A postal appeal or newsletter reply does not arrive in one go. Slips come back over several weeks, some with a cheque, some with a bank transfer that has no note at all. Some slips have the Gift Aid tick-box filled in and some do not. By the time the bundle reaches the committee table, nobody is quite sure which gift matches which slip, or which donors still need chasing.
If you keep the books for a charity that works this way, the job is mostly matching. This guide is about reply slips and the gifts they relate to. We have covered banking the cheques themselves in our guide to appeal gifts and cheques, so this piece stays with the paperwork.
Why a gift without a valid declaration stays out of the claim
Gift Aid is paid on eligible donations from UK taxpayers who have made a valid declaration. A cheque or transfer on its own is not enough. If the donor has not given a declaration, that gift cannot go into the claim, however generous it was.
A declaration needs to show who the donor is and that they want the gift to be treated as Gift Aid. In practice that means the donor's full name and home address, and the confirmation itself. Check current HMRC guidance for the exact wording and what a declaration must contain, because the details matter and they can change.
So a reply slip with the tick-box filled in is not the end of the matter. Before you add that gift to a claim, you need to be satisfied the declaration is complete. A slip with a tick but no address, or an address but no tick, needs a decision before it goes anywhere near the claim.
A simple tally for slips, gifts and declarations
You do not need a complicated system to start. Four counts, kept each week during the appeal, will show you where things stand:
- Slips received: every reply slip that has come back, whether or not it has money with it.
- Gifts banked: every cheque or transfer that has cleared, with the date and amount.
- Declarations recorded: slips where the name, address and confirmation are complete, and where you have recorded the date you received them.
- Gifts still waiting on a declaration: the list you will work from for follow-up.
The last list matters most. Keep it as a plain list: donor name, date of gift, amount, and what is missing. A slip that has come in without a tick, or with a tick but no address, goes on the list until it is sorted.
If your reply slips and your bank statement tell different stories, a quick reconciliation will show you why. A gift banked with no matching slip is not a problem in itself, but it does mean you cannot claim Gift Aid on it until you have a declaration from that donor.
In Vasker's cash book you can record each gift and link it to a declaration, so the gifts still waiting on one show up in a list rather than in your memory. Those records also help the committee see what the appeal brought in, not just what the bank shows.
Following up a missing declaration, and recording a confirmation properly
Chasing a missing declaration is a small, polite job. Write once, say what you need, and give a reason. A short letter or email that thanks the donor for their gift and asks them to complete the Gift Aid part of the slip is enough. Include a stamped envelope or a link if you have one. Do not make the donor feel they have done something wrong by not ticking the box.
Some donors will confirm by phone or in person. A verbal declaration can be valid, but you must record it properly at the time. Write down the donor's name and home address, the date, the fact that they confirmed Gift Aid, and who took the confirmation. Check HMRC guidance on what a verbal declaration must include before you rely on one.
If a donor confirms in writing, by email or by letter, file that confirmation with the gift. Keep the original where you can. A note in your cash book that says where the confirmation is stored will save you a search later.
Do not guess. If you cannot find an address or a confirmation, the gift stays off the claim. It is better to leave a gift out than to claim on a declaration you cannot support.
Before you start chasing, it can help to see roughly what is at stake. The Gift Aid gap calculator at https://vasker.co.uk/gift-aid-gap-calculator/ gives a rough planning estimate. It is free and needs no account. Use it to decide how much effort the follow-up is worth. It is an estimate for planning, not a claim.
The arithmetic, as a worked example
Here is the arithmetic, and nothing more. Suppose an appeal brings in £2,000 of eligible donations from UK taxpayers, and every one of those gifts has a valid declaration. Gift Aid at 25p in the pound on that amount is £500.
That is a worked example, not a typical result. Your figure depends on how many gifts are eligible, how many have valid declarations, and what HMRC rules apply to each one. Many gifts will not be eligible, and some declarations will be incomplete. Do not plan your year around a figure you have not checked.
How Plus handles declarations and claims
Vasker's Plus plan includes Gift Aid tools for declarations. It covers enduring declarations, single declarations and verbal declarations, so the slips and confirmations you have collected can sit in one place alongside the gifts they relate to.
Plus also builds the claim from those declarations. Each claim is checked for validation before it goes to HMRC, and the request and response XML is kept as evidence. If a question comes up later, you have the record of what was sent and what came back.
The Plus plan's Gift Aid tooling also covers individual gifts, sponsored events, aggregated donations and GASDS small donations. This article is about postal and newsletter appeal replies, so the detail you need here is the declaration side. Check the plan details before you decide, and check current HMRC guidance for the rules that apply to your organisation.
Vasker is listed by HMRC as commercial software for filing Gift Aid and charity repayment claims online through Charities Online. HMRC does not endorse or approve any software supplier.
Who sends the claim
The treasurer or the chair sends the claim, using the organisation's own Government Gateway login. This is the login the charity uses for Charities Online, and it belongs to the organisation rather than to Vasker.
Vasker does not store Government Gateway passwords. The sender ID and password are typed in only when the claim is submitted, and they are discarded afterwards. Keep your own record of who holds the login, and make sure more than one trustee knows how to get into the account if the treasurer changes.
Keeping records for six years
HMRC expects Gift Aid records to be kept for at least six years. For a postal appeal, that means keeping the reply slips or copies of them, any written or email confirmations, your cash book entries, and the claim records. A box of slips in a cupboard does not meet that expectation on its own. Index them by appeal and by year so that a question can be answered quickly.
General information, not tax advice
This article is general information for volunteer treasurers. It is not tax or legal advice. Check current HMRC guidance on Gift Aid declarations, verbal declarations and claims before you act. If your organisation is a registered charity, check the rules from the Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI as they apply to you.
Vasker is general treasurer guidance. It does not check your declarations for you, and it does not guarantee that a claim will be accepted by HMRC. The records and the decisions remain with your committee.