Companies matched £7.5m worth of employee payroll giving last year, up by a quarter on the previous year.  

New figures released today  by industry body the Association of Payroll Giving Agencies (APGO) reported that a total of £7.5m was donated by companies in 2012/13 as a result of match funding payroll giving donations. This was an increase of £1.6m on the £5.9m raised in 2011/12. 

The corporate donations, added to employee gifts, means that in total payroll giving generated £162.5m for charities last financial year. The value of employee donations was dramatically revised up by HMRC last month, following a change to how it calculates gifts and changes within payroll giving agencies themselves, to £155m.  

APGO has not previously released figures as to the value of matched donations, but says the year-on-year increase was not the result of the upwards revision of HMRC figures. 

APGO was not able to provide estimates on how many companies offer match giving of employee gifts, but told civilsociety.co.uk “We encourage any employer enhancement around the scheme as it shows commitment to their employees choice of charity”. 

The organisation hopes that releasing these figures will inspire more companies to offer match giving for their own employees.