This particular issue has been with me for 40 years, since I first got involved in doing voluntary work. In the current economic climate you can still give as much and even give more without it hitting you financially – Ooooooh! I can hear you thinking – this sounds intriguing, well it is very simple and most of all very honest and up front.
The great thing is, if you explore what I am about to share with you, it will cause you to want to change your whole life around and realise that you have undersold – yourself, your good work, you have perhaps not helped the charity as much as you could have or thought you had and the volunteers were probably needing your skill and insight more – than just your financial contribution.
In the past 40 years our family have given in excess of £250,000 cash to our voluntary activities and charitable works, if we had charged the going rate for the skills and services provided as well as the time given, I have worked it out to be well in excess of £2M. WOW!
I never had that amount of money, I never even missed that amount of money, in fact I must state that I still dont have anywhere near that amount of money (I’m on a part pension, having had to retire early) but we are still giving. So also can you – here is how…..
Always charge the going rate for the work you do (as an individual)
Find some way to invoice for it and you can then donate it back to the group
If you ‘Gift Aid’ it (as an individual), then it will be worth more
If the group or organisation is not a registered charity
help them to affiliate with a parent organisation that is
You can then donate to the specific group, through the parent organisation,
who will gain the reward of the tax from your ‘gift aid’ as part of the donation, as the registered charity
By being honest and up front on all the costs, the charity, group or organisation will be able to indicate clearly, the true cost of the service they are providing, locally, nationally and internationally. The strange thing about this is, if a group can show that they are raising funds themselves, to meet specific needs and they are being well managed – then they are more likely to be able to seek funding from statutory bodies who have the responsibility to support their type of services.
Too often we have contributed sacrificially to help a group just manage to remain in existence – that is not ‘best value’ – for you or the recipients. If you devote time writing out letters, preparing activities, transporting folk, feeding groups, supplying kit, washing team strips, etc and you are either self employed or in a position, try to do so through the company accounts, I suggest you charge them for it, then find the correct way to donate that amount back to the group, unsure if it is ‘gift aid, deed of covenant’, etc, please explore and check with your local tax office. (a paper exercise – no more than that) The regulations will be different in each country.
If you are an employee of a company, speak to the boss, be honest and up front and ask that the boss support your voluntary activity. They will always end up in a WIN / WIN situation – you will feel that they are backing you in your voluntary activities, if they can assist you and the group by charging the correct amount and finding a way of donating it back (at no cost to them), they can then make the charitable ‘gift’ of the amount which will increase their standing with the group and the community, as well as with the workforce.
As a caring company, collaborating and giving with or through the workforce, they will find that if times are hard and TEAMWORK is needed to pull through to meet a contract, or make a short term deadline, or give a little above and beyond to ensure a contract is secured, then you will find that the loyalty shown to the workforce, will be repaid with dividends.
You can see that during any economic fluctuation, charitable work can flourish and grow, individuals, groups, organisations and businesses can collaborate and enhance the lives of so many – by being efficient and honest and providing the correct documentation to show the true costs involved.
Let us know about your new successes when or if you start to implement these simple guidelines to do charitable work with others, if you are having a problem getting started, drop us a line. Share your ideas in the forum and report the outcomes in the blogs, you know you will be rewarded.