Welcome to the Charities Aid Foundation

We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

Personal giving From one-off donations to long-term giving, or designing your personal philanthropic strategy, we work together to help you realise your giving ambitions. Corporate giving You have the vision for making a difference. So do we. We help you plan how to give based on your goals. Services for charities Helping your charity or social enterprise become more resilient. Insights Discover the latest insights for donors and charitable organisations to help create a greater impact About us We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work. Donate  
 
 
 

Personal giving

From one-off donations to long-term giving, or designing your personal philanthropic strategy, we work together to help you realise your giving ambitions.

DISCOVER OUR PERSONAL GIVING SOLUTIONS

Corporate giving

You have the vision for making a difference. So do we. We help you plan how to give based on your goals.

DISCOVER OUR CORPORATE GIVING SOLUTIONS

Services for charities

Helping your charity or social enterprise become more resilient.

DISCOVER HOW WE SUPPORT CHARITIES

Insights

Discover the latest insights for donors and charitable organisations to help create a greater impact

Explore

About us

We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

Find out more about CAF
SERVICES FOR CHARITIES

Fundraise online with CAF Donate

Make it easy for people to give to your charity, wherever they are.

Get CAF Donate

Raise funds. Cut paperwork.


Raise more money for your cause with CAF Donate, our online donation platform that removes the hassle from fundraising. 

More than 10,000 charities have used CAF Donate to raise funds online and process their donations. Join them and make it easy for people to give to you.

With CAF Donate, you can:

Run digital campaigns

We provide online donation pages to deliver effective fundraising campaigns, which you can tailor to fit your brand.

Connect with your donors

Learn more about the donations you receive, through our reports and data.

Reduce your admin

We reclaim Gift Aid on all donations for you at no extra cost (if you appoint us to do this for you).

Mitigate your risk

We monitor all transactions and undertake customer due diligence and anti-money laundering checks on all donations.

Access expert support

Our Customer Operations team is available online and over the phone to answer any questions.

CAF Donate fees

It’s free to sign up to CAF Donate and there are no monthly fees, with a small charge for each donation you receive deducted at the point of donation.

 

One-off donations

• 4% of the total donation (including Gift Aid)

Example: £10 donation + £2.50 Gift Aid = £12.50 total donation - 4% fee = £12.00 to your charity

If your charity has a CAF Cash Account with CAF Bank, this charge is reduced to 3.5%.

Regular donations

• 2% of the gross donation (minimum charge of 20p per donation)

We also charge a small Direct Debit set up fee:

• £1 for every paperless confirmation
• £1.50 for paper confirmations

Simple, scalable, secure

 

With CAF Donate you can receive donations by Direct Debit, credit/debit card, PayPal and a CAF account.

Your donors can be sure that their donations are secure by using our Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant platform.

Donations by phone and post
You can also collect and process donations made over the phone or by post. This includes Direct Debits, credit/debit card payments, CAF Vouchers and CAF CharityCards.

Direct Debits
Turn one-off donations into regular giving with Direct Debits.

Create and amend regular donations from your supporters, all protected by the Direct Debit guarantee.

If you're planning a telephone or postal fundraising campaign, we'll provide guidance and a script for setting up Direct Debits over the phone. Your new supporters will receive an email to confirm their details.

Want to add a batch of Direct Debits at once? We can do that too.

 

With CAF Donate, you can set up a donation page, widget or button in minutes, matching the branding on your website. You can create as many as you like – ideal for specific fundraising campaigns.

All your donation pages will adapt to the size of your donors' device, so whether they are on desktop or mobile, you can be sure that it they can donate easily.

 

Simply complete a CHV1 form to appoint us as a partner with HMRC. We’ll then do all the work, including 

  • Automatically checking which donations are eligible
  • Submitting a claim to HMRC
  • Reconciling the money that comes back
  • Paying Gift Aid into your bank account.

We’ll only make claims on the donations we process for you, so you'll still need to claim on donations made through other sources.

If you prefer to take care of your own Gift Aid, we’ll provide a report on all the eligible donations so you can make your own claim.

With CAF Donate, your donors are your donors, not ours. We will provide you with full details of every donor and donation and you can download this information and upload it straight to your CRM database.

You can also create tailored reports on your campaigns, donors and donations straight from CAF Donate, so you can learn and grow. 

 

We have everything you need to smash your fundraising target, including resources – plus telephone and online support to set up your fundraising pages.

How to get CAF Donate

 

Get CAF Donate

1

Sign up to our Charity Dashboard

This gives you access to reports on the donations you receive.

2

Upgrade to CAF Donate

Log into your Charity Dashboard account and upgrade to CAF Donate. 

3

Start raising funds

We’ll email you to let you know that your CAF Donate account is ready to use.

Why choose CAF

Fundraising made easy

To help charities thrive, we've made online fundraising easy with our donation platform CAF Donate.

160,000 charities

We work with over 160,000 non-profits to find, access, and grow the funds needed to do more of the great work they do.

100 years’ experience

We've led the way in developing innovative approaches to giving for a century.

Charity experts

Our unique insights into donors and charities mean we know what matters, right across the sector.

£1 billion every year

We distribute over £1 billion to non-profits around the globe every year.

A voice for charities

We speak up for the charity sector through our research and policy work, as we shape the world of giving.

Raising the profile for lifesaving donations

Thousands of people have been inspired to become blood and stem cell donors thanks to a family who made it their mission to honour the legacy of a loved one.


Read the full story

 

Further support

Find a list of common questions to find what you're looking for.


CAF Donate support

As well as being a registered charity, CAF is also authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. This means that we have to check your charity status and run a few financial checks before you are able to use CAF Donate.

We do this to ensure that your donor’s information is protected and that their donations are processed safely and securely – so they can give to you with confidence, every time.

You'll first need to sign up for our reporting tool, CAF Charity Dashboard. Once you've signed up for this you can log into your CAF Charity Dashboard and upgrade to CAF Donate.

It's easy to sign up for CAF Charity Dashboard.

Step 1: Sign up online for CAF Charity Dashboard with your charity's details and your personal details.

Step 2: We’ll send you an email to activate your login details. At the same time we will be in touch with a registered contact at your charity (usually by email) to make sure you are able to accept terms and conditions on behalf of your charity.

Step 3: As soon as the contact at your charity gives the green light you will get an email from us to let you know you can access your account.

Upgrading to CAF Donate

Upgrading to CAF Donate is really simple. Log in to your CAF Charity Dashboard and click on the ‘Upgrade’ button on your homepage. You need to decide whether you would like CAF to manage Gift Aid on your behalf and provide us with the names, addresses and dates of birth of your trustees.

No - CAF Charity Donate is only available for UK-registered charities.

It’s our mission to make sure you get your donations as quickly as possible. By giving us your bank details we can make sure donations are with you and ready to use within days, rather than waiting for a cheque to clear.

Please email your charity's sort code, account number, account name and title as shown on your bank statement to cafdonatevalidation@caf.org.uk.

We will verify these details electronically using a Confirmation of Payee Service before proceeding with any payments. Please ensure you provide the bank account name exactly as it appears on your bank statement. If verification is not possible, we may have to come back to you to request a copy of your charity’s bank statement to confirm proof of your bank account.

We regret that we are unable to pay into Building Society accounts.

Yes – CAF Donate fully complies with the new GDPR regulations which are enforceable from the 25th May 2018.

CAF acts as your Data Processor and we manage the data relating to your donors responsibly and securely. Read more about our role in processing your donations.

We will report details of your donors choices regarding future contact to you accurately and, as Data Controller, you will need to ensure that you comply with your own privacy policy.

You may also be interested in

Keep exploring

Contact us