When are we going to stop flogging the Payroll Giving dead horse?
Howard Lake | 3 June 2007 | Blogs
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 How long have we banged on about Payroll Giving being a major source of income for the sector? Certainly for 10 years. The Children’s Promise was going to be the big launch pad, then the Giving Campaign and then the £8m from the government to “bribe” SMEs to join in. This latest has fallen completely flat: half the money has had to be returned to the government in one of the most embarassing failures for the sector.ÂÂ
I don’t think we should blame the Institute of Fundraising, however, for thios debacle, other than the fact that it fell for the same arguments that have been used again and again in Payroll Giving – “one more push and we’ll get there”. And I have to take my share of the responsibility for this: the deal with the Governmentwas made under my watch as Chair of the Institute.
It’s time to move on now and focus on promoting other tax-efficient forms of giving – most especially getting the Government to give us the full 40% tax rebate. After all, it’s no skin off their nose – though it does mean one less tax rebate for the better off. And let’s focus on ways of getting money out of companies that appeals to their priorities.
But it’s worth pausing for a minute to ask ourselves why Payroll Giving failed so that we can learn from the experience.
I think there are two fundamental reasons why payroll giving performs so poorly:
 1. It requires buy-in from payroll – yet they get no recognition; therefore it never becomes a priority.
2. It’s difficult for a company to get good internal PR from payroll giving as there’s nothing to put in the company magazine.
I was intimately involved with the Children’s Promise in 1999, and we found exactly this sort of resistance – there simply wasn’t enough in it for companies to enthusiastically promote this form of giving. Ans Payroll Giving fundamentally relies on the good will and commitment of employers.So what sorts of fundraising in the workplace do fit in with corporate priorities?
Staff fundraising, where funds are matched by the company, provides internal PR at a number of levels: fun stories about the whacky things staff get up to; a reminder that the company is a responsible corporate citizen because it is matching the funds raised; and opportunities for awards, like fundraiser of the year to further boost staff morale. Little wonder that these things are favoured.
Another great way for staff to become involved with charitable support is through volunteering – providing staff with opportunities to support local charities in a number of different ways – and also developing team challenge activities with charity partners. These are great at boosting staff morale and can get things done for charities that otherwise wouldn’t happen.
A real partnership between a charity and a company can involve staff in so many different ways, that payroll giving becomes relatively unimportant in the overall scheme of things. Nonetheless, where staff do decide to sign up to payroll giving, this is obviously a welcome boost to the charity’s coffers. But it should never be the cornerstone of any relationship between a company and a charity.
So let’s bury the Payroll Giving horse with full honours and put the flog back in the dusty cupboard of good ideas that didn’t work. Instead, let’s really engage in getting the full benefits of Gift Aid, and in pushing companies to put their employee fundraising and volunteering at the very heart of their CSR agenda.
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.