Volunteering, Payroll Giving and Gift Aid – making a difference all the way!
Volunteering
When you think of volunteering, what comes to mind? For many, the first thing that will pop up is a picture of someone in a charity shop or someone sorting food parcels in a food bank. There are however many more roles that volunteers across the county (and indeed country) do, each requiring different amounts of time, different skills and bringing different rewards for those doing them (more on that next time!).
We all understand that a volunteer is someone who is giving up time to support the activity of an organisation. To give a little more of a flavour of some of the different roles that can be done by volunteers have a read of this list:
- Group secretary, treasurer, or chairperson (quite often considered a Trustee position)
- Furniture restorer
- Museum guide
- Theatre usher
- Box office assistant
- Sports referee
- Sports coach
- Cook
- Marketing assistant
- Event steward
- Reading dog handler
- Befriender
- First Aider
- Councillor
- Youth group leader
- Gardener
- Historic building guide
We could go on! As you can see there’s plenty of variety here, and no doubt you can think of several more. Some organisations may sometimes need someone who can commit to a regular slot and a set number of hours, whilst others may offer greater flexibility. To find out more about how your skills and experience could help an organisation, get in touch with Volunteering Pembrokeshire!
Payroll Giving and Gift Aid
Whenever you’ve donated money (or possibly even things like clothes) to charity you may well have been asked to complete a gift aid declaration. This short form asks whether you are a UK Taxpayer and if you are, is it ok to claim gift aid on your behalf. The scheme is operated by HMRC and means that charities and community amateur sports clubs can claim an extra 25p for every £1 you give. It costs you nothing and helps boost the funds received by the charity. To find out more about how the scheme works, have a look on the HMRC information pages here.
Alternatively, if you are employed, you may wish to donate to charity directly from your salary through Payroll Giving. With this scheme, the donation you wish to make is deducted from your salary before you are taxed. So, if you wanted to donate £1 a month to a charity, it would cost you 80p to do so (if you’re a basic rate tax payer – amounts vary depending on your tax rate). Your employer will need to work with an approved Payroll Giving Agency to operate a scheme but it’s quick and easy to set up, and you as the employee have full control over how much you donate and where it goes. Several PAVS staff donate through Payroll Giving each month, and because the donations come out of your pay before you get it, it makes keeping on top of the monthly budget a little easier too!
If you have any questions about Volunteering, feel free to email volunteering@pavs.org.uk and for questions about Payroll Giving or Gift Aid, drop a line to enquiries@pavs.org.uk.
In our final post for January we will be having a look at the positive impacts of Volunteering on our health and wellbeing.
