Institute of Fundraising members have overwhelmingly called for payroll giving systems to be universally reformed to meet expected levels of income.

More than 90 per cent of charities polled by the Institute of Fundraising (IoF) said that systems needed to be fundamentally changed to boost donations to meet their requirements and government expectations.

Louise Richards, director of policy at the IoF, identified the issues that members have experienced in recent years:

“Because of the way payroll giving is structured, charities face barriers in recruiting new donors and maximising income. Sadly this means that the numbers of payroll-giving donors have declined steadily since 2008 – for the vast majority of our respondents payroll giving now accounts for less than 2 per cent of their income,” said Richards.

The 2011 Giving White Paper saw the government calling for large increases in payroll giving by 2015 but the IoF believes that this can only be achieved via governmental reform of the system, specifically the implementation of three key principles: making the system available to all PAYE employees, increasing connection between the charity and the donor, and making the scheme portable.

The Institute argues that universality will give more people the opportunity to donate, improved connectivity will mean that donors can communicate with charities directly and effectively, and better portability will allow donors to continue payroll giving when moving jobs or retiring.

In the White Paper the government also pledged to run a year-long campaign to promote the system to employers. This has not yet happened.

Payroll giving currently generates in excess of £114m a year for charities.