SSAFA - How It Works

Setting up a fundraising page is simple. It only takes a few minutes.

Select "start fundraising" from the homepage - www.ssafafundraising.org.uk, and follow the instructions.

The username you choose will make up the end of your personal URL e.g. if your username was 'bethsmarathon' your personal fundraising page would be www.ssafafundraising.org.uk/bethsmarathon. This will allow your friends, family and colleagues or even complete strangers to go to your page and donate online by credit and debit card.

You will be able to upload your photo to your profile page and send an invitation to your friends to join.

You can edit your profile page at any time by clicking on {edit}, on the top user navigation bar, where you can change your profile, status, photo and privacy settings.

You will be able to write a personal message to people visiting your page. You can explain in your own words what you are attempting or why you have chosen this event or to raise money for SSAFA. You can write your personal message in "my events" in the event message field.

Once your event is over, the event on your fundraising page will remain open until the fundraising end date you entered. This will allow your supporters time make a donation. You can then select a new event should you wish to continue to raise money for SSAFA. Your fundraising page will remain unless you delete your account.

By selecting 'media' on the top user navigation bar, you can upload pictures and videos of your fundraising event, training or even photos related to the charities causes. Your friends will be able to view these on your profile page. Select 'media' and 'create new album'. You can upload pictures and videos to your saved albums once you've named your album and selected the privacy settings you'd like.

Your blog will allow you to keep your friends updated with your fundraising activities. Your blog page even allows you to upload pictures and videos! When you're logged in select 'blog' from the top user navigation bar and compose an entry.

You can add friends to your page. Once you have added a friend you will be able to send your friends personal messages. You can view your friends on your profile page.

Once you have set up your profile page you can create or join groups. By joining a group you will able to interact with other users that have something in common or with whom you share an interest e.g. a group for people all doing a running event or who work for the same country.

Select 'groups' from the top user navigation and you can search for new groups to join or create a new group. Additionally the group can track their overall fundraising as the group page will show the total donations the group has raised.

You can send messages to other fundraisers. Select 'messages' from the top user navigation bar. Select the 'new message' tab, enter the username, then write and send your message.

When a donor goes to your fundraising page they can select 'donate now'

They will then be taken to a donation payment page. If they decide to donate £10 to your fundraising their credit or debit card will be charged with £10 + 2.75% transaction charge or £10.28. This charge covers the cost of making an online payment. If your donor is a UK tax payer and selects the gift aid box as well as providing their full name and address, gift aid tax will be reclaimed and paid to SSAFA - a further 28.2%. No commission or administration charges will be deducted from a donation, 100% of the donation goes to SSAFA.

Gift Aid allows charities to claim back 25% on every donation from individuals who are eligible to claim gift aid, in accordance with the requirements of the Gift Aid Scheme, as they apply from time to time. In addition a transitional relief of 3.2% will be repaid to charities (for donations from 6th April 2007 to 5th April 2011). Therefore Gift Aid allows charities to reclaim effectively a total of 28.2%.

All donors, who are UK taxpayers, can make a declaration that makes them eligible for Gift Aid reclaims. To apply for Gift Aid you must pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax at least equal to the tax that the charity reclaims on your donation in the appropriate tax year. You can only make a Gift Aid declaration on your own money. You cannot make a declaration on behalf of someone else or on behalf of a company.

We accept no responsibility for donors who choose not to use Gift Aid, or those who apply to use Gift Aid but who do not qualify.

If you are a donor, when you make a donation you enter your full name, home address including postcode and confirm you wish for Gift Aid to be reclaimed on your donation. We will pass this information onto the charities and HMRC for the purposes of reclaiming tax on behalf of the charities.

You can make a donation and keep you display name and details anonymous, but you must provide full details (as detailed above) in the "gift aid declaration" section, so we can reclaim gift aid. Any information from which it is possible to personally identify people which is captured (including: donor's full name, address and email address) will be captured in a secure manner, processed and stored at all times in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

We will comply with any instructions of all donors in respect of their personal data and will not pass any such personal data to any third party without the donor's consent.

Example: Mr J Smith donates £100 to his friends fundraising page. Mr J Smith confirms that he is a UK Tax payer and provides his home address. Mr J Smith's £100 donation is treated as being made after deduction of basic rate tax at 20%. The gross value of the donation before tax is £125.00 (£100.00 £ 100/80), - this is the amount of money you would need to earn to receive £100.00 after tax. The charity can claim the £25.00 of basic rate tax (£100.00 £ 20/80) that the taxpayer is treated as having paid on the gift, effectively an extra 25% on top of the value of the £100.00 donation. HMRC will pay a further 3.2% transitional relief, i.e. £3.20.

In summary, SSAFA will receive £100 from Mr J Smith plus a £28.20 gift aid refund from HMRC, which is a total of £128.20.

Full details about the Gift Aid Scheme can be found on HMRC website:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/index.htm

or call their helpline: 0845 302 0203

You may raise money that isn't donated direct to your fundraisers page. You can add such donations as offline donations so they can be added to your overall fundraising total on your profile page. Select my events and select offline donations and enter the offline donation amount, who it's from , add a comment and confirm whether the donor will be declaring gift aid the donation.