How to Give a Little Bit More

Did you know that you can boost the value of your charity shop donations by allowing the charity to claim an additional 28% on top of the sale price in the form of gift aid?

More and more of the charity shops on our high streets are now offering the opportunity to gift aid your donations, including Sue Ryder, Oxfam, British Heart Foundation and Help the Aged. New rules starting last month mean that the charity shops no longer have to send lots of letters to seek our permission to claim the gift aid. Providing the value of the sale of the donations does not exceed a set amount, they can claim it directly, making it easy to give a little bit more.

I took my latest donations into our local Cancer Research and they gave me a very short form to fill in and a card to bring with me when I donate. To make the process even easier, they even gave me some pre-filled stickers, so all I had to do next time I donated was affix it to the bag.

It always feels good to donate to charity, but now it's just that little bit better (I like to think even more so when the donation is made in a bag with a topless David Beckham on!)