From the Irish Charities Tax Reform Group* website:

Would you like your charity to be part of a nationwide campaign that will boost the tax-effectiveness of your donors?  You’ve already invested considerably in recruiting, developing and retaining your donors. You’re under pressure to increase your return on that investment. But you don’t want to tire your donors with too many asks. So what will grow your income at low cost – without donor fatigue?

The answer is Taxback – the Revenue rebate on donations by PAYE-donors.
The proportion of €250+ donors who return their CHY 2 forms to most charities is less than the proportion of PAYE taxpayers in the general public. So many donors whose donations would be eligible for Taxback don’t do so for various reasons – inertia, uncertainty about whether it applies to them or is limited to only one of their chosen charities, worry that it might affect their tax affairs, etc.

Following an initial meeting of charities in November on the idea of a Taxback campaign, a steering group came together to manage the campaign under the auspices of the ICTR. The campaign has just one primary aim – to get more donors to return their rebate forms. We’re not trying to get more money out of donors, just to get them to complete and send back their CHY 2 forms. Through raising awareness and addressing barriers to response, the campaign will improve the response rates charities get on their tax mailings. This will produce a positive return on investment from contributing charities in the same year as the spend.

The campaign will run in several media, including media and online, next March – when most charities send their tax mailings. It will raise awareness of the benefits of Taxback, the simple need to complete and return the forms and address some of the common barriers to response. It will carry a Taxback brand that you can use in your mail and online activities to integrate with the national campaign. The more charities we can bring together to pool budgets, the more we can achieve.

Will your charity join the campaign? By pledging your contribution now, you will be helping to ensure this innovative campaign drives more of your donors to return their tax forms as soon as March 2012.

Click here for further information.

To sign up and pledge your contribution, please contact bruce2clark@gmail.com

*ICTRG is a membership organisation of charities, focused on creating a policy climate in which philanthropy can thrive – through a combination of taxation and regulatory reform.