Couple givers

ChurchSuite's giver profile functionality includes the option to specify that a giver profile represents a couple, and for UK customers, the default Gift Aid split of each partner.

Overview of the intended functionality

While each individual who gives to your organisation's causes will have their own profile in the Giving module, it's not uncommon for couples to give one amount representing their joint giving. To cater for this scenario - and to avoid one partner appearing as a non-giver in your Giving module reports - you can designate a giver profile to be a "Couple giver".

UK customers will be required to specify the Gift Aid Split that the couple has specified in the Gift Aid Declaration. Typically, the Gift Aid Split is determined by the giver and not by the church/charity; however (as per HMRC guidance) for donations received that have been drawn on a joint account...

• if you have a declaration from one partner then you can assign 100% of the Gift Aid split to that one partner in the couple
• where you have a declaration from both partners in a couple, and where they have not expressly stated a different split %, you may be able to assume a 50:50 split
• where you are unsure, the charity is expected to seek instruction from the giver, since it's the giver who will be required to make good any shortfall of over-claimed Gift Aid to HMRC

When producing statements of donations, couple givers will receive a joint statement listing all their couple donations and, for UK customers, the statement will include the Gift Aid Split and the total amount of each giver's Gift Aid.

Couple givers, when viewing the My Giving section of My ChurchSuite, will both be able to view their list of donations, unless the spouse has their own linked giver profile. Couple giver spouses are excluded from the Non giving contacts report.

Designating a couple giver

Working within the Givers section of the Giving module, select Edit the giver. Scroll down the giver profile and tick Couple i.e. this giver represents a couple, not an individual.

If the giver is In the Address Book, their linked spouse's name from the Address Book will be pre-populated into the form and cannot be further edited. In this example, Fi is linked to Paul in the Address Book (with a marital status of "Married").

If the giver is Not in the Address Book, the spouse's First Name and Last Name fields will be empty - enter the giver's spouse's name (required).

For UK customers only, specify the default Gift Aid Split requested by the giver or as applicable based on the Gift Aid declaration/s held - this default split will be suggested when adding donations for the giver but can be optionally changed on a donation-by-donation basis as may be appropriate based on the giver's instructions.

When producing a Statement of Donations the couple giver statement is addressed to the couple, summarising their joint donations and, for UK customers only, the total Gift Aid reclaimable on those donations. The statement shows the Gift Aid Claimed - which may be different to the amount shown Claimable in the list of donations - perhaps if some of the claimable donations have not yet been included in a claim. The statement is intended to only show a breakdown of the Gift Aid Claimed at the time of producing the statement. For couple givers, this is broken down for each partner based on the total of the underlying Gift Aid Split of each donation.

Note, for UK customers producing a Gift Aid claim; if an unsubmitted claim contains donations with a Gift Aid Split specified (because a giver was a couple at the time of adding the donations) but the Couple status was subsequently disabled, a warning message is surfaced during the claim review process explaining that those donations will need to first be removed from the claim before the claim can be finalised.

Note: UK customers managing Gift Aid claims will see donations for couple givers and the Gift Aid Split on the claim in ChurchSuite. Only the primary giver profile name is shown in this context, however, the HMRC submission and Claim CSV file show the aggregated donations and Gift Aid for each spouse on a separate row.