Purple Pennies
Small change. Big difference.
Purple Pennies is the University's micro-donation scheme, where you can donate the pennies from your salary towards charitable causes voted for by our colleagues. Your salary will be rounded down to the nearest pound, meaning you will never donate more than 99p a month. For example, if you earn £1,800.23, only 23p will be donated.
The causes currently supported by the scheme are: Manchester Women's Aid and Supporting Manchester Students.
How to sign up
Click here to sign up - It only takes 20 seconds!
You will need to provide your full name, staff ID number (on the front of your staff ID card) and NI number.
Once you've signed up, Purple Pennies donations will begin automatically the following month directly from your payslip - you can cancel any time via MyView. Donations are always less than 99p and Gift Aid can be claimed on the total donations each year, adding an additional 25% support to these charities at no extra cost to you.
The charitable causes that will receive your Purple Pennies
The causes that equally share the Purple Pennies pot are:
- Manchester Women's Aid: A specialist in domestic abuse services, Manchester Women's Aid empower survivors by providing refuge, community-based support and safe spaces. In the last ten years alone, their work has impacted the lives of over 30,000 adults and children, helping them live a life free from domestic abuse.
- Supporting Manchester students: By supporting Manchester students, you’ll help increase the financial support available to them. You'll fund scholarships and access programmes, helping talented people join us here. And you’ll make sure more students can access hardship support when they need it most.
Making a collective impact
The University of Manchester is one of the largest employers in Manchester, this means there is an opportunity to make a big collective difference by taking part in Purple Pennies. If all 12,000 University staff take part, then Purple Pennies will be worth £72,000 to the chosen causes each year – that’s an incredible £36,000 per cause.
Together we can make a big difference to good causes when they need it most!
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Quote from Manchester Women's Aid
"We feel incredibly grateful to everyone at Manchester University who chose us to be a part of the Purple Pennies scheme! Every micro‑donation helps us deliver practical support and emotional care to families who need it most, in refuge and the community. Your generosity helps create safer futures for women and children in Manchester."
Your questions
How to cancel
If you wish to cancel your Purple Pennies for any reasons please go to MyView and use the opt out form to cancel. Any cancellations between the 1st – 31st of a month will be actioned in the next month. Once you cancel you will receive an email from myview@manchester.ac.uk to confirm this.
Other ways to give
There are other ways to give your time or money for great causes. Visit our giving back page.
Who supports our scheme
Purple Pennies is administered by MicroHive, a fundraising company on a mission to champion the collective power of giving pennies, not pounds. To date, Microhive has raised £9.0m by employers inviting their employees, pensioners and suppliers to donate small amounts to charity on a regular basis. MicroHive's privacy policy can be found here.
Future votes
To ensure a wide range of charities can benefit from Purple Pennies, colleagues will be given the opportunity to vote for a new set of charities. The most recent vote was held in February 2026. Keep an eye on StaffNet for details of future votes.
Contact
For more information on Purple Pennies, please contact us through Connect for People or on reward.people@manchester.ac.uk (external users only).