EC2
Donations
Economy
Donations
What do we mean by “Donations”?
Donations are voluntary contributions of money, goods, or time given by an individual, business, or organisation to support a cause, charity, or community initiative — without expectation of a financial return. They represent a direct transfer of resources from the donor to the recipient, intended to enable activities or outcomes that would not otherwise be possible.
Donations in a social value context typically fall into three forms:
- Cash donations — direct monetary gifts to a charity, community group, or good cause, including one-off payments, regular giving, fundraising proceeds, or matched giving schemes
- In-kind donations — non-monetary contributions such as goods, food, equipment, clothing, or materials donated to an organisation or its beneficiaries; these should be assigned a monetary value using market or second-hand equivalent prices
- Pro bono or volunteered time — professional skills or labour contributed free of charge, valued using an appropriate hourly rate (e.g. ONS median earnings of £20/hr, or a role-specific rate where relevant)
Donations differ from resources invested for an intervention in one important way: they are given externally — flowing outward from the reporting organisation to a third party — whereas resources invested describe what an organisation puts into its own delivery. In MeasureUp, donations capture the organisation’s role as a contributor to the wider social ecosystem, not just a direct service provider.
It is worthwhile noting that companies can gain tax relief when donating money, equipment or trading stock, land, property, or shared, employee time, or sponsorship payments to a charitable organisation. Charities cannot claim additional Gift Aid from donations from a limited company, but could potentially gain additional benefit from individual staff giving or through events or sponsored challenges that staff might undertake to support donations to the charity.
Key Value
An economic value of ££1 for £1 (or in kind)
This is the economic value of donations of money, goods, or time that an organisation gives to support others.
Where does this headline value come from?
Donations are voluntary gifts of money, goods, or time that an organisation gives to support others.
- Cash Donations
Cash is the simplest donation type to record — the value is exactly what was given.
What to include:
- One-off monetary gifts to a charity or community organisation
- Regular or recurring donations (monthly, annual)
- Fundraising proceeds passed on to a charity
- Employer-matched giving contributions
- Gift Aid uplift (where the recipient charity has claimed it)
- In-Kind Donations
In-kind donations are non-monetary — goods, materials, food, equipment, or assets given to a charity or community group. Because no money changes hands, a monetary value must be estimated.
What to include:
- Physical goods (food, clothing, toiletries, household items)
- Equipment or technology (laptops, furniture, tools, vehicles)
- Materials used in a community project (building supplies, stationery)
- Products manufactured or sold by the donating organisation
- Pro Bono and Volunteered Time
Pro bono donations are contributions of professional skills or staff time given free of charge to a charity or community organisation. Like in-kind donations, they have no direct cash transaction, so an hourly rate must be applied.
What to include:
- Professional services delivered free of charge (e.g. legal advice, accountancy, HR support, marketing, IT)
- Staff volunteering hours during work time (employer-supported volunteering)
- Skills-based volunteering (workshops, training, mentoring)
- Senior leadership time given to charity board or trustee roles
Median hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees were £19.67 an hour in April 2025. This value is rounded to £20.
Low pay is defined as the value that is two-thirds of median hourly earnings and high pay is defined as the value that is 1.5 times median hourly earnings. Therefore:
Low pay hourly earning is £13.11 which is rounded to £13.
High pay hourly earning is £29.5 which is rounded to £30.
How to measure Donations
If you’re just starting out, start with Bronze first. The result of a Bronze measurement is just an estimate, but requires the least effort; whereas Silver and Gold give more accurate results but require more effort.
Each level has an effort to accuracy indicator, choose the one that’s right for you.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised value: The organisation can evidence that it has made at least one voluntary cash donation to a registered charity or community organisation during the reporting period, and can state the total monetary value donated.
Example in use:
Assume that a small family-run business made a one-off cash donation of £500 to their local food bank as part of their Christmas community giving.
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised value: The organisation can evidence voluntary contributions across more than one donation type, including cash, in-kind goods, or pro bono time, made to registered charities or community organisations during the reporting period. All contributions are assigned a monetary value using an appropriate valuation method.
Example in use:
Assume that during 2025–26, a company contributed across all three donation types to a local homelessness charity in Birmingham:
| Donation Type | Item | Valuation Method | Value |
| Cash | Annual corporate donation | Actual amount | £2,000 |
| In-kind | 20 refurbished laptops (donated) | Second-hand market value £80/unit | £1,600 |
| In-kind | Office furniture (donated) | Second-hand market value | £400 |
| Pro bono | Senior accountant providing financial training (8 hrs) | High pay rate £30/hr | £240 |
| Pro bono | Admin staff assisting with fundraising admin (5 hrs) | Low pay rate £13/hr | £65 |
| Total | £4,305 |
Median hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees were £19.67 an hour in April 2025. This value is rounded to £20.
Low pay hourly earning is £13.11 which is rounded to £13.
High pay hourly earning is £29.5 which is rounded to £30.
They contributed a total of £4,305 to homelessness charity during the reporting period, comprising cash, donated equipment valued at second-hand market rates, and pro bono professional time valued using ONS earnings benchmarks.”
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At Gold level you are looking to build on your silver estimations by increasing the evidence of the change taking place
The organisation can evidence a systematic and sustained programme of voluntary and giving across cash, in-kind, and pro bono contributions, with all donations fully valued and linked to evidenced outcomes for the recipient organisation or its beneficiaries. This could include:
- A documented corporate giving or community investment policy
- Full monetary valuation of all three donation types with supporting evidence
- Evidence of the outputs (e.g. number of people supported, services delivered, or activities made possible as a result) and outcomes (e.g. wellbeing changes for the volunteers, employees, or beneficieries) enabled by the donation
- Multi-year giving data demonstrating consistency and commitment
Support in developing your Gold level approach is available through the MeasureUp partners, so please do reach out to Impact, State of Life or PRD.
| Value Type: | Input |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, others ‘activities’ which are specific interventions that have a set value. This is an ‘input’ value which allows for the valuation of the goods, resources, time, expertise, and money input into the social and environmental activities undertaken to have an impact. |
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| UN SDG Categories: |
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What's this?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are global goals adopted in 2015 for all signed up nations to achieve for us to have a sustainable global future by 2030. There are 17 Goals that address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. |
| 2020 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts introduced the Central Government Social Value Model in 2020 which all Central Government contracting authorities must use in their in scope procurements. It consists of 5 themes, 8 policy outcomes, and 24 Model Award Criteria which outline key priority areas to achieve more social value. |
| 2025 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 was superseded by PPN 002 Taking account of social value in the award of contracts, published in February 2025 in line with the Royal assent of the Procurement Act 2023. This PPN outlined the requirement to use the new 2025 Central Government Social Value Model. The Model applies to all Central Government procurements commencing on or after 1 October 2025 under the Procurement Act 2023. Out of scope procurements can choose to apply the model but are not required to do so. The updated model is structured around 5 government missions and 8 outcomes, with 17 Model Award Criteria, and a mandatory minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score assigned to social value. |
Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeing consent from one or more participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music, etc from creative interventions) can add more colour, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring Life Satisfaction please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having.
