Gift aid FAQs

Gift Aid is a UK government scheme to allow charities to raise more money through donations from UK taxpayers. If you are a UK taxpayer, and pay enough tax to cover the Gift Aid claimed on all of your voluntary donations, you are eligible to claim Gift Aid on any donations you make to Ripple Effect or another charity. Gift Aid allows us to claim an extra 25p for every £1 you donate, enabling us to claim over over £230,000 each year.

Your donations will qualify if you are a UK taxpayer and your donations (to both Ripple Effect and other charities) are not more than 4 times what you have paid in tax in that tax year (6 April to 5 April). The tax could have been paid on income, capital gains, savings or investments.

For example for a donation of £1 we will claim 25p in Gift Aid, meaning you should have at least 25p in tax in the tax year your donation was made. Please let us know if you stop paying enough tax. As it is a HMRC administered grant it's important to ensure you read the declaration carefully, check your tax status and only sign up if you are eligible.

To enable us to claim Gift Aid on your support we need to hold a valid Gift Aid declaration which meets the specification outlined by HMRC.

When you first donate to Ripple Effect, we will ask you to fill in a Gift Aid declaration form. This could be a paper version, online or over the phone. You need to make a Gift Aid declaration for each charity you donate to. If you haven’t provided a Gift Aid declaration, please contact us and we help set this up for you. Or you can fill in our online Gift Aid declaration.

All our standard Gift Aid forms cover past, present and future donations for all donations you have made to us. Do let us know if there are any tax years where you didn’t pay enough tax to claim and we can ensure it only starts from where you are eligible.

Our Gift Aid declaration covers any previous donations within the last four years, present donations and any future donations you may make to Ripple Effect. This will continue so long as you are eligible and are a UK taxpayer. If your tax status changes, you move house or you’d like to cancel you Gift Aid declaration, please do let us know. This helps ensure our records are up to date and we’ve got the correct information. Where you’ve made a larger donation, we may ask you to reconfirm your status or some larger gifts we may require you to sign additional declarations.

If you are eligible for Gift Aid but make a donation that you don’t want us to claim gift aid for, let us know and we can exclude this while still keeping your Gift Aid declaration valid for any other gifts.

Please let us know if your tax status changes, as we may no longer be able to reclaim Gift Aid on your donations if you no longer pay sufficient tax or are no longer a UK taxpayer because you’ve moved abroad. If this changes or you wish to cancel your declaration, please call us on +44 (0) 1225-874-222 or email us at info@rippleeffect.org. The cancellation will take effect from the date you contact us.

If you pay tax at a rate of 40% or above, you can claim back 20% (the difference between the higher and basic rate of tax on your donation). You can do this through your self-assessment tax return, by asking HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to amend your tax code.

For example: You donate £5000 to Ripple Effect We claim Gift Aid to make your donation £6250 You can personally claim back £1250.00 (£6250 x 20%). A £5000 donation only costs you £3750! We’d always recommend you seek professional tax advice.

Depending on your tax status you may still be able to add Gift Aid to your support for Ripple Effect if you are a retired and are in receipt of a pension.

If you pay tax on your private pension or if you pay any income, savings, or capital gains, then you can sign up for Gift Aid and instruct us to claim on the donations you have made. It is important that you check your income and tax status each year, as the tax-free earning amount may have changed. We can only claim Gift Aid if you are a UK taxpayer and pay enough tax to cover the Gift Aid we could claim.

Yes, absolutely! We know many of our supporters are also generous supporters of other charities. You will need to ensure that you complete a declaration for each charity and the total amount claimed in Gift Aid does not exceed how much you’ve paid in tax. If your status does change, you should inform all charities which claim Gift Aid on your behalf. We are always happy to confirm amounts claimed in Gift Aid for your records.

All donations that are personal voluntary donations that meet HMRC guidelines are eligible for Gift Aid. So long as we hold a valid gift aid declaration and you meet the tax requirements, we will claim gift aid on any donations you make via post, telephone or online.

There are some donations which we are not able to claim Gift Aid. Some items bought via our gift site will qualify for Gift Aid but others will not, there is more information on this below. We always advise you get in touch before you undertake any fundraising so we can make sure we help maximise Gift Aid.

Our virtual gifts, such as a Chicken or Women Leaders, are eligible for Gift Aid, as they are donations to our work. However, our merchandise products, such as Christmas Cards, are not eligible, as we cannot claim Gift Aid on the sale of any goods.

You don’t need to worry about this yourself, when shopping online via our gift site. Simply tick the box stating that you are eligible for Gift Aid (if this is correct) on the checkout page and we will only apply Gift Aid only to relevant items.

There are a number of reasons why Gift Aid cannot be claimed on a donation. If you are purchasing goods or if you receive something in return for a donation (e.g. a raffle ticket), then Gift Aid cannot be claimed. Gift Aid cannot be claimed on any donations from a group or a company. It can also not be claimed on any donations from fundraising activities, such as cake sales or coffee mornings. This is because the funds have come from other people, rather than yourself as an individual.

We always advise you get in touch before you undertake any fundraising so we can make sure we help maximise Gift Aid

If you live overseas, you can still claim Gift Aid if you pay sufficient tax in the UK. Please ensure you let us know your correct contact details so we are able to get in touch should we need to.

Yes please! It is really important for you to let us know if there has been a change and we can no longer claim Gift Aid on your donations. It is also really helpful to know even if you have never been able to claim Gift Aid, so we can keep our records as up to date and accurate as possible, whilst ensuring that we don't keep asking you!

We will only be able to cancel your declaration from the date you notify us, so we would advise you speak to HMRC as well if you think we’ve been claiming Gift Aid when we shouldn’t.

Please get in contact by calling +44 (0) 1225-874-222 or emailing us at info@rippleeffect.org to let us know and we can easily amend your Gift Aid status.