New Direct Debit Index to help charities improve regular giving income
Howard Lake | 31 March 2026 | News
Graytide has launched a health check tool, the Direct Debit Index (DD Index) for charities and membership organisations. It is designed to help organisations assess, benchmark, and improve their Direct Debit performance at a time when recurring income is ever more essential.
The launch comes amidst increasing pressure on regular giving, highlighted by recent data such as the CAF Giving Report, which pointed to a large number of Direct Debit cancellations. The DD Index is intended to help charities take a closer look at how their regular gifts are performing and to identify areas of “leakage or missed opportunity”.
For many organisations, Direct Debit is a vital, reliable payment method that often runs in the background with minimal review or optimisation. Graytide, a UK-based consultancy specialising in payments and operational efficiency, created the DD Index to address this gap.
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Founder of Graytide Ltd, Scott Gray, commented on the launch:
“Direct Debit is one of the most effective and resilient payment methods available, but many organisations don’t regularly review how well their processes are performing. The DD Index has been created to provide a simple, independent way for organisations to sense-check their Direct Debit operations, identify opportunities to improve performance, reduce failures and protect recurring income.”
Evaluating five areas of operations
The tool allows organisations to evaluate five key areas of their operations, providing a structured way to review performance and track improvements over time across the full Direct Debit lifecycle. It draws on Graytide’s extensive background, including over 25 years of Direct Debit and Bacs bureau experience, and Scott Gray’s history of publishing sector tracking reports during his time at Rapidata.
The DD Index is designed to support organisations regardless of whether they manage Direct Debits in-house or work with a Bacs Approved Bureau or software provider. For those with established providers, the tool can reinforce strong operational performance, and for others, it can highlight where additional support or optimisation opportunities may exist.
At its launch, the Direct Debit Index Health Check is available to organisations free of charge. Graytide plans to offer additional features for a fee, including ‘Health Check+’ for a detailed audit with RAG-rated recommendations, and ‘Insights’ for enhanced reporting and analysis, with benchmarking capabilities planned for the future.
Organisations can register and run their Direct Debit health check at directdebitindex.com.
- Cheshire Community Foundation launches regular giving campaign (17 January 2026)
- Direct Debit celebrates 50 year milestone (17 December 2020)
- Supporters seeking more control over regular giving, Rapidata report shows (29 June 2018)
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.