How Do I Track Gift Aid?

Organizations based in the United Kingdom may be eligible to participate in "Gift Aid." The UK government will match certain charitable donations. This article outlines how to track and manage Gift Aid details in Virtuous. To keep track of the specific reporting needs, use a combination of Gift Custom Fields and internal processes.

Table of Contents 

1. Government Body Contact Record 
2. Individual Declaration 
   1. Create Custom Individual Custom Fields 
3. Create Gift Custom Fields 
4. Adding Gift Aid Custom Fields to Giving Forms
5. Processing an Eligible Gift Aid Donation 
6. Marking a Gift as "Requested"
7. Processing the Additional Gifts from Gift Aid 

Government Body Contact Record 

It's recommend to create a Contact record for "HM Revenue & Customs," the government body from which your organization receives your annual funds. This will be the Contact record you will log your annual additional gifts as the direct donor. The initial donor who sent in the Gift Aid eligible donation will then be marked as the Passthrough Donor. This process is outlined in detail further in this article. 

Individual Declaration

A Donor must complete a Gift Aid declaration with your organization to confirm they’re eligible. This declaration should be stored on the Individual level and needs to be completed once per Donor. 

An Individual must have a Full Name AND Full Mailing Address on file.

Create Individual Custom Fields to Track Individual Declaration

To track the details of an Individual Declaration, you'll need to create a few Custom Fields and a Custom Field Group. 

First, create the Custom Field Group with a name like "Gift Aid Individual Declaration."

See below for the recommended Custom Fields to create and group.

After logging that an Individual has completed their Gift Aid Declaration, create and add the Tag "Gift Aid Eligible." Because Tags are displayed in the Gift and Contact Import Tool, this Tag will serve as a visual sign during gift entry that an incoming Gift is Gift Aid Eligible. 

To learn how to create a new Tag, check out this Support Article.

To learn how to create a new Custom Field, check out this Support Article. 

Alternatively, you can set up an Automation Workflow that appends this Tag to a Contact after the Individual Custom Fields have been entered on a Contact record. 

For guidance on working with Automation Workflows, check out this collection of Support Articles. 

Create Gift Custom Fields to Track Stages of a Gift Aid Eligible Gift

There are three recommended Gift Custom Fields to track the different stages of a Gift Aid eligible Gift listed below.

Adding Gift Aid Custom Fields to Giving Forms

Next, add these Gift Custom Fields to a Giving Form. Navigate to the appropriate existing Giving Form you want to display "Gift Aid" as an option. Alternatively, you can create a new Giving Form for this purpose.

Using the three dots to the right of the specific Giving Form, select the "Edit" option.

Make any necessary changes to the first page in the Giving Form set up process. When ready, select "Next" in the bottom right corner to move to the next stage of editing. 

Using the search function in the top left corner of the window, locate the Gift Custom Field for "Gift Aid Eligible". 

Using a "Click and Drag" method, select the "Gift Aid Eligible" field and drop it into the Form build in your preferred location. 

Consider modifying this field before finalizing your Giving Form. Using the edit icon to the right of the Gift Custom Field, you can customize the Field Label to better communicate the use of this field to a donor. 

After you have made all changes necessary to your Giving Form, go to Actions > Save & Publish.

Embed this Form into your website. Now your donors can now use the check box to indicate if their donation is eligible for Gift Aid. 

For guidance on creating a Giving Form, check out this Support Article. 

Processing an Incoming Eligible Gift Aid Donation 

You can import eligible Gifts the same way you import other Gifts.

To learn more about importing Gifts, check out this Support Article with more details on the process. 

For Gifts coming from an Online Gift Form, the donor's input of "Yes" under the "Gift Aid Eligible" field will populate alongside all other giving details. If you are manually entering a Gift that is eligible, then you can use the dropdown menu to select "True."

Complete the Gift Import process as usual. 

Marking a Gift as "Requested" 

After you have requested the additional donation from HMRC, you can then update the Gift record to reflect that. To do so, navigate to the specific Gift record on the donor's Contact record. Using the three dots to the right of the specific gifts, select the "Edit" option. 

In the pop-out window, scroll down to find the Gift Aid Tracking fields. Select the Gift Custom Field "Gift Aid Requested" and update this to "True". Select "Save Gift" to lock in the update. 

Processing the Additional Gifts from Gift Aid 

After you have requested and received the additional Gift from HMRC, you can enter that as a direct Gift on the HMRC Organization Contact record. 

Then, scroll down to the "Passthrough Giver" field. You may need to select the "Show All Gift Information" option to locate this specific field. Enter the name of the donor who initially submitted the donation that was eligible for Gift Aid. 

Complete the gift entry process as usual. 

Now, the initial donor has been credited as a Passthrough Giver for this incoming Gift. Back on the Household Contact record for Jessica Francis, you can see both gifts reflected in the activity log. 

If you look at the "Giving Overview" Widget, you'll notice the sum of both the direct and Passthrough Gift are displayed. This is a setting you can toggle to either include or exclude Passthrough Giving. 

Using the three dots in the top right corner of the Widget, you can decide what selection of Gifts are included. 

After excluding Passthrough Giving, the Giving Overview Widget now displays only the direct giving.