Advanced’s cloud-based Gift Aid portal hits £1 billion milestone

Advanced’s innovative Gift Aid portal has now helped leading British charities process over £1 billion in value of gross donations since its introduction in 2013, resulting in tax repayments of circa one quarter of a billion pounds. The cloud-based solution helps charities successfully manage the online Gift Aid processing requirement for HMRC Charities Online, saving both time and eradicating errors. Some of the largest charities using the portal include Save the Children UK, RSPB, RSPCA, WWF, Plan UK, The English Heritage Trust, Marie Curie, Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, Cats Protection and Amnesty International UK.

Advanced developed the Gift Aid portal for its not-for-profit clients, which integrates with its fundraising solutions for charities. Feedback from some of the leading charities using the portal have indicated benefits in four key areas:

• guarantees that report submissions have been validated and have been successfully processed
• alerts if there are errors in the entry, prior to submission, which speeds up the process by not having to re-submit data unnecessarily
• online automation removing the previous manual administrative process of printing, signing, and posting each form
• faster processing which means charities get receipt of the valuable Gift Aid funds more quickly

“Advanced provides us with a very reliable and effective solution to process Gift Aid claims electronically in line with the HMRC requirement,” says Tony Gamble, Head of IT for Cats Protection. “We are now able to process claims 50% faster compared to paper claims which used to take the team a whole afternoon! We claim Gift Aid income on behalf of our 250 volunteer-run branches who care for unwanted cats, so we very much welcome the increased efficiencies.”

Mark Dewell, Managing Director - Commercial and Third Sector - Advanced, says: “Gift Aid is an incredibly valuable source of funds for charities and it’s great that our portal has helped make it easier and faster when processing their online claims with HMRC. This is an example of how a digital-first strategy delivers a positive impact for everyone – for HMRC in being able to automate claims, for charities in receiving their Gift Aid rebate from HMRC much quicker, and for consumers in maximising their donations. We’re delighted to have reached this milestone.”

Gift Aid is worth £1.3 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.

-ENDS-

Note to editors

About Advanced

Through our enterprise and market focused solutions we positively impact millions of people’s lives through continually investing in our people, partnerships and own technologies to stay focused on our markets’, customers’ and their stakeholders’ needs.

We enable our customers to drive efficiencies, savings and growth opportunities through focused, right-first-time software solutions that evolve with the changing needs of their business and the markets they operate in.

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Advanced is a Sunday Times Top Track 250 Company 2016 and was ranked in the Deloitte UK Fast 50 which recognises the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the UK and a winner of the Tech Company of the Year in PwC’s UK Tech Awards in 2014.

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