Winning Scotland Foundation and Deloitte launch Gift Aid Toolkit
12 October 2011
• Estimated charities in the UK annually miss out on over £740 million in Gift Aid
• Estimated £100 million per year lost by UK sports clubs not registered as Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC’s)*
• New Gift Aid Toolkit could help generate £thousands for Scotland’s 12,000 sports clubs
• Broxburn United Sports Club (BUSC), a community football club and registered charity – to generate approximately £15,000 from Gift Aid each year
The launch of a downloadable Gift Aid Toolkit today (Wednesday 12 October) by Deloitte and the business-led charity, Winning Scotland Foundation could help scores of Scotland’s community sports clubs generate thousands of pounds by claiming Gift Aid.
Its launch comes at a time when many clubs face increasing pressures from lack of funds and inadequate facilities.
The innovative resource provides sports club administrators with a simple, step-by-step guide to identify if their local community sports club is eligible for Gift Aid. Specifically, the Toolkit describes how clubs can maximise claims for Gift Aid on membership fees and subscriptions, sponsored fundraising and volunteer expenses.
To claim back the basic rate of tax paid by a donor (currently 25p in every pound), a club must be registered as a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) or as a charity.*
39 year-old Alan Cunningham, a Tax Manager at Deloitte and a volunteer at Broxburn United Sports Club (BUSC) in West Lothian, co-wrote the Gift Aid toolkit. He is one of 25 highly skilled volunteers within the Work Out For Sport programme, run by Winning Scotland Foundation in partnership with Deloitte and sportscotland.
Through applying his business acumen to the club that also incorporates Broxburn Athletic Colts (under 8s) of which he’s a football coach, Cunningham expects to annually generate over £15,000 from Gift Aid for the club. He explained: “As a Deloitte volunteer within the Work Out For Sport programme, over the past 12 months I have been fortunate to offer my business skills to Broxburn United Sports Club, including to advise how they can improve their back office financial systems.
“Working closely with club administrators and Judy Anderson at Winning Scotland Foundation, I quickly realised the benefits that would arise from producing a simple, step-by-step guide that will allow busy volunteers in community sports clubs to consider claiming back Gift Aid. As a football coach for several years, I know how hard pressed club resources can be and am very pleased that our club alone will now be able to reclaim as much as £15,000 annually through Gift Aid.”
Last week, Cunningham was in Edinburgh to highlight the benefits of the Gift Aid toolkit to a gathering of representatives from various community football clubs where a lively discussion demonstrated a willingness to look at new options to bring extra finances into football clubs.
He was joined by Judy Anderson, Programme Manager for Work Out For Sport at Winning Scotland Foundation. She added: “While the idea of sports clubs claiming back Gift Aid isn’t a new development, this Toolkit is a fantastic new resource for Scotland and will help raise the profile of the issue. With over 12,000 sports clubs in Scotland and many of them unincorporated entities, there are undoubtedly opportunities for more sports clubs to benefit from claiming Gift Aid which ultimately will help sports clubs become more financially sound and sustainable.”
“The online Gift Aid Toolkit can now be downloaded at www.workoutforsport.com and will also be available on the sportscotland and Scottish FA websites. We hope many sports governing bodies will be encouraged to review the document and raise awareness among their members of its availability as a means to potentially generate clubs thousands of pounds.”
Jim Fleeting, Head of Football Development at the Scottish FA, said: "This is a really great idea that will provide some valuable funds to clubs across Scotland.
"The clubs will welcome this tool kit and the extra resources it will bring and hopefully this will allow clubs to become more financially secure and allow them to increase the already excellent work that they do."
Stewart Harris, chief executive of sportscotland, the national agency for sport in Scotland, added: “This toolkit will be welcomed by many sport clubs as it will help them understand if they are eligible for charitable status and therefore able to generate funds through Gift Aid. This is important as we strive for world class sport clubs in Scotland that are able to generate their own income rather that rely on grant funding.
“The Gift Aid Toolkit is a great practical resource that will help clubs help themselves, complementing our recently released Club Sport Framework. The toolkit is one of the many tangible benefits to be delivered by the Work Out For Sport programme, run by Winning Scotland Foundation in partnership with Deloitte and sportscotland.”
www.workoutforsport.com
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