Swiftaid for charities: how automated Gift Aid works, and Gift Aid at an event

I built the Gift Aid tools in my own platform, so I read how other people do it more closely than is probably healthy. Donor’s question first, then the charity’s: what Swiftaid is, how it works with HMRC, what it costs in October 2026, and where it fits in a room. General guidance, not tax advice.

What is Swiftaid?

Swiftaid is a Gift Aid automation service run by Streeva Ltd. A donor authorises it once, and it adds Gift Aid to their qualifying donations across a network of charities and donation platforms.

Streeva is an active company on Companies House, incorporated in February 2015 and registered in Cornwall. Swiftaid’s own site names JustGiving, Raisely, Crowdfunder and Moneyhub as partner platforms.

JustGiving built it into its donation flow in 2022, describing it as a way to stop donors filling in a Gift Aid form every time they give.

Is Swiftaid legit, and is it safe?

Yes, Swiftaid is legitimate. Streeva Ltd and Swiftaid appear on HMRC’s list of commercial software suppliers for Charities Online, the service charities use to claim Gift Aid.

That list is not an endorsement. It means HMRC accepts Gift Aid claims filed through the product. Swiftaid’s FAQ adds that HMRC has raised no concerns about how it operates, which is the company’s own statement. Its site also shows ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials certification.

So why the email? Usually one of two things:

• A yearly statement. HMRC requires a Gift Aid intermediary to give donors an annual statement between 5 April and 31 May, unless they made only one Gift Aid donation or gave under £20 that year.
• A charity’s recovery. Some charities send past donations to Swiftaid to find missed Gift Aid. Great Western Air Ambulance Charity explained to its donors that Swiftaid checks whether a donor is a known Gift Aid donor before claiming.

A real company can still be impersonated. The National Cyber Security Centre’s advice is to contact the organisation using the details on its official website, not the links in the message. Type swiftaid.co.uk into your browser and log in from there.

How does Swiftaid Gift Aid work?

Swiftaid Gift Aid works on a yearly authorisation. The donor authorises Swiftaid to create Gift Aid declarations for them, and it then creates one for each qualifying donation made through a linked platform.

Swiftaid calls itself a donor intermediary. The authorisation runs to the end of the tax year, then renews the next time the donor adds Gift Aid on a participating platform. On the charity side, Swiftaid acts as a nominee and submits the claims to HMRC, and the declarations themselves are not shared with the charity.

HMRC sets the rules here. The intermediary has to tell the donor that if they pay less Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax than the Gift Aid claimed, they owe the difference. That is the same tax test that applies to every Gift Aid donation: gifts can be no more than four times the tax paid that year.

For donors, the donor account is free. An optional plan costs £19.99 a year for extra dashboard features.

What does Swiftaid cost a charity?

Swiftaid costs a charity nothing on the first £6,000 of Gift Aid each tax year through partner platforms, then a percentage of the Gift Aid above that. This is its pricing page in October 2026:

The allowance is pro rata if you join partway through the year. On Basic, claiming before the yearly claim costs 5% plus VAT.

Where a percentage of Gift Aid adds up

I want to be fair here, because none of this is unreasonable. A small charity gets automated Gift Aid for nothing, and the Finder only charges on money the charity would otherwise never have seen.

But it is still a percentage, and a percentage grows as you do. Take a charity with £20,000 of Gift Aid through platforms in a year:

• Basic: 5% of the £14,000 above the allowance is £700, or £840 with VAT.
• Plus: £300 of subscription and 2.5% of £14,000, so £650, or £780 with VAT.

For comparison, HMRC’s own claim guidance lets a charity claim through Charities Online with a spreadsheet, and lists no fee for doing so.

The charge is for the automation, not for the Gift Aid.

It is the question I ask of every supplier, including the ones I like: does what you pay move with what the room gives? I asked it of JustGiving fees too.

Can Swiftaid help at a charity event?

Swiftaid helps at an event where the giving runs through one of its partner platforms. A pledge taken in the room through your own system sits outside that network, unless you later send it to Swiftaid to be matched.

That later step is where the cost appears. Say a guest pledges £500 and nobody asks about Gift Aid. Matched afterwards through the Finder at 10% plus VAT, the £125 of Gift Aid becomes £110, and the Finder has a minimum fee of £100 a claim. Asked for at the time, it stays £125.

And most of what a gala takes is not Gift Aid money at all. HMRC is clear that ticket sales for your own event do not qualify, and nor does an auction item whose retail value exceeds the benefit limits. The auction rules have one narrow exception. The gift is where Gift Aid lives. That is one reason I put the pledge first in the plan and the auction second.

What should Gift Aid software do on the night?

Gift Aid software for a live event should capture the declaration at the moment of giving, keep purchases out of the claim, and leave the claim with the charity.

That is how I built the Generosity Works platform, because I wanted it to work the way a room actually behaves. The guest makes the declaration in their seat as they pledge, paddle still in hand. The platform splits an auction payment between retail value and donation, and builds the schedule in HMRC’s column order. The charity files it on its own account, so there is no Gift Aid fee in the middle. If you want the basics first, read my guide to Gift Aid basics.

Payments run through the charity’s own Stripe account, with no percentage and no added payment charges. Lots are donated, never sold to you, so the charity keeps 100% of what it raises.

It is free when a charity books me as auctioneer and host, and my fee is the only money Generosity Works takes. The platform is not sold on its own; our pricing page explains why. You can book me as auctioneer and host through thecharityauctioneer.uk.

Ask for Gift Aid while they are still in the room

At the Jigsaw Trust, the live pledge raised £30,600, more than the auction before it. Every pound of that was a gift, and every eligible pound could carry 25p more.

The generosity is already in the room. Automation is useful for the donations you never see. For the ones made in front of you, ask at the time.

If you have a number to hit this year, book a discovery call. Let’s talk about your number.