Payroll giving

Payroll giving is simple and easy to set up. All the donations you make are deducted before you pay tax. This means that your donation will actually be worth more than the amount you see deducted from your pay cheque, at no extra cost to you.

For example, a £12 donation will only cost you £9.60 if you’re a standard taxpayer. If you’re on a higher rate of tax (40%) then a £12 donation would only cost you £7.20.

To set up a payroll gift, simply fill out our Payroll Giving Form.

Your regular donation will help to fund vital research and much-needed support for people affected by blood cancer. Your donation will start to be deducted from your salary after around 4-6 weeks.

Payroll giving is a great way to support your employees and it has lots of benefits for employers:

• It’s quick, simple and cost-effective – you don’t have to pay to set up payroll giving.
• It boosts staff morale and engagement, by helping your staff support causes they care about.
• It can help with your corporate social responsibility strategy.
• It boosts your reputation and public image, with the Payroll Giving Quality Mark and other awards for employers who promote payroll giving to their staff. 
• By matching some of your employees’ contributions you show that you care about the causes they care about, and you can offset any donations against corporation tax.

There are just a few simple steps you’ll need to follow before you can start promoting your scheme to your employees.

First off, you’ll need to register with a Payroll Giving Agency. They are in charge of administering your payroll giving scheme and will dish out your employees’ donations to the charities they’ve chosen to support.

There are several agencies you can choose from:

• Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)
• Charitable Giving
• Charities Trust 
• Giveall

To give via payroll giving, each staff member who wants to donate will need to fill in a form with details about which charity they want to give to and how much they want to give every month – you can get these from your Payroll Giving Agency. You’ll need a record of this to give to your Payroll Giving Agency – if anything changes, like a staff member leaving or wanting to give more or less money every month, you’ll need to let your agency know.

Every payday, you’ll make the deduction from your employees’ pay – after National Insurance but before tax has been deducted – and pass this along to your Payroll Giving Agency, either by cheque or BACS. Along with this, you’ll need to include the names of your employees who are making a gift and their total contribution.

The Payroll Giving Agency will administer everything and make sure the chosen charities get their donations.

The only time you’ll need to do anything else will be if someone’s situation changes – for example if they leave the organisation, change their name or want to change the amount they’re giving every month. Then, just let your Payroll Giving Agency know and they’ll handle the rest.

Payroll Giving Agencies are charities themselves, so some of them charge a small fee for their services – usually around 4%. This is normally taken from your employees’ donations, but companies can choose to pay this fee themselves as a way of showing their staff they care, and so staff know that every penny they donate goes directly to the charities’ work.

Make sure employees know about your Payroll Giving Scheme. Use the communications channels you already have in place – such as email, posters, staff inductions, talks or seminars and face-to-face bulletins – to tell your staff about the scheme and the benefits.

Some companies agree to match their employees donations – either pound for pound, or a percentage of the total pledged – to a charity.  This is a great benefit for your employees and demonstrates your belief in giving charitably.