(three letter acronyms)
Back in the summer three organisations – two from the village and one Surrey wide – got together to agree how to manage donations for the Hambledon Shop Roof Appeal in the most financially beneficial way. This article also appears in the December edition of the Parish Magazine and provides a summary.
HVT + HCF + CFS reach MOU for HVS roof appeal, as Debbie Calverley, chair of HCF (and TLA expert!) explains
Back in the summer the Hambledon Village Trust (HVT), the Hambledon Community Fund (HCF) and the Community Foundation for Surrey (CFS) drew up a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as to how they would work together to manage donations for the Hambledon Village Shop (HVS) roof appeal.
The donations are to HVT as freeholders of HVS and Pendle Cottage and therefore responsible for maintaining the fabric of the building, including the roof.
However, to attract certain legal financial benefits it would make sense for donations to be made to a charity, which HVT is not. Therefore it was agreed, and formalised via the three-way MOU, that donations will be added to – and ‘ring-fenced’ within – one of the two investment funds held and managed by CFS on behalf of HCF, because CFS does have charitable status.
Charitable donations attract Gift Aid whereby the government adds an additional 25%. In addition, any donations over the £3,000 IHT-free limit are not liable for inheritance tax (IHT) when made to a charity.
You might imagine there’s a sophisticated system for managing all this but, on the contrary, CFS have voluntarily taken on the mammoth administrative task of accepting bank transfers, cheques and online donations, adding Gift Aid and investing the proceeds in the HCF fund in a ‘ring fence’ which essentially means recording everything in a document.
When the time comes for outgoings, HCF will make drawdown requests to CFS for withdrawal of monies from the fund for HVT to settle invoices.
This is a model that CFS has used before and we’ve been guided by their expertise. HVT and HCF are extremely grateful to CFS for doing most of the administrative work.
The donation total has now reached an impressive £45,000 towards the £100,000 target, with thanks to all those who’ve donated so far.
If you would like to make a donation just click the icon below:
On the basis that it’s gift aid and the government give 25%, I presume the person giving will also get tax relief assuming they have a certain income. Might be worth clarifying this. Thanks, Nick.
Hi Nick,
Thanks for pointing this out. Yes, since donations are eligible for gift aid, they can be added to the Charitable Giving section of your Income Tax form to provide tax relief. Also, as mentioned in the article, Inheritance Tax above the normal £3,000 limit is not payable.
Best wishes
Debbie