Gift Aid Collections

Enquiries have been received in the Province whether it is permissible for Lodges to reclaim tax on the monies donated for charitable purposes in the collection which is routinely conducted in the Lodge Meeting or at the Festive Board. The technique generally proposed is for the whole collection to be "assigned" to a member of the Lodge who has taxable capacity sufficient to enable him to reclaim tax on it as if he had donated the entire amount personally. An extension of the idea is also to treat in a similar manner monies which are paid for raffle tickets, and similar fund-raising initiatives.

It is wrong for any donations to be treated in this way. This is a criminal offence on the part of any member allowing himself to be used to gain financial advantage by a false declaration. The other members of the Lodge associated with this behaviour may also be guilty of aiding and abetting the commission of the offence or even conspiracy. Gift aid must never be claimed on monies paid for raffle tickets.

EveryClick.com

For those of you with access to the Internet raising money for the 2012 Festival could not be easier. Simply register with www.everyclick.com, nominate the Warwickshire Masonic Charitable Association Limited, quote its Registered Charity Number 211588, and each time you use the website to search the Internet, money is donated to WMCA! But it costs you absolutely nothing. www.everyclick.com donates 50% of its gross revenues to UK charities. After you have registered with the site, make it your Homepage, and then use it every time you go onto the Internet, even for sites you use regularly! This way, every click you make helps the Festival. Easy, but effective.

easyfundraising.org.uk

Another simple method of raising cash also involves use of the Internet. This time, however, you have to make purchases online (but you do that already don’t you?) with an added bonus. The Internet retailer will make a donation to Warwickshire Masonic Charitable Association Ltd of a percentage of the purchase price. Over 400 of the UK’s best known retailers are on this system so that every purchase you make results in a donation to the Festival. All you have to do is go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk, log on to the registration page, select Warwickshire Masonic Charitable Association Ltd from the drop down menu and register your details. The next time you go to one of your favourite retailers online and complete a purchase you know that the retailer will be making a donation to the Festival at no additional cost to yourself. Tell all your family, friends and neighbours about this; you never know, they might wish to contribute to our current favourite Masonic charity. Simplicity itself!

To enable you to make your donation, forms are available to download in .pdf format from here.