Payroll Giving, a fundraising opportunity

A New Year resolution could be to explore payroll giving. In New Zealand payrollgiving has  been an employer opportunity for a couple of years but it hasn't reached the heights you  might expect. More information on how it works are available from the inland revenue, Philanthropy New Zealand (generosity project),Charities Commission and various other official bodies.

The Inland Revenue keeps a track of the amount donated since the scheme started. However the scheme is a little more complicated than the several lines of enabling legislation would have us believe.

Firstly the scheme is purely voluntary on the part of employers, and this is first of all an employer scheme. Not an employee choice. If the employer is not interested, then that's the end of it. The second issue is that most significant employers use some brand of payroll software. If the software is not configured for the option of payroll giving, then it isn't going to happen. And thirdly the payroll officer of the company needs to be supportive because this is a job that they have to administer, and they may not want further workload. Nearly at the end folks. If all those other factors are positive, then the staff themselves have to be interested. They are the ones having their donations taken out of their payroll. Finally a word about the charities themselves. Some are resistant to encouraging payroll giving because they fear the loss of control. Their regular donors are in their sphere of influence. They know their names, and they know what they like. Payroll donors are probably anonymous. The charity has no means for communication unless the donor lets them know who they are. If they change jobs, the charity has no means to follow them.

So where does this leave us?
The actions are:
persuade employees to talk to their employers
make it easy for employers to choose charities
ask all payroll software companies to enable payroll giving
present a united front to the key decision makers
remove complicated obstacles
mitigate the barriers and the objections

There is only one player representing the charitable sector - the Payroll Giving Foundation. Other participants represent or advocate for the employers - the early adopters group.

So if you want to make payroll giving an opportunity for your organisation, take a look at the Payroll Giving Foundation or give me a call.