Published on: Monday 16th February, 2015

Advanced NFP (Advanced) has helped its charity customers to process a quarter of a billion pounds in charitable donations since the introduction of its Gift Aid portal. The portal helps charities successfully manage the new online Gift Aid processing requirements for HMRC. It also offers key benefits including the guarantee that report submissions have been validated and the removal of paper-based administration.

In a recent survey by the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales), 89% of charities surveyed claimed they found the new online Gift Aid process to be a quicker, simpler and faster payment service. However, 54% of those surveyed additionally admitted they had issues creating Gift Aid claim reports and 15% encountered technical issues causing difficulties with report submission - challenges that are eradicated when using Advanced's Gift Aid portal.

Advanced has developed the Gift Aid portal as a single cloud-based solution for its not-for-profit clients. The solution integrates with its Donor Strategy, CARE or Integra (NG) solutions or any other donations processing application.

Louise Gibson, Head of Relationship Marketing at the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, says, "The new online Gift Aid Portal from Advanced has simplified the process of submitting our claims, avoiding the manual and time intensive administrative process of printing, signing, and posting each form. It has definitely saved time, freeing us up to undertake more valuable activities. Of paramount importance to us is the peace of mind we gain from the immediate online acknowledgement from HMRC confirming the submission has been successfully received."

Heather Doody, Supporters Relations Manager at Clic Sargent, comments: "The Advanced Gift Aid portal has worked really well for us. The submission process is simple and the payments come through much faster. It has enabled us to speed up the claims process and improve our cashflow, giving us significant time savings and efficiencies."

Simon Fowler, Managing Director, Advanced Business Solutions (NFP), says: "This is a really great start to 2015 and marks a significant milestone for Advanced. Our customers have seen the benefits of the portal and how it speeds up the online claims process by highlighting any errors prior to submission."

Gift Aid is worth nearly £1 billion a year to charities and their donors. It was introduced in 2000 by the UK Government as a way for charities or Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) to increase the value of monetary gifts from UK taxpayers by claiming back the basic rate tax paid by the donor on the donation. It increases the value of donations by a quarter at no extra cost to the donor.

All Gift Aid claims must now be made online directly to HMRC and organisations processing claims in excess of 1,000 records must be uploaded directly to the Government Gateway.

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