Gift aid Unclaimed
Nearly £750 million of Gift Aid is being lost because only two in every five UK donors complete Gift Aid forms.
In addition, charities have found an 11 per cent drop in donations – £700,000 in absolute terms – over the past year, as a direct result of the recession.
The news came from the latest Charities Aid Foundation and National Council for Voluntary Organisations report Giving Tr. The report said that while the number of donors in the UK had only dropped about 2 per cent, the recession meant that donors were giving less. The average donation was £31 per donor, each month.
The report surveyed more than 3000 adults in the UK between October 2008 and February 2009. It found that religious causes still receive the most, taking 15 per cent of all donations. Cash is still the most common method of giving, though the use of regular giving methods is increasing.
The report summary stated: ‘It seems that people are still trying to give what they can, but are able to afford less than in the previous year’.
