Just 41 days remain, at the time of writing, before HMRC's six-year Gift Aid rule is consigned to history and charities in the UK begin the four-year era instead.

With April 1 looming, that means there are fewer than six weeks in which they can make claims in relation to donations made in the soon-to-disappear two-year period.

As a result of attending last month's special Gift Aid seminar, 33 donorflex organisations equipped themselves with both the insight and the all-important reports that will allow them to lay their hands on potentially significant amounts of money that's already within reach.

Another 49 have requested the GA seminar reports to be made available to them via their private download area of www.donorflex.com

Is it worth doing?

The responses we've had from clients who've already run the new reports strongly suggest that it is.

Fresh Gift Aid declarations – and, in some cases, fresh donations too – are already arriving in fundraising offices across the country that have decided to tackle the challenge sooner rather than later.

Remember, a donorflex exercise using live data from two client organisations has already revealed potential Gift Aid reclaims of more than £80,000 and £30,000 respectively.

Whatever date we'd chosen for the Gift Aid seminar, some organisations wouldn't have been able to find time on their diaries to attend.

While they missed out on the insight and opportunity to network on the day, we're keen for them to benefit from the all-important handouts.

As with the release of last year's special Gift Aid reports, we're asking organisations to request the seminar handouts. This is what we'd like you to do:

  • Call the donorflex Helpdesk on 0845 345 7887 and make your request. We'll then upload the appropriate zipped file to your organisation's secure private download area
  • Ask your donorflex Liaison Manager to log in to the Client menu, then click on the Your files and profiles / Download area link
  • In the Private downloads section, you'll find a zipped file containing all of the above handouts

Handling the distribution this way will enable us to keep track of those organisations who have availed themselves of these crucial reports, and those that haven't. This will be important in understanding the kind of support we might need to offer in the weeks to come.

What's in the Gift Aid handout zip file?

Delegates took home with them a donorflex memory stick that contained:

  • donorflex Gift Aid Special Reports client insight.doc – A user's guide to the new Gift Aid reports and how to deploy them
  • draft nonGA letter.dot – A draft template, ready for your customization, to send to supporters who don't have a Gift Aid declaration
  • Gift Aid - 4 to 6 year Window.rpt – This new non-SQL report This second is designed to demonstrate the potential return from targeting supporters who haven't registered a Gift Aid declaration response with you, but donated money during the six years to four years ago window, for what otherwise would seem to be a qualifying Gift Aided donation
  • Gift Aid Declarations Index.rpt – This new non-SQL report isn't limited to the four-six year context and should be adopted as a standard means of monitoring the scale of Gift Aid certification in your donorflex database. It publishes a summary analysis of the status of Gift Aid declarations made by your individual supporters
  • So you think you are perfect!.rpt – A new non-SQL report that will help you to check for and rectify data-inputting errors
  • SQL_Gift Aid - 4 to 6 year Window.rpt – The SQL version of the Gift Aid - 4 to 6 year Window report
  • SQL_Gift Aid Declarations Index.rpt – The SQL version of the new Gift Aid declarations report
  • SQL_So you think you are perfect!.rpt – The SQL version of the report that will help you to check for and rectify data-inputting errors
  • HMRC_100129 Donorflex conf 2010.ppt – Mark Toner's HMRC PowerPoint presentation
  • HMRC_Gift_Aid_declaration_2010.pdf – HMRC's Gift Aid declaration template