This is an introduction for charities receiving funds raised via the Donatis fundraising platform. The platform provides functionality for businesses to manage fundraising programmes (effectively acting as the agent of the charity), so the specific terms and conditions that form part of the donation process will vary depending on the site on which the donation was made, however this guide covers the aspects of the service that are common to all users of our platform.

In this guide the ‘user’ is our customer; the organisation using the functionality provided by our platform. The ‘fundraiser’ is the individual or business who sets up a fundraising profile (see below) in order to collect donations around an event or activity. The ‘donor’ is the person making a donation against a donation profile.

This guide only applies to fundraising profiles administered by users of the Donatis platform, which includes Donatis Payments Ltd. If you have received funds directly from a funeral director who is using the ‘InMemory’ donation service, please view the information for charities on the InMemory website: www.donateinmemory.co.uk/resources/information-for-charities

The Donatis platform offers the user a variety of options to pay for the service, including making a deduction from the funds raised. Donors will always be informed about any deductions to be made from their donation before completing the transaction, and the transfer of funds from a fundraising profile will be accompanied by a report that shows any deductions.

Our platform manages every form of donation including cash, cheques made payable to the charity, cheques made payable to the user and online card donations. The aim is to encourage online donations, because we achieve a gift aid claim rate of around 80% and it streamlines the user’s administration.

Online and offline donations

Donations are matched to a fundraising profile, which is set up by an individual fundraiser in order to raise money around an event or activity. A fundraising profile can have multiple beneficiaries; if a profile has more than one beneficiary donors can choose how much of their donation goes to each individual beneficiary. Profiles are managed using our platform, but are hosted on the user’s website; they can contain a biography, total collected to date, the details, logo, registration number, short description & website link to each beneficiary for which funds are being collected. Messages from donors are shown and a gallery of photos can be displayed.  

If the user chooses to accept cash and cheque donations, these are recorded on our platform along with details of deposits made into the user’s charities account.

Fundraising profiles are usually closed between 4 and 8 weeks after the date of the event, at which point the donation function is removed & reports run for the fundraiser, the beneficiary & the user for reconciliation. The beneficiary report is in the HMRC prescribed format (gift aid donation schedule spreadsheet – published 11.12.14). The user will include paper declarations for cash/cheque donations where gift aid has been added.

The beneficiary report also contains the name of the fundraiser and any supplementary information that is relevant. The accompanying letter requests that you write directly to the fundraiser to confirm receipt of the funds, so that they know that the user has completed their obligations. This is the final step in the collection process.

Adding Gift Aid – Online Donations

The fundraising profile sits within the user’s website. When the donor clicks the donate button, a form is displayed into which the donor enters their details, how much they wish to donate and their card details.  At each section of the form, the donor is told how their data will be used and to whom it will be disclosed. Names are disclosed to the fundraiser and charity, addresses and email addresses are only disclosed to the charity where gift aid has been elected and the individual donation values are only disclosed to the charity. The fundraiser is informed of the total donated.

The Gift Aid section contains the latest HMRC model declaration:

The donor must select a declaration to add or not add gift aid (they cannot continue without clicking one of the statements), which meets published HMRC requirements for an online declaration system. Finally, they are asked to leave a condolence message and to agree to the funeral directors terms & conditions of service.

On completion of the payment, the confirmation page summarises the donation information. If gift aid has been elected, it repeats the declaration. In HMRC terminology this “…acts as an online confirmation of declaration…”:

Finally, an acknowledgement email is sent to the donor, confirming receipt & thanking them. If they added gift aid, the above text is included in the email, and they are informed them how they can contact the user in the event they added it in error. This  email acts as a written confirmation of their declaration and meets HMRC best practice for a receipt to be sent.

All donations are time and date stamped by both our platform and the card processor and are shown in the beneficiary report. If the donor elects to add gift aid, the report records the fact and discloses the full address and email address of the donor.

The beneficiary report

The report sent by the user to the beneficiary lists each individual donation recorded, when and how it was received and if gift aid was claimed. Gift aid is calculated based on the net donations value (i.e. after deduction of any card processing costs and platform fees), with card processing costs shown in a separate column as a check. The report confirms the collection method, as well as advising that both the user and the software manufacturer are happy to show all records and assist where feasible in the event of an HMRC gift aid audit.  It is up to the beneficiary to claim the gift aid using the form given which is in the correct format for direct submission.

GDPR

The names and addresses of donors included in the beneficiary report are provided for the purposes of identifying individual donors and enabling you to claim the gift aid. Online donors are made aware on the donation form and in the privacy policy and terms and conditions of the service, that they will be disclosed to the charity. You MUST NOT use them to communicate with the donor for any purpose other than to discuss their donation. The fundraiser name and address is sent to you so that you can confirm receipt of the donations and must be used for that purpose only. 

If you have any questions please do contact us and we will try to help: Donatis Giving Limited, Pynes Hill, Exeter, Devon
EX2 5WR, telephone: 01803 229467, email: hello@donatis.co.uk