Purple Pounds
About our scheme
Our nationally commended payroll giving scheme is called Purple Pounds. This scheme enables you to donate to your favourite charity on a regular or one-off basis by automatic deductions from your monthly pay.
A monthly gift of £10 from your take-home pay to your chosen charity will be automatically boosted to £12.50 for a 20% rate tax payer, £16.66 for a 40% rate tax payer and £18.18 for a 45% at no extra cost to you. Another way to understand payroll giving donations is that a £10 donation only costs £8 to a standard rate tax payer, £6 to a 40% tax payer and £5.50 to a 45% tax payer. Purple Pounds is the easiest way to support the causes you care about. You can donate to any UK registered charity via this scheme, including places of worship, schools, and foodbanks. If you’d like to make a difference close to home, you can choose to support University of Manchester students and research, or donate to Manchester Museum. Just look for 'The University of Manchester' on the drop-down menu when making your donation.
Purple Pounds is a valuable, long-term source of income for charities and good causes. Regular donations help them budget and plan ahead, helping them make a lasting difference.
Download and share the payroll giving poster this month.
How to sign up
Go to our Purple Pounds link and complete a few fields. It only takes a minute.
You will need:
- Your Staff ID number (on front of your Staff ID card)
- Your NI number
- Your charity name (if it isn’t on the drop down list of over 200 charities you can free-type your charity name)
Celebrate your donations
In 2023, your amazing donations to charities via Purple Pounds were £139,384.45 to 241 charities. The most popular charities by number of donors are Shelter, UNICEF, Oxfam, WaterAid and Cancer Research UK. Incredibly, since 2005 University colleagues have donated £1,684,499.86 to local, national and international causes.
Recently, local foodbank Emmeline's Pantry and charity Hearing Dogs, shared videos of thanks for all your generosity in 2023 and previous years.
FAQs
How do I track my donations?
Purple Pounds allows you to create an account to keep track of your donations. If you would like to access the account facility, please contact the Payroll Giving in Action live chat (via Purple Pounds page) to let them know. Your account can then be created and updated to more accurately reflect your donation history.
How do I make changes to my donations?
Visit the Purple Pounds page
Click on ‘donate now’ at the bottom the page
On Page 1/6 click on ‘this donation replaces my existing donations’ or ‘add this donation to my existing donations’
How do I cancel my donations?
Visit the Purple Pounds page
Click on 'donate now' at the bottom the page
On page 1/6 click the tick box ‘I wish to cancel my donations.’
Is this scheme nationally recognised?
Due to the generosity of employees, the University has been awarded The Payroll Quality Mark (Bronze) every year since 2015. In November 2019 the University was also Highly Commended in the National Payroll Giving Excellence Awards for Most Sustained Scheme (7,000 - 29,999 employees).
What is an individual charity account?
With a Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Charity Account you can set aside a little when you have it, so you can make a difference when you want to. The CAF Charity Account is a great way to organise your giving – you can support all your favourite causes from one account by setting up regular standing orders or making ad hoc donations using CAF's charity search.
If you would like to set up a Charity account go the Purple Pounds page, then click on ‘donate now’ on bottom right of page. You can then set up a CAF Charity Account on Page 3/6 of the donation pages or amend an existing charity account.
What are the tax benefits of Purple Pounds?
Payroll Giving allows employees who pay UK income tax to give regularly and tax-free to the causes they feel most passionate about. Their donations come directly from their gross pay, before income tax is deducted, and their charity receives the full gross amount of the donation.
A £10 donation via payroll giving is boosted to £12.50 for a standard tax payer and £16.66 for a higher rate tax payer.
This means charities do not need to claim the tax back from HMRC, saving them money and manpower in administration. Many small charities do not have the staff to claim back Gift Aid.
Gift Aid is also capped at 25%, which means charities can only claim the basic rate of income tax that was paid. Therefore, it is even more efficient for higher rate taxpayers to donate through Payroll Giving.
|
You donate |
Cost to a standard tax payer (20%) |
Cost to a higher rate tax payer (40%)
|
|
£5 |
£4 |
£3 |
|
£10 |
£8 |
£6 |
|
£15 |
£12 |
£9 |
