Give As You Earn - A Better Way to Give
 
One simple form allows staff to make regular tax deductible donations straight from their pay

The joint venture between the Earth Share Australia Foundation (ESA) and the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) allows donors to give to any of 40,000 tax-deductible community organizations.

Agency/ Department benefits….	Boosts staff morale Aids team building Enhances reputation in community Sustainable community partnership Minimum administration
Employees benefits….	One simple form to complete Total choice of organisation Can change donation at any time Never miss the cash Tax deductible
Community Organisations benefit….	Regular, reliable income Covers core costs Able to budget for the future Cost effective fundraising Easy to keep donors informed

 

Making it work for New South Wales

In order to establish and communicate an effective Give As You Earn scheme the following elements are required from each department participating in the program:

Publicity and Promotion

• CEO endorsement of the scheme through direct communication to all staff of the Department, Agency or Division involved.
• Departmental contact staff are nominated to communicate directly with CAF and ESA
• Suitable promotional materials are distributed to staff via electronic services and/or more traditional means with information on the scheme included in existing internal communications such as newsletters
• Opportunities for face-to face communication with staff are provided in the form of forums and/or meetings
• Suitable space is provided to display promotional brochures and donation forms

Administration and Systems

• The establishment of one extra deduction field in the payroll system and the provision of a summary of deductions to CAF each pay day
• The 2.5% levy is waived during he period of the pilot study

CAF and Earth Share

Publicity and Promotion

1. CEO endorsement of the scheme through direct communication to all staff of the Department, Agency or Division involved

Staff will be encouraged to give through the scheme if they feel that their employer fully endorses the scheme. The scheme is designed to empower employees to give to the causes they care about and to demonstrate the fact that their employer supports their efforts.

There are a number of ways in which a CEO can demonstrate this endorsement. Exactly how this is done will depend very much on the culture within each Department or Agency as CEO's will clearly have different relationships with their staff. CEO's often find that this is an ideal time to recognise and congratulate staff who already support local organizations. Providing Give As You Earn is simply a way to make this easier for staff to do so.

Obviously one of the most important ways for CEO's to show their support is to donate through the scheme themselves. Many senior staff choose to join the scheme before the official launch so that they can recommend it from first hand experience. It also ensures staff that the CEO is making a contribution to the success of the scheme.

In practical terms the message of endorsement can be conveyed through a wide variety of means. Below are some examples that have been successful in the past.

• Email/ memo addressed from CEO to all staff.
• Individual letters to senior management explaining the overall initiative and promotion well in advance of any activity
• Endorsing article or quotes in staff newsletter/ magazine
• A special mention at existing meetings (this often works well as a lighter note at the end of more formal discussions)
• Personal thank you to staff who help promote the scheme eg. At a special meeting or event

CAF and ESA can provide previous examples for guidance.

2. Departmental contact staff are nominated to communicate directly with CAF and ESA

Each Department, Agency or Division will need to appoint one individual to be the main head of contact for the project. This person will:

• Act as the key contact with CAF/ Earth Share
• Ensure that the implementation and promotion is carried out as agreed
• Ensure there is no duplication of tasks within their department or agency
• Recruit individual staff champions' to help with the promotion of the scheme to colleagues

CAF/ Earth Share will provide ongoing support and assistance for the launch and promotion of Give As You Earn, but this will only be successful if the overall ownership of the scheme comes from within the Department, Agency or Division. Staff are much more likely to be motivated by their own colleagues and are more likely to want to see the scheme grow if it is something that they feel they are driving rather than a project which has been forced upon them by an external agency.

Previous initiatives have shown that many staff are keen to volunteer time to help promote the scheme. Almost without fail the most effective schemes have been those where staff have spoken to staff on a one to one basis. In particular when they have collected joining forms that may not have otherwise been returned.

Clearly staff should not feel pressurised, but by simply collecting all forms (completed or not) their colleagues do not need to reveal whether or not they chose to donate, but at the same time they have they can ask personal questions and return the form without leaving their work station. This causes minimum disruption to the working day and also acts as an extremely effective team building and communication exercise. The process encourages staff to talk to colleagues other than those they would normally approach. It also allows staff to ask questions that may do not wish to ask is a larger meeting.

3. Suitable promotional materials are distributed to staff via electronic services and/or more traditional means with information on the scheme included in existing internal communications such as newsletters

CAF and ESA will work together with the nominated contact to devise suitable promotional materials for each Department, Agency or Division as well as an effective promotional campaign.  The aim will be to tailor individual Department's promotional strategies around existing communicational media. It will probably be necessary to use a number of media to ensure that all staff are informed of the opportunity to participate in the scheme. Media may include.

• Personal emails
• Electronic Bulletins
• Notes on payslips
• Promotional Leaflets
• Posters
• Internet/ Extranet articles
• Electronic joining forms (online/ standard forms)
• Internal mailings/ memos
• Newsletter articles
• Information in staff induction packs/ handbooks

4. Opportunities for face-to face communication with staff are provided in the form of forums and/or meetings

In the first instance face-to-face communication will be in the form of an additional item at existing meetings rather than a separate gathering. This will minimise disruption to the working day and also ensure that a reasonable number if staff are communicated with.

Where possible it would be preferable to also organise informal forums for staff to come and hear and ask questions about the scheme. This could also include discussing opportunities to help recruit other colleagues. Special events will only work well if they are well publicised and staff feel motivated to attend. Where possible a representative from ESA or CAF will also be available to help host these events.

5. Suitable space is provided to display promotional brochures and donation forms

Suitable space may include entrance lobbies, staff rest areas, notice boards or lifts. CAF and ESA will be able to provide a range of materials, but it is assumed that each Department or Agency will have some input into deciding on the most effective way to display information.

It is usual for information to be displayed at a number of points so that all staff will be able to see it. It is also useful to have a large display(s) during the launch period followed by a number of small reminder notices that are permanently displayed.

All displays will need to either include a number of joining forms or details as to where they can be obtained.

Administration and Systems

6. The establishment of one extra deduction field in the payroll system and the provision of a summary of deductions to CAF Community Fund each pay day

Each participating department will need to establish ONE extra deduction field on its payroll system in which to record donations made from employee pays.

Each month payroll will need to supply the following directly to CAF

• Email containing a list of donors and amount donated and total donated by all donors (CAF will provide the relevant electronic formatting)
• Copies of new donor joining forms
• Electronic transfer of total funds donated

The donations will then be disbursed to the organizations exactly as requested by each individual donor. CAF Community Fund Ltd will provide a tax receipt to all donors at the end of each financial year.

7. The 2.5% levy is waived during he period of the pilot study

The normal 2.5% levy on payroll deductions will be levied however 5.5% (or 35c which ever is the higher) will be deducted from each donation to cover the cost of CAF's administration of the scheme. The Premiers Department will  cover the costs for promoting the scheme.

CAF and Earth Share

CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) is a non profit Organisation providing financial and management services for the community sector. CAF UK has been operating since 1974. CAF Australia was launched in March 2000.  Wherever we work, we help donors make the most of their giving and community organizations make the most of their resources by bringing together skills knowledge from the non profit and financial sectors. Total funds within the CAF network worldwide are around $3 billion. CAF is committed to making the most of exciting new opportunities for non profit organisations and donors.

The Earth Share Australia  Foundation represents eleven of Australia's leading environmental organizations. The Foundation is developing new and innovative programs to build the capacity and cooperation of the environmental movement. It also works with community groups in other community sectors to support non profit organizations around the country. Earth Shares' principal focus is on developing workplace partnerships with employers and employees through which they can support the work of the environmental movement and environmental projects, as well as affinity partnerships with businesses.

CAF Australia and the Earth Share Foundation Australia have formed a partnership to support cultural, community and environmental organizations.

This means employees are free to choose whichever organisation they wish to support with their donation.