Feature Announcement: Payroll Giving

Back in 2010, the New Zealand government had a pretty cool idea. They wanted to make it easier and more rewarding for Kiwis to donate to charities, so they introduced Payroll Giving.

That meant for every dollar you donated directly from your payslip, you’d immediately get 33 cents back, coming straight out of your PAYE tax.

The problem is that nobody seems to know much about payroll giving. And for those who do, there’s a fair bit of admin involved.

First off, you approach your payroll person, asking them to set up a donation for you. If the company’s payroll system supports this, they’ll need to confirm that your chosen cause is a registered charity, and track down the charity’s bank deposit details and particular requirements. You’ll then be set up to give to charity every payday - a regular, ongoing donation is the only option. About 6,000 New Zealanders are using Payroll Giving this way - and good on them! But it is a bit inconvenient, and so far only 0.23% of the working population are taking advantage of Payroll Giving. Compare that to about a million Kiwis giving to charity annually.

As the people handling payroll for over 13,000 New Zealanders, the PaySauce team reckoned that we could probably make this process better. We’re living in an age of mobility and instant gratification, and we got to thinking that maybe we could apply those qualities to the Payroll Giving model.

We’ve been working on our Payroll Giving feature for quite a while, and we’re incredibly proud to deliver it to you now. As part of our mobile app, employees have the ability to easily manage their own donations to charity.

PaySauce has pre-approved and set up a list of charities to choose from - just choose your preferred cause. Employees can donate to one or more charities, either as a one-off or every payday. There’s no set-up, no admin, and your giving is completely customisable.

100% of your donations go straight to your chosen charity - PaySauce will even take care of all the transaction costs. And you get 33% back from the government.

Right now, there are just 6,000 people using Payroll Giving nationwide, but our hope is that by making the process quicker, more flexible and more accessible, we can help boost that number. We’re confident that our customers will get on board, and we’ve already had an awesome reception from local and national charities.

We’re also committed to connecting you with the causes you care about. If the organisation you want to support isn’t listed on our platform, head over to paysauce.com/payroll-giving and make a request - we’ll continue to add new charities indefinitely.

Thanks for giving us the chance to support your generosity. We hope you’ll agree that this feature is an even more rewarding way to give.