Workplace Giving UK voted best in the business
Howard Lake | 13 October 2009 | News
Once again, Workplace Giving UK’s clients swept the board at the National Payroll Giving Excellence Awards held at the Treasury this week. Awards included ‘The Most Successful Payroll Giving Promotion’ (which is a bit like Best in Show) and is chosen from all the category winners. This was for its partnership with Beaverbrooks, the high street jeweller who also won ‘Best Launch of a New Scheme’. That’s a hat trick for Workplace Giving UK as it has won this category since the awards began in 2006.
Managing Director Peter O’Hara, who was voted one of the country’s top twenty ‘most influential’ fundraisers this year, was delighted by last night’s results. He believes that “creativity, passion and enthusiasm are all essential ingredients in the team’s success, but most of all it’s our belief in delivering for charities which drives us.“
Workplace Giving UK has been responsible for raising over £15 million for charity since the company began five years ago and has won a host of sector and industry awards for themselves and their clients.
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O’ Hara thinks getting the message out there about the tax efficiencies of Workplace Giving is vital. “It’s a contemporary way to donate to charity. All Workplace Giving is tax efficient, especially for the higher rate tax payer. It is easy to give this way and it is flexible, so any charity can be nominated. Our most common problem continues to be a lack of awareness of the scheme”.
The awards were handed out by the Minister for the Third Sector, the Rt. Hon. Angela Smith MP and Financial Secretary, the Rt. Hon. Stephen Timms MP. Other winners were Haygarth, the London based integrated marketing agency . They won ‘Best SME Campaign’. Flight Centre, the Surrey based travel team, were highly commended in the ‘Best Launch of a New Scheme’ category.
A new award this year for ’Best Public Sector Employer Campaign’ saw Workplace Giving UK’s client London Borough of Islington come out on top.
Between them, these companies have raised nearly £100,000 for charity in this year alone. This is more remarkable given the current economic climate and atmosphere of ongoing redundancies within many workplaces during the last 12 months. Peter O’Hara believes that “in our experience, when the chips are down and people are being made redundant, those lucky enough to be in work still are more likely to want to help others. That’s why, despite the doom and gloom of 2009, we are finding that employees are still incredibly generous”
Notes for Editors:
If you would like to have individual case studies and interviews from the winning companies, please let us know and we will arrange this for you. Photos available
Workplace Giving is a simple, tax efficient, scheme which allows employees to give to any charity they choose by having a deduction taken straight from their gross pay. Workplace Giving is also known as Payroll Giving or Give As You Earn.
A £10 donation through the scheme, would cost a standard rate taxpayer £8 or a higher rate tax payer £6.
Workplace Giving is the only way for a higher rate tax payer to pass their 40% tax straight to their chosen cause as only the basic rate of tax can be claimed back by charities under the Gift Aid scheme.
From April 2010 a £10 donation would only cost £5 for those paying 50% tax.
For more information visit www.workplacegiving-uk.com
For interviews please contact:
Ro************@li*******.uk
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0844 351 1484
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.