CAF Payroll Giving scheme exceeds £1 billion in 30 years
Melanie May | 3 April 2017 | News
Employees have donated £1.3 billion through CAF’s Give As You Earn Payroll Giving scheme since its launch 30 years ago.
According to Charities Aid Foundation, more than 220,000 people in the UK make a regular donation to charity through CAF Give As You Earn, which it launched in April 1987.
The scheme is now used by more than 2,700 employers across the UK, from retailers, to banks, financial services firms, media organisations and public sector bodies, and including ASOS, Burberry, HSBC, Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer, and Sainsbury’s.
CAF analysis carried out to mark Give As You Earn’s 30th anniversary shows that:
- £1,309,300,000 was donated through Give As You Earn between 1987 and 2016
- Last year £74.3 million was donated
- The average monthly donation people give through their payroll is £20.57
- 222,762 people are currently signed up to the scheme
- People support more than 22,000 different charities
- The five charities currently most popular are Cancer Research UK, the NSPCC, Macmillan Cancer Support, BEN – Motor & Allied Trades Benevolent Fund, and Friends at Work
John Low, chief executive of CAF, said:
“It is fantastic that so many choose to donate some of their earnings to a good cause every month. For people who regularly give, this can be a really convenient way to support a favourite cause, which helps them to give more than they thought possible.”
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In the financial year 2015-16, employees from companies around the UK gave £122.5m overall through Payroll Giving schemes, compared to £119m in the year 2014-2015: an increase of £3.5m (3%). according to figures from the Association of Payroll Giving Organisations (APGO).
A Givey report, released last December however, found that 53% of working adults in the UK were never asked about which causes they would like to support through Payroll Giving, but that a fifth would give more if the causes offered by their employers reflected issues they cared about.
Image: Taylor Ashby from ASOS, who gives £75 a month through CAF’s Give As Your Earn, supporting 14 cancer, hospice and children’s charities
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.