The Haiti Earthquake has devastated the country, and news of the deaths and devastation has been everywhere in the last few weeks. Countries all over the world have launched their own aid packages or campaigns and many citizens are also looking at ways they can donate or raise money to help out.

One of the best ways to donate to the cause and maximise the amount of money you give is to use the UK?s gift aid scheme. The scheme is available to all UK taxpayers and allows charities to get some tax relief on the donation. This applies to almost all forms of charity giving but the recent drives for donations in Haiti make it worth pointing out again.

Using the system, a ?50 donation will result in the charity receiving ?64 with no extra monetary input from you. This is because the charities get the same amount of basic tax that you would normally have paid if the ?50 had been a part of your paycheque. The government are also providing 3p for every ?1 donated until the spring of 2011.

You can use the gift option by donating through the Disasters Emergency Committee where the minimum donation is currently ?5.

Of course, if you?re already struggling with your finances, you shouldn?t feel the need to donate. It?s much better for you to get your own finances in order first and donate when you feel financially capable than to be pressured into the idea. If you can?t donate a large sum of money but still want to help you can always ask friends and family to also donate a small amount, combining the total at the end.

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The competitive but potentially incredibly lucrative second hand clothing market has lead to a turf war amongst charity stores.

Recycling banks and door collections have been on a massive rise as charities struggle to gain the edge over their competition and keep a continual amount of quality clothing stock coming in.

The Association of Charity shops believes that charities entering into partnerships with commercial companies in order to increase door to door collections has lead to problems:

?The largest single threat to the profit charities with shops get by door-to-door collections is by commercial textile merchants entering into partnerships with charities, many of whom do not own shops.? said Paul Tate, merchandising manager of charity the Children?s Society.

?While there is no question of legitimacy, the ‘donation’ made by the textile collector to the charity is as little as ?50 per tonne.?

The concern raises the problem of transparency in clothes sales, with many consumers unclear of the amount of money that ends up going to the charity on a normal clothes purchase.

Clothes given directly by donation can make a far greater estimated profit in the region of ?500 or more per tonne, depending on the quality. However, the ACS believes that the rise of commercial partnerships has meant a drop in the amount of people handing over full bags from door-to-door collections.

The Textile Recycling Association disagrees with the ACS and links the lack of donations with the recession. Alan Wheeler, TRA spokesman said:

?The value of a tonne of clothing collected door to door is high, but so is the cost of collecting, storing, sorting and other associated costs. We estimate that this cost amounts to over ?500 a tonne.?

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.