The new minister for civil society has said more should be done to promote gift aid.
Speaking at a New Statement event on Monday at the Labour Party Conference, Vicky Foxcroft said: “I do think we need to do a lot more to go and promote gift aid so that people are using it because it’s absolutely fantastic.
“Maybe there’s some more work that we can do on why certain people aren’t [using it], in terms of different areas.”
Speaking on the same panel, GoFundMe’s senior vice president of corporate affairs John Coventry agreed.
“We can definitely do more on gift aid. We’ve actually spoken to HMRC about this,” he said.
“There is a Gift Aid Day, isn’t there, but no one’s heard of it, right?
“[…]My American colleagues fall off their seats in shock when they hear about Gift Aid Day because it’s an incredible inversion of the natural rules of tax relief that actually goes to the non-profit. So that’s something we should definitely do more, and we’d love to be involved in that.”
Coventry also suggested more could be done to encourage giving through donor-advised funds.
“We don’t have that culture of how even medium net worth individuals can put tax-efficient money away and then decide what charities to give it to,” he said.
“That’s something we can do much, much, much more on.”
Last week, Foxcroft met NCVO to discuss several topics including volunteer safety and restrictions on charity campaigning.
On the meeting, Foxcroft said: “Civil society plays a vital role in strengthening communities and delivering essential services, and I look forward to working constructively with the sector to ensure its voice is heard.”
