Trust backs Pennies from Heaven to help Alzheimer’s Research UK

Staff at South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust are being encouraged to sign up to a charity payroll giving scheme, Pennies from Heaven, as a New Year’s resolution to help raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK.

The Trust provides a range of community, mental health and learning disability services to the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield.

In 2009 staff had the chance to nominate and then vote for a charity to donate their spare pennies and Alzheimer’s Research Trust was among those selected, as well as Help for Heroes and Young Minds.

For the past year staff have been donating their pennies to Help for Heroes but now it’s the turn of Alzheimer’s Research Trust, which is the UK’s leading dementia research charity specialising in finding preventions, causes, treatments and a cure for dementia.

The Pennies from Heaven scheme enables staff to donate a few pence to charity every month. The scheme works by employees pledging any pence shown in their monthly salary to Pennies from Heaven, who then pass on the money to the nominated charity.

The maximum amount that could be donated by any member of staff through the scheme is 99p per month, or £11.88 per year. Individually this won’t make a big difference to salaries, but collectively the Trust’s 4,600 staff could raise tens of thousands of pounds a year for the nominated charity.

The Trust’s HR business manager James Corson said, "The Pennies from Heaven Scheme is a really simple scheme where a few pennies a month raises thousands of pounds each year for charity. The scheme has been popular from the beginning and we are relaunching it across the Trust to mark the change of charity. Even with the current economic pressures everyone is facing staff can still do their bit for charity by donating the pence each month from their salary. And after all, ever penny counts!"

Read more about Alzheimer’s Research Trust online at www.alzheimersresearchuk.org