Turn every £1 donation into £1.25

Increase your fundraising total by up to 25% at no extra cost to you or your donors. Gift Aid is a government scheme that lets the Age Exchange claim tax back on every pound donated by a UK taxpayer.

If you are collecting cash donations, please make sure your supporters fully complete the sponsorship or donation form, ensuring that they give their home address details and not a business address as we’ll need this information to make the Gift Aid claim.

Under Gift Aid, the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will usually top up every £1 given to Age Exchange with 25p. So the charity could receive £250 for every £1,000 you donate with no extra expense to you or your sponsors.

For donations to be eligible for Gift Aid, the donor needs to be a UK taxpayer and will have had to have paid an amount of income/capital gains tax equal to or higher than the amount claimed by all charities and CASCs from HM Revenue & Customs. (taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do not qualify). This means, for the charity to claim £2.50 on a £10 donation, the sponsor must have paid at least £2.50 in tax.

Gift Aid cannot be claimed on company donations.

Gift Aid and sponsorship

To allow us to claim this much-needed additional income, your sponsors must:

1. Tick the Gift Aid box on your sponsorship form when they sponsor you.
2. Write their full name and title (minimum of initial and surname).
3. Include their home address (house number/name and postcode is the minimum requirement we need to be able to claim Gift Aid).
4. Avoid ditto marks. If a number of sponsors live at the same address, they must each complete the address and postcode fields.
5. The name, amount, address and post code fields must be filled out in the sponsors own hand writing.
6. Donate individually. You cannot make joint donations, for example from Mr and Mrs Smith as the HMRC needs to determine who the taxpayer is.

You should

• Reassure your sponsors that we do not use their details for marketing purposes.
• Fill in the 'date payment received box' on the sponsorship form when you receive the donation.
• Return all sponsorship forms with your donation form to Age Exchange when all the outstanding funds have been collected. We can't claim the Gift Aid without these forms.

The information above applies to offline donations only. Justgiving and other online fundraising sites will automatically claim Gift Aid on behalf of your sponsors where they are eligible.

For more information about Gift Aid, please contact Age Exchange 02083189105 or visit the HMRC's website: hmrc.gov.uk
Please note that if there are restrictions specific to Age Exchange event you are taking part in, additional Gift Aid information can be found in your event pack.

If you are organising your own event, please note that money raised through sales of tickets, goods or refreshments is not eligible for Gift Aid.

Gift Aid Declaration

You can either fill in your gift aid declaration online or download Gift Aid form and send it in to us.

* Please note that Gift Aid top-ups cannot be considered part of your sponsorship target.