Work for Good: what a charity pays, and what it buys

What is Work for Good, and how does it work?

Work for Good connects small businesses who want to give through their sales with registered charities willing to take it. The platform, website and trademark have been owned since May 2023 by Givey Ltd, which Companies House lists as active.

The business side is quick. Sign up, choose a registered charity, state how the giving works (£1 per item, 5% of every invoice, a fixed sum when a target is hit), and the platform writes both the agreement and the statement the business must show customers at the point of sale.

When the campaign ends the business pays through its dashboard, and the money reaches the charity through its own Stripe account. Its charity page reported over £4 million raised and pledged in October 2026.

Why does a sales donation need a commercial participation agreement?

Because the law treats that business as a commercial participator, and a commercial participator cannot donate quietly. Section 58 of the Charities Act 1992 defines one as a business that, in the course of a promotional venture, represents that contributions will go to a charity.

Two duties follow. Section 59 makes that representation unlawful other than under an agreement satisfying the prescribed requirements. Section 60 requires a statement naming the charity and giving the notifiable amount, so the customer knows what their purchase sends.

The Fundraising Regulator says the same in plainer English. Its guidance, updated in June 2026, puts the agreement before the promotion and the due diligence on the charity. Section 6 of the code, in force since 1 November 2025, lists what the agreement must contain.

All of that costs money to draft. Which is why, as Work for Good’s own explainer puts it, charities often ask for a minimum commitment between £1,000 and £50,000 before doing the paperwork. A florist giving £1 a bouquet never clears that bar.

None of this is legal advice. Read the sections and take your own position.

What does Work for Good cost the charity and the business?

Nothing for the business, and three deductions for the charity.

First, an annual membership set by the charity’s gross income in its most recent published accounts. The rates listed in October 2026:

Second, a service fee of 5% plus VAT on each donation. Third, Stripe’s charge. The worked example takes a £100 donation, removes £2.10 of Stripe fees and £6.00 of service fee including VAT, and pays the charity £91.90 on the first working day of the following month.

Read that the right way round. I would not call it expensive: it is cheaper than a solicitor, and it is a fee on income you would otherwise have turned away.

Is the Work for Good paperwork good value for a smaller charity?

That depends on how much business giving you genuinely expect, because the membership is fixed and the fee is not.

A charity under £100,000 of income pays £80 plus VAT, so £96. Two or three committed local businesses cover that in a quarter, and everything after is income you could not previously accept.

A charity over £10 million pays £900 plus VAT, so roughly £1,200 of donations has to arrive before the subscription pays for itself. If you already have a corporate team negotiating real agreements, that may be the wrong tool. If you have forty small supporters and nobody to paper them, it is the right one.

One for your finance lead: the membership is annual, and the FAQs say it stays payable for the year even if you leave early.

Does Work for Good build the network good causes need?

No, and to its credit it does not claim to. It removes an obstacle. It does not create the relationship.

You get a profile page, a dashboard, a toolkit and a listing. The business still has to choose you, and the due diligence on it is yours. Other limits worth knowing before you promise a board anything:

• Only UK registered charities can receive, so a CIC cannot.
• Only sales-linked giving goes through it. A company that just wants to write you a cheque cannot use it.
• Businesses may use the Work for Good logo but not yours, which the platform links to VAT treatment.
• Once an agreement exists, its terms cannot be edited, only the final amount paid.

Where the tax sits, and what to check

A company donation and a sponsorship are not the same animal.

Money a limited company gives to charity comes off its profits before Corporation Tax. A payment where the company gets something back is sponsorship instead, treated as a business expense: gov.uk lists logo use, links from your site and selling at your event.

Company money also never carries Gift Aid. Work for Good notes a sole trader or partnership may be eligible where they meet HMRC’s conditions, an easy distinction to get wrong. Point the business at its accountant, not at your best guess.

Business giving is relationship income, and an evening is not

Here is the honest comparison, because this is the bit that gets fudged.

£1 a bouquet is a drip. It arrives monthly, it is unrestricted, it asks nothing of your team once running, and it will not move a target. A gala moves one in an evening.

What connects the two is the people. The companies willing to commit a slice of their sales are the same ones who buy tables, donate lots and put their name on a corporate room. I ran an evening for Teenage Cancer Trust with OCU Group where much of the room was there because somebody had bought a table. Target £40,000, raised £84,108. I delivered the pledge alongside someone from the charity, so the ask carried a real voice behind it rather than mine alone.

So treat a sales pledge as the opening of a relationship, not the end of one. The florist giving £1 a bouquet has already said yes to you in public. That is the easiest lot request you will make all year. A gift from an individual carries Gift Aid the company’s money never will, which is why the live pledge belongs after the auction.

My own answer to the fee question runs differently. The Generosity Works platform is free when a charity books me as auctioneer and host, and my fee is the only money Generosity Works takes: one fee agreed up front, and it does not move with the total. The platform is not sold on its own; our pricing page explains why. Bookings go through my charity auctioneer site.

Use Work for Good for the quiet, patient money, and keep asking the people behind it for more. If one evening is carrying £30,000 or more of your target, that is a different problem. Let’s talk about your number.