‘Give it some Gift Aid’ and ensure your donations reap even more for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices

October 6, 2021

People who donate items to East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) have the chance to make their generosity go even further – by making sure they sign up for Gift Aid.

The charity has launched its ‘Give it some Gift Aid’ campaign, ensuring it fully maximises the funding opportunity.

Gift Aid enables charities like EACH to claim the tax that donors have paid on the value of their donations. For every £1 sold, 25p can be claimed back.

Around 60 per cent of adults in the UK are tax-payers but currently only 36 per cent of EACH’s Retail donors have registered for Gift Aid. EACH has £60,000 which goes unclaimed every year!

Now, when every donation is dropped off, staff will be checking whether donors have already registered as Gift Aiders, or if they would like to sign up to the scheme.

Sarah Throssell, EACH Head of Retail Central Operations, said: “Gift Aid is an incredibly valuable source of income for our charity. I’d encourage anyone eligible to sign up, because it means your donations go even further. You could also help EACH when you drop off donations by asking about Gift Aid.

“If you’re eligible, it’s a simple sign-up process and takes no more than a couple of minutes.”

EACH cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.  It relies on voluntary donations for the majority of its income and, every year, needs to raise over £5.5 million from fundraising and £5.4 million in income from its 44 shops.

Customers will spot special ‘Give it some Gift Aid’ posters, clothing circles and door hangers next time they visit their local EACH shop. There will also be some friendly competition among staff and volunteers.

“To show and appreciate the hard work of our shop teams, we’ve introduced two new Hero trophies called Gift Aid Gary and Gift Aid Gracie,” added Sarah. “These will be awarded to celebrate and recognise the efforts they make every day to approach and ask as many tax-paying donors as possible.”

EACH’s Retail team won a prestigious Third Sector Enterprise Award in September. The award category was for a social enterprise or charity that has ‘significantly improved its income from commercial activities in recent years’.

EACH has developed a thriving retail sector which is an essential funding stream to keep care services running. From 14 shops in 2014, the charity now has 44 across East Anglia and in 2019, EACH was recorded as the second-fastest growing retailer in the annual Charity Shops Survey. It has led to an impressive increase in turnover year-on-year since 2014 and profit from shops is now 2.5 times higher. Turnover from EACH retail in 2014/15 was £1,954,775, with the most recent figure from 2019/20 being £4,932,805.

As well as increasing income and physical shops, the charity has focused on growing its online presence. EACH has a thriving eBay store which has seen a threefold increase in income since its launch in 2016.

Following the achievement of a new record turnover of £243,889 in 2019/20, the shop took income of £311,131 in 2020/21, despite being closed for three months due to lockdown. The store sells items across the world and has even sold clothes donated by EACH Ambassador Ed Sheeran. More recently, the charity launched a shop on Amazon Marketplace and 2021 saw the launch of Style with EACH – a new vintage shop on ASOS Marketplace.