Supporting the charity sector

To carry out our life-saving research, the BHF relies on the generous donations of money and goods given by our supporters. As the largest charity retailer in the UK, we have 750 shops and stores around the country where you can donate goods, and grab a bargain to help us to fund even more research.

A supportive regulatory and working environment for the entire charity and voluntary sector lies at the heart of making sure we are able to maintain our supporters’ trust, put our donors’ generous donations to the best possible use and achieve the greatest direct impact for the seven million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK, as well as beyond.

We therefore take our responsibilities in helping to support and lead the sector very seriously and work to influence government policy affecting a range of areas including: charity and governance regulation, fundraising regulation, data protection regulation, Gift Aid, charitable business rate exemption and ensuring that government policies do not have unintended negative impacts for the charity sector.

Here are some examples of where we have recently worked to support the wider charity sector. 

Gift Aid Relief

We’ve been working with sector bodies to call on Government to temporarily increase Gift Aid from 25% to 33% for two years to help charities recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s estimated that this scheme could provide an additional £450 million of support for charities and voluntary organisations over the period of the scheme. Government Research shows that this is in line with the amount of Gift Aid that goes unclaimed each year.

This would provide a much-needed boost to income across the charity sector, and help us to make your donations go further. To find out more about the campaign, take a look at the #NeverMoreNeeded website. 

Business Rates

We recently responded to the Government’s fundamental review of business rates, to make sure that our interests and those of other charity retailers are taken into account as the Government shapes the future business rates system.

In our response we called on Government to maintain the 80% rates relief that charity retailers currently get, but to streamline the process and criteria for local authorities allocating discretional reliefs. We advocated for rates reliefs to continue to be set at a national level to avoid additional administration that would likely arise if different systems were in place around the country. We also called for loopholes in the current system to be closed, to ensure that all charities continue to receive the reliefs they’re entitled to.

Leaving the EU

The BHF is working to make sure that the risks presented to the charity and voluntary sector by a no deal Brexit are identified and that mitigating steps can be taken as early as possible. At the moment we’re keeping an eye on the following areas:

• Our workers: The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) estimates that under current immigration proposals, over 80% of EU nationals currently working in UK charities will be ineligible to work in the UK following a no-deal Brexit.

• Data: There is still a question of how we’ll be able to process data after we leave the EU, in particular how we can store data with third parties based outside of the EU. After we leave, the UK will also lose its chance to have a say on the upcoming ePrivacy Regulations, which could have a knock-on effect on how charities communicate with supporters.

• Finance: EU rules around how governments can support businesses are likely to be transposed into UK legislation. However, we need to monitor how this looks once proposals are put forward, to make sure that the system works for charities after Brexit.

For a more in-depth look at how Brexit might affect the BHF and wider charity sector, and what we’re doing about this, take a look at our Brexit Position statement. 

Fundraising Regulation

Find out more about what this means for the BHF.