Operating a Gift Aid Scheme:

Envelope Records

Donor Register

You should keep some kind of donor register, which contains

• The donor’s full name
• The donor’s full address, including postcode
• The date of the Declaration
• The date the Declaration was valid from
• The method of donation, eg envelope, plus the number, Standing Order, cheque, or occasional donation envelope – or a combination of these.

You then need to keep records of the donations made. Read on for envelope records, or click on links on the right for other types of donations.

Envelope records

Envelope records begin in the vestry, when the offering is counted. When Diocesan Officers audit our parishes, we often find that some problems are not with the Gift Aid Secretary, but with the vestry procedure. The Gift Aid Secretary should find out what happens in the vestry and how the list of contents of envelopes is maintained. They should talk to the Wardens, Treasurer and any Recorders or Tellers about what information is required.

To comply with good financial practice, the offerings should be:

• Counted immediately after the service on the premises
• Counted by 2 people, who are not related or live in the same household
• Where known, the Gift Aid and non-Gift Aid envelopes should be separated, and dealt with separately
• Each envelope should be opened and marked with its contents, checked by the other person
• When all Gift Aid envelopes have been opened, the total cash on the table should be counted and should match the totals on the envelopes
• This should be repeated for the non Gift Aid envelopes
• The loose offerings should be counted separately
• The totals should be recorded in the Parish registers

The marked envelopes, plus totals, can now be passed to the Gift Aid Secretary. Some parishes may use a sheet in the vestry where the tellers write on the amount received in each envelope at the time of opening. This is then also passed on to the Gift Aid Secretary with the envelopes. The Gift Aid Secretary should then record the amounts on some kind of donor record.

Donor Record

You need to know what is in each Gift Aider’s envelope each week, when it is received, and what the total Gift Aided cash is each week. Bear in mind that the tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year. This means that the first Sunday in the tax year very often isn’t the first Sunday in April. Similarly, the last Sunday in the tax year is very often not the last Sunday in March. Your donor record should reflect this. You should record each envelope against the date actually received. The date on the printed weekly envelopes is irrelevant for recording purposes. It is only a guide for the donor. There are no “late payments” under Gift Aid.

An example envelope donor record is:

For confidentiality, only the Gift Aid Secretary needs to be able to tie up which envelope number relates to which person, and how much that person has given. It is important that the name on the Declaration is the same as the name against the envelope number and is the person who pays tax! This may sound obvious, but lists of names against envelope numbers often have Mr & Mrs, whereas the Declaration is only for Mrs, for example, and Mr isn’t a tax payer. You may write Mr & Mrs on the box when the envelopes are distributed, but all your records should only refer to the tax payer.

You need to keep one month’s sample of envelopes for each year, marked with contents. These should be kept bundled together according to date received. We recommend that you keep the whole year’s envelopes until you have made the claim, in case there are any reconciliation problems, and then select the month to keep.

Where a donor with a current Gift Aid Declaration wishes to give an extra amount, or to a particular purpose, they only need to put the donation in a blank envelope, with either their name, or their normal giving envelope number, on the outside. Single donation envelopes like these need to be dealt with in the same scrupulous way as regular giving envelopes. You may need to leave space on your donor record for these, or start a separate sheet. You also need to make sure that the Treasurer’s records can clearly show when these amounts were paid into the bank.

While only a month’s sample of regular giving envelopes per year must be kept, all the one-off envelopes (with the Declaration printed on them) must be kept. These are kept at Church House for Diocesan Scheme parishes. We also recommend that you keep all extra donation envelopes, where the envelopes are extra to the regular giving envelope scheme.