Press release: January 7, 2010
The Hearing House welcomes payroll giving

Children’s charity The Hearing House is delighted that Kiwi workers will from today have the chance to donate directly from their pay to any charity of their choice.

Payroll giving is finally introduced on January 7, in line with similar schemes already running overseas. Payroll giving allows employees to nominate a charity of their choice, to which they can directly donate from their pay. The bonus for workers is that they can get an immediate tax rebate of 33.3% from the IRD instead of waiting until the end of the financial year.
For charities, it’s a chance to build a long-term relationship with donors and also provides a potential new source of funds in a relatively gloomy time for the economy.

One of the first payroll givers in the country is 2degreesmobile’s chief executive officer Eric Hertz who plans to donate some of his pay to The Hearing House in Auckland. Coming from the United States, where payroll giving is very popular among workers and businesses keen to help local charities, Hertz says he made a personal decision to help support a charity here when discovering that payroll giving was to be introduced from January 7. Hertz’ father and grandfather are profoundly deaf so it made sense for him to support The Hearing House which teaches profoundly deaf children how to listen and speak.

The Hearing House’s chief executive Scott Johnston is delighted with Eric Hertz’ decision because all money donated as a result of payroll giving will directly to help deaf and hearing-impaired children listen and speak. “We are a charity that permanently improves the lives of deaf children. In fact, our first Hearing House graduate is off to university this year and plans to study law and psychology. He has never considered his deafness a disability – and we really want all deaf kids in New Zealand to be able to achieve that sort of social and academic potential.”

Auckland mum Shona Gilby, who has two deaf preschoolers, says she is thrilled that charities like The Hearing House will benefit from payroll giving. Gilby, who is originally from the UK, says her children receive world-class therapy at The Hearing House and her one-year-old daughter Isla, who was born deaf, is already starting to talk. “My children’s lives have literally been transformed because of the care they receive at The Hearing House. Any donation – maybe even 20c a week - via payroll giving is a fantastic way to change deaf kids’ lives.”

The Hearing House, established in 1998, is internationally recognised for teaching deaf and hearing-impaired children to listen and speak like their hearing friends. These days deaf children can receive a cochlear implant but it’s the auditory-verbal therapy at The Hearing House which teaches them to listen and speak. Of the children who attend The Hearing House, 96% attend mainstream schools when they turn five and 91% of those children can listen and speak at the same level as their peers.

ENDS

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