Frequently asked questions

Pennies from Heaven (PFH) is the UK’s largest micro giving scheme for employees and pensioners and to date has raised more than 550,000,000 pennies for over 265 charities. Quite simply employees / pensioners sign up once and from then on every payslip is rounded down to the nearest pound with the pennies donated to charity. If net pay was £850.34 then 34p would be donated. Donation is between 0-99p every time you are paid.

The maximum donation is just 99p, every time you are paid.

All staff give to the same charity (or basket of charities) nominated by the employer. The charity can be any UK registered charity including NHS charities and Mayor’s Appeals. The Pennies from Heaven scheme is designed to be as flexible as possible and can even be ran at the local level if different sites wanted to nominate different charities.

Yes - donations made under the Pennies from Heaven Scheme can benefit from the Government Gift Aid Scheme. By simply confirming their agreement, as a taxpayer, participants will be able to increase the value of their gift by 25p for every £1.00 donated. The Government is keen to encourage more people to give to charity on a regular basis and this significantly enhances the amounts that can be raised

Although the average gift is £6.00 per person during the year, where staff pay sufficient tax, the charity/ies can collect £7.68 per person. Companies with staff numbers of:
  • 10,000 could pledge £60,000 but the Gift Aid Total becomes £75,000
  • 25,000 could pledge £150,000 but the Gift Aid Total becomes £187,500
  • 50,000 could pledge £300,000 but the Gift Aid Total becomes £375,000
  • 75,000 could pledge £450,000 but the Gift Aid Total becomes £562,000
  • 100,000 could pledge £600,000 but the Gift Aid Total becomes £750,000
Pennies from Heaven is available to pensioners in addition to employees.

Of course and by matching the donations made by staff employers can encourage more people to join in. We have seen some employers match the first three months of donations or add £10 to each donation in the first month.

We work with most UK payroll providers to enable systems to support Pennies from Heaven. Systems such as ADP, Ceridian, iTrent, Northgate, OpenPeople, Oracle, SAP and Workday and many others, are being used by employers to run the scheme. With over 250 employers running Pennies from Heaven we have great experience in setting up the scheme on payroll systems with the minimum of costs. When you join the scheme Pennies from Heaven will provide you with payroll software change guides where possible and liase with your payroll provider where necessary.

Yes. The system will be able to identify those employees and pensioners who have consented to this new deduction and those who have declined, in addition to new joiners and leavers.

Pennies from Heaven will agree a modest fee for the license to run the scheme to not only cover the costs of the services we provide but also support us to continue our charitable work. Pennies from Heaven exists because employers realise the scheme can accomplish more by working together than acting alone. Without employers recognising the value we bring to the wider charitable sector Pennies from Heaven would simply close, costing the charity sector ~£500,000 a year of donations. The fee will depend on the level of services provided and the number of employees. Pennies from Heaven receives no other income and do not charge the charities anything.

Pennies from Heaven is here to make the set up and running of the scheme simple working with you at every stage. Some of the services provided by us include:

  • Payroll set up – we help set up the scheme on payroll systems and share best practice from other employers using your payroll, saving employers time and change costs.
  • Set up and administration of scheme – Implementation guides, consent form wording, promotional artwork and HHRC gift aid safeguarding (without which staff would have to re-join the scheme if charities change).
  • Distribution of donations - All donations are distributed to the charities by Pennies from Heaven and employers receive quarterly audit trails. Pennies from Heaven is externally audited each year providing employers with assurance of our credible donation processing.
  • Online sign up – Staff can join the scheme via the Pennies from Heaven website.
  • License Provision – We provide employers with the Intellectual Property of the scheme and the use of the name and registered trademark.
  • Awards Program – Each year we recognise employers who have high levels of participation in the scheme. In 2020 25% of winners had over 40% of staff joining in.

In most cases the scheme is very simple and easy to set up – our record is just 5 days and we would like to beat that! The first thing to do is give us a call but the general steps to set up are:

  • Obtain a License – our short Agreement describes how the scheme works, the service provided by Pennies from Heaven and the action required from you to successfully run it.
  • Choose your charity – this can be any charity you wish.
  • Tell staff about it and invite them to join.
  • Flag participating employees once on payroll systems.
  • Collect all the pennies and send them to Pennies from Heaven once a month for distribution to charities.

More and more charities are contacting us about this very subject! As all benefiting charities are chosen by the employers and their staff you can actively speak to your supporter base about running a the scheme. Pennies from Heaven will be happy to provide you with tools and advice on how to do this so please do get in touch.

To find out more about the Pennies from Heaven scheme please contact us – we would love to hear from you.

Call or email the Pennies from Heaven office, or complete the contact form and we will get back to you.