Member Article

Being charitable can help your business

With Business Link

The annual Children in Need fund raising marathon receives enormous support from businesses all around the UK. It’s great for the appeal and it’s great for staff morale but giving to charity can often be tricky for businesses. You don’t want to be killjoy and turn down requests from staff to organise a fund-raising event but, at the same time, you have to ensure that day to day operations continue as normal. Marrying the two can be tricky.

As a company owner or business manager you will probably be inundated with appeals – either from staff wanting you to support their favourite good cause or from charities direct. If you agree to allow one fundraiser – and even financially contribute to it – what happens when you get the next request? One solution is to offer your employees the option of payroll giving. This enables them to support their chosen charities on a regular basis – and without taking up company time to do so – by having donations deducted “at source” from their gross salary. This gives immediate tax relief on those donations so that a monthly contribution of £10 costs only £7.80 for employees paying standard rate tax and will be worth as much as £20 to the charity.

In short, everyone benefits! For your company it is a simple way to demonstrate your commitment to staff morale and good causes: for donors it’s an easy way of giving more at no extra cost to them: for charities it provides a regular flow of income. What’s more, setting up Payroll giving is straightforward – see the HM Revenue & customs website for more information: www.hmrc.gov.uk.

Alternatively, you may prefer to restrict your support to local beneficiaries – either by sponsoring an event or helping a charity, financially or through the supply of labour or expertise from your staff. Working with your immediate community in this way brings a wide range of business benefits:

• Local customers are often an important source of sales.
• By improving your reputation, recruitment may be easier.
• A good relationship with local authorities can help eg councils prefer to award contracts to businesses with a record of community involvement.

Getting involved in an activity related to your product. makes commercial sense in that you can share your expertise as well as show the human face of your business. For example, some restaurants provide food to local homeless groups, while builders give free labour and materials to community projects. Whatever road you take, it is well worth involving your employees – choose to support charities suggested by them or encourage them to volunteer for community activities, perhaps by giving them paid time off to do it. As well as improving your community relations, this can help motivate employees and develop their skills.

For Business Link services in your local area, call 0845 600 9006 or visit the website www.businesslink.gov.uk Business Link services in the North East are supported by the European Regional Development Fund, through the Government Office for the North East, and One NorthEast.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .