Microdonations from salary scheme introduced for workers

Howard Lake | 25 September 2013 | News

Payroll giving specialists Workplace Giving UK is introducing a service that will enable UK employees to make regular microdonations from their monthly salary. The Big Charity Whip Round rounds down the participating employees’ net pay to the nearest pound, and the remaining pennies are donated direct to charity.

If the payslip reports a monthly salary of £850.33, the employee would receive £850, with the 33p being donated to charity. The system ensures that no employee ever donates more than 99p per day.

Peter O’Hara, Managing Director of Workplace Giving UK, is launching the scheme this week at Employee Benefits Live and the CIPP Conference.

He said: "Over the past 10 years we have been asked many times about “micro donation” schemes from pay and we are aware that others exist, however, our understanding is that the set up and ongoing costs of these can be prohibitive. We therefore wanted to come up with a simple, low cost solution which would deliver the most money to a company’s charity partner."

He added that companies trialling the system are reporting a 30% engagement rate amongst employees. "So a workforce of 5,000 could be raising in excess of £9,000 per year just from their odd net pennies" he said.

Workplace Giving UK will pass on all donor details to the beneficiary charities to allow Gift Aid to be reclaimed and for charities to contact their supporters.

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.