Giving FAQs

The Giving section of our website gives information on how you can make a secure donation online by debit card, credit card or paypal, or set up a regular Direct Debit to Tearfund. Please note: giving online reduces our processing costs by 25 per cent compared with a phone or postal donation.

To give by credit or debit card over the phone please call our Supporter Care Team on 020 3906 3906 or email giving@tearfund.org.

We can take gifts from Visa, MasterCard, Maestro and CAF cards. Gifts from Maestro and CAF cards can be made over the telephone only. You can also give to Tearfund using the CAF website. We are unable to accept American Express, Diners Club, Solo or Visa Electron cards. For security reasons please do not send your credit/debit card details by email.

To give by cheque, please make a cheque payable to Tearfund and send it to the following address: Tearfund, 100 Church Road, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 8QE.

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, most of our staff are working from home at the moment, in accordance with current government guidelines. We are so thankful for your continued support and would encourage you to give via the website or by phone wherever possible. If you give by cheque, CAF or Stewardship voucher, there may be a delay in banking and acknowledging your donation. Please accept our apologies for this.

You can give to Tearfund on behalf of your church as set out above. Please use your church's Tearfund supporter number as the reference when making your gift. Call 020 3906 3366 or email giving@tearfund.org to find out your church’s supporter number. 

If you are sending a donation via bank transfer, please email giving@tearfund.org stating the transfer date and the amount donated and specify if there is a particular area of work you would like your gift to fund. Our team can then know to look out for your gift and acknowledge it appropriately.

If you are sending your donation via cheque, please also include a covering letter stating which church the donation is from and who should receive the acknowledgement. Do specify if there is a particular area of work you would like your gift to fund. It also helps us if you can tell us the way the donation was raised (tithes, harvest, fundraising etc).

By giving through World of Difference your money goes to projects that are supporting people where the need is greatest. All our projects help empower people to lift themselves out of poverty, whether that is giving them access to clean water and safe sanitation or helping children to overcome malnutrition. Your gift will transform lives.

You can set up a Direct Debit online at www.tearfund.org/worldofdifference, or by calling us on 020 3906 3906.

You can amend an existing Direct Debit via our online giving forms. Go to www.tearfund.org/campaigns/world-of-difference to fill in a form with your personal details and the amount you would like to give. After filling in the first page, click on ‘Continue to Payment’ and you will be able to choose from options to either replace your existing Direct Debit, or to add to it as an additional amount.

Alternatively you can call us on 020 3906 3906 during office hours, or e-mail giving@tearfund.org with the details you wish to be amended.

We will send you a confirmation of the Direct Debit so that you can check all the amended details are correct.

If you are able to give on a regular basis, we greatly appreciate supporters setting up a Direct Debit. It’s straightforward and convenient for you and it reduces the costs we have in processing gifts, and ensures that a higher percentage of your donations are spent on helping people in poverty.

When you give regularly, you are offering hope for the long term – not just easing current suffering. Your regular gift will help us to plan for the future because we know there will be consistent funds available. It also means that we can act quickly and effectively when disasters strike, or when hunger escalates into an emergency situation.

Regular gifts help support people to grow enough food and improve their water and sanitation, as well as enabling communities to become more resilient to natural disasters and the effects of climate change.

When you sign up to give regularly, you will start to receive our World of Difference updates. These feature amazing stories from across the world. Every time a new community, every time a surprising destination... 

Through these updates, you will get to taste and see how your giving is making a huge difference. You will connect to communities so that you can pray specifically for God’s work globally – and will hear stories of faith and challenge that you will never see on the news.

It’s most cost-effective if you give through our website. However, if you are making a one-off gift to Tearfund by bank transfer, please remember to quote your Tearfund supporter number when making the gift. This is so that we can identify your gift and ensure it is allocated correctly to your record. Please do contact us (020 3906 3906, giving@tearfund.org) if you need to know your Tearfund supporter number.

If you are setting up a Standing Order to Tearfund we would be very grateful if you could contact us first (020 3906 3906, giving@tearfund.org), to make sure we have your bank details, and a reference number to quote to your bank with each Standing Order payment. This will help us greatly in identifying your gifts, and allocating them correctly to your record. Otherwise it is likely that the gifts will come to us anonymously, meaning that we cannot reclaim tax on the donations. We would also not be able to thank you for them, or trace the gifts should a query arise.

Tearfund's account details are

Main Bank account - Sterling £

Account number: 5380 3058

Sort code: 20-00-00

Account name: Tearfund

Address: Barclays Bank, 1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP

IBAN No: GB65BARC 2000 0053 8030 58

For supporters in the USA, or in a country using the Euro, please refer to the separate accounts below.

Account for gifts in US$ only

Barclays Bank

1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP

Account Name: Tearfund

Account No: 65468955

Swift Code: BARCGB22

IBAN No: GB22BARC 2000 0065 4689 55

Account for gifts in Euros only

Barclays Bank

1 Churchill Place, London. E14 5HP

Account Name: Tearfund

Account No: 84014388

Swift Code: BARCGB22

IBAN: GB38BARC 2000 0084 0143 88

If you're giving a gift of £18 and over, processing costs are cheaper with a debit card. A credit card donation works out more cost effective for gifts of less than £18. The current costs associated with processing gifts are as follows: (as of 11th Nov 2020)

Debit cards: 25p per transaction

Visa and MasterCard credit cards: 1.5% of each transaction

PayPal: 1.4% of each transaction & a 20p donation fee

This means, for example, that a gift of £100 made by Debit cards incur a 25p fee and Visa/MasterCard credit cards incur a £1.50 fee. For donations given through our website there is an additional 15p charge on top of the figures quoted above.

You can make a credit card gift to Tearfund on our website or over the phone on 00 44 (0)20 3906 3906 during UK office hours (9am-5pm, Monday-Friday). We can take gifts from Visa or MasterCard. Gifts from CAF cards can be made over the telephone only. We are unable to accept American Express or Diners Club cards. For security reasons please do not send your credit/debit card details by email.

We are very grateful for any gifts we receive but we would ask supporters to give their name and postal address. If gifts are given anonymously we are unable to trace the gift in case of a subsequent query about the gift, and we are unable to claim Gift Aid if we cannot identify the supporter who has given the gift.

If you are concerned that giving your name and address will result in lots of unwanted mailings, please be assured that we will not give your details to any other organisations. If you do not wish to receive any mailings from Tearfund, please do let us know.

You can give to Tearfund by sending a postal order to: Tearfund, 100 Church Road, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 8QE. Alternatively you may wish to ask a friend/relative to make out a cheque on your behalf, or enquire if your church has a Tearfund representative.

We are very grateful for any gifts we receive but we would not encourage supporters to send gifts of cash in the post because of the possibility of the gifts going missing.

To pay in your sponsorship money online, use this form.

If you have paid in your money by bank transfer, please email giving@tearfund.org to let us know the amount you pay in.

Title your email ‘Fundraising’ and include your Tearfund supporter number if possible.

Tearfund's bank details: Account number: 53803058
Sort code: 20-00-00
Account name: Tearfund

If you would like to send the sponsorship money by cheque, please send a cheque payable to Tearfund, along with any sponsor forms to:

Tearfund 100 Church Road, Teddington, TW11 8QE

(and make sure you tell us it’s from your personal fundraising!)

The easiest way of doing this is to set up a JustGiving page for your friends and family to donate to. We have resources to help you promote your JustGiving page to your friends and family. By fundraising in this way, Tearfund will be sent the money automatically and we will know it’s from your event. If you pledge your birthday or sign up to fundraise through your wedding here, we will help create your JustGiving page.

If you would prefer to fundraise offline, you can collect the money from your friends and send a cheque to Tearfund with a letter explaining that it is from your birthday/wedding.

To save on admin time and costs, it would be helpful if we received all the proceeds from you directly. If, however, your friends and family are sending in cheques for the event themselves, it would be very helpful if they could include a short covering note, stating that the gift is given in lieu of wedding/birthday presents, as well as stating your name, address and your supporter number (we can provide you with this).

If your friends and family would like to donate via our website, they can follow these steps:

• click ‘donate now’ on our website
• under ‘I want to give to’, select “where the need is greatest”
• under “this gift is”, select ‘this gift is in lieu of a wedding/birthday etc…’
• fill in the box that tells us who the celebrator is (the name of the person asking for donations instead of presents)
• then proceed with the payment

We hope that you understand that it is not always possible to link every gift that comes in on your behalf. This is because we may not have received enough information to link the gift to you. To help us link as many gifts as possible, please encourage your friends and family to complete the form on our website as fully as possible.

Gift Aid is a UK tax incentive that enables tax-effective giving by individuals to charities in the United Kingdom.

If you are a UK taxpayer, Gift Aid allows Tearfund to reclaim the tax on your giving, adding 25% to the value of the gift at no extra cost to you. You just need to make sure you pay enough UK tax to cover the amount we will claim, which is 25p in every pound you donate. 

To start Gift Aiding your donations to Tearfund, you can make a declaration online here!

You can make a Gift Aid declaration to Tearfund if you are a UK taxpayer by completing a form here. If you are making a donation to Tearfund on our website, you will have the option to set up a declaration during that process.

Alternatively you can make a Gift Aid declaration over the phone by calling us on 020 3906 3906, or you can request a form in the post by emailing giving@tearfund.org.

In order for the tax to be reclaimed, the gift must come from a source of income that has been taxed by income tax or capital gains tax. Other taxes such as VAT and Council tax do not count. Gift aid cannot be claimed by a charity where inheritance tax has been paid.

Gift Aid cannot also be reclaimed on the following:

• Donations from a church, school, company or other organisation; proceeds from the sale of goods or services (e.g. Big Bake or other bake sale, a coffee morning, a craft sale, an auction or ebay sales)
• Collections uplifted at an event and paid to the charity as a single amount from an individual
• Sponsorship money collected and paid to the charity as a single amount unless it is accompanied by a sponsorship form, or on an online platform where the individual's details Gift Aid status is clearly marked (please note full addresses including postcodes of individuals are needed to claim Gift Aid)
• Money collected from multiple individuals in a collection box and donated as single amount from an individual
• Or donations resulting from the sale of a ticket to an event.

If you are having a collection in a church/group, the easiest way of ensuring that gifts are Gift-aided is by using Gift-aid envelopes, where a gift aid declaration can be made and the amount of the gift and the identity of the supporter given, all on a single form.

Please do call us on 020 3906 3906 or email us at info@tearfund.org if you require Gift Aid envelopes or you can fill in a Gift Aid declaration on our website.

Gift Aid cannot be reclaimed on donations from a church, school, company or other organisation; proceeds from the sale of goods or services (e.g. Big Bake or other bake sale, a coffee morning, a craft sale, an auction or ebay sales); collections uplifted at an event and paid to the charity as a single amount from an individual; sponsorship money collected and paid to the charity as a single amount unless it is accompanied by a sponsorship form, or on an online platform where the individual's details Gift Aid status is clearly marked (please note full addresses including postcodes of individuals are needed to claim Gift Aid); money collected from multiple individuals in a collection box and donated as single amount from an individual; donations resulting from the sale of a ticket to an event.

If you are operating your business as a Sole Trader or a Partnership, tax can be reclaimed on gifts from business accounts through the Gift Aid scheme, by completing a Gift Aid declaration.

Tax on charitable donations from other business accounts can be reclaimed through corporation tax, on a business tax return.

Tearfund can still reclaim the tax if you pay tax at the lower rate, or are not in regular employment. Provided that we do not claim more back in tax, in any financial year, than you have paid to HMRC in tax, then we can make the claim.

Unlike previous Gift Aid systems (before April 2000) there is no minimum amount, no restriction over where the gift can be used, and there is no need to commit to a set amount of giving over a specific period. Unlike other countries, Gift Aid is claimed by the charity, and not by the supporter.

In simple terms it is an extra 25 per cent on top of the gift you donated.

For example, if you are a UK tax payer and give Tearfund a gift of £100, we will be able to reclaim an extra £25 back.

Tearfund are only able to reclaim tax from the UK government and the States of Jersey. If you are a supporter from Jersey, please do contact us (020 3906 3906, giving@tearfund.org) for details on a Jersey Deed of Covenant.

Many countries operate a Gift Aid scheme where tax on charitable donations is repaid to the supporter, rather than the charity. Therefore you may be able to reclaim the tax on your donations, and we would of course be extremely grateful if you chose to send that reclaim tax to Tearfund. However, this is not something we can facilitate.

Tearfund can only reclaim tax at the basic rate for all supporters. For Higher rate taxpayer, there is a section on your tax return where you can reclaim the extra tax on your charitable donations, and specify the charity(ies) that you would like this extra tax sent to.

Tax can be claimed on gifts from a joint account, where one of the couple is a taxpayer and the other is not. If the gift is coming from a joint bank account, only one gift aid declaration (from a/the tax-payer) is needed to reclaim the tax. If the gift is made by cheque, it can be signed by either partner (it does not need to be signed by the taxpayer).

Please contact us (020 3906 3906, giving@tearfund.org) with your name, address and the date of when you stopped paying UK tax. We will cancel the Gift Aid declaration and ensure no further tax is reclaimed on your gifts.