Aberdeen Charities Together

All about Giving

Employers

What is payroll giving?
Why offer it?
How to get your employers' grant
Incentives you can offer employees
How to get employees to sign up

Employees

What is payroll giving?
How do I sign up?
How to get your employer involved
What does ACT offer?

Employers

What is payroll giving?

Payroll giving is an easy and tax efficient way for employees to give to their favourite charities. Donations are deducted straight from an employee’s gross salary, giving immediate tax relief. As an incentive to smaller businesses a cash incentive scheme has been launched by the government. This means you may be eligible for a cash payment of up to Ł500. As an added incentive, the government will also match each payment (up to Ł10) donated by each employee for the first 6 months.

Why offer it?

It's good for business, staff morale and public image since it shows you care about your staff and the local community. After all, chances are that most of your employees will be affected by the work of at least one of the charities in some way or other. And it costs you nothing. If you have less than 500 employees then you can even get a grant to cover any administration. Any costs that are incurred can be deducted against your profits. How often do you get to raise the public profile of your company for free?

How to get your employers grant

All you have to do is sign up to payroll giving, the grant form is included. Once the first employee deduction has been made you'll automatically recieve the grant.

Organisation Size	Grant Available
1-199 employees	Ł300
200-249 employees	Ł400
250-499 employees	Ł500

Incentives you can offer employees

Firstly the government is offering to match employees donations for the first 6 months of giving, up to Ł10 per month. There are lots of similar things you can do to encourage participation amongst your staff.

Get senior management involoved - this can be highly motivating for the staff as it shows your company's commitment.
Offer to match donations - this can be limited to ensure it stays affordable.
Offer to pay the 4% administration charge that is levied by the agency.
Set an objective - for example this could be the amount raised or percentage signed up.
Run a promotional campaign - ACT can help with this; from posters and emails to staff information days
Keep staff up to date on the progress
Most importantly, remember to say Thank You

How to get employees to sign up

Promotional campaigns are a must at the begining. This is where ACT can really help. At your invitation we can step in and provide plenty of material; from the initial teasers, to the launch, meeting your employees and telling them what it's all about, as well as providing regular feedback. Employees are not obliged to support our consortium however, they may already have a favourite charity they wish to donate to. That's no problem.

Employees

What is payroll giving?

Payroll giving is an easy and cheap way to give to charity. It is taken from your gross pay so the tax man will top it up. This means you could pay as little as Ł3 for the charity to get Ł5. As an added bonus, for the first 6 months the government will also match each payment (up to Ł10) so the charity gets even more.
All you have to do is contact your payroll and ask them to make the deduction. Your gift will then come off your paycheque each month. If you want to change or cancel it you only have to let them know, so no hassle with direct debits or covenant tie ins. What happens next? Well you've done your bit, let your chosen charity do the rest!!

How do i sign up?

Firstly you need to find out if your employer is registered with a payroll giving agency. If not then direct them to this website so that they can find out how to get involved.
Once signed up it's just a matter of payroll administration. You fill in a form and let them know exactly how much you want to give, how often, and who to and then it's done. Any changes are easy to make, you just inform your payroll.

How to get your employer involved

If your employer isn't already offering the scheme then there are many attractive benefits that could convince them. The most important being a motivated and happy workforce. If this is something you want then let your employer know! They may even be entitled to a government grant of up to Ł500 to cover any administration costs. It is also a good promotional tool for a company to get involved with their local community and help make a real difference at a minimal cost. Lastly of course, ACT are here to help. As a consortium of local charities we have the resources, know-how and personnel to help make payroll giving a success, and we do it for FREE!

What does ACT offer

The charities involved in ACT are all local to Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. This means that any money given will stay in your local area. Each member provides a different service so that almost all aspects of charitable work are covered. Ranging from the needs of children in distress, the homeless, cancer patients and their families, those with mental health problems, physical disabilities or blindness to those with learning difficulties that need extra support, communities that want to improve local safety, those from marginalised international ethnic communities, and victims of crime.
This is all to make it easier for you, the giver. Just one payment will benefit ALL of these groups and you will be able to feel the effect locally. Chances are you will be benefiting someone that you know. If you want to know more about the work of each of these charities then see here for further information.