Shops chief leaves 1

Fundraising | 7 Apr 2009

The chief executive of the Association of Charity Shops has announced she is stepping down as the organisation steps up lobbying for changes to gift aid.

Lekha Klouda (pictured front left), who has been with the ACS since its establishment in 1999, plans to retire at the end of the year. The recruitment process has already started and panel interviews will be held on June 8. The organisation hopes to have chosen a replacement by early summer.

Klouda’s departure comes as the organisation meets with the Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs to lobby for reform of gift aid rules on donations of goods to charity shops.

ACS wants donors to be able to indicate that they wish to have gift aid apply on all goods up to a certain fixed value; a system which, it argues, would simplify the claiming of gift aid for all charity shops.

Directory: Charity Retail Association | HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)

Place a comment

Barry Gower
1 Apr 2009

Interesting that ACS wants to have Gift Aid on goods donated to charity shops, since this, within certain simple requirements already exists - hence Oxfam, Sue Ryder Care and others are already implementing it. Gift Aid is acknowledged as one of the most generous tax breaks for charities, yet it is estimated that charities only manage to get less than 30% of all donations from individuals with Gift Aid.

Rather than try and get the already very minimal requirements changed, charities should focus on getting the Gift Aid already there, since with every passing year, an estimate Â£800 million is lost through unclaimed Gift Aid.

[Reply]

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.