Gift Aid for mosques: a practical guide

UK mosques that are registered charities can claim Gift Aid on eligible donations from UK taxpayers — including many gifts given as Sadaqah or towards running costs. Zakat needs more care: the donor’s intention and the charity’s objects both matter, and you should take advice if you are unsure a gift is eligible.

This is not legal advice. It is the operational pattern that keeps mosque finances auditable.

Separate the intention at the point of giving

If everything lands in “donations”, you cannot explain to a donor — or to HMRC — what happened. At minimum, record:

• Zakat — obligatory alms, usually for specified categories of recipient
• Sadaqah — voluntary charity
• Lillah, Fidya, Kaffarah — where your community uses those terms
• General / masjid fund — utilities, repairs, salaries

DonorPulse already stores those as donation types on every gift. You do not need a separate “Islamic CRM”; you need a donor record plus a type on the donation. See features.

Gift Aid still needs a UK taxpayer declaration

A Gift Aid declaration is about the donor’s UK tax position, not about the fiqh of the gift. Capture name and UK home address, keep the declaration, and only include gifts that your treasurer is satisfied are eligible.

Mosques often collect cash after Jumu’ah. Cash can still be Gift Aided if you can identify the donor and they have a valid declaration. Unidentified cash in a box cannot.

Do not mix restricted funds

Zakat collected for a stated purpose should not quietly cover the electricity bill. Your CRM should let you assign each gift to a project or fund. If you later publish a Ramadan appeal page, that page should write into the same funds — not a separate form that emails the secretary.

Practical next step

Put Gift Aid declarations and donation types in one system before you invest in a new website. A clean record of Zakat versus Sadaqah is more valuable to a mosque committee than another unbranded JustGiving page.

DonorPulse pricing lists which plans include Gift Aid reclaim (Pro and Enterprise). Starter still records donation types so you can grow into reclaim later.