The Home Office has allocated £8.3m to assist small and medium-sized firms to introduce payroll giving, with grants of up to £500.
As an added incentive, the Government will match each employee's donation up to £10 per month.
Business in the Community is to use its small business networks to promote the scheme. "We will be working with the Institute of Fundraising, which has responsibility for the administration and is the liaison between the payroll-giving agencies and professional fundraisers," said a BITC spokeswoman.
The scheme aims to give small charities a larger share of payroll giving than at present, as employees tend to nominate high-profile charities at the expense of less well-known ones.
BITC will place local radio ads and will work with payroll-giving agencies to convey the message that payroll giving is simple and inexpensive to administer.
- See Opinion, p16.