Payroll Giving – time to let it go?
Howard Lake | 27 June 2011 | Blogs
The recent comments by Mark Astarita, Chair of the IoF, about payroll giving may have embarrassed the Institute, but of course he is only saying what most of us have known for years.
I went to the launch of payroll giving by CAF in 1987, when we were told that “in five years, everyone will give like this”. 24 years later we are still waiting! At that meeting, I asked if there would be any government support for the new scheme and was roundly rebuffed, on the basis that it was up to charities to do this themselves.
So next week, the Home Office is hosting a conference on payroll giving, to seek to breath new life into the ailing patient. Well best of luck to them. For a few charities, payroll giving has worked very well, but for most there have been too many barriers in the way to make it a real success, so many have just dabbled at it or have given up altogether. I can’t see this situation changing.
Today there are just so many better opportunities, especially in new media, so why invest time and money in keeping it going? In marketing terms, payroll has always been a problem child, but maybe it’s time we recognised it for what it is – a dead dog – and buried it once and for all.
For me, Joe Saxton summed it up well when he described payroll giving as the “British Leyland of the fundraising sector” – and we all know what happened to BL.
I hope I’m wrong, but I strongly suspect that neither the Institute nor the Home Office will be able to resuscitate this patient. Far kinder and more sensible to let it die a peaceful death and move on.
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Simon George is a Director of Wootton George Consulting and a Fellow of the Institute of Fundraising. He has worked in fundraising since 1987 and was the founder of the IoF’s Trusts Special Interest Group. Today he chairs the IoF’s West Midlands region and works with a wide range of charities in a consultancy capacity. www.wgconsulting.co.uk si***@wg**********.uk Tel 01785 663600.
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.