How to Maximise Gift Aid for Your Charity | Enaid Accountancy

When someone donates to a charity in the UK, as a charity you can ensure the donation goes even further and it doesn’t cost you any extra. Gift Aid is one of the most beneficial avenues for charities to turn generosity into real-world impact.

What Is Gift Aid?

It’s a UK government scheme that allows charities to reclaim the basic rate of tax on donations made by UK taxpayers. In a nutshell, for every £1 donated, you can claim an extra 25p from HMRC, simply just by that person saying yes to Gift Aid.

In reality, imagine If 100 people each donated £20 and tick the Gift Aid box, you can claim an additional £500 which could be invaluable for your charity’s activities and support. 

How To Use Gift Aid

The money reclaimed through Gift Aid shouldn’t be treated as a bonus, instead build it into how you plan, budget, and deliver your work. Whether it’s staffing helplines, funding outreach programmes, or buying essential supplies, Gift Aid enables you to maximise those donations further.

Real-life example:
In 2024 alone, Gift Aid helped one of our longest standing clients fund an additional 2 days a weeks of one of their project workers for a whole year!

Keeping Gift Aid Simple

From a donor’s point of view, ticking the Gift Aid box is quick and easy and they have to satisfy the following:

  • They need to be a UK taxpayer.
  • Their donation must be from their own money (not someone else’s or a business).
  • The amount they give must be a donation and not a payment for a raffle ticket or entry into something like a fundraising
  • They simply confirm they’re happy for the charity to claim the tax back.

Charities can claim Gift Aid on every donation a person makes, and not just today, but for up to four years in the past (if they’re eligible so well worth checking back).

Maximising gift aid claims

From a charity’s perspective its all about ensuring you maximise the amount of gift aid you can claim back. 

A few ways to do this are:

  • Ensuring you keep records of cash and small contactless card payments to maxmise your small donation scheme claim
  • Planning how you encourage donations in place of or on top of entry fees for things like events
  • Ensuring you keep good records of all auction prizes and subsequent donations to enable you to claim gift aid on any relevant amount

We can help you with these nuances – just give us a call!

Stay Accountable

Every Gift Aid claim must be audited and tracked, and you must ensure you meet all the regulatory requirements. 

So, from all of us at Enaid working on behalf of charities, thank you to everyone for ticking that little box. It might seem like a small gesture, but it makes a world of difference.

Ensure you’re claiming back the Gift Aid and making it as easy as possible for your donors to do it. Make every extra penny count! 

If you’d like advice about Gift Aid or have questions about our other services please contact the team today https://www.enaidaccountancy.co.uk/services/