For Charities

‘Charity Vouchers’ is the original gift voucher scheme aimed at raising money for UK Registered Charities. The idea was first proposed by us in ‘The Times‘ back on November 28th, 1989! Our company, Anglia Giving, is a not-for-profit business (Limited by Guarantee). We have been a member of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) ever since the company was set up in 2002. We also became a certified member of Social Enterprise UK in 2017. In 2021 we were officially registered with The Fundraising Regulator.

Anglia Giving can make payments to all UK Registered Charities. We are not able to make payments to any other types of organisation (such as CICs) or to use personal fundraising pages on donation platforms.  Vouchers are solely for use as donations to charities and cannot be exchanged for any goods or services. The Gift Aid scheme cannot currently be applied to any donations made using Charity Vouchers.

We aim to make redeeming vouchers as quick and easy (and therefore as cost-effective) as possible for charities. We don’t want charities wasting money unnecessarily on staff time, phone calls, stamps, or writing letters, thereby reducing the real value of the donation. Unlike some similar schemes, we do not charge charities any fees to benefit from our service. There is no need to sign-up in advance or to become a formal member of the Charity Vouchers scheme. We also do not take a percentage off each donation as some schemes do, so we send charities 100% of the face-value of the vouchers given to them.

How to collect donations

Most vouchers are donated directly with us via our website. Donors also have the option, if they prefer, to send their vouchers directly to charities to redeem.

If a voucher has been donated via our website, we will normally make payment by direct bank transfer. Whenever we do this we also send an email to the charity to give details about the payment, including when it was made and which voucher or vouchers it relates to. If this notification email is not currently being sent to the best address for your charity please let us know. Our payments are made using the default reference ‘charityvouchersorg’. However, if there is a specific reference that it would be better to use for your charity, again, please let us know and we will be glad to use it.

If your charity has received a voucher direct from the donor, the fastest and easiest thing to do is to redeem it via this website. Simply tap or click the link below and fill in the minimal information required. It takes about a minute. If you provide bank details we will usually make the payment via BACS. Almost all of our payments are now made this way. Please note that, follwing the helpful introduction of ‘Confirmation of Payee’ checks, we need the exact account name, in order to be sure of making payments as quickly and smoothly as possible. If preferred, charities can call us on 0300 365 1530 or 01328 730530, and give us the details by phone. Regrettably, we are not able to accept BACS details by phone if a charity’s bank is not part of the Confirmation of Payee scheme, although most banks now use it.

If bank details are not provided by a charity when redeeming vouchers online, and if we do not already have the details on our database, we occasionally make donations using a charity’s website donation facility. Unfortunately, we cannot cover any additional processing fees incurred by the charity when we do this. As a result, wherever possible, we prefer to use the BACS system to eliminate any cost to the charity. When we make the payment via a donation facility we will, whenever possible, specify the voucher/s which the donation relates to.  This enables every voucher payment to be tracked at any time. Where possible, we will do this by adding a message when we make the donation.

In the rare situations where it is not possible to pay by bank transfer or online, we will make payments by cheque. We can also send a cheque (together with a letter confirming details of the donation) if that is a charity’s preferred option.

When a voucher is redeemed online or by phone, there is no need to post the voucher back to us. We recommend that vouchers are retained for record-keeping purposes.

Very occasionally, a charity might prefer to post a voucher back to us. If so, we’ll do the rest when we get it. This increases the time it takes for a charity to get paid but please use this method if preferred. Every charity is different so it is a case of whatever works best for your organisation.

We usually process redeemed vouchers within one or two working days, although longer after Christmas when we are getting large numbers of vouchers coming in. We aim to make payments for vouchers which have been received directly from donors as quickly as possible, because it strengthens the confidence of donors in our service as well as maximising their enjoyment of using it.

If we have a donor’s contact details, we send them an email to tell them that the payment has been made to the charity they chose. If we make a payment by BACS and we already have a bespoke message of thanks on file from the charity, we will integrate this into our email to the donor. Very occasionally we make payments via a charity’s website and, if an automated message of thanks is received, we will integrate that into our message to the donor, along with the time and date the donation was made and any payment reference provided by the charity.

Some donors make their donations anonymously but the majority provide contact details.  However, if we do have contact details, we do not pass them on to charities, partly for data protection reasons, unless the donor specifically asks us to do so.

Charity Vouchers are an increasingly popular gift and a great way for the recipients to support their favourite charities. We’re here to support charities and to make the Charity Voucher service even more successful, to raise ever increasing amounts for charities at a time of real shortage. We think we do an excellent job, and we’re proud of what we do. However, if you’ve got any problems at all with using the service, or any queries or suggestions on how we might improve the Charity Vouchers service, please don’t hesitate to contact us.