Pennies from Heaven is quietly being taken up by hundreds of UK employers who want to offer staff a way to donate to charity in an easy and affordable way. Do you know how many pennies were on your last payslip? Probably not, so why not automatically donate them to charity.
The UK’s fifth largest supermarket has launched the Pennies from Heaven scheme with staff donations supporting Teenage Cancer Trust. All 30,000 staff across the country are now able to voluntarily donate the pennies from their pay every month and so far, take up has been fantastic. With Aldi’s plans to employ an additional 5,000 members of staff by 2020 Pennies from Heaven could potentially generate more than £200,000 per year* and that’s before Gift Aid is added.
Aldi joins Barclays Bank, Cadburys Schweppes, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, HSBC UK, ITN, Lloyds Pharmacy, Scottish Power, The Cooperative Bank, The Bank of England and WHSmith alongside 200 other large UK employers in running the scheme.
Fritz Walleczek, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility at Aldi, said: “Pennies from Heaven is a brilliant idea and will give those colleagues who wish to an easy way to donate to a very important cause. We’ve already raised more than £2m for the Teenage Cancer Trust and are always looking for new ways to collaborate and ramp up our support.”
Kate Frost, CEO of Pennies from Heaven commented: “I am delighted that Aldi has joined Pennies from Heaven. This is a real opportunity to raise significant money for Teenage Cancer Trust just by staff giving a few pence every month. Not only was the scheme simple to set up the feedback has been very positive. It’s an affordable way for everyone to be involved in charitable giving beyond the scope of traditional payroll giving schemes. It shows that if employers can support charitable fundraising in a small way, and stick at it, great sums of money can be raised.”
Teenage Cancer Trust commented: “By just giving a few pence a month, Pennies from Heaven allows everyone at Aldi to make a difference to the work of the Teenage Cancer Trust. All contributions, no matter what size, allow us to ensure no young person faces cancer alone.”
Pennies from Heaven is the UK’s largest micro giving scheme for employees and pensioners. Individuals sign up once and from then on every salary payment is rounded down to the nearest pound, with the pennies donated to charity. If net pay was £850.34, then 34p would be donated and donations are always less than 99p. The scheme has raised over £4.3million since it began and supports over 250 charities every month.
To learn more about setting up the scheme in your organisation go to www.penniesfromheaven.co.uk or call 01485 210698
*This figure is based on a 100% sign up rate and an average donation of 50p per colleague per month.
