Charity Wishlist

What is Charity Wishlist?

Charity Wishlist is a free platform that shows your supporters exactly what your charity needs. Your charity creates a list of the things it needs funding — a piece of equipment, a week of someone's time, a bag of food — and sets a donation figure against each one. You get a page of your own to share with supporters. A supporter can read down the list, pick an item that matters most to them, and donate towards funding it. Because it's a donation to your charity, you can still claim Gift Aid on it where eligible — unlike a commercial wish list, where supporters would purchase the gifts themselves.

How it works

Your charity builds a list, and sets a donation figure for each item.
Your charity shares the link with its supporters — by email, in a newsletter, or on social media.
A supporter chooses an item. That item is reserved and removed from the list.
The supporter is sent to your charity's own donation page to donate, exactly as they would for any other gift.
Your charity confirms when the donation arrives, and the item is shown as covered, so two supporters do not donate towards the same thing.
Your charity purchases the items it needs from the funds donated.
Your charity claims Gift Aid on any eligible donations through its normal route — we are not involved in the claim.

See an example

The Hedgehog Haven is a made-up charity we use to show how a list looks — have a look at its wishlist. Nothing on it is a real request for money.

Why we built it

Charities like the idea of an Amazon-style wishlist, where a supporter buys the item and sends it in. It works, but it costs you money and it makes work for your bookkeeper. A donated item is a gift in kind rather than a gift of money, so you cannot claim Gift Aid on it — that is an extra 25p in every £1 you never see.

This does the same job the other way round. Your supporter donates towards a particular item, and you buy it yourself. That makes it an ordinary donation, so you can claim Gift Aid on it as usual, where qualifying. The item they pick is a preference rather than an instruction — the donation goes into the fund, and you may use it for anything covered by that fund's description on your donation page.

What we charge

Nothing. We charge no fees, and we never receive or hold a donation. The money goes straight to you through your own donation page, so your existing giving arrangements and your Gift Aid claims carry on exactly as they do now.

How to open a free account

To use Charity Wishlist, you'll need a free user account for your charity. Send us a message on the PD Marfleet Accounting contact page — tell us your charity's name and registered charity number, and that you would like a Charity Wishlist. We will set up your account and send you your sign-in details.

Send us a message

Questions charities ask

Do you claim Gift Aid for us?

No. You claim it yourself, exactly as you do for every other donation. We are not involved in your claim and we do not see it — the donation reaches you through your own donation page, so it is Gift Aid eligible in the normal way.

Do you hold or collect the donations?

No. We never receive, hold or handle a donation. Your supporter is sent to your own donation page, and the money goes straight to you without passing through us.

Which donation platforms does it work with?

LoveGiving, Stewardship and Beacon CRM, or a donation form on your charity's own website. If you use a different platform, tell us when you get in touch and we will let you know whether we can add it.

Can we add our branding?

Yes. You can upload your own logo and pick a theme colour to suit your branding, and your page uses them. We choose the colour of the writing on the buttons for you — white on a dark colour, near-black on a light one — so that whatever colour you pick, your supporters can still read them.

Does it cost anything?

No. It is free to your charity, and free to your supporters. We take nothing from a donation and there is no subscription.

Why did you build it?

Because the whole of PD Marfleet Accounting exists to serve the charity sector, and we kept seeing charities lose Gift Aid by using an Amazon-style wishlist. We would rather they got the full value of what their supporters give.

Data protection

Do you ever see our supporters’ card details?

No, and we could not. Giving happens on your own donation page, run by your own provider. No card number and no payment ever passes through this site.

Who can sign in to our wishlist?

The people you ask us to set up — and the administrator at PD Marfleet Accounting who runs the service, who can reach any charity's list in order to set it up and help when something goes wrong. When we do anything on your list it is recorded in the log against our name, not yours, so you can always tell our changes from your own. Everyone signing in needs a password and a code from an authenticator app on their phone — the code is required, and there is no setting to switch it off. Passwords are stored scrambled, so nobody can read them back, including us.

What details do you store about our supporters?

Names and email addresses, and nothing else — no postal address and no phone number. They are removed after 90 days, whether the gift arrived or not. Every list carries its own “Your information” page telling your supporters the same thing.

Could someone point our list at the wrong donation page?

The donation address has to be one we allow, and it is checked again every single time your page is shown — not just when it is saved. If it is not an allowed address, the page says the list is not ready rather than sending your supporter somewhere unexpected.

Been sent a link by a charity? Use that link — each charity has its own page, and we do not publish a directory of them here.