How much is Gift Aid worth?

At the basic rate, charities can claim 25p for every £1 donated by eligible UK taxpayers who have made a declaration.

How do I check which donations are eligible for Gift Aid?

Match each donation to a valid declaration for the same donor covering the donation date, and exclude payments for goods, services or raffle tickets.

How do I find donors who gave last year but not this year?

Filter last year's donor IDs to those with a COUNTIF of zero in this year's list.

Can I claim Gift Aid on online fundraising platform donations?

Some platforms claim Gift Aid for you and pay it out with the donations; others pass the declarations to you. Check before claiming so nothing is claimed twice.

What records do I need to keep for Gift Aid?

The declarations and an audit trail linking each claimed donation to a donor and declaration; check HMRC's guidance for current requirements.

How to match donations to Gift Aid declarations

By the Analistable team · Updated 2026-10-07 · 6 min read

Join your donations to your Gift Aid declarations on donor ID. A donation is claimable only if the donor has a valid declaration covering the donation date and it's a gift (not a payment for goods or services). Sum the claimable donations and multiply by 0.25 — Gift Aid adds 25p for every £1 donated at the basic rate. Donors with donations but no declaration are your list to ask.

Part of our guide: How to reconcile data in Excel

Flag claimable donations

Has declaration =COUNTIFS(Decl[Donor ID], [@[Donor ID]], Decl[Valid from], "<=" & [@Date]) > 0
Claimable       =AND([@[Has declaration]], [@Type] = "Gift", NOT([@Cancelled]))
Claim           =IF([@Claimable], [@Amount] * 0.25, 0)

Adjust the date rule to match your declarations (some cover past donations within a period, some only future ones) and HMRC guidance.

Worked example

Quarter's donations
Donor	Date	Amount	Declaration	Claimable	Gift Aid
D-201	2026-07-03	50	Yes	Yes	12.5
D-202	2026-07-15	20	No	No — ask donor	0
D-203	2026-08-09	100	Yes	Yes	25
D-201	2026-09-01	30	Yes	No — raffle ticket	0

Claim for the quarter: £150 claimable × 0.25 = £37.50. D-202 should be asked to complete a declaration.

Lapsed donors

Compare last year's donors with this year's to find people who stopped giving:

=UNIQUE(FILTER(LastYear[Donor ID], COUNTIF(ThisYear[Donor ID], LastYear[Donor ID]) = 0))

That's an anti join — see finding records in one list but not the other.

Gift Aid rules (eligible donations, declaration wording, record keeping) are set by HMRC; check current guidance before claiming.

Common problems

Donor records duplicated across fundraising platforms — merge them before matching, or a declaration on one record won't cover donations on the other.
Declarations without a start date — record the date the declaration was made so the date rule can be applied.
Joint donations from couples — a declaration covers the individual who made it.
Refunded donations must come out of the claim.

The two files

Donations: donor ID, date, amount, payment method, type (gift, raffle, event ticket, membership), and whether it was refunded. Fundraising platforms and CRMs export these with their own column names.
Declarations: donor ID, title, first name, surname, house name or number, postcode, date made, how it was made (online, paper, oral with confirmation) and any cancellation date.

If donations come from several platforms, stack them first with a Source column and map each platform's donor reference to your own donor ID. Without that mapping, a donor who signed a declaration on your website but gives through another platform looks like a donor without one.

Handling cancelled declarations

A donor can cancel a declaration. Donations after the cancellation date are no longer covered. Extend the check so a declaration counts only if it was valid on the donation date:

Has declaration =COUNTIFS(Decl[Donor ID], [@[Donor ID]],
                          Decl[Valid from], "<=" & [@Date],
                          Decl[Cancelled on], "") +
                 COUNTIFS(Decl[Donor ID], [@[Donor ID]],
                          Decl[Valid from], "<=" & [@Date],
                          Decl[Cancelled on], ">" & [@Date]) > 0

The first COUNTIFS counts declarations that were never cancelled; the second counts those cancelled after the donation. In Google Sheets the same formula works with ranges instead of table names.

Second example: checking declaration details

A declaration also needs enough donor details for the claim. Before submitting, list claimable donations whose declaration is missing a required field:

Declarations with missing details
Donor	Name	House no.	Postcode	Claimable donations	Gift Aid at risk
D-203	R. Kaur	14	LS6 2AB	100	0
D-219	T. Evans		BS3 4QP	40	10
D-224	M. Lowe	7		60	15

£100 of claimable donations from D-219 and D-224 is held back until the details are completed, worth £25.00 in Gift Aid (£100 × 0.25). Use =OR([@[House no.]]="", [@Postcode]="") to flag them. HMRC sets which details are required and in what format, so check the current guidance for your claim method.

Troubleshooting

Symptom, cause, fix
Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Many donors appear to have no declaration	Donor IDs differ between platform and CRM	Map platform references to your donor ID first
Claim total looks too high	Ticket or raffle income typed as gifts	Review the type column before claiming
Same donation counted twice	Donation exported by both the platform and the bank feed	Remove duplicates by platform transaction ID
Donation covered by a declaration made later	Declaration date rule too strict	Check whether your declaration wording covers past donations
Refund still in the claim	Refunds held in a separate export	Join refunds back to donations and exclude them

Quarterly routine

Export donations for the claim period from every source and stack them.
Export declarations including cancellations.
Run the claimable check, the cancellation check and the missing-details list.
Contact donors without a declaration or with missing details.
Prepare the claim from claimable donations only, and keep the workbook with the claim.

The same reconciliation also answers a fundraising question: how many regular donors gave in every quarter this year? For combining several platform exports, see merging two spreadsheets and removing duplicates.

Doing it in Google Sheets

Many small charities keep donations in Google Sheets. Put donations and declarations on two tabs and use COUNTIFS with ranges. For the lapsed-donor list, =UNIQUE(FILTER(A2:A, COUNTIF(ThisYear!A2:A, A2:A)=0)) returns last year's donors missing from this year, provided A2:A on the current tab holds last year's donor IDs. Blank rows at the end of the range are returned as well; add A2:A<>"" as a second FILTER condition to drop them.

Common mistakes

Claiming on donations paid by a company, which a personal Gift Aid declaration does not cover.
Treating a sponsored event fee or membership as a gift without checking whether the donor received a benefit.
Forgetting to remove a donation refunded after the claim was prepared.

Checking the claim

Before submitting, check that claimable donations plus non-claimable donations equal total donations for the period, so nothing has been dropped by a filter. Then recompute the claim as claimable total × 0.25 and compare it with the sum of the Gift Aid column: a difference means a row with a formula overwritten by hand. Finally, sort claimable donations by amount and look at the largest few, since an unusually large single gift is worth confirming before it is claimed.

Regular donors

Monthly direct debits produce many small donations from the same donor. Pivot claimable donations by donor and month to check that each regular donor appears once a month; a missing month often means a failed collection, and two in one month a duplicated import.

Online platforms

Some fundraising platforms collect declarations and claim Gift Aid themselves, and others pass the declaration to you. Check each platform's settings and leave platform-claimed donations out of your own claim, or the same gift could be claimed twice.

Frequently asked questions

How much is Gift Aid worth?: At the basic rate, charities can claim 25p for every £1 donated by eligible UK taxpayers who have made a declaration.
How do I check which donations are eligible for Gift Aid?: Match each donation to a valid declaration for the same donor covering the donation date, and exclude payments for goods, services or raffle tickets.
How do I find donors who gave last year but not this year?: Filter last year's donor IDs to those with a COUNTIF of zero in this year's list.
Can I claim Gift Aid on online fundraising platform donations?: Some platforms claim Gift Aid for you and pay it out with the donations; others pass the declarations to you. Check before claiming so nothing is claimed twice.
What records do I need to keep for Gift Aid?: The declarations and an audit trail linking each claimed donation to a donor and declaration; check HMRC's guidance for current requirements.