E-signatures could increase donations by millions of euro
Howard Lake | 17 October 2019 | News
An online fundraising platform has become the first in Ireland to get permission from the Revenue Commissioners to introduce the new e-signature process which could help charities receive millions of euro in additional income.
iDonate, which is part of Western Webs in Tuam, Co Galway has been given the go-ahead for its initiative, which involves the automation of digital signatures for people making voluntary donations of €250 or more.
Charities can receive a 45 per cent boost on all donations when donors fill in charity tax-relief forms, but previously this could only be done on paper.
Advertisement
Benefit of move from paper to digital forms
Galway East TD and Minister for Rural Affairs Seán Canney had raised the issue with Revenue. The cumbersome requirement to fill in forms manually was depriving charities of additional income, he said.
Technical director at iDonate and designer of the eSign process Alan Coyne said: “This is great news for charities all over Ireland. iDonate will alert qualifying donors to the fact that the receiving charity could be entitled to an additional 45 per cent of the value of the donation.”
The eSign initiative “makes it much easier for charities to claim millions of euro that were previously unclaimed,” he said. “We can now replace the old pen-and-paper slogan of ‘print, sign and post’ with a streamlined eSign process of ‘sign online and submit’.”
iDonate.ie is an online fundraising platform for schools, sports clubs, community groups and personal causes. IDonate now supports more than 1,000 registered charities nationally. In 2019, iDonate expects to transact more than €5 million in charitable donations.
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.