Payroll giving is really easy to set up and is an excellent way to encourage your colleagues to support not for profit organisations. Whether donations are matched or not, the scheme will become a worthwhile part of your corporate social responsibility programme.
Pre-tax scheme - deductions from gross pay
Take the following steps to set up a pre-tax payroll giving scheme:
1. Register your company
Register with one of the payroll giving agencies listed below. RNIB would be happy to discuss their relative merits with you.
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Charitable Giving (formerly South West Charitable Giving)
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Charities Aid Foundation
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Charities Trust
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Stewardship
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Payshare (at The Charity Service)
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BEN
2. Obtain pledge forms
Either your chosen agency or RNIB can provide pledge forms. You can also produce them yourself following your company's brand guidelines.
3. Tell your employees
Tell your employees, staff and colleagues that a facility for tax efficient payroll giving now exists in as many ways as possible!
It's usually best to spread the word face to face and we would be happy to help you with this. Alternatively you may chose to enlist the help of a professional fundraising organisation.
RNIB works with:
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Sharing the Caring
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Hands on Helping Charity
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Workplace Giving
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Revenue Share UK
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Charity Link and
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Payroll giving in Action.
You should support the launch of your Payroll giving scheme with posters, emails, articles staff magazines, and even incentives such as prize draws and matching - or partially matching - all donations, to encourage participation.
4. Incorporate it into the pay run
Once completed, wishes on pledge forms should be incorporated into the pay run for the respective employee. Then you need to send all deductions, with a list of participants and their payroll giving deductions (plus any matched provided by your company) to your chosen agency. Repeat every pay day until the employee asks you to stop.
5. Collect your award
Sit back and wait for your Payroll giving award to arrive. The smaller your company, the greater the chance you have of receiving a gold award with 10 per cent participation. More details can be found on the "go for gold" section of the Payroll Giving Centre website.
RNIB has a bronze Payroll giving award - can you do better?
6. Continue to promote the scheme
Remember to promote your Payroll giving scheme regularly to new and established members of your company.
Post-tax scheme - deductions from net pay
Take the following steps to set up a post-tax payroll giving scheme:
1. Employees submit their pledge form
Using either an RNIB pledge form or your company's own, employees state how much they wish to give to RNIB. Ideally this form would also incorporate a gift aid pledge.
2. Employers make the deductions
Implement employee's wishes into your payroll system and make deductions each pay run.
3. Send the donations
Send the donations to RNIB by cheque or BACS, with a list of donors: stating clearly which company they have been sent by. If you have gift aid pledges, please send these to RNIB so we can reclaim any tax paid on the donations.
Unfortunately, post-tax donations are not eligible for the government's award scheme.
Thank you for your support!