Asos.com raises £10,000 since relaunching workplace giving scheme

Asos.com employees have raised more than £10,000 since relaunching its workplace giving scheme in November last year.†

The online fashion retailer won the Best Use of Payroll Giving award at this year’s Institute of Fundraising National Awards for the relaunch.

Asos.com worked with fundraising organisation Workplace Giving UK to relaunch the scheme to increase take up of among its 560 employees.

It tailored the scheme with creative promotions to fit the age demographic of Asos.com, which is on average between 20 and 26 years old. The ‘Everyone loves a giver’ scheme began with a love-themed promotional day with posters, leaflets and a roll of Love Heart sweets on employees’ desks. A guide dog puppy visited Asos.com’s offices to encourage employees to sign up to the scheme.

Employees can donate to their chosen charity, tax efficiently, directly from their salary. As an incentive, the first 20 employees to sign up were given an Asos.com sample sale voucher, and the first 60 people were given an extra £10 to give to their chosen cause.

Prior to the relaunch, the company had a take up of 4% of its workplace giving scheme, but surpassed its target of 10% to achieve 14.5% sign up. More than 40 charities have been supported so far.

Louise McCabe, head of corporate social responsibility at Asos.com, said: “What was important to us was to make [the scheme] fun and very flexible, and to make it personal in that people can use it as and how they want to. We discovered that people are very generous, and were really happy to sign up.”

Elena Joseph, head of new projects at Workplace Giving UK, added: “We realise a lot of companies are under so much pressure at the moment, and so the more you can help them, the better. We also know the call on charities’ services is increasing at a time when money is dwindling a bit, so it is really important to be creative.”

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