Payroll Giving

Howard Lake | 26 June 2012

Payroll Giving

There are almost 9000 employers residing in the UK that are currently operating under this program; and around 2% of all employees in the UK participate in it. The participating employment agency/company will deduct the amount that have been agreed upon before the tax is calculated, and they will then send over the money to a specific payroll giving agency. Once this has been done, the chosen agency then would distribute the money out to charities registered in the UK, and this would be done in accordance with the wishes of the employees. Around 40% of all employers in the UK offer to cover the varying administration fee on behalf of the employee, making this a win-win for charities and employees to take part.

There are several agencies that operate payroll giving that perform the administrating and the processing of donations to the correct charitable organisations. It is necessary for the employers to choose which agency that they want to operate with as they will not be paying  the charitable organisations directly.

As previously mentioned, with payroll giving, UK charitable organisations benefit from the donations being tax-free, and in many cases will be matched or partially matched by the employer. Payroll giving is therefore a win for charities because of its many benefits. In this instance, giving to charity is a very rewarding experience that not only benefits the charity, but it benefits the giver as well.

In the UK, payroll giving is promoted heavily between different workplaces and a number professional fundraising organizations and charities.

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.