How does ShareGift work?
When you donate shares, we arrange to transfer them into the name of The Orr Mackintosh Foundation, the registered charity which operates ShareGift. The Charity exists to realise as much value as possible from unwanted shares by aggregating them, selling them and using the proceeds to make donations to a wide range of other UK registered charities.
People have small holdings of shares for many different reasons, whether from privatisations, scrip dividends, inheritance splits or investments which have fallen in value. Such small amounts of shares are often difficult or even impossible to dispose of because of the costs involved. ShareGift provides a solution. Even if you have just one or two shares, ShareGift can help you deal with the problem and in a charitable way. We can also help shareholders with larger, tax-efficient donations of shares.
The idea is simple, but the work necessary to generate ShareGift’s income stream is extremely complex and time-consuming; receiving shares, speaking to shareholders and registrars, researching old holdings, replacing lost or invalid certificates, handling the resulting diverse portfolio and, ultimately, selling the shares. All this needs to be done before we are able to make charitable donations from the pool of money that has been created.
The private client stockbrokers Killik & Co waive all ShareGift’s commission charges for share dealing, which means that we can give even more money to more charities. We make no charge for you to use ShareGift, but donations to help us provide this free service are always welcome.