Your Gift Aid Hunt
How to recover up to 25% of eligible donations going back four years — and set your organisation up to claim Gift Aid automatically every month going forward.
Gift Aid is one of the most valuable financial benefits available to eligible organisations — and one of the most consistently unclaimed. Most organisations that miss it do so not through negligence, but because they are simply unaware it's possible, or haven't found the tools to make it a reality — or found a way to match donors to their gifts.
The People's Fundraising platform can help unlock this — but it is important to be honest: this is not a simple process. It is fiddly, takes a fair amount of work, and requires someone who is competent with IT and has the time available to do it properly. It has to be financially worth doing. But if it is — and for many organisations it absolutely is — not only can you claim back up to four years of eligible transactions, but every future donation can be claimed automatically from that point on. Once donors are identified, any future anonymous transactions they make that come into your bank can be submitted as offline transactions into the platform and claimed going forward.
What is Gift Aid — and Who Can Claim?
Gift Aid is a UK government scheme that allows registered charities to reclaim the basic rate of income tax on donations made by UK taxpayers. For every £1 a qualifying donor gives, your organisation can claim an additional 25p directly from HMRC — at no cost to the donor.
It is entirely free to claim, requires no action from the donor beyond signing a declaration, and applies to donations going back up to four years (meeting eligible criteria) — the organisation must have been registered as a charity for the full period being claimed. You can only claim Gift Aid from the date you became a registered charity.
Why So Much Gift Aid Goes Unclaimed
Recent estimates suggest that UK charities miss out on approximately £560–564 million in Gift Aid every year. While HMRC reports that charities received around £1.7 billion in Gift Aid in the last tax year, a significant portion goes unclaimed due to missed opportunities, administrative burdens, or incomplete donor information.
Small charities with incomes under £100,000 are the least likely to benefit — with some claiming less than 20% of their potential Gift Aid entitlement. While large charities with automated systems claim up to 85–95% of eligible donations, small organisations often struggle to claim more than 40–50%.
Incomplete declarations
Missing or incomplete donor Gift Aid declaration forms mean donations cannot be claimed against.
Forgotten tick box
Eligible taxpayers failing to tick the Gift Aid box — particularly with offline, cash or text donations.
Data gaps
Evolving donation methods that do not properly capture the donor information needed to make a claim.
Administrative burden
20% of charities find the process of claiming Gift Aid "difficult" or "very difficult" — and simply don't pursue it.
How the People's Fundraising Platform Can Be Used to Identify This
When your supporters donate through People's Fundraising, you begin building a database of donor names, email addresses, postal addresses and donation dates. This is the foundation that makes everything possible — both going forward and going back.
Set up your platform and start receiving donations
Once live on People's Fundraising, donors are asked at the point of their donation whether they can sign a Gift Aid declaration. That declaration is then stored on the platform and can be used for any other relevant donation from any other source that is subsequently input into the platform. You do not need to email donors separately asking for declarations.
Identify what you need to make a claim
To claim Gift Aid on any donation you need: the donor's full name, email address, full postal address including postcode, and the date of the transaction. Without all of these, a claim cannot be made — so the quality of your data is critical.
Match donors to their historical donations
Once you have a signed declaration on the platform, or have emailed a donor and requested one, you can go back through your historical donation records — cheques, standing orders, PayPal payments, any source — and match those past donations to the same person. HMRC allows this going back up to four years if you qualify.
Submit your back-claim
All matched donations and declarations are compiled into a bulk CSV file and submitted directly into the People's Fundraising platform. People's Fundraising then claims the Gift Aid on your behalf — at no charge. The money comes directly from HMRC to your organisation.
Claim automatically going forward
Gift Aid is captured on any transaction going through the platform. Send newsletters to supporters asking them to switch previous standing orders or donations to the platform where possible. For those who continue to pay directly into your bank, keep loading those offline transactions into the platform regularly and claim within the following month — creating a permanent new income stream for your organisation every single month.
How I Can Help
People's Fundraising do not charge for the Gift Aid claiming service — it is free for all platform users. What I provide is the knowledge, process and support to make it happen.
Consultancy to guide you through it
- Fixed fee of £750
- Requires the People's Fundraising platform to already be in place — or we can arrange for the platform to do the processing on your behalf
- I guide you and your team through every step
- You do the work — I can help you get the right forms for PF to claim on your behalf
- Includes setup so Gift Aid is claimed automatically going forward
Full data implementation
- Quoted per project — every organisation's data is different
- I handle the full process on your behalf
- Review, matching, compilation and submission all done for you
- Clear quote provided upfront — no surprises
- Includes setup so Gift Aid is claimed automatically going forward for all transactions input into the platform — including CSV imports of offline data
As a very rough guide: If you have 50 regular donors giving an average of £10 per month, that is £500 per month — £6,000 per year. Your Gift Aid claim on that would be £1,500 per year. Over four years (assuming no changes), that is £6,000 in recoverable Gift Aid. This is a VERY rough guide — your actual figures will depend entirely on your donor data and eligibility.