Payroll Giving allows employees to regularly and effortlessly donate to charity, with their chosen donation automatically taken from their salary. Where employers run a Payroll Giving scheme, employees wishing to participate can enrol, select the amount they wish to donate and the method of giving that suits them best, and choose which charity (or charities) they would like to support. Donations are taken from their salary before tax is deducted, and employees can stop, start or change their donations at any time.

Who Can Use Payroll Giving?

Anyone can make donations via Payroll Giving as long as they are over 18 years old, are a PAYE (Pay as You Earn) employee and their employer is registered with a Payroll Giving scheme or agency. Donations can be made to national or local charities (including small local charities) and there are no upper or lower limits on donation amounts.

How Do Employers Get Started With a Payroll Giving Scheme?

To get started, employers should contact a Payroll Giving scheme to get set up. Some agencies charge an administrative fee, which is usually deducted from employees’ donations; where this is the case, employers may choose to pay the fee, so that more money goes to the chosen charities.

Once the scheme is set up, employers need to make the donation deductions every time they run payroll. These donations should be sent to the Payroll Giving agency, who will, in turn, pass them on to the selected charities. Businesses can deduct costs associated with running the scheme from their pre-tax profits.

Are All Charities Eligible?

Employee donations can be passed to any charitable organisation provided it is recognised by HMRC, and the donations will be used for charitable purposes. For charities, there is nothing more that needs to be done. Gift Aid can’t be claimed by charities on Payroll Giving donations.

What Are the Benefits of Payroll Giving?

As well as providing the relevant charities with a dependable, regular source of income, Payroll Giving schemes — such as those partnering with Percent for Good, founded by Mark Lyttleton — help charities by removing much of the administrative burden around claiming Gift Aid. To date, Payroll Giving has raised over £2 billion for charitable organisations in the UK since its establishment in 1987.

For more information about Percent for Good, take a look at the embedded PDF.

Charitable giving has many significant benefits, above and beyond boosting the giver’s sense of wellbeing. From providing important tax relief to potentially drawing in new customers and boosting brand reputation, there are plenty of reasons to revisit philanthropy.

Taking Advantage of Tax Breaks

Tax relief on donations is a key advantage to businesses and individuals when giving to charity. Gift Aid is the most popular of the tax relief schemes; it can be claimed on donations to UK charities, and it is eligible for donations given via a Payroll Giving scheme or for gifts of certain shares or land. Giving through Gift Aid usually allows a charity to reclaim the basic tax rate on the donation from HMRC.

When limited companies donate to charity they can claim tax relief too, as long as certain qualifying conditions are met. For example, as detailed on GOV.UK, 25% of the donation’s value can be claimed for donations of up to £100, £25 for donations from £101 to £1,000, and 5% of donations (to a maximum of £2,500) for donations of £1,001 and over.

For business owners, leaving a monetary donation to charity in their will is an important element of their philanthropic endeavours. As well as being tax-free, the amount of inheritance tax payable on the rest of the estate could be significantly reduced; according to information shared by FT Adviser, where a £100,000 gift to charity is made from a £1 million estate, the ‘cost’ to the beneficiaries of this donation is just £24,000.

Boosting Customer Engagement

For businesses, finding ways to boost customer engagement and attract new clientele is key, and charitable giving can be an effective means of doing so. Supporting a charitable cause demonstrates that a business cares about the local (or wider) community, thereby helping to create a competitive advantage. A Forresters report from 2013 revealed that 82% of consumers, when choosing between two companies offering services or products at the same price, would be influenced by which of the two engaged with charities and/or their community.

Enhancing Recruitment and Retention

Involving employees in charitable giving activities often gives a business an advantage when it comes to recruitment, and help to increase retention, by increasing employee morale and building better working relationships. Many employees, or potential employees, prefer working for businesses that are active in supporting charities or their local communities, whether this support is via Payroll Giving schemes — such as those encouraged by Percent for Good, founded by Mark Lyttleton — or the provision of volunteering opportunities.

For more information on the benefits of charitable giving for individuals, take a look at the embedded PDF.

Early-stage investing involves investing in a start-up or early-stage business. It’s not unusual for early-stage companies to go through a number of funding rounds, and as they grow or gain traction, the amount of funding being sought increases. Investing in a company in its early stages can mean a greater level of reward should it be successful, as opposed to investing at a later stage.

Seed Investing

Broadly speaking, seed-stage investing is the first round of formal fundraising undertaken by a start-up business, which usually occurs when a company has gained some traction, developed a viable product and has a clear plan for growth. These businesses are typically paying the costs associated with product development, marketing and salaries. Seed-stage funding can sometimes mean investment of millions of pounds, depending on the business’s funding requirements and valuation.

What Is Pre-Seed Investing?

Pre-seed investments are typically used by very young businesses to turn an idea into a viable enterprise. This funding could be used to build a prototype or assemble a team. This form of investment can come from various sources, including angel investors, friends and family members, venture capitalists, crowdfunding platforms, and start-up accelerators and incubators. The latter are collaborative programmes offering resources and support like office space, training courses and access to investors.

Choosing an Early-Stage Company to Invest In

For potential investors considering early-stage investing it’s vital to choose the right company to fund. There are many factors to assess, such as ensuring the business has clear market potential, a strong product fit and a high-quality founding team. The latter means the business’s founders have a comprehensive understanding of the relevant industry, sector-specific expertise, diverse backgrounds, a clear vision for their company and the ability to put their plans into effect.

Experienced angel investors like Mark Lyttleton also know that early-stage investing can be an effective means of diversifying an existing portfolio, but that it’s absolutely vital to carefully consider the relevant risk-reward ratio.

Investing Via a Venture Capital Trust

Many investors choose to invest in early-stage companies via a venture capital trust (VCT). Doing so gives investors the opportunity to achieve diversified exposure to early-stage businesses to spread the risk across several companies, any of which could become successful. Investing in this way is also useful, as many early-stage businesses aren’t listed on public stock markets as they are too small (and usually unproven).

When giving to charity, it’s important to do so safely and efficiently to protect against fraud, prevent donations ending up in the wrong hands, and save time and money.

Check Out the Credentials

Before making a donation to charity, check the organisation’s registered charity number or status; this can be verified via the charity regulator in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. It’s also a good idea to look for the Fundraising Badge on the organisation’s fundraising materials: this demonstrates that the charity is committed to good fundraising practices. Charities registered in Scotland may also choose to sign up for the Fundraising Guarantee. If giving to a charity via an individual on the street or someone who has come to your front doorstep, check that this person is wearing proper identification and that the collection tin is sealed.

Staying Safe When Giving Online

It’s very important to exercise caution when donating online, just as when undertaking any other transaction over the internet. For example, make sure the website is secure by ensuring that the website address starts with ‘https’ (rather than simply ‘http’) and has a padlock symbol in the URL bar. It’s advisable to donate through well-established fundraising platforms or a charity’s own website and to always be wary if an unknown charity makes unsolicited contact. Never click on links from unknown senders, which could redirect to a fake website in an attempt to harvest personal financial or banking information.

Giving Efficiently

To maximise the impact of a charitable donation, it’s important to use the Gift Aid scheme, which increases the value of a donation made by UK taxpayers, at no additional cost to the donor. Higher rate tax payers can also claim the difference between higher rate and basic rate tax on their donation.

Donating via a Payroll Giving scheme — such as those included in the innovative Cause Portfolios of the charity Percent for Good, founded by Mark Lyttleton — is easy, tax efficient and benefits charities by giving them a regular income. These donations are taken from an individual’s salary before tax, meaning the charity receives more of the donation than they otherwise would. Any organisation recognised by HMRC as charitable can be given to via Payroll Giving.

There are also schemes that allow people to donate to their chosen causes simply by purchasing online the items they’d buy anyway. This is typically done by signing up to a scheme and then shopping via an online portal.

While some of the UK’s largest charities are well-known household names, small and mid-sized charities are also making a profound contribution to communities, causes and the lives of millions of people across the country. Often, these organisations are uniquely positioned to develop local relationships in their communities and connect with those individuals who are hardest to reach. However, while these charities are making a huge impact, they may find it harder than their larger counterparts to raise income, support and awareness for their causes.

More Efficient Donating Power

Smaller non-profits typically have much lower overheads than larger charitable organisations. One of the benefits of supporting a small charity such as Percent for Good is that a higher proportion of an individual’s donation usually reaches the intended cause. These charities may also be more reactive and agile, not having the time-consuming burden of bureaucracy and internal red tape. For more information about the benefits of supporting small and mid-sized charities, take a look at the embedded PDF.

The Unique Benefits of Supporting Small Charities

The Work of Percent for Good

The charity Percent for Good, founded by Mark Lyttleton, provides a platform whereby professionals can make a pledge to donate 1% of their salary, which goes towards supporting charitable causes, thereby contributing to long-term societal good. The charity’s goal is to encourage 50% of employees and 100% of senior managers in those partner firms participating in the scheme to donate. For both employers and employees, there are many benefits to making a pledge.

In terms of the former, it can drive employee engagement, demonstrate effective thought leadership, and make ESG data and reporting easier. For employees, participating in the scheme allows them to support many causes at once and to increase the tax efficiency of their donations.

Percent for Good’s Cause Portfolios

Through Percent for Good, donors can currently support up to five Cause Portfolios comprised of a carefully curated selection of individual charities or can select a single charity if they prefer. These portfolios are designed to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges. They consist of The Nature and Environment Portfolio, The Cost of Living Portfolio, The Health & Wellbeing Portfolio, The Social Mobility Portfolio, and The Education and Arts Portfolio. Individual charities within these portfolios include The Magic Breakfast, which provides daily breakfasts for children living in areas of high economic need, and UpReach, which aims to help individuals from disadvantaged areas to access employment.

Each of these charities has undergone a rigorous vetting process to ensure they have strong governance, limited resources but the potential to make a significant impact, a compelling vision, a credible plan, a great board of trustees and solid reserves.

There are a plethora of good reasons to give to charity: not only does it make a positive difference to the world and make the giver feel good, but it can build goodwill, strengthen relationships, demonstrate a commitment to improving the world and even relieve an individual’s tax burden.

Making a Real Impact

The most obvious benefit of giving to charity is that it can make a difference to individuals and communities. Every single donation adds up to bring about positive change, supporting society’s most vulnerable and neediest and filling the gaps that aren’t being plugged by governments or other organisations.

Investing in the Future

Giving to charity is an investment in the future, ultimately helping to solve global problems. As well as benefiting the individuals receiving assistance, charitable giving ensures future generations inherit — hopefully — a better world and a healthier planet.

Supporting charity sets a great example to others, inspiring those around us to be more aware of important issues and maybe even give their time or money, too.

Creating a More Equitable Society

Our world is an increasingly unequal one, making charitable giving more important than ever before. By sharing resources with those less fortunate than ourselves, we can help to create a more equitable and just world and show gratitude for our blessings and what we have. Giving is in our nature: from the earliest of times, working together and helping each other has been vital for forming a well-functioning society.

Making the Most of Tax Relief

For individuals, charitable donations are tax-free when made through their pension or payroll or via Gift Aid. This means that the tax can be claimed back (or no income tax will be paid on these donations in the first place), thereby helping givers to save.

The Feel-Good Factor

As regular givers and charity founders like Mark Lyttleton know, supporting charities feels good. A great sense of satisfaction and joy comes with helping others in need. Doing so also shows a commitment to philanthropy and changing society for the better. In this way, giving to charity enriches our own lives, as well as the lives of those we are helping.

Mr Lyttleton is the founder of Percent for Good, a non-profit organisation that enables professionals to donate 1% of their salary to either one or a range of charitable causes. This offers many benefits to both employees and employers, from boosting engagement and decreasing staff turnover to demonstrating a business’s commitment to CSR initiatives.

Payroll Giving is becoming an increasingly popular way for employers and employees to support charities. In addition to increasing employee morale and satisfaction, it can also boost engagement with the company’s overall corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. More importantly, this type of giving can add up to make a positive impact for charitable organisations and the causes they support.

What are the Benefits of CSR?

There are several key benefits to businesses that have strong CSR initiatives in place. For example, consumers are likely to view these companies in a more positive light and receive enhanced brand recognition. Moreover, the presence of CSR often results in a lower staff turnover rate, as employees are more likely to remain working for a company they believe is acting in the best interests of wider society as well as looking after its staff.

Enacting CSR initiatives may even improve the perspective of potential investors regarding the company’s value.

Effortless Giving

One of the key benefits of Payroll Giving is its effortless nature: once they are initially set up, donations are automatically deducted from an employee’s salary on a monthly basis. Payroll Giving can be easy to set up via a company’s payroll department, and employees then choose how much they wish to donate and skip, change or cancel their donations whenever they wish. Furthermore, as donations are deducted from the employee’s salary before taxes, this additional tax relief also goes to the chosen charity.

The Work of Percent for Good

The organisation Percent for Good, founded by Mark Lyttleton, was set up to allow professionals to easily donate 1% of their salary to charity, with the ultimate goal of long-term societal improvement. As well as driving employee engagement by encouraging a feel-good, purposeful culture throughout an organisation, this approach also demonstrates thought leadership, setting the tone and indicating that an employer is caring and inspiring.

Percent for Good currently offers five Cause Portfolios, each of which comprises a selection of individual charities that are tackling some of society’s biggest problems, such as the environment, the cost of living, and health and wellness. These organisations have all been carefully vetted to ensure they each have sufficient resources but the potential to make a big impact, a clear vision, strong governance, a credible plan, a great team of trustees and operational excellence on the ground.

How Does Percent for Good Work?

After signing up as a partner with Percent for Good, employees will be able to select either a Cause Portfolio or a range of charities to support. Going forward, employees can track the impact of their donations via their Payroll Giving portal.

Mark Lyttleton is the founder of Percent for Good, a charity that enables finance professionals to donate 1% of their salary to charitable causes via payroll giving. Percent for Good focuses on supporting small and mid-sized charities responsible for game-changing work on the ground that lack fundraising resources. This article will look at corporate social responsibility and the power of payroll giving, a flexible, easy and tax-efficient scheme for both employers and employees.

For businesses all over the world today, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is no longer optional; it is integral to commercial success. As businesses strive to be more socially responsible, payroll giving has emerged as an increasingly popular way to support CSR strategies. The attached infographic contains some interesting statistics on CSR in 2024.

Payroll giving provides a valuable opportunity for businesses and their employees to engage in meaningful philanthropic pursuits. This can have a significant positive impact in terms of boosting employee morale, satisfaction and overall engagement with the company’s CSR initiatives. The attached PDF delves deeper into the topic of employee satisfaction and why it is crucial for businesses to invest in instilling a healthy corporate culture to enhance both talent acquisition and employee retention.

Payroll giving enables employees to contribute to causes effortlessly. Set up by their employer’s payroll department, the scheme enables workers to pledge as much as they like, changing, skipping or cancelling donations at any time. Deducted directly from their salary, it presents a hassle-free way for employees to support causes they care about.

Why Employee Satisfaction Should be a Top Priority for Employers in 2024

Donors can take pride in knowing that their contributions help charities to continue their vital work. Because donations are deducted before tax, the tax relief is passed on to the donor’s chosen charity. This means that the value of their gift is boosted by up to 45%, at no cost to them. For example, where a 20% taxpayer donates £8 per month, their charity will receive £10. With higher income donors, the tax incentives are even greater. When multiple co-workers all support the same cause, these collective tax incentives provide a significant boost in donations from the charity’s perspective.

Also known as corporate citizenship, CSR is a self-regulating business model that makes companies socially accountable to their stakeholders and the public at large. By practicing CSR, companies become more aware of how their operations impact society, including social, economic and environmental aspects. CSR involves businesses operating in a way that enhances society and the environment rather than contributing negatively to them. The attached video looks at how strident CSR policies help businesses to attract investment.

Percent for Good charity founder Mark Lyttleton is a business mentor and angel investor with a special interest in early-stage businesses launched to achieve a positive planetary impact. This article will look at environmental, social and governance (ESG) and how ESG metrics have become a critical aspect of attracting support from early-stage investors.

As consumers and investors become increasingly socially and environmentally conscious, responsible investing has gained considerable traction, triggering a rise in funds seeking more than financial returns. Whether their focus is to increase diversity among business owners, reduce carbon emissions or simply invest in more sustainable business models, investors are increasingly favouring businesses with robust ESG credentials.

Blackrock, one of the largest asset managers globally, has predicted that ESC-specific investment funds will grow from over £20 billion in 2019 to more than £400 billion by 2028. This growth is driven by a number of factors, chief among them increased awareness that business can not only create commercial value but also deliver socially responsible operations that reduce harm on both the planet and people.

Launched by the United Nations in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals provide a clear framework to amplify society’s greatest challenges. In addition, with a new generation of customers and talent entering the market, businesses are aligning with the choices and personal values of younger generations, tailoring their organisations to address societal challenges rather than merely focusing on profit.

Green start-ups have become a popular option among investors, with their environmentally conscious operations focused on developing sustainable services and products that align with ever-increasing demand for eco-friendly solutions. In addition to contributing towards a healthier, cleaner planet, investors in green start-ups can also reap significant financial benefits. Encompassing a range of different industries, from sustainable agriculture and waste management to clean technology and renewable energy, green start-ups provide investors with attractive diversification benefits. By adding sustainable businesses to their portfolio, investors reduce the risks associated with maintaining a concentrated portfolio focusing on a particular industry or sector, thereby safeguarding against market downturns and industry-specific challenges.

In addition to the considerable financial rewards, investors in green start-ups also benefit from a unique opportunity to support innovation and impact. By supporting environmentally conscious organisations, investors contribute to the development of innovative solutions addressing pressing environmental challenges.

With the ability to drive positive change, risk diversification and long-term growth potential, investing in green start-ups is a rewarding and potentially lucrative opportunity that benefits both the investor’s portfolio and the global community.

Angel investor and business mentor Mark Lyttleton takes a particular interest in achieving a healthy work-life balance and working smarter rather than harder. This article will provide strategies to help professionals not only survive but thrive in fast-paced, ‘always on’ fields.

To negotiate high pressure working environments, professionals need to not only build a clear understanding of their own role but also get to know their co-workers and their roles too. In fast-paced working environments attention to detail is crucial, along with adept communication skills.

Professionals need to avoid micromanaging, building a competent team they can rely on and delegating tasks where necessary so they can spend their time more productively. When delegating, it is crucial to set clear milestones, deadlines and priorities, working with colleagues to get a better grasp of their workload and providing realistic timeframes within which to complete tasks.

According to research from Workfront, 38% of adults report having missed out on an important life event due to a poor work-life balance. Every worker wants to get ahead. Nevertheless, it is crucial for professionals to understand that their home life is important too. Achieving a healthy work-life balance not only makes for a happier homelife but also more productivity and success in the office too. The attached PDF delves deeper into the topic of working smarter rather than harder to achieve a balance between professional and personal time.

Working in a fast-paced environment has its perks, presenting an exciting and motivating career for those who like to stretch themselves and thrive under pressure. Always having a task to complete, with the individual flitting from one task to the next without time to pause, helps the day to pass quickly. Jobs in law, the media, medicine and the food industry offer constant action, providing a daily routine that keeps workers on their toes.

To get ahead in challenging industries requires ambition, as well as an ability to multitask effectively. Nevertheless, it is also crucial for workers to maintain balance between their work and home lives, ensuring they do not allow work to take over completely. Professionals must ensure that they take adequate time out to socialise, exercise and participate in their favourite pastimes, enabling them to return to the workplace renewed and refreshed.