Samaritans
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Involve Your Employees

There are 3 key ways you can involve your employees in supporting Samaritans; fundraising, payroll giving, and volunteering.

Fundraising

Staff fundraising is a great way to get colleagues talking. It provides opportunities for team building, fundraising and can improve interpersonal relationships in the workplace.

Neals Yard supporting SamaritansChallenge events are a popular way of raising funds for Samaritans. Team events have been run by our Charity of the Year partners such as CMS Cameron McKenna and Trader Media Group.  Our experienced Community Fundraisers organise these events, making the process as simple and easy as possible for you.  People can cycle from London to Paris, run the London Marathon, parachute jump or bungee jump together. 

Read more about the Challenge events that you can take part in to help raise funds for Samaritans

Stress Down Day is Samaritans Fundraising and Awareness day which is the perfect way to get staff involved in a series of fundraising activities as well as enabling staff to participate in stress-relieving activities.  Find out more about how you can get involved in Samaritans next Stress Down Day

We can provide all you need to fundraise in your workplace, collection buckets and tins, sponsor forms, balloons and even running vests for the more energetic activities!

Looking for ideas of fundraising activities?

For more information please contact Corporateteam@samaritans.org or telephone +44 (0)20 8394 8288.

Outfit employees fundraising for SamaritansPayroll Giving

Payroll Giving is the most tax efficient way to give to charity.  Payroll Giving is a valuable, long term source of revenue, providing regular income to help charities budget and plan ahead more effectively. 

The donation comes from the gross pay, before tax is deducted. For example, to donate £5.00 a month to Samaritans will only cost you £4.00 as the tax man will add the remaining £1.00

 You donate     It costs you      
  (basic rate taxpayer)     
  It costs you
(higher rate taxpayer)
 £5.00  £4.00  £3.00
 £7.50   £6.00  £4.50
 £10.00  £8.00  £6.00
 £20.00  £16.00  £12.00

A third of working Britons would give through their salary if they knew how, according to a survey by Oxfam/YouGov plc. And regular, predictable support helps us plan our work with confidence, so we can continue to be always there for people in crisis.

You can find more information about Payroll Giving at Geared for Giving

To join the Payroll Giving scheme, ask your payroll office if they already handle or would be willing to administer Payroll Giving payments or:

  1. Download & complete the form below
  2. Hand one copy to your employer’s payroll department and return one copy to Samaritans at the address on the form.

Payroll Giving Form (Word document)

Payroll Giving Form (PDF document)

 

Medicash employees supporting Samaritans Stress Down DayIf your employer is not registered with a payroll giving agency, please contact payrollgiving@samaritans.org or telephone +44 (0) 20 8394 8352 and we will contact them and make the necessary arrangements.

If you have any questions about payroll giving, or other ways you can support Samaritans then please contact us:

  • By E-mail - payrollgiving@samaritans.org
  • By Telephone - Corporates and Trusts Department on 0208 394 8300.
  • By Mail - Corporates and Trusts Department, Samaritans, Upper Mill, Kingston Road, Ewell, Surrey, KT17 2AF
      

“Just keep on helping people, don’t stop. I desperately needed to talk to someone to support me through a very difficult period in my life. I don’t think I would be here now if it wasn’t for you.  Thank you”.
Samaritans caller

Volunteering

Listening to a phone callListening: when no one else will listen, Samaritans will. It is extremely rewarding to offer support to people who don’t know how to cope. And good active listening skills can help in work and personal situations. All our branches are looking for more listening volunteers so that the next time a caller in distress rings Samaritans, we have a person available to answer the phone.

If you are interested in volunteering as a Samaritans Listening volunteer please visit our volunteering pages.

Publicity: manning our telephone lines isn’t enough. We need publicity officers to communicate our contact details in the local community. Then, people will know how to reach Samaritans when they need us most. Or maybe the branch is raising money by holding an event and wants to generate press coverage?  Are you interested in putting Samaritans on the map? Contact your local branch

Fundraising: money may not make the world go round, but it certainly helps to give Samaritans alive. We need new and creative ideas for raising money! And we need people to donate their time to help out at events and collections.  Could you be the money spinner we need?

Trader Media Group employees supporting Stress Down DayAdministration: even Samaritans branches have to pay an electricity bill! We need people to help perform the behind-the-scenes tasks that keep the branch operating efficiently. Maybe you could help manage the volunteer rota? This role needs a key person who wants to be known by every volunteer at the branch! Contact your local branch

As you can see there are many other ways that people can help Samaritans other than becoming a listening volunteer because each branch is like running a “mini” business.  People can develop their communication, managerial, mentoring and coaching skills by volunteering to help with the following:

  • Branch administration
  • Finance and book-keeping
  • IT support
  • In our shops
  • Acting as a business mentor for a branch director
  • Maintenance work e.g. branch redecoration or shop re-fit
  • Researching the local community to identify the most vulnerable groups to reach out to
  • Outreach work e.g. talking with teachers in local schools and governors in local prisons to organise talks/visits for our outreach team
  • Organising a volunteer recruitment campaign and a caller awareness campaign for certain target groups

Trader Media group employees supporting SamaritansOn top of all these ways that people can help Samaritans, there are a number of “one off” awareness and fundraising events that branches hold throughout the year.  Why not contact your local branch to see how you can help at one or two of these events?  Could be anything from helping out at a collection outside a supermarket to helping at a concert or donating a prize for a raffle.