The Gift Aid problem we built Givr to solve

The unclaimed £560M sitting on church balance sheets

The numbers are staggering. Across UK churches, an estimated £560 million in Gift Aid goes unclaimed every year. Not because congregants are unwilling to gift aid their donations. Not because the law has changed. But because the paperwork is painful. A donor gives £20. The church treasurer writes it down. Weeks or months later, someone manually completes a form, posts it to HMRC, waits for the refund. If the donor moves, gives once, or the declaration lapses, the claim fails. The money stays with the Treasury.

We started MRVL Technologies building apps for churches and nonprofits. In conversations with finance teams, the pattern was consistent: Gift Aid claims fell through cracks. Not from neglect, but from friction. Treasurers juggling volunteer rotas, maintenance costs, and pastoral care didn't have bandwidth to chase paperwork. So we asked ourselves a different question. What if Gift Aid declaration wasn't something you chased after a donation arrived? What if it happened during the giving moment itself?

A QR code, a browser, and a declaration in fifteen seconds

The giving journey in Givr is intentionally simple. A congregant sees a QR code during an offering. They scan it with their phone camera. A browser opens directly to the giving page. No app download. No account creation. They enter an amount, choose whether they're a UK taxpayer, and if yes, tick a box confirming they pay income tax equal to the donation amount. Fifteen seconds. Then they give.

That checkbox is the declaration. It's legally sufficient under HMRC Gift Aid rules because it captures the donor's consent and tax status at the moment they commit to the gift. We don't ask for names, postcodes, or ID numbers because HMRC doesn't require them upfront. What matters is consent and tax status, captured and timestamped. When a donor opts in, Givr stores that declaration alongside the donation record.

The simplicity is deliberate. If Gift Aid declaration felt like extra work, churches would skip it or donors would abandon the flow. Instead, it's woven into the act of giving itself. The friction disappears.

HMRC submission happens in the background

Once declarations are captured, Givr handles the rest. On the Gather plan or above, the platform automatically bundles Gift Aid declarations and submits them to HMRC Charities Online on your behalf. No manual forms. No post. No waiting for someone to find time on a Tuesday afternoon.

The submission includes all declarations from your donors over a set period, aggregated and formatted exactly as HMRC requires. We've built the integration to HMRC's API standards so the submission is instant and verifiable. When HMRC processes it, the refund comes directly to your bank account. You can see the status in your Givr dashboard: declarations captured, submitted, processing, paid.

There's also a performance fee. Givr takes 2% of the Gift Aid amount that actually gets claimed and paid by HMRC. So if a donor gives £20 and Gift Aid claims £5, we invoice 10p. You only pay when the money lands. That alignment matters. We win when your Gift Aid claim succeeds.

Why this matters more than you might think

Gift Aid isn't a bonus. It's tax relief that donors legally qualify for. By not claiming it, churches leave money on the table that could fund youth programmes, building repairs, or community support work. £560 million unclaimed is £560 million that could be doing good.

When we launched Givr, the core insight wasn't technical. It was psychological. Churches don't fail to claim Gift Aid because they're lazy or disorganised. They fail because the process is designed for a world where financial transactions happened weekly at a bank counter. It's not designed for a world where someone gives via their phone in ninety seconds, from anywhere, and doesn't expect paperwork to follow.

Givr closes that gap by making the declaration a native part of the giving experience, not something bolted on afterwards. The declaration happens at the point of maximum intent. The submission is automatic and scheduled. The result is claimed Gift Aid, processed confidently, and money back in the church's account.

Getting started is as frictionless as the giving experience

We deliberately avoided complex onboarding. Churches sign up to Givr, connect their bank account via Stripe Connect Express (no FCA licence required on the church's side), and set up a QR code. The Stripe integration handles payment security and verification. You don't need to become an FCA-regulated entity. Stripe does the regulated work. You focus on the church.

Once live, congregants scan and give. Declarations flow in. When you're ready, Givr submits them to HMRC automatically. You can watch the dashboard and see exactly what's happened: how much was given, how much Gift Aid was declared, when it was submitted, and when the refund arrived.

The Gather plan includes GoCardless recurring giving as well, so donors who want to set up a standing order can do that in the same flow, with the same friction-free experience. The Free plan lets you capture donations and run the dashboard. Gather adds automated Gift Aid and HMRC submission. Grow adds white-label options and API access for churches with custom needs.