Oxfam International is known for its global efforts to improve education, health care, sustainable livelihood, and protection from violence and disasters. Vital to Oxfam GB’s ability to provide aid are the funds they receive from donations and the sale of secondhand items in their stores.

The tax relief scheme Gift Aid, recently developed by the UK government, provides 28 percent of tax relief on charitable donations made by UK taxpayers. This tax relief extends to the sales of goods donated to charity shops like Oxfam’s. Recognizing this as a great opportunity to increase funds, Oxfam GB approached IDEO to design ways in which the organization could increase the number of people signing up to the Gift Aid scheme.

The project focused around three areas: in-store awareness of the Gift Aid scheme, in-store sign-up experience, and connecting donor information to the donated goods for tax relief.

To understand the present challenges of the donating process and the in-store behaviors of donators and volunteers, members of the IDEO project team became Oxfam volunteers in two London stores. This immersion in the donation journey, from drop-off to sorting and pricing, gave the team the critical insights that would later inform the communication, space, and process design in response to the new government policy.

During their time in-store, the team observed that donators were unsure where to put donations and didn’t want to ask staff; they also didn’t have the time to fill in the necessary forms for tax relief. Donators seemed keen to drop off their donations with limited fuss. As a result, the team responded by focusing their design on “drop off” rather than “sign-up” and looked for ways to integrate sign-up into the donation process.

The team built an Oxfam shop in the basement of IDEO London, using the space to prototype concepts and iterate thinking and ideas, continually collecting feedback from the client, designers, Oxfam volunteers, and donors. After synthesizing their learning, observations and ideas, IDEO created the design concept “Tag Your Bag,” offering an obvious, simple, and integrated solution for donors that was still easy and flexible for staff members.

Following the conclusion of the project, Oxfam’s in-house team developed and implemented the work, launching initially in 12 shops in the UK and rolling out to the rest of the network in 2009.