Gurdwara Dasmesh Dabar

Transcription

1 Gurdwara Dasmesh Dabar Understanding Gift Aid Donation and Declaration Management Case study 2012

2 The Charity Gurdwara Dasmesh Dabar was established as a charity in The Gurdwara operates in the London Boroughs of Newham, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham and Waltham Forest, making it a pillar of the east London Sikh community. The Gurdwara promotes education and training by running a Punjabi School to help local students learn English and Punjab and also provides children with camping holidays and retreats. The charity strongly believes in dedicating time to selfless service and does so through a variety of activities which embrace all groups of people in their local community to prevent and relieve poverty and hardship. Such activities include providing free meals which benefit the homeless, an elderly people s association for older members of the community to have a place where they can engage with others, plus a ladies program and local fundraising events. The Gurdwara Dasmesh Dabar aims to advance the Sikh religion and grow as a Gurdwara. Religious services are performed daily and at the heart of all the work they do to benefit their community. Aims: To use the premises [of the Gurdwara] for the purpose of spiritual uplift and peace of mind to the followers of the teaching of the ten Sikh Gurus as set out within the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. To hold congregations and meetings for prayer, worship, recitation and teaching Sikh religious tenets and doctrines. To work towards increasing the recognition of the Sikh religion amongst the other religions of the world in the UK and the western world in general. Page 2 of 5

3 Overview The Challenge: Not claiming Gift Aid in the past As a Charity not claiming Gift Aid, the Gurdwara was missing out on valuable tax relief potential. Changing the culture of the Gurdwara and its donors in line with HMRC Charities requirements was going to require some work but was deemed worthwhile based on the benefits that awaited. Further factors such as a lack of personnel to manage Gift Aid was going to enhance the challenge as well as ensure that any practise of claiming done would comply with regulators HMRC. If the Gurdwara was going to work with a partner to aid in the process of claiming Gift Aid, it had to be one the Trustees felt would be reliable, trusted and one who would live up to what was expected by them. Page 3 of 5

4 The Solution Gurdwara Dasmesh Dabar were the first Sikh organisation Good to Give had worked with, therefore establishing the Gurdwara s requirements was very important. Both parties took the time to discuss the needs of each organisation and understanding each others professional and moral codes of conduct. The charity now send all donations made using new previous receipt books to Good to Give and we transcribed the information onto our online system, where it is now electronically and safely stored, this is essential to reducing the risk of damage or misplacing items. Partnering with GoodtoGive also gave the charity access to powerful tools where information, even from years ago, can be readily available with the click of a button; saying goodbye to days of prolonged searching for data needed during HMRC audits or other uses such as finding out how much a particular Gurdwara member has donated over a particular period or changing the declaration status of a member who was previously not paying tax, therefore not claiming Gift Aid but now is, thus unlocking potentially hundreds of pounds of Gift Aid. Receipt books Taking the Gurdwara s requirements into careful consideration, Good to Give produced receipt books adapted from the Gurdwara s original books, which enabled them to begin gathering declarations from tax paying members for the Gurdwara to claim Gift Aid. Various needs have been taken into account for the design, as seen below, including language and appropriate giving options. An example of Gurdwara donation envelope designed by Good to Give Page 4 of 5

5 The Conclusion Gurdwara Dasmesh Dabar and Good to Give established a very open and good relationship from our first meeting, allowing the partnership between both organisations to flourish. Getting the client to be more involved with the technical side of the service is a task which is ongoing and our team are always willing to discuss the development of this side of things. The charity are more than satisfied with their receipt books and the procedure in place for liaising with Good to Give and optimising our services. They are now making successful Gift Aid claims. The solution provides the following services: Compliance Structure Accountability Storage Our system has been tested by HMRC as fit for purpose. The system will ensure that claims relate to valid donations that have a valid declaration. The system provides a structured way of working, whoever performs the task(s) will do it in the same way. Each administrator of the system has private secure login. Certain actions performed by the user are logged The system stores images online so no need to physically store envelopes in boxes. We are very happy with GoodtoGive as they are giving us an excellent service. They also make the time to occasionally visit our Gurdwara and discuss our progress with us. Mr Harjinder Singh Page 5 of 5