At Federated Health Charities, we like to think we’re a little bit different.
Our organization is unique to the Ontario public service. Federated Health Charities was founded by and for Ontario public servants to help support people and families across our province facing serious illness and life-changing health conditions. The hard work, dedication and generosity of our volunteers from across the OPS, OPP and provincial agencies (who donate their time to our campaign on top of their daily responsibilities) are at the heart of everything Federated Health Charities has accomplished over the past 40 years. We couldn’t be prouder of our history and ongoing partnership with the Ontario Public Service.
Another way we’re different is that instead of asking our donors to give a big amount all at once, we ask people to commit to donating $5 or $10 (maybe even $15) from each pay cheque for a set period – six months, a year, you can even set up your donation to automatically renew each year. These donations are called “payroll pledges“.
We are grateful to each of our donors for every donation we receive, whether you buy a samosa at your branch bake sale, buy tickets in our lottery (five cash prizes of up to $15,000 – buy your tickets today), attend our Verzuz song competition, or participate in any of the special events being organized by your local ministry, agency or OPP Federated Health Charities campaign. We even accept one-time donations, too! But payroll pledges are the most efficient way to donate to Federated Health Charities.
What do we mean by efficient?
Payroll pledges are more efficient for donors than one-time donations because the amount of your donation is automatically included on your T4, which makes it easier to claim your donation as a deduction at tax time. Payroll pledges are also more efficient for our charities. The Government of Ontario supports our campaign by processing donor pledges through their payroll services each month and sending the pledged funds to Federated Health Charities. Then we distribute the money to our member charities.
This lowers the administrative costs of processing donations for each of our charities, which means that more of your donation goes to supporting our charities program and services when you donate through a payroll pledge. Pledges also mean that our charities know about how much money they can expect from our donors each month so they can plan how to use your donation more strategically to make a bigger impact.
Donating through a payroll pledge can also make donating more affordable. A $100 or $200 donation can take a bite out of anyone’s wallet. Payroll pledges make it possible for people to support our charities at a level that works for their budget. For example, if you pledge $5 per pay period for a year (that’s 26 pay periods), at the end of the year you’ve donated $130 for less than the cost of a cup of coffee a week!
Finally, payroll pledges help us leverage the size of the Ontario public service – if every OPS, OPP and agency employee committed to giving $50 through a payroll pledge ($50 x 60,000+) we would raise more than $3 million for our 21 charities this year!
That just goes to show how, when we all come together, something small, like giving $5 out of your paycheque, can grow into something amazing, like medical research and innovation, support services and programs, and health education and awareness that is changing and saving lives all across Ontario.
