The Great
Gift Aid Hunt
#FreeMoneyChallenge
£564 million in Gift Aid goes unclaimed by UK charities every single year. Not because it doesn't exist. Not because charities aren't entitled to it. Because of administrative gaps, internal silos, and outdated processes. This campaign exists to change that.
Free money the government is holding on behalf of your donors
Gift Aid is a UK government scheme that allows charities to claim an extra 25 pence for every pound donated by a UK taxpayer. If a donor gives you £100 and they have signed a Gift Aid declaration, you can claim an additional £25 from HMRC.
That £25 costs the donor nothing. It comes from the tax they have already paid. It is, in the most literal sense, free money — money that the government is holding on behalf of your donors, waiting for you to come and collect it.
In the 2024–25 tax year, UK charities claimed approximately £1.6 billion in Gift Aid. The estimated total eligible amount was closer to £2.2 billion. That £564 million gap is what this campaign exists to close.
The Simple Maths
The scheme has been in place since 1990. The money is owed to you. You just need to claim it.
Why does £564 million go unclaimed every year?
It is not incompetence. It is not negligence. It is three specific, fixable operational failures that affect the majority of small and mid-sized charities in the UK.
The Declaration Gap
Many charities have incomplete declaration records — donors who gave years ago without signing, online donors who were never prompted, event participants who were never asked. This is almost always the biggest source of unclaimed Gift Aid and it is almost entirely fixable.
The Administrative Burden
Claiming Gift Aid requires detailed records and a submission to HMRC. For charities with small finance teams or outdated CRM systems, this process gets deprioritised. It goes on the to-do list — and stays there.
The Internal Silo Problem
Fundraising and finance often operate as separate departments with separate systems. If the data is not flowing cleanly between your CRM and your finance system, and there is no clear ownership of the Gift Aid process, money falls through the cracks. This is a culture problem, not a technology problem.
Act Fast. (Yes, I know how that sounds.)
In this solo episode, Jose Gaign breaks down the £564 million unclaimed Gift Aid opportunity, explains exactly why it happens, and gives you a five-step action plan you can start today. Including a frank discussion of HMRC's new AI-enhanced structured risk reviews introduced in April 2026 — and what they mean for your records.
Five steps to claim what you are owed
This is not theory. This is the exact sequence Jose walks through in EP11. Start at step one. Run the report. The number will do the rest.
Audit your declaration records
Run a report in your CRM on every donor who has given in the last four years. For each donor, check whether you have a valid Gift Aid declaration on file — name, address, taxpayer confirmation, and date. The declaration gap is almost always the single biggest source of unclaimed Gift Aid.
Reconcile your CRM with your finance system
Get your fundraising team and finance team in the same room. Go through your donation records together. Make sure every donation with a valid declaration has been included in a claim. This silo-busting step is unglamorous but it is the most effective way to find missing money.
Submit any outstanding claims
You can claim Gift Aid on donations going back four years — do not assume old donations are out of scope. Submit via HMRC's Charities Online portal or a platform like Swiftaid. If your finance team is stretched, Swiftaid's Great Gift Aid Hunt is designed to help you do this quickly and compliantly.
Fix your processes going forward
Make Gift Aid declarations a standard part of every donation journey. Integrate your CRM with your Gift Aid submission process. Assign clear ownership to a named individual. Schedule a quarterly Gift Aid review as a standing item on your finance committee agenda.
Tell your donors
When you claim Gift Aid, you demonstrate to donors that you are a well-run, financially savvy organisation that maximises every pound they give. Send a thank-you email explaining how much additional income their declarations generated. Make it part of your transparency story.
Swiftaid's Great Gift Aid Hunt
Swiftaid is a UK-based Gift Aid management platform that automates the entire Gift Aid process — from declaration capture to HMRC submission. The Great Gift Aid Hunt is their campaign to help UK charities identify and claim their unclaimed Gift Aid before the end of the tax year.
Gaign Strategic Fundraising is proud to be a campaign partner. If your charity is struggling with Gift Aid administration, Swiftaid is one of the most practical tools available to fix it — and this campaign is the fastest way to get started.
Why I am backing this campaign
"I have spent twelve years watching small and mid-sized health charities leave money on the table — not because they are careless, but because they are stretched. Gift Aid is the most straightforward revenue opportunity in the sector. It requires no new donors, no new campaigns, no new strategy. It just requires good administration. This campaign is about making that administration easy."
The #FreeMoneyChallenge is simple: run one report in your CRM this week. Find out how many donors are giving without a Gift Aid declaration. The number will tell you everything you need to know about the size of the opportunity — and the urgency of fixing it.
If you want help auditing your Gift Aid processes, reconciling your records, or building a system that makes this effortless going forward, that is exactly what we do at Gaign Strategic Fundraising.
One report. This week.
Before the end of this week, run a report in your CRM that shows every donor who has given in the last twelve months without a Gift Aid declaration. Just run the report. The number will do the work for you.