CAF says payroll giving still not achieving its potential
Howard Lake | 11 April 2007 | News
CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) is calling on both charities and employers to make greater use of payroll giving. It acknowledges that, 20 years after it was introduced, it has still not achieved its potential.
Currently around 1% of voluntary donations is made via payroll giving, amounting to £83 million in 2005/06. In all, only 578,000 of today’s workforce give to charity through their pay – just 2%.
Yet this is despite 20 years of marketing and promotion by charities and a range of incentives over the years which have included a 10% top up on all payroll donations and grants for SMEs looking to set up the scheme.
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The poor take up of payroll giving has been present since it was introduced in 1987. In its first year (1987/88) payroll donations brought in just £1.2 million.
CAF operates payroll giving agency Give As You Earn, which handles two thirds of all payroll donations. Russell Prior, Executive Director of Company Giving Services at CAF, said: “Payroll giving offers a hugely effective way in which charities can build sustainable funding streams. We should use this 20 year anniversary to reflect on how the sector might make better use of the scheme and ensure the story of Give As You Earn does not become one of lost opportunity and unrealised potential.”
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.