What could gift aid do for your girls?

Carol Edwards, Leader of the 4^th Montrose Guides, shares how registering for Gift Aid helped her girls enjoy an action-packed year. Carol says:

We registered for Gift Aid as soon as we became eligible and ever since it’s been a fantastic way for our unit to fund some brilliant activities.

Registering for Gift Aid might sound a little complicated but it’s actually a simple process and there’s help and guidance available every step of the way.

Once registered, your unit can claim 25p back for every £1.00 you receive – that includes from subscriptions and donations.

You might be surprised at how fast those 25 pences add up. In 2016 our unit received more than £700 from Gift Aid, all with very little effort on our part.

We used these funds to help cover the cost of a ‘Year of Adventure’ – trying a different activity every month – from ice-skating to high ropes, horse-riding to sailing. We went on some great trips too including New Lanark, Blackpool and Aviemore and held three camps throughout the year.

We want to make sure every girl has the chance to take part and the money from Gift Aid helped us to subsidise our adventures and trips. Being able to take a few pounds off the price of a day out or a camp can make a real difference to parents and help to make sure no one misses out on the fun.

Our girls really enjoyed their Year of Adventure and it even helped to grow our unit and encourage older Guides to stay engaged. We now have 26 Guides and they can’t wait to see what fun and adventure 2017 brings!

Gift Aid played a huge part in enabling us to offer our girls new activities and experiences. To any Leaders thinking about signing up their units I’d say it’s well worth it –for you and for your girls!

How can my unit receive Gift Aid?

The first step is to register your unit as a charity with OSCR. This means you’ll be given a Scottish charity number and can sign-up to receive Gift Aid.