# Too few charities offer payroll giving to their staff

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/02/09/too-few-charities-offer-payroll-giving-their-staff/
- Published: 2004-02-09T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

After 18 years of payroll giving in the UK, only 57 of the top 100 charities have
got round to offering the scheme to their own employees, according to the Giving
Campaign.
According to a new survey from The Giving Campaign, only 57 of the top
100 charities offer payroll giving to their staff. These would be the same charities
whose fundraising staff and agencies have spent years trying to persuade commercial
organisations of the value of offering payroll giving to their staff.

Indeed, fundraisers have done rather well at this, with an estimated 90% of FTSE
100 companies offering payroll giving. What a shame that many of them are denied
the experience of being able to fill in the form to donate themselves by their own
charity.

The Campaign is calling on those charities currently without a scheme to set one
up, “as an example for other employers to follow”, as they politely put it. To put
it more bluntly they should have encouraged them to avoid any charges of hypocrisy
and stop undermining the work of their payroll giving fundraisers. Promoting the
scheme internally to fellow staff would be excellent training to payroll giving 
canvassers. “It’s so easy to set up”, say fundraisers. “So why hasn’t your charity
got round to it since the late 1980s?” is the likely response from any on-the-ball
corporate on the receiving end of such a pitch.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

Phillip Mind, Acting Director of The Giving Campaign, pointed out that still only
about 1% of UK employers offer payroll giving to their staff. Commenting on the 
survey findings, he said: “I think it is vital that large fundraising charities 
lead the way by setting up their own schemes and encourage all their corporate supporters
to follow suit.”

Charities that do offer payroll giving to their staff include WWF-UK and Centrepoint.
WWF-UK runs a successful scheme with 10% of staff now donating regularly through
the payroll. Centrepoint has achieved a 21.5% participation rate amongst its employees.
Kate Hain, Corporate Fundraising at Centrepoint, said: “Because Centrepoint asks
its corporate donors to take up Payroll Giving promotions of the Give As You Earn
scheme, we felt it was time to learn how to sell it to our own staff. It gave our
colleagues the chance to see how the fundraising team do their work and it makes
our appeal to supporters a lot more persuasive!”

 * **[Latest BHF anti-smoking campaign performs well online](https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/02/12/latest-bhf-antismoking-campaign-performs-well-online/)**(
   12 February 2004)
 * **[Two papers on venture philanthropy published](https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/02/20/two-papers-venture-philanthropy-published/)**(
   20 February 2004)
 * **[Google again ranks UK Fundraising top for searches on "fundraising"](https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/02/26/google-again-ranks-uk-fundraising-top-searches-quotfundraisingquot/)**(
   26 February 2004)