Top 100 charities could earn extra £50m from gift aid changes

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 18 Dec 2009

An extra £50m would be earned by the top 100 charities alone if a flat 37p-per-pound gift aid rate was introduced, estimates the British Red Cross.

Mark Astarita, director of fundraising at the charity, welcomed the government’s report as “excellent”.

“The British Red Cross could benefit from any change to mechanisms suggested but would encourage the higher composite option be adopted of 37p/pound, which could be worth an additional £4m per year to us alone,” he said.

“At a rough guess the top 100 charities could see an extra £50m per year at the stroke of a minister's pen. We know at least £200m goes missing because people don't reclaim it. Just imagine what charities could do with that extra cash.”

Astarita said the research back fundraisers’ claims that donors want charities to get the greatest possible tax rebate.

“The issue for super donors who do reclaim does not give me great cause for concern as I feel sure they will adjust their personal giving into their foundations and trusts which will also be massively increased by the tax break now finding its way into their personalised giving vehicles. There is no loss of influence and there is just as much to give,” he added.

“I now very much hope that ministers will respond rapidly to move towards a fairer scheme and sincerely hope that they will also consider the interests of all tax payers including the 80 per cent of tax payers who don't get a tax break from giving.”

Directory: British Red Cross
Who's Who: Mark Astarita

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.