Alastair Petrie provides tips for small charity's on increasing their Gift Aid income

All charities face constant challenges when it comes to managing their finances, but for smaller charities with fewer resources available, this pressure is intensified. The good news is that there is often more that can be done to help maximise all possible income available to a chairty. Just a few simple steps, such as improving training and maximising their use of technology can make a significant difference to the amount of cash coming back into the organisation, whilst keeping that all important outgoing spend to a minimum.

Many charity retailers aren’t making the most of what is available to them. In 2014 the proportion of charities receiving no income at all from Gift Aid rose by eight points to 50%

Alastair Petrie

The Gift Aid gap

Gift Aid is one of the greatest sources of extra income for charity retailers, acknowledging the fact that donors have already paid basic-rate income tax on their earnings and allowing the difference to be claimed back by the charity. However, despite this, many charity retailers aren’t making the most of what is available to them. In 2014 the proportion of charities receiving no income at all from Gift Aid rose by eight points to 50%, and last year the government’s Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, which intended to raise over £100m a year for charity, raised just £26m. This means a great loss in potential income for charity retailers.

Gift Aid is often not applied to higher value items such as furniture – a crucial area to lose out on due to the substantial additional revenue furniture donations can bring in. Substantially increasing Gift Aid revenue can be as simple as equipping collection drivers with completed Gift Aid forms ready to be signed, and duplicate adhesive labels for attaching to the paperwork and donated items to keep them clearly associated. One of the most recent innovations in this area has been the implementation of hand held devices for drivers, so that Gift Aid can be processed on the move. It’s always worth evaluating all donation channels to help find the simplest, most cost-effective ways to ensure Gift Aid is applied wherever and whenever possible.

Upskilling

Having worked with a large number of charities and hospices over the years, we’ve found that a significant proportion of volunteers don’t receive adequate training in the use of EPOS or Gift Aid processing, and this skills gap is having a direct impact on the levels of Gift Aid achievable. To help illustrate this point a little further two charity retail stores, from the Age UK and RSPCA networks respectively, saw an increase in Gift Aid returns of 400% – a rise in sales from 4% to 22% after undertaking refresher training. Ensuring that there is a well-defined training and monitoring process for all volunteers and staff to use the in-store technology and EPOS, and how they approach the subject of Gift Aid with customers and process the data received is one way in which a charity can utilise their existing resources to make a real difference to their levels of Gift Aid.

Tackling technology

Sourcing an IT solution that is built specifically for the charity sector seems like an obvious choice, however many small organisations have found themselves using a repurposed retail IT solution, which has Gift Aid and the needs of a charity bolted-on as an afterthought. These systems can result in unnecessarily high costs, as well as being overly complex, which affects how easily volunteers are able to grasp usage of the system. However, there are more suitable solutions now available which have been developed as a direct result of partnerships between IT providers and charities, meaning that the needs of the charity are first and foremost when it comes to the system’s design and functionality. If you are currently operating a legacy system that’s been in place for a number of years, it could be time for a review to ensure your current provision is working for you, rather than against you

Alastair Petrie is general manager of BMc Azurri, a company specialising in the provision of Gift Aid systems and IT services for the charity sector