Increase your donation at no additional cost! Under the Government’s Gift Aid scheme, qualifying donations made by UK tax payers can be worth an extra 25%. This means for every £1 donated, Home-Start UK will receive an additional 25p, and a £100 donation would be worth £125 to support our work with no extra expense to you or your sponsors.

What you can include

The additional income from Gift Aid makes an enormous difference to us, so please do make sure you sign a Gift Aid Declaration Form and encourage your sponsors and supporters to sign one too. You only need to fill out the Declaration Form once as it will be valid for all your future donations.

However, before we are able to reclaim the Gift Aid from HMRC, please ensure each donor meets the following criteria:

• For donations - This additional income makes an enormous difference to us, so please do make sure you sign a Gift Aid declaration form and encourage your sponsors and supporters to sign one too. You only need to fill out the declaration form once as it will be valid for all your future donations. You can download a Gift Aid declaration form here.
• For sponsored events - If you are planning an event, please do contact us for a supply of official Sponsorship Forms. These contain the precise wording required by HMRC and have been designed to ensure that the minimum amount of information required is recorded. As such, please ensure:
  • Your name and address, as the fundraiser, are included in full. Each donor must clearly include their full name and title, home address (number or name) and full postcode. Please note work addresses are not permissible.
  • The Gift Aid declaration box is ticked accordingly.
  • Avoid using ‘ditto’ marks. If a number of sponsors live at the same address, they must each complete their address and postcode.
  • Donate individually. You cannot make joint donations, i.e. Mr and Mrs Jones. This is because the HMRC need to determine who the taxpayer is.

Please also ensure the sponsorship money submitted to Home-Start UK corresponds exactly with the amount shown as collected on the sponsorship forms. If it does not, we are unable to claim any of the Gift Aid. For example, if you are sending in a cheque for £50, this must be the amount shown on the sponsor form as the total raised.

Get a Gift Aid declaration form here

Gift Aid can't be claimed on:

• donations where the giver has not paid enough UK income tax and/or capital gains tax at least equal to the amount of tax Home-Start UK and all other charities that they donate to, reclaim on their gifts for that tax year.
• payments made where something is received in return, for example, raffle tickets, entrance fees or items from a stall
• deposits and registration fees
• donations from company accounts
• collection proceeds – the donation must be the donor’s own money
• connected persons - sponsorship payments towards the cost of an event made by people who are connected to the participant (e.g. wife, husband, civil partner, son, daughter, parent, grandparent or grandchild) will usually fail the ‘donor benefit’ rules and so will not qualify for Gift Aid. This is because HMRC perceives there to be a personal benefit of the experience (e.g. skydiving or climbing Kilimanjaro).

< Go back to our Fundraising Guide