Beacon makes it easy to collect donations online with beautiful, mobile-friendly donation forms. These forms take care of processing payments, acknowledging donors, and making sure that all data gets saved to the right place - for Gift Aid and otherwise.

But, if you accept donations outside of Beacon (or have done so in the past) then we have good news: Beacon can still claim Gift Aid for you!

Tip: Before reading this article, learn more about how Beacon handles Gift Aid.

Eligibility criteria

To claim Gift Aid, the donations must be eligible to have Gift Aid claimed on them. This article gives a detailed overview of the criteria, but the basics are:

The donor must have a valid Gift Aid declaration
The donor must have a full name and address
The payment (donation) must be flagged as "Gift Aid allowed"

Claiming Gift Aid donations made outside of Beacon

Beacon also serves as a submission platform for Gift Aid claims, whether the original donation was made through Beacon or recorded manually. Its flexibility allows you to include payments from external sources, provided they meet Gift Aid eligibility criteria. Simply adjust the necessary details in the app, and Beacon will handle the rest.

Beacon will automatically add any payments that are Gift Aid eligible to your active Gift Aid claim. For donations that have been made outside of Beacon, you will need to:

Create the donation as a payment in Beacon
Create the donor as a person in Beacon
Create the Gift Aid declaration, linked to the donor (person) in Beacon

Tip: Payments and People can be created at the same time if you're importing your donations from a spreadsheet, and Gift Aid declarations would be a second import.

For each donation, once you get to having everything ticked, you're done!

You'll also see that Beacon has automatically added the payment to the open Gift Aid claim:

Additionally, Beacon does not take any cuts from your donations or Gift Aid amounts, ensuring you retain the full benefit of your claims.

Managing Gift Aid Cancellations and Amendments

If you need to cancel a Gift Aid declaration, be aware that it will remove any corresponding payments from any open Gift Aid claims instantly. This ensures compliance and removes ineligible payments from your submissions. Amending donation types, such as changing a donation to "In Memory donation," might also affect its eligibility for Gift Aid. Your Gift Aid eligibility settings in Beacon's configuration options control which donation types are valid. For instance, if "In Memory donation" is not marked as eligible in your Gift Aid settings, such donations will be excluded. You can update these settings to include it if appropriate.

Evidence of Gift Aid declarations

As a charity, you are required by HMRC to provide evidence that a Gift Aid declaration was actually made. If a declaration was made on a paper form, you must attach a scan / photo of the declaration to the Gift Aid declaration in Beacon.

Gift Aid declaration dates

Gift Aid declarations must have a declaration date attached to them in Beacon - the date when the declaration was made.

HMRC has two offline example PDF templates for Gift Aid declarations:

Declarations that were only made for single donations should have the following set:

Declaration date = the payment date
Start date = the payment date
End date = the payment date

Declarations that were made for multiple donations should have the following set:

Declaration date = the payment date
Start date = 4 years before the payment date
End date = blank

These dates allow Beacon to use your Gift Aid declarations correctly, so we don't claim Gift Aid on donations that are not eligible.

Common Issues and How to Resolve Them

Payment Sources: Whether donations originate within or outside Beacon, confirm they align with Gift Aid eligibility before submission.
Declaration Cancellations: Review pending claims to ensure no ineligible payments remain after cancelling a declaration.
Donation Types: Regularly review and update donation type eligibility settings to ensure compliance.