Payroll Giving

Nurse smiling in a neonatal hospital setting

Payroll Giving enables employees to give to charities straight from their pay, before tax is taken. This effectively increases the value of each donation.

How it works

Your company can set up a Payroll Giving Scheme for free, no matter how many employees you have. All you need to do is sign a contract with an HMRC-approved Payroll Giving Agency, and your employees will be able to donate directly to any charity of their choice through their salary.

Why should we set up Payroll Giving?

Payroll Giving is not only a fantastic, tax-efficient way for your employees to support their favourite causes, it enhances your Corporate Social Responsibility activities.

You can advertise the impact of your Scheme through the Payroll Giving Quality Mark – when just one percent of your employees are signed up you will receive a Bronze Award. This goes all the way up to a Platinum Award when you reach 30 percent enrolment.

If you are particularly proud of your employees’ commitment to Payroll Giving you can even apply for a National Payroll Giving Excellence Award.

Employees really value the opportunity to support their favourite causes.

I knew I wouldn't miss a small amount every month but over the year it would all add up and over many years it would really make a difference!

Helen, who has given to Bliss through her pay for 5 years

The power of Payroll Giving for Bliss

Payroll Giving gives us a regular, steady stream of income with few admin costs. This helps us reach more babies born premature or sick in the UK.

What is more, Payroll Giving donors statistically maintain their donation for longer than other supporters, helping us to plan new projects to support more families.

We are hugely grateful to every employer with a Payroll Giving scheme, and to every employee who chooses to support premature and sick babies.

The experience for employees

Once you have set up a Payroll Giving scheme, your employees can choose whether to support a charity, which charity to support and how much to give them. They can choose as many UK registered charities as they like.

Each pay day, a deduction is made from the employee’s gross pay. You transfer all deductions to the contracted Payroll Giving Agency which then distributes them to the selected charities.

The cost of Payroll Giving

Payroll Giving schemes are very low cost for companies, but Payroll Giving Agencies do charge a small administration fee. This can either be deducted from the employees’ donations or covered by the employer – in which case it is a tax-deductible expense.

Setting up and promoting Payroll Giving schemes will also require staff time.

Promoting Payroll Giving in your company

You can promote Payroll Giving through all your company’s usual internal communication channels. We can provide you with postcards and other information about Bliss to show your employees just what their gift will mean to the welfare of premature and sick babies across the UK.

You can also engage, for free, a Professional Fundraising Organisation to help you promote your Payroll Giving scheme. They will work with you to find out your requirements and help you set targets, and can run employee engagement sessions to help your employees sign up.

Professional Fundraising Organisations are funded by the charities they work with, so there will be no charge to you for their services.

Matching gifts to increase impact

More and more employers are choosing to increase the impact of their employees’ donations by matching their gifts. This means that, when an employee sets up a gift, you can also make a gift to the charity they’ve chosen to support.

There are lots of options for matched giving. You can:

  • Match the entire value of the gift, or a percentage of it
  • Match every gift, or just match for a fixed time period as a new-joiner incentive
  • Match gifts to every cause, or just gifts to certain causes
  • Cap the amount you are prepared to match

Matched gifts are counted as charitable donations for tax purposes.

Payroll Giving Agencies and Professional Fundraising Organisations can advise you on how matching could work for your company.