Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 15:03:43 -0000
From: Sophie McKane
Positively Women has got a supporter running in this year's London Marathon. The runner will be collecting sponsors and dividing money between PW and St Mungo's. I've got a concern about Gift Aid declarations and how they will be organised. I have tried to find the answer on the inland revenue site, but this seems to be too specific a query.
Sponsors will be given the option of either: specifying which charity they wish the money to go to and writing a cheque made payable to that charity; writing two separate cheques, one for each charity; writing a cheque or giving cash to the runner, who will then divide up the money.
The difficulty which arises is this: suppose an individual wants to give £20, to be divided between the two charities. The donor signs a gift aid declaration and passes the cash and cheques (made payable to the runner) to the runner. The runner then pays them into his bank account, and writes a cheque to Positively Women, representing the half the money gathered from the individuals. Can Positively Women then reclaim the tax from the money given to the runner by individuals? If not, how do these events work if people are giving only cash? Presumably the runner is not expected to send
cash to the charity.
I don't think that doing a gift-aid adapted sponsorship form would work in these circumstances because the money will be divided between two charities, and the form seems to relate to only one charity. Donors could sign two separate gift aid sponsorship forms, but this seems to be a bit long-winded.
Can anyone advise me on what to do? Thanks in advance.
Sophie McKane
Fundraising and Communications Officer
Positively Women
347-349 City Road
London, EC1V 1LR
Tel: 020 7713 0444 Fax: 020 7713 1020
e-mail: smckane@positivelywomen.org.uk
