Late in 2021, a group of Jersey charities, along with Jersey based fundraising platform SportsGiving announced a new system for the collection of Digital Declarations relating to the Jersey Lump Sum Donation Scheme (now called Jersey Gift Support), the Jersey equivalent of UK GiftAid. The huge initiative is only integrated on the SportsGiving platform and allows charities to claim an additional 25% on donations from Revenue Jersey.
Creating huge noise in the press and across the island, SportsGiving was soon approached by a number of charities big and small to support with integrating a potential 25% extra into their donations.
A standout example was the emergency response charity, Side by Side, who launched a new fundraising page through SportsGiving to support local fundraising efforts for Ukraine.
Working in partnership with the Bailiff’s Ukraine Appeal and Jersey Overseas Aid, the registered charity coordinated and processed monetary donations for the crisis through SportsGiving. By making a donation to the appeal through the Jersey Side by Side website (using the fully white labelled services from SportsGiving), islanders were assured that their money will go further. Donations made to Jersey Side by Side, a registered charity, are eligible for tax relief for donations of £50 or more, meaning that every £1 donated by Jersey taxpayers was worth £1.25 to the appeal.
Much in the same way that SportsGiving offers UK GiftAid as a standard feature, enabling charities to automatically claim back 25% via HMRC, SportsGiving built a capability for Jersey Lump Sum (Jersey Gift Support) to be integrated into donations. The average time for the claim via the platform now takes just a few seconds, saving a huge amount of time and updating an outdated model that previously required donators to request a postal form, complete it and return it for processing.
Due to the devastating impacts of the invasion of Ukraine, Jersey tax payers supported the fund immensely, offering what they could and making national news along the way. Thanks to the integrated Jersey Lump Sum Donation Scheme (Jersey Gift Support) only available online through SportsGiving, over £28,000 was donated to worthy causes from the original £138,000 raised on the platform with totals still rising rapidly.
The Island’s emergency response charity, Jersey Side by Side was therefore able to make a huge difference to people’s lives while the ongoing Jersey Gift Support enables countless charities to have their donations increased.
In a huge move forward for Jersey charities, Beth Gallichan, chairperson at Jersey Fundraising Forum and Fundraising Manager at Durrell said “We have seen GiftAid in the UK work so well at paying millions of additional funds each year to charities. It is clear that the Jersey Gift Support is in a place to encourage people to give donations to charity, but it was in desperate need of digital modernisation. The way charities accept donations and communicate with donors has changed, improving this process in Jersey is a tremendous step forward to helping many good causes.”
