Donations and Gift Aid

Give parents and supporters one page to donate to your PTA, paid straight into your Stripe account. If you're a charity recognised by HMRC, they can add Gift Aid, and your treasurer gets the claim ready to send. That's on every plan; the Full plan adds monthly giving and appeals.

1. Set up your donations page

On your PTA's page, the committee's menu has Donations & Gift Aid. Click Donations page settings, tick Take donations, and check the suggested amounts (we start you with £5, £10, £20 and £50; donors can always type their own). Add a few words about what donations pay for, and the address donors' replies should reach. Leave Offer monthly giving ticked to let people give the same amount each month.

Your Stripe account needs to be connected first, under Payments on your PTA's page: donations are paid straight into it, as tickets are, on any plan. Upfayre takes nothing from them.

2. Turn on Gift Aid

Gift Aid adds 25p to every £1 a UK taxpayer gives, claimed by you from HMRC. To offer it, tick Offer Gift Aid, give your charity's registered name and number, and confirm that HMRC recognises you as a charity for Gift Aid. Donors then see what Gift Aid adds as they choose an amount, and tick to add it with their name, house number and postcode, in HMRC's own declaration wording.

Gift Aid is only ever on your donations page, never on tickets, raffle tickets or anything bought: those aren't donations, and can't have Gift Aid.

For money given some other way, like cash in a bucket or a bank transfer, share your Gift Aid page (its address is on your Donations page): supporters make a declaration there, and you match it to what they gave.

Your donations page is linked from your PTA's public page, your events' pages and Ways to support us. Your Donations page also has a QR code to download for posters and newsletters, which goes straight to it.

4. Appeals

For a big project, like a new minibus, a playground or the Year 6 leavers' trip, click New appeal on your Donations page (on the Full plan). Give it a name and a few words, a target ("£20,000 for a new minibus") and choose whether its page shows the progress. Let people choose what to give, or set an amount ("£50 sponsors a seat"). Link it to an event and it also shows on that event's page.

Each appeal has its own page and QR code for a poster or sign, and its own reference, which appears on every donation to it and in your Stripe payments. Your Donations page shows what each appeal has raised, and Download lists every donation with its appeal. Close an appeal when it's done: its page says so and takes nothing more.

Charging for something, like £3 for a go on an activity, is a shop item, not an appeal: it's a purchase, so it can't have Gift Aid.

5. Monthly donations

On the Full plan. A monthly donor is emailed a link to their donation's own page, where they can stop it at any time, straight away. Each month's payment appears under Donations as it comes in. You can see every monthly donor, and when anyone stopped, on your Donations page; you can also cancel one in your Stripe dashboard.

6. Claim the Gift Aid

Under Gift Aid claim, your Donations page shows the donations ready to claim and how much Gift Aid that is. Download the claim gives a spreadsheet laid out as HMRC's Gift Aid schedule (title, first name, last name, house, postcode, date, amount), to copy into your claim on Charities Online. Once you've claimed, press Mark these as claimed, so the next claim lists only what's new. If you mark them by mistake, Undo that puts them back.

Refunded donations, and anything given after a donor cancelled their declaration, are left out for you.

7. Declarations and records

Every declaration is listed under Gift Aid declarations, and you can download them all. A donor can cancel theirs from the link in their email; if one tells you instead, press Cancel beside their name. HMRC asks you to keep Gift Aid records for six years after the end of the accounting period they belong to, and Upfayre keeps them for seven. Home addresses are only ever seen by your committee.