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We're making a change to one of our fees

Photo of Daniel Jones Daniel Jones
3 min

On 15th March 2021, we’ll be making a change to our Gift Aid fees.

For our standard giving account holders giving with Gift Aid, our fee is changing from 3% to 3.5%. We’ve written this post to provide you with all the information you need.

What is a Stewardship fee?

A Stewardship Giving Account is completely free to open and we do not apply any monthly service charges. We simply make a deduction (3.5% from 15 March 2021) based on the value of any gift you make into your account.

Just like the churches, charities and full-time Christian workers we support, we’re a not-for-profit too. This means you can use your Stewardship account in full confidence that we’re not profiting from your generosity. In the event that we do make a surplus, it is always reinvested back into supporting our charitable activities so that, together, we can make a real impact.

What is changing?

For all Gift Aided gifts, the fee will be increasing from 3% to 3.5%.

By way of example, the fee on a £10 gift into your Stewardship account will change from 38p to 44p, a difference of 6p.

What do you do for your fee?

We want to help churches, charities and individuals raise as much support as possible, whilst making it easy and convenient for givers to give. Our costs are always kept as low as possible and in the event that we do make a surplus, it is always reinvested back into supporting our charitable activities. Here are just some of the practical tools and support we offer in a bit more detail:

  • Secure processing of transactions, and bearing all bank/card transaction charges
  • Instant Gift Aid applied to charitable donations where applicable, meaning your chosen recipient can receive Gift Aid from us sooner than with any other provider
  • Providing givers with statements of their account and useful information for self-assessment tax returns
  • Offering free tools, training and resources to churches, charities and Christian workers, to help them better manage their financial support with confidence and integrity
  • Original campaigns, resources and content to help inspire people in their giving, such as our 40acts lent campaign, Rapid Response to Covid-19 and the Money Course

Why are you making these changes?

Following a careful review of our budgets for the next three years, we believe it is important to make this change to ensure our giving service can weather the storms of Covid-19, increases in transaction processing costs and regulatory and compliance costs. In addition, continuing low interest rates means it would not be wise to rely on income from investments to support these costs in a way they once did.

We believe these changes are necessary to ensure growth, improvement and sustainability of our service, to better work towards our mission and vision and to ensure that we continue providing you with an excellent service. We also have many exciting changes happening here at Stewardship. We’ll be launching some new services soon as well as continuing to make updates and improvements to what we currently offer.

Why are you increasing your Gift Aid fee from 3% to 3.5%?

When considering changes to our prices we sought to be fair and equitable. We’re standardising our fee deduction across Gift Aided giving, in order to better reflect the true cost to maintain our quality of service, investments in security and technology, and our high standards of due diligence.

What do I need to do next?

We’ve made recommendations in the communication we sent to you based on your giving arrangements. To make changes to your giving, you can do this quickly and easily online or, if you not able to do it in this way, please contact us for assistance.

How often will your fees change in future?

We review fees on an annual basis and, in some cases, make some minor adjustments in line with inflation or other contributing factors. It has been over a decade since we last changed the fee for gifts made with Gift Aid, so it is not a decision that we take lightly when we do!

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Profile image of Daniel Jones
Written by

Daniel Jones

Daniel joined Stewardship in 2007 and currently leads the Generosity Services division and driving growth in giving towards our target of £250m by 2025.

He has been responsible for developing many successful giving campaigns within Stewardship, including the popular 40acts Lent Challenge, and previously advised the National Stewardship Committee for the Church of England, particularly digital innovations like contactless collection plates and curriculums for parishes.  Daniel was also instrumental in bringing the Giving Tuesday movement to the UK following its successful launch in the USA.

Before joining Stewardship, Daniel led Hand in Hand for 3 years, a Christian international development charity that he co-founded with friends and continues to serve as trustee.

He is married with a teenage daughter and is currently exploring life in a local estate-based church plant.

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