Inspired by a tweet from Stevie Buckley (https://twitter.com/StevieBuckley/status/971724116310089729), I came up with the idea of “Charity Pots” - Pots that automatically donate their contents to a selected charity each month. I’ve made some assumptions, which I’ll outline in a moment, and put together a quick prototype in Sketch to show how I think it comes together.
Assumptions
Monzo customers would like to have a pot that automatically donates its contents to a charity of their choice each month
That the full contents of the pot will be donated each month
That the contents of all pots will be aggregated and donated on the same day each month, to save any potential charges to Monzo
As donations are made from the Pot, and not from the account itself, a set date for transfer can be used, as the whole value of the pot will be transferred, meaning no shock when money “disappears” from your account.
Creating a Charity Pot uses the same flow as creating a standard Pot, with an additional option on the set up screen.
Prototype
Based on the above assumptions and the current visual design of the Monzo application on iOS, I’ve put together the following prototype to click through to show the flow.
Would be great if it could be used to donate to foreign charities too (when international payments are finally available) as I’d love to donate to a children’s hospital abroad.
The idea is that the pot would be persistent, so that you could top it up each month. There are other Pot suggestions around auto moving money into pots that would augment this. For example, you could set up a pot that donates a certain percentage of your balance each month, if you so wished.
One big concern for charities would be this could potentially end up with them loosing out on Gift Aid. For not too much work, charities can get 25% extra for every taxpayer paying at least the donation.
This makes a big difference, and it would be a shame for it to not be a thing (technically Monzo could make the declarations easier as it knows roughly what people’s salaries are and if you’re eligible )
I agree. Two concerns I had, which I forgot to list in the original post was GiftAid and the attribution of donations to a person. Both of which could potentially make this a sourer deal for charities.
I would need to do more research into GiftAid to see if there is a way this information could be gathered in the app and then passed onto the chosen charity.
I did some work on Gift Aid in a previous job and it’s do-able. It’s just getting the charities to accept the data, or more likely teaming up with a fundraising site such as Givey or JustGiving who typically already collect the data (and afaik help with the claim process) for charities.
It’s a great idea but the gift aid is troublesome. I’m unemployed and so don’t qualify to give gift aid. Plenty do not understand this as it says ‘if you are a uk tax payer’ and take this to include VAT etc. You see the give extra option and just tick the box because it seems a no brainier. I’ve also had over enthusiastic organisations auto include the gift aid form as part of the donation so you have to fill it in to donate. Does an incorrect Gift Aid donation cause extra paperwork for the charity or HMRC?
If you are registered unemployed (rather than just out of work) and receiving JSA then you can give to charity and are still a tax payer. The charity should still get relief but you as a tax payer (DWP pay tax on your behalf and you get an annual P45U) won’t benefit as any charitable donations declared on your annual self-assessment will not personally benefit you as your income thru benefits will be too low once your personal allowances are taken into account.
the system is crazy. In some areas some people get Universal Credit but others JobSeekers Allowance. And you can be on Income Based JSA or Contribution Based JSA or start on Contribution Based and then transition to the Income Based. It is a confusing mess
Yes and No. They are technically your employer but due to low earnings and a personal allowance they don’t need to pay tax if your allowances offset any taxable amount.
However apart from income tax there is also national insurance, and you are credited with national insurance contributions to ensure continuity of contribution while you are out of work and hence retain certain pension benefits when you reach retirement, as they based on total years of contribution.
You can always ask HMRC for a statement of national insurance contributions. This will show what years have full contributions, which have part and which have none. This is useful as there is about a 5 or 6 year period to catch up on any shortfall by paying voluntary contributions towards your pension entitlement. Individual’s circumstances may vary and it may depend on how close to retirement you are, for some it makes sense paying any shortfall but for others it does not.
Anything that the community has asked for really. I’m sure I’ve missed it but can’t remember seeing anyone suggest a charity pot. If I could chose it would be the chance to cover direct debits, cheques and standing orders up to a certain point in the day, like most other banks do and which is something a large number of people have requested. M.
Really good idea
I usually use JustGiving - when you donate they ask whether GiftAid should be claimed or not.
So hooking up with them or similar organisation would be the easiest way to get started.
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