Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne today pledged an increase in the amount charities can claim through the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, but failed to offer any further review.
He did, however, pledge Office for Civil Society funding for fundraising training.
In his Budget 2015 announcement today, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said he would be raising the amount on which charities can claim top-up payments through the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) as part of a package of reforms for the fundraising sector, which include Office for Civil Society funding for fundraising training and planned digital gift aid reforms.
The Chancellor said that the limit on which charities could claim automatic relief under GASDS would be raised from the current £5,000 to £8,000, allowing charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs to claim gift aid-style top-up payments of up to £2,000 a year, with effect from April 2016.
Commenting on the Budget measure, John Low, chief executive of Charities Aid Foundation, said: "Extending the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme is a useful step in the right direction and we hope to see the donation maximum increase proportionately in the future."
The extent to which this will impact the amount claimed, however, is debatable. The Charity Finance Group, Institute of Fundraising and NCVO last year launched a joint review of the scheme in light of HM Revenue & Customs data showing that GASDS had raised only £7m. This was later revised down to £6m.
Karl Wilding, director of public policy at NCVO, said: “The way GASDS has been handled is very frustrating. They have completely ignored the source of the problem, but raised the cap. That seems like a political solution.”
Caron Bradshaw, chief executive, CFG, said: "The GASDS scheme increase is welcome, but the real problem isn’t the amount of the cap – it’s the way in which the scheme is structured. We need a review of the scheme and it's disappointing that hasn’t been brought forward."
Funding for fundraising training
In the 2015 Budget report, Osborne went on to say that the Office for Civil Society will take forward the procurement of a partner to deliver subsidised fundraising training to small charities in 2015/16. The Institute of Fundraising (IoF) has lobbied strongly over recent years for further funding for such training.
Responding to today’s Budget, Peter Lewis, chief executive of the IoF, said: “Skilled fundraisers are key to building good relationships with donors and securing vital funds for good causes. That’s why our members will be pleased to see that the Office for Civil Society plans to work with partner organisations to deliver subsidised fundraising training to small charities in 2015/16, something that we have called for in our manifesto and in discussions with government ministers and officials."
"The IoF will work with government and other sector bodies to make sure that any new subsidised fundraising training programme builds on the success of our previous OCS-funded, dedicated small charities training programme."
The IoF says that the government has yet to procure services for the new initiative.
Digital gift aid
The Chancellor also said that the government will legislate to allow regulations to be made to give intermediaries a greater role in administering gift aid.
This is in response to the gift aid digital consultation held in April 2014, with the Treasury confirming in the Autumn Statement that the government would work with the charity sector and behavioural insights unit in the Cabinet Office to amend the model gift aid declaration to make it more user-friendly.
It also said it would enable a single declaration to apply to all donations made via a non-charity intermediary, such as JustGiving.
The initiative was originally announced in the Autumn Statement last year, with the government saying it would publish draft legislation on digital gift aid. According to today's Budget report, it will be legislated for in the 2015 Finance Bill.
George Osborne also announced in the 2014 Autumn Statement that the government would continue and extend the scope of a review of donor benefits that was launched in the 2014 Budget. Osborne said at the time that an update on this would be provided in the Budget 2015. However, no update was today forthcoming.
