LONDON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Two studies on British charitable donations show giving habits are losing charities as much as $1.5 billion each year, The Times of London said.
The country has a national Gift Aid scheme, which provides a tax credit to donors and adds up to 28 percent to the donation, the newspaper said.
But both studies found three out of four people prefer donating directly into a collection box or a can rattled in front of them, rather than filling out a simple form and organizing donations through the Gift Aid system.
A study by the Direct Debit electronic payment service released Tuesday shows that direct giving means charities are losing out on as much as $700 million each year from Gift Aid.
A second study by the Giving Campaign released concurrently estimated the annual loss at $1.5 billion.
Vicki Pulman of the Charities Aid Foundation said convincing people to funnel donations through Gift Aid is an uphill struggle.
"Although Gift Aid is comparatively simple, it is something available only to taxpayers and the mere mention of the word 'tax' is enough to put many people off," she said.
