FAQs

All the gifts in this catalogue are regularly provided by Send a Cow. Proceeds from these gifts, less the cost of producing the catalogue, are spent on our livestock and training programmes in Africa.

To make best use of your donations, we give livestock and training according to need, taking into account local conditions and the wishes of the recipients where possible.

We guarantee to use your donation in the most effective way to help farmers throughout the seven countries in which we work.

Unfortunately not. If we were to match donations to gifts it would significantly increase administration costs, so less of your donation would go to the families you want to help. However, Send a Cow does keep in contact with all the families we help through our African offices. All beneficiaries get regular visits from extension workers and other staff.

We will send you news of the number of people that we’ve been able to help thanks to Send a Cow gifts, along with some case studies of families that have benefited. You can hear even more news from Send a Cow by signing up to our email newsletter.

You can also consider becoming a Family Friend. By giving at least £10 a month, you will be able to be part of the journey out of poverty with a family in urgent need. We’ll keep you updated on the amazing effect that regular giving has on a representative family by sending you regular updates on how they are progressing – both the highs and the lows. Find out more here.

We spend only 1p in every pound on administration. We then spend another 25pence on raising the next pound.

However, with Christmas gifts, none of your money goes on administration. After the costs of producing materials, all your money goes directly to our work in Africa.

You can find out more about how we spend your money in our annual report.

Our costs don’t just cover the animal – they cover the whole Send a Cow ‘package’. That includes training, low-cost vet services, and regular visits by extension workers to give the beneficiaries advice and check that their livestock is doing well.

To make a real impact on a family’s life we always buy good quality animals (usually pure breeds or pure breed crosses). Unfortunately there is often a shortage of good quality animals, resulting in high prices. Our staff are knowledgeable, and ensure that we get the best value for our money. Good quality animals produce much higher yields of milk or eggs etc – up to 10 litres more milk a day, and six times as many eggs as other animals. Their offspring are also of a superior quality and fetch more money at market – the offspring of meat goats, for instance, are much heavier than their local counterparts.

We don’t give a whole farmyard to any single beneficiary. The farmyard gift is a symbolic one – it’s designed to show what £2,000 can do for several poor families. If you donate a symbolic farmyard, we spend your donation on gifts for families in the various countries where we work.

We can’t give you details of all those individuals who receive your gift. But we will send you a photo of a farming family who’ve recently been helped by Send a Cow, along with the story of how their lives have changed.

To identify which group or community your donation would help would significantly increase administration costs, so less of your donation would go to the families you want to help. Our staff in Africa wouldn’t have the time or the resources to manage such a trip – it would distract from the work they do with the poor families we are working with. However, Send a Cow does keep in contact with all the families we help through our African offices. All beneficiaries get regular visits from extension workers and other staff.

We will send you news of the number of people that we’ve been able to help thanks to Send a Cow gifts, along with some case studies of families that have benefited. You can hear even more news from Send a Cow by signing up to our email newsletter.

You can also consider becoming a Family Friend. By giving at least £10 a month, you will be able to be part of the journey out of poverty with a family in urgent need. We’ll keep you updated on the amazing effect that regular giving has on an example family by sending you regular updates on how they are progressing – both the highs and the lows. Find out more here.

For a donation to quality for Gift Aid, you must be a UK taxpayer. You must pay enough income tax or capital gains tax to at least equal the amount of tax Send a Cow will claim on your donations made in that tax year. A Tax year runs from 6 April; to the following 5 April. This means that if you have given a donation of £100, you will need to have paid £25 tax.

The Inland Revenue does not allow us to reclaim Gift Aid on your donation if you told us that:

• The donation was on behalf of someone else or a group of people
• You can only make a Gift Aid declaration on your own donation
• You cannot make a Gift Aid declaration on behalf of someone else, even if they are themselves a UK taxpayer
• The only way around this is to ask each person to complete a declaration on the amount they have donated. We can supply collection envelopes, which do make provision for Gift Aid

If you wish, you can cancel your declaration at any time. Please let us know if you no longer pay sufficient tax to cover the tax that we reclaim. The cancellation will take effect from the time we receive your letter.

If your circumstances change and you no longer want to give Gift Aid, please let us know.

No, we can only reclaim Gift Aid on the donations you make. This includes any virtual gift you buy or additional donation you add to your order. Bag Gardens are part of our merchandise range and so we cannot claim Gift Aid on the value of your Bag Garden purchase.