The study, Gift Aid Horse Trough: Half Empty or Half Full? from third sector think tank nfpSynergy, carries on from previous research from 2002 and 2003. The new research found that while only 53% of eligible supporters had been converted, there has been a year-on-year increase from only 40.2% signed up in 2002 and 45.3% in 2003.

The report also found that the easiest donors to convert were new donors recruited face-to-face, with 51% who had tried this method finding it “very easy”. This was followed by converting existing donors with direct debits (with 37% finding it very easy).

Driver of ideas at nfpSynergy, Joe Saxton, said that it was true that the average percentage of a charity’s eligible supporters signed up to Gift Aid had increased. “However,” he added, “since respondents also report many of the methods available to promote sign-up or conversion are highly effective, and certain supporter groups easy to convert, one could argue that the charitable cup is still very much half empty, rather than half full.”

Additional findings showed that only 46% of those questioned had had a Gift Aid audit since April 2000 when the scheme was introduced, while 13% had had to repay some Gift Aid to the Inland Revenue as a result of such an audit.