Gift Aid is one of the most valuable tax reliefs available to UK charities. It lets you claim an extra 25p for every £1 donated by a UK taxpayer, at no extra cost to the donor. Yet many charities capture declarations inconsistently, or build claims by hand in spreadsheets, and leave money unclaimed every year.
CiviCRM handles Gift Aid well through a free, community-maintained extension built for UK organisations. This guide walks through setting it up, collecting valid declarations, building HMRC claims and avoiding the mistakes that lead to rejected or under-claimed Gift Aid. Facts and limits are correct at the time of writing (November 2026); always check HMRC’s current guidance.
What is Gift Aid and who qualifies?
Gift Aid allows UK charities and community amateur sports clubs (CASCs) to reclaim basic rate income tax (currently 20%) on donations from UK taxpayers. For every £1 donated, HMRC pays an additional 25p, so a £100 donation becomes £125.
To claim, you need:
- Recognition by HMRC as a charity or CASC for tax purposes, and a Charities Online account
- A valid Gift Aid declaration from each donor (see below)
- Accurate records linking each donation to its declaration
Gift Aid can only be claimed on genuine gifts. Payments for goods or services, such as event tickets or merchandise, do not qualify. Membership fees are a special case, covered in our guide to CiviCRM membership renewals.
How CiviCRM handles Gift Aid
Gift Aid in CiviCRM is provided by the UK Gift Aid extension, maintained by members of the CiviCRM community. At the time of writing it works with CiviCRM 5.74 or higher. It adds:
- A Gift Aid profile you can add to online donation and membership forms to capture declarations
- A Gift Aid tab on each contact showing their declarations
- Gift Aid fields on contributions, so each donation can be marked eligible or not
- Gift Aid batches, which group eligible contributions into a claim
- A Gift Aid report you can export for HMRC
A separate extension, UK Gift Aid online submission, can send claims directly to HMRC from CiviCRM if you have a Charities Online account.
Step 1: Install the UK Gift Aid extension
- Go to Administer → System Settings → Extensions
- Search for "Gift Aid" and install the UK Gift Aid extension
- Check the extension’s settings and which financial types count as eligible donations
If your CiviCRM is hosted and managed for you, ask your provider to install it; on a managed CiviCRM hosting plan this should be a quick job.
Step 2: Get your declaration wording right
HMRC sets out what a Gift Aid declaration must include:
- Your charity’s name
- The donor’s full name and home address
- Whether it covers a single donation, or past, present and future donations
- A statement that the donor wants Gift Aid to apply (a tick box on a written or online form is fine)
- An explanation that the donor must pay at least as much UK Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax as all the charities they support will claim in that tax year, and is responsible for any difference
Declarations can also be made verbally, for example by phone, but you must then send the donor written confirmation that includes their right to cancel within 30 days. Keep declaration records for 6 years from the end of the accounting period; enduring declarations should be kept for as long as they are in use.
Step 3: Add Gift Aid to your online forms
- Go to Contributions → Manage Contribution Pages and edit your donation page
- On the Profiles tab, add the Gift Aid profile so donors can make a declaration
- Make sure the form also collects the donor’s home address, including house name or number and postcode
- Leave the Gift Aid box unticked by default, so the donor makes a clear, informed choice
When a donor ticks the box, CiviCRM records the declaration on their contact record and marks their contribution as eligible. Do the same on membership and event forms where donations are taken. Our CiviCRM donations page explains how we set up giving journeys end to end.
Step 4: Record offline and imported declarations
For donations by post, phone or at events, add the declaration from the donor’s Gift Aid tab, with its date and source. If you have paper declarations or a spreadsheet from an old system, they can be imported in bulk; check addresses and dates carefully first, because a declaration only covers donations within its dates.
Step 5: Build and submit your HMRC claim
The UK Gift Aid extension documentation describes the claim process:
- Go to Contributions → Find Contributions and search for the period you want to claim
- Select the contributions and choose Add to Gift Aid Batch. Only eligible donations are added: those with a valid declaration covering the date, a UK address with postcode, and not already in a batch
- Run the Gift Aid report for that batch and export it to CSV
- Copy the rows into HMRC’s schedule spreadsheet and submit it through Charities Online, or submit directly from CiviCRM with the online submission extension
HMRC’s schedule spreadsheet takes up to 1,000 donations; for larger claims you must use software, which is where online submission pays for itself. HMRC says payment arrives by BACS within 4 weeks of an online claim. You must claim within 4 years of the end of the financial period in which you received the donation.
| Claim method | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CSV export + HMRC spreadsheet | Smaller charities claiming a few times a year | Up to 1,000 donations per spreadsheet; some manual copying |
| Online submission extension | Charities with regular giving or large claims | Submits from CiviCRM; software is required for claims over 1,000 donations |
Don’t forget small cash donations
The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) lets eligible charities claim a 25% top-up on cash and contactless donations of £30 or less without a declaration, up to £2,000 a tax year. Your GASDS claim cannot be more than 10 times your Gift Aid claim, and must be made within 2 years of the end of the tax year. Record these collections in CiviCRM as their own financial type so they are easy to total.
Common Gift Aid mistakes to avoid
- Incomplete addresses. Claims need the donor’s house name or number and postcode. Make these required fields on every form.
- Claiming on payments that are not gifts. Tickets, merchandise and membership fees that bring personal benefits do not qualify.
- Duplicate contacts. A declaration on one record will not cover donations on a duplicate. Deduplicate before each claim.
- Claiming too rarely. Claims can go back 4 years, but quarterly or monthly claims bring the money in sooner and are easier to check.
- No audit trail. Keep each batch and its export, so you can answer HMRC questions later.
"They were considerate of our budgetary limitations as a charity with finite resources and worked to find solutions within the funding available."
Phil Moore, Operations Manager, Assist Sheffield
Need help setting up CiviCRM Gift Aid?
Getting Gift Aid right means joining up your donation forms, contact records and claim process. Mountev is an official CiviCRM partner, our UK-based CiviCRM consultants know it inside out, and Gift Aid is one of the integrations we set up and fix for UK charities. We can check your declarations, forms and batches and tell you what you may be missing.
Book a free CiviCRM review, whether you are starting from scratch or fixing an existing set-up.
