Creative Gift Aid GAIN Gift Aid Health Check !

1. Creative Gift AidGAINGift Aid Health Check ! • A Presentation by • Barry Gower of • GAIN (Gift Aid Income Now) • the Gift Aid Recovery and Consulting Service

2. Come And Get ItIt was issued on 5 December 1969 by Apple seal and reached No.4 in Britain. • If you want it, here it is • Come and get it • Mm, mm, mm, mm, make your mind up fast • If you want it anytime • I can give it • But you better hurry 'cause it may not last • Did I hear you say that there must be a catch? • Will you walk away from a fool and his money?

3. A Brief Review of Gift Aid Essentially, Gift Aid is simply HMRC saying to you, the UK taxpayer, “You have some money and you have paid tax on that money. If you decide to give that money to a registered charity, I (the taxman), will allow you to authorise that charity to claim back the tax (at the basic rate of 22%) from me. And if you are a higher rate (i.e. 40%) tax payer, I will give you back the additional 18% (being 40%-22%).” Looking at this a little more closely.

4. A Brief Review of Gift Aid • some money – Gift Aid only applies to donations of cash. (As always there are exceptions but we can ignore these here). Donations can be in any currency. • paid tax – you have to have paid sufficient tax, sometimes referred to as ‘Tax to Cover’. This may not be direct income tax, and I will come back to this. • give – the money must be an unencumbered donation, and within certain limitations, there cannot be any real benefit to the donor. This is why tickets for charity dinners cannot be Gift Aided. • registered charity – Gift Aid only applies to charities registered with the Charities Commission (again there are exceptions but they are not relevant here.) • authorise– This is effectively the Gift Aid declaration, which can be written, oral or electronic.

5. What is The GAIN Gift Aid Health Check? • A TOOL which tells you how well you are doing, and gives some pointers and action guidelines. When you're sick, give your body time to heal. And try not to spread germs--cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/infection/07_prv/07_prv.html • It is not the Solution ! GAIN51 Love Lane Pinner Mddx HA5 3EY Tel 0208 8681307 Mob 07910 3911653 Email bg@gain.me.uk web www.gain.me.uk

6. The GAIN Gift Aid Health Check • The Gift Aid Health Check comprise two main sections: • Gift Aid Recovery Rate • This comprises a table with columns that are completed from your database, which produces the Gift Aid Recovery Rate for your Charity • Gift Aid Check List • This is list of typical fundraising items and activities which are then checked for suitability for Gift Aid. In addition, this list is also useful for identifying items where Gift Aid is being claimed but should not be. • All fundraising events should be listed, even those where you do not think Gift Aid is applicable, because you may be missing very real opportunities !

7. Gift Aid Recovery RateWhy you need to know it ! If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there

8. Gift Aid Recovery Rate 1 January 2006- 31 March 2006 £2,680.25 £25,642.56 10.45% £7,179.92 37.33%

9. Gift Aid Recovery RateNow you can start asking some questions • Is this quarter better than last quarter – and if not, why? • What is our target? (and why ?) • How does 37.33% relate to other comparable charities? • What is the marginal effect – i.e. what effect does a 1% increase in Gift Aid Recovery rate have on our overall income? • What is the cost/benefit – how much does this extra income cost us to get? This can help set a realistic cut off point rather than simply saying ‘we don’t collect Gift Aid on donations under £10’.

10. Gift Aid Check List The Activities below are typical fundraising activities and thecomments are typical responses. Please delete the comments and replace them with those applicable to your charity. Feel free to add more rows with additional activities, as required. • Activity • Is Gift Aid applied? – Comments by Responding Charity • Regular giving /membership • Yes – GA declaration on initial form - we follow these up if not ticked but have a low conversion rate. • One-off donations • Yes – as above • Employee fundraising • Yes/no – probably only where they are doing something sponsored and use our forms • Sponsored events • Yes – sponsor forms include GA info though there is low take up • Other Events • No – we don’t apply it to ticket sales (though could we if we marketed this differently?) Opportunity • Raffles • No • Auctions • Yes – we do try to obtain Gift Aid declarations • Corporate sponsorship • No Opportunity • In Memoriam giving • No • Legacies • No Opportunity • Merchandise • No • Lottery, trusts, statutory • No • Community fundraising • Yes/no – probably only where they are doing something sponsored and use our forms Opportunity • Christmas card sales • No – we do not claim gift aid on these but do claim it on any additional donations received with them. • Home Money boxes • No Opportunity

11. Gift Aid Check List Consider some of the comments and opportunities • Are membership fees Gift Aided ?– there are still charities which do not believe that this can in fact be Gift Aided. • If no, is this because you have been advised that the benefits are being exceeded ? If so, it may be possible to restructure the fees so that there is a basic fee and that benefits can be added separately. • If yes, are you sure that the benefits are not exceeding the limits ? Often there are friendship or supporter classes which clearly breach the limits but where Gift Aid is still being claimed. This needs to be addressed immediately. • Is your charity taking advantage of special concession, such as apply to membership of charities which qualifying under the ‘ wild life and heritage’ category ?

12. Gift Aid Check List Consider some of the comments and opportunities • Have you been back through all your one-off donations to check whether any of these now have received Gift Aid declarations and so now qualify ? The analysis done under the Gift Aid rate will give you some idea of what could be available here. • Have you looked at all of these donations which currently do not have Gift Aid and worked out • What is the total potential you could recover? • What should be your cut-off point (if any)? • What strategy you should use to try and round up missing Gift Aid declarations ? – telephone campaign, next mail shot, emails, general awareness etc. • Do you have any strategy of communicating with one-off donors to inform them • What the effect would be on your charity if all of them who did not Gift Aid had done so? • If they are Higher Rate tax payers, how much they could have ‘earned’ themselves and what this would mean to the charity if they donated this to you ( using Gift Aid of course!)?

13. What is This A little Out-the-Box Thinking A Whip? √ An Accelerator? √ An Indicator? √

14. Gift Aid Check List Consider some of the comments and opportunities • Yes you can ! • Provided that the money the donor collects in this box is his/her own money, and all the other requirements of Gift Aid are met, there is no reason for this not to be Gift Aidable • In fact, if you ‘think outside of the box’ then this is a much more powerful tool which can attract Gift Aid in some very exciting creative and profitable ways ! • . Instead of regarding the box as a ‘ money collection device’ starting thinking of it as a • Raffle entry • Entrance ticket • Registration form

15. Charity Auctions • Fundraising Dinners • eBay • Charity cheque book • Recycled Cartridges and Phones • Donations Through the Till • Car Boot Sales • Charity Golf Days Charity Shops What about being a bit more creative? How About Gift Aid on ….? All of these (and many more) can benefit from Gift Aid But there is one big Warning

17. “You have to get it RIGHT!” Revenue mauls animal charity It's a dogs life for animal charity as taxman claws back £11,300 in 'unpaid tax' Kevin Reed, Accountancy Age, 23 May 2005 A charity that rescues and houses Labradors is struggling to pay a tax bill after the Inland Revenue said it could no longer claim gift aid on donations. The Labrador Lifeline Trust could no longer claim the aid back on donations made when the dogs were re-homed, as the deal had to be treated as a 'sale' or 'service'. 'We have been dealt a devastating blow,' said chairman Anne Carter to The Telegraph. The Revenue had previously returned money to the charity on gift aid claims, but following an audit inspection, it has been told it can longer make the claim, and must pay back £11,300 in the next 28 days.! Get it wrong, and you could land up here

18. How we can Help Enter GAIN, the Gift Aid Recovery and Consulting Service. • GAIN is a success-based Gift Aid recovery and consulting service, which • collects additional income, • frees your resources, • allows you to focus on the aims and ideals of your charity. • GAINis the ideal way for you to ensure that donations from individuals are collected in the most tax efficient manner. • The attraction of GAIN is that it is largely self financing. Most of our fees are calculated as a percentage of the recovered amounts. • Our services fall into two main categories:– • Gift Aid Recovery, which undertakes and manages your Gift Aid claims • Consultancy, which helps charities ensure that their Gift Aid procedures are correct and effective .

19. How we can Help The appointment of the Authorised Agent – a brief overview. On 19 August 2005 HMRC introduced 3 new Charity Nominee forms Form ChN1 Allows a charity to appoint an individual as their Authorised Agent Form ChN2 Allows a charity to appoint a body or agency their Authorised Agent (Form ChN2A Allows the Authorised Agent authorise specific employees.) The appointment of an Authorised Agent allows it (the Agent) to sign repayment claims and/or claim repayment in the name of the appointing charities. The effect of this is that, as a charity, you can appoint GAIN as your Authorised Agent to undertake and be responsible for all your Gift Aid claims and processing. So what does this mean--

20. Gaining by appointing GAIN The advantages of appointing GAIN as your Authorised Agent. • The Charity officers (Trustees, Directors etc.), need only sign the forms once. • No longer will you have to wait for that twice a year meeting, only to find that there is no time at the end to sign the forms. • The submission forms will be checked, and any documents not complying with HMRC’s requirements will not be submitted. • We will be able to provide you with feed back on an event or time period basis as required, in order that you may measure you Gift Aid recovery performance. • We will also be responsibility for the storing and recording of the data for the Gift Aid claims and we will manage the HMRC audit when it takes place. • Should you wish, we will also provide you with all the names and address of the donors for incorporation into your own database

21. Some Developments for the Future - Where GAIN is going

22. So what are you waiting for ! GAIN it Now Don’t Do This

23. GAINGift Aid Health Check ! Perfect Pitch 2006Wednesday 28th June 2006 • Barry Gower GAIN (Gift Aid Income Now) • Gift Aid Recovery and Consulting GAIN51 Love LanePinnerHA5 3EY tel: 0208 868 1307Mob: 07910 391653 e-mail: bg@gain.me.ukwww.gain.me.uk