Requires: Charitable Gift Aid 2.0+
Plus plan and higher
Charitable Pro plugin 1.8.19.5+ to record Gift Aid on Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, SEPA, BECS and Cash App

Do you want to claim Gift Aid on the donations UK taxpayers make through your website?

Charitable Gift Aid lets UK charities collect Gift Aid declarations on their donation forms, so you can claim an extra 25p from HMRC for every £1 a UK taxpayer gives. It adds the Gift Aid checkbox and declaration to your forms, records each donor’s declaration with their donation, and gives you an export that lines up with HMRC’s Gift Aid claim schedule.

This guide covers Charitable Gift Aid 2.0 and later. It walks through the settings, turning Gift Aid off for a campaign, showing address fields only when they’re needed, exporting for HMRC, troubleshooting and the developer hooks.

HMRC only pays Gift Aid on donations with a valid declaration and a full record behind it. Getting the setup right before your next claim means every eligible gift counts.

What’s in This Guide?

Key Features of Charitable Gift Aid

• Add a Gift Aid checkbox and HMRC declaration to every donation form automatically
• Edit the section header, checkbox label and declaration from a dedicated settings page
• Choose whether the donor Title field is required, optional or hidden
• Show the address fields only to donors who tick the Gift Aid box
• Turn Gift Aid off for individual campaigns that aren’t eligible
• Save the exact checkbox text and declaration each donor agreed to
• Record Gift Aid on every payment of a recurring donation
• Export Gift-Aided donations as a CSV ready for your HMRC claim

Why Use Charitable Gift Aid?

Gift Aid adds 25% to eligible donations at no cost to your donors, but only if you collect a valid declaration and keep a record of it.

Charitable Gift Aid handles both at the point of giving. You won’t need to ask donors for paperwork afterwards or rebuild your claim records by hand.

See Charitable Gift Aid in Action

Charitable Gift Aid Requirements

• Charitable or the Charitable Pro plugin. Gift Aid is included in the Plus plan and higher.
• WordPress 6.2 or later
• PHP 7.4 or later
• The Charitable Pro plugin 1.8.19.5 or later, to record Gift Aid on Stripe Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, SEPA, BECS and Cash App donations

How to Install Charitable Gift Aid

Install and Activate Charitable Gift Aid

Installing Charitable Gift Aid is the same as installing any other Charitable extension. If you’re not sure how to do that, read our guide to installing Charitable extensions.

Once it’s activated, the Gift Aid section is added to your donation forms automatically. You don’t need to add a field.

Upgrade From Gift Aid 1.x

Your existing Gift Aid text and records carry over. Every new setting starts out working the same way as version 1.x, so nothing changes on your forms until you choose to turn something on.

Where to Find the Gift Aid Settings

To get started, head over to Charitable » Settings » Advanced » Gift Aid.

If you use Charitable without the Charitable Pro plugin, the same settings are at Charitable » Settings » Extensions.

You can also open this page from the Settings link under Charitable Gift Aid on the Plugins screen.

Gift Aid Form Field Settings

Setting	Options	Default	Description
Donor Title field	Required, Optional, Hidden	Required	This decides whether donors must choose a title, such as Mr or Mrs. HMRC’s claim schedule has a Title column. Hiding the field is fine for most charities, but that column will be blank in your export.
Only show address fields when the donor opts in to Gift Aid	On / Off	Off	When it’s on, the address fields are hidden until the donor ticks the Gift Aid box, and they become required once it’s ticked. Donors who don’t claim Gift Aid aren’t asked for an address, and none is saved for them.

Gift Aid Display Text Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Section header	“Boost your donation by 25p of Gift Aid for every £1 you donate.”	The heading shown above the Gift Aid checkbox.
Checkbox label	“Yes, I want to Gift Aid my donation to [your site name]”	The text beside the checkbox.
Declaration text	HMRC’s standard UK taxpayer declaration	The declaration saved with each Gift-Aided donation and included in your records. Check HMRC’s current guidance before you edit it.

If you clear the checkbox label or declaration, Charitable uses the default text instead of showing an empty declaration. You can clear the section header to hide it.

Gift Aid Display Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Show Gift Aid amount in campaign stats	Off	This adds the Gift Aid you expect to claim (25% of Gift-Aided donations) to the campaign’s amount raised and percentage raised, for example “£125.00 + £2.50 Gift Aid donated”.

Edit the Gift Aid Text in the Customizer

You can still edit the same text in the WordPress Customizer if you’d rather see your changes on a live form preview. Here’s how to open it.

1. Head over to Appearance » Customize.
2. Next, open the Charitable panel.
3. Then select Gift Aid.

The settings page and the Customizer edit the same values, so a change in one shows in the other.

How to Turn Gift Aid Off for a Campaign

Gift Aid is on for every campaign by default. Some campaigns aren’t eligible, such as raffles, appeals where donors receive something in return, or campaigns for a beneficiary outside the UK.

To turn Gift Aid off for one of those campaigns, follow these steps.

1. To get started, open the campaign in the Campaign Builder.
2. Next, go to Settings » Gift Aid.
3. Then turn on Disable Gift Aid on this campaign.
4. Finally, save the campaign.

The Gift Aid section no longer appears on that campaign’s donation form, and later payments of recurring donations to it stop claiming Gift Aid. Fundraiser pages created under the campaign, for example with Charitable Ambassadors, follow the same setting. Your other campaigns aren’t affected.

This setting is only available in the Campaign Builder. If you later edit the campaign in the classic campaign editor, the setting is kept.

How to Show Address Fields Only for Gift Aid Donors

HMRC needs a home address and postcode for every Gift Aid claim, but donors who aren’t claiming Gift Aid may not want to give you their address.

Here’s what happens when Only show address fields when the donor opts in to Gift Aid is turned on.

• The address fields are hidden when the form loads.
• When the donor ticks the Gift Aid box, the address fields appear, and the first address line and postcode become required.
• If the donor unticks the box, the fields are hidden again and nothing they typed is saved.

This works on standard and Campaign Builder donation forms, including forms opened from a donate button popup.

Tips Worth Keeping in Mind

These 2 habits keep every Gift Aid claim usable.

• On a multi-step Campaign Builder form, put the Gift Aid checkbox on the same step as the address fields.
• Keep the address field on any form that shows Gift Aid. A Gift Aid claim made on a form without an address field has no address, so you can’t use it in an HMRC claim.

Where to See Gift Aid in Your Dashboard

• Donations list. A Gift Aid column shows “Claimed” for Gift-Aided donations. You can filter the list by Gift Aid status.
• Donation details. Each donation shows its Gift Aid amount, and the total includes Gift Aid.
• Campaigns list. A Gift Aid Total column shows the Gift Aid you can claim for each campaign.

How Gift Aid Works With Recurring Donations

When a donor ticks Gift Aid on a recurring donation, every later payment in that series is also recorded as Gift Aid, with the same declaration, title and address. Each payment appears in your Gift Aid export.

Payment Methods That Record Gift Aid

Gift Aid is recorded on donations made with these payment methods.

• Stripe card payments
• Stripe Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, SEPA, BECS and Cash App, with the Charitable Pro plugin 1.8.19.5 or later
• PayPal (PayPal Commerce), one-time and recurring
• Offline donations

How to Export Gift Aid Donations for HMRC

1. To get started, go to Charitable » Donations and click Export.
2. Next, choose a date range, status and campaign if you want to narrow the export.
3. For Type of Report, choose Gift Aid.
4. Finally, click Export to download the CSV.

The CSV only includes Gift-Aided donations. It has these columns.

• Donation ID
• Title (Mr, Mrs and so on)
• Donor First Name
• Donor Last Name
• House Name / Number
• Postcode
• Donation Date (DD/MM/YY, the format HMRC asks for)
• Donation Amount
• Status

Title, names, house, postcode, date and amount line up with HMRC’s Charities Online Gift Aid schedule. Leave out the Donation ID and Status columns when you copy the rows across.

The House Name / Number column contains the donor’s first address line. For longer addresses, you may want to trim it to the house name or number.

How to Keep a Record of Each Gift Aid Declaration

HMRC can ask you to show the declaration a donor made. For every Gift-Aided donation, Charitable saves the Gift Aid checkbox text and declaration the donor agreed to.

To get them, run a standard export and choose Donations as the Type of Report. It includes the Gift Aid checkbox text and declaration for each donation.

Troubleshooting Gift Aid

The Gift Aid Section Doesn’t Appear on a Campaign’s Form

Check whether Gift Aid has been turned off for that campaign in the Campaign Builder under Settings » Gift Aid. If you use a multi-step form, check each step.

The Address Fields Don’t Appear When the Gift Aid Box Is Ticked

Make sure the form includes an address field. On multi-step forms, move the Gift Aid checkbox to the same step as the address fields.

The Gift Aid Declaration Shows Codes Instead of an Apostrophe

You might see codes like ' where an apostrophe should be. This happened with declarations saved in the Customizer on version 1.x, and Gift Aid 2.0 shows them correctly.

To fix the saved text for good, open Charitable » Settings » Advanced » Gift Aid and click Save Changes.

The Title Column in My Gift Aid Export Is Blank

The Donor Title field is set to Hidden. Change it to Required or Optional if you want titles in your export.

Gift Aid Isn’t Recorded on Apple Pay or Google Pay Donations

Update the Charitable Pro plugin to 1.8.19.5 or later.

Gift Aid Reappeared on a Campaign After Downgrading

If you go back to Gift Aid 1.x, the 2.0 settings are ignored, so campaigns where you turned Gift Aid off will show it again. Your donation records aren’t affected.

Developer Reference for Gift Aid

Gift Aid Hooks and Filters

• charitable_gift_aid_disabled_for_campaign filters whether Gift Aid is turned off for a campaign. Use it to turn Gift Aid off by campaign category or author, or to switch it on only for the campaigns you choose. It receives $disabled, $campaign_id and $form.
• charitable_giftaid_export_row filters each row of the Gift Aid CSV export.
• charitable_giftaid_export_entries_columns filters the columns of the Gift Aid CSV export.
• charitable_gift_aid_campaign_percentage_raised filters the campaign percentage raised when Gift Aid is included.
• charitable_gift_aid_campaign_donation_summary filters the campaign donation summary when Gift Aid is included, on standard campaigns.
• charitable_gift_aid_campaign_builder_donation_summary filters the campaign donation summary when Gift Aid is included, on Campaign Builder campaigns. It’s new in 2.0.
• charitable_gift_aid_get_campaign_gift_aid_query_args filters the query used to total a campaign’s Gift Aid.

Gift Aid Helper Functions

• charitable_gift_aid_is_disabled_for_campaign( $campaign_id ) returns true when Gift Aid is turned off for the campaign.
• charitable_gift_aid_get_campaign_gift_aid_total( $campaign_id ) returns the Gift Aid total for a campaign.

Gift Aid Email Tags

• In donation emails, the Gift Aid field shows whether Gift Aid was “Claimed” or “Not Claimed”.
• [charitable_email show=donation_amount include_giftaid=1] shows the donation amount including Gift Aid.

Wrapping Up

You now know how to set up Gift Aid, switch it off for campaigns that aren’t eligible, ask for addresses only from donors who claim, and export your donations for HMRC. Every eligible gift on your site can now carry its extra 25%.

If you get stuck on any step, our support team is happy to help.

You May Also Want to Read

These guides cover the setup around Gift Aid and HMRC’s own rules.

• Installing Charitable Extensions. See how to install and activate any Charitable extension.
• Charitable Recurring Donations. Set up the monthly gifts that Gift Aid can follow from payment to payment.
• Charitable GoCardless. Collect UK Direct Debit donations from your supporters.
• HMRC’s guide to claiming Gift Aid as a charity. Read HMRC’s own steps for making a claim.
• HMRC’s guide to Gift Aid declarations. Check what a valid declaration needs to include.
• See everything that’s new in Gift Aid 2.0.