If you’re a charity you’ll know how important it is to ensure you have the correct data for your supporters and donors. Without it, problems can arise and hinder the good work you’re doing. Read on to find out why address validation is important for charities and trusts and how Postcodes4u can help you to carry out your charitable work effectively.
Receiving Donations
Most charities rely on generous donations from supporters and nowadays a lot of us are used to giving online. But security is becoming more and more of a concern to both individuals and banks. If incorrect address information is given in the donation process banks may block payments. If payments don’t go through it could mean that it takes longer to receive the donation or it could mean not receiving the donation at all. In order to avoid this adding a simple postcode lookup service to the donation form can stop this from happening.
It’s also really important to hold the correct address in particular for donors who are adding Gift Aid to their donation.
Gift Aid
Gift aid is a scheme where charities can claim an extra 25p for every pound donated by a UK taxpayer. In order to claim gift aid charities need to have the correct name and address of the donor in a GiftAid declaration form.
A gift aid declaration should state that the donor has paid the same amount or more in Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in that tax year and they agree to Gift Aid being claimed. It also needs to include:
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The name of your charity or community amateur sports club (CASC)
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The donor’s full name
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The donor’s home address
Head to the gov.uk website for more information on gift aid
https://www.gov.uk/donating-to-charity/gift-aid
Communication
Charities also need to communicate regularly with their donors. Although many people now use email to communicate there are still lots of people who prefer to receive their information in the post. Holding the correct addresses for donors ensures that communications won’t get lost and that donors and supporters can be made aware of the good work their supported charity is doing and where their donation is contributing. It can also encourage more donations but only if it’s reaching the right person!
How Postcodes4u can help
In order to ensure you hold the correct data for your donors Postcodes4u can help with our postcode lookup plugin service. When donors
Meaning that donors can accurately fill in their address ensuring you’ll be able to receive donations and claim gift aid without any problems.
If you are a small, UK-based registered charity registered with the Charity Commission or a Community Interest Company with an annual income of less than £10 million, you may qualify to receive PAF data free of charge. This means we can offer our services at a discounted rate.
You have to register online with the Royal MAil, for more information visit https://www.poweredbypaf.com/register-for-free-use-of-paf/
Once you are registered contact us and we will provide you with a discount code for our postcode lookup service. We can also help you to install the plugin free of charge.
Contact us to learn more
