists need to be strategic when they plot out how they wish to invest in social activities. Having an account, such as Coutts now offers, will enable a level of organisation for individuals that will streamline their giving and therefore make their contributions more effective”.
The Charitable Giving Account requires a minimum deposit of £500 and is open only to Coutts clients who are UK taxpayers. The bank points out that clients are responsible for verifying the status of any beneficiary or intended beneficiary.
Coutts has offered philanthropy advice and services to its clients for some time, and provides donors and philanthropists with networking and educational opportunities through the Coutts Forums for Philanthropy.
www.coutts.com
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.