Editor’s note: this post was updated in October 2025.

Gift Aid is a powerful tool for charities in the UK, providing a boost to help fund your vital work. But charities miss out on nearly £600 million in unclaimed Gift Aid every year!

This guide will help you understand the rules around Gift Aid and how to make the most of every penny donated. Follow the steps below to boost your income and make your donations go even further.

What is Gift Aid?

Gift Aid is a tax relief scheme that allows charities to reclaim an extra 25% in tax on every eligible donation made by a UK taxpayer. For example, if a donor gives £100 to a charity and is a UK taxpayer, the charity can claim an extra £25, making the total gift worth £125.

This makes Gift Aid a simple and effective way to increase the value of your donations!

The simple way to claim more Gift Aid: JustGiving as your Gift Aid agent

For many charities, setting up Gift Aid can be daunting and time intensive, especially if you’re managing all the admin yourself and your donors need to complete a Gift Aid form alongside every single donation.

So we’re here to do it for you! With JustGiving as your Gift Aid agent, you can claim Gift Aid for online donations automatically. Thanks to our seamless SwiftAid integration, donors only need to make one declaration per tax year. As your agent, we double-check, identify, and apply any missed Gift Aid, so you’ll get more without lifting a finger.

In fact, we’ve already unlocked over half a million pounds for charities!

Ready to get set up your Gift Aid? Let’s jump in.

How to claim Gift Aid 

Step 1: Register for Gift Aid 

Prepare the following documents:

• Bank account details and financial accounts 
• Details of your Authorised Officials, including dates of birth and National Insurance numbers 
• Registration number (if you’re registered with a regulator) 
• Charitable objectives (your charity’s purpose) 
• Your charity’s governing document or rulebook 
• Government Gateway user ID and password from when you registered your charity 

Then visit https://www.gov.uk/charity-recognition-hmrc and click ‘Start Now’ to begin the process. 

You can also contact HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by phone at 0300 123 1073 and they’ll help walk you through the process. 

Step 2: Complete the ChV1 form

Once you’ve received your HMRC reference number (also known as your Gift Aid number), log into JustGiving and complete our ChV1 form and we’ll add your reference number to your JustGiving account: http://www.justgiving.com/chv1.

For this, you’ll also need the name of your charity’s representative known to HMRC, as well as the names, National Insurance numbers, and addresses of two trustees and their position within the charity.

How does it work from here? 

Once you’ve registered for Gift Aid and chosen JustGiving as your Gift Aid agent, we’ll send your ChV1 form will to HMRC so they can approve us as a Gift Aid agent of your charity. Then we’ll claim Gift Aid on your behalf on any eligible donations made to you on JustGiving, making it a breeze for you to get that extra donation revenue!

We’ll send Gift Aid claims to HMRC on a weekly basis for all donations made the previous week. It usually takes just a couple of weeks to process claims.

Once HMRC sends the Gift Aid back to us, we deduct our 5% fee and send the payment to you that week. 

Note: we can’t claim Gift Aid on your behalf retroactively, only from the time you choose JustGiving as your Gift Aid agent.

Understanding your Gift Aid payment report

We make it super easy to track your Gift Aid as part of your weekly payments from JustGiving. Learn how to see how much Gift Aid you’ve received with just a few clicks. You can also choose the information you see by customising the data in your payment reports.

Unlock 25% more donation revenue

Maximise your donation revenue by making JustGiving your Gift Aid agent!

Learn more about JustGiving and Gift Aid

Hear from SwiftAid CEO and founder David Michael and JustGiving about how our partnership is helping charities raise more. Watch now

• Read the JustGiving Gift Aid FAQ 
• Understanding Gift Aid payments and more 
• Learn more about Swiftaid 
• More about Gift Aid benefits for donors