Personal giving

From one-off donations to long-term giving, or designing your personal philanthropic strategy, we work together to help you realise your giving ambitions.

DISCOVER OUR PERSONAL GIVING SOLUTIONS

Corporate giving

You have the vision for making a difference. So do we. We help you plan how to give based on your goals.

DISCOVER OUR CORPORATE GIVING SOLUTIONS

Services for charities

Helping your charity or social enterprise become more resilient.

DISCOVER HOW WE SUPPORT CHARITIES

Insights

Discover the latest insights for donors and charitable organisations to help create a greater impact

Explore

About us

We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

Find out more about CAF

Why use a Deposit Platform?

As more and more charities need to navigate limited resources, alongside increased demand for their services, ensuring that your organisation’s cash is earning the best possible return is one way you can help ease those pressures. The good news is there are a lot of options out there for you to consider, with banks and building societies competing to make their offers as attractive as possible. 

But you need to make sure you are choosing the right solution for your organisation, thinking about issues such as security, the ease of opening a new account – given the need to verify trustees, other signatories and the source of your funds – and ease of access. 

One possible answer is a cash deposit platform. In recent years, the number of providers that offer these platforms, and the assets they administer, has grown exponentially. For example, the CAF Charity Deposit Platform currently holds over £650m in deposits from 1,000-plus charities and social purpose organisations.

What is a Deposit Platform?

In its simplest terms, a deposit platform such as the CAF Charity Deposit Platform is a ‘hub’ account through which you access a wide range of other accounts from multiple deposit-takers. 

 

How does a Deposit Platform work?

You open an account on the platform as you would with any bank or building society and deposit your cash into this ‘hub’ account. The platform will then show you a menu of accounts you can choose to deposit your money in. 
When one of your chosen accounts matures or you need to make a withdrawal from a notice account, your funds are returned to the hub account for you to access or re-invest.

The deposit platform makes it easy for you to access, and move your cash to, the best account option for your organisation, without the need for multiple applications or instructions. 

How do I choose the right account on a Deposit Platform?

A good deposit platform will help you narrow your search according to the features that benefit your organisation. For example, you can select a 12-month fixed term and Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection as your preferred criteria, and the platform will show you a list of the accounts that offer what you need. 

Once you have chosen an account to review, you should be able to access the provider’s details, including independent ratings, such as the Fitch ratings, the account summary and the terms and conditions, which you will need to accept. 

The accounts available will be limited to those deposit-takers that work with the platform, so make sure that the platform you use offers a wide variety of solutions. Not all deposit-takers want funds all the time, so rates and terms will vary. 


How do I ensure our money is secure?

When thinking about security, you need to check:

  1. The security of the platform.
  2. The security of the accounts you choose.

You access your funds via the platform, so make sure the platform provider has robust protections – through its technology, procedures and support – to help you limit the risk of fraud, cyber threats, or scams affecting your organisation. 

Your platform should show you if deposits with the different accounts on offer are FSCS protected. The FSCS ensures that if the deposit-taker were to fail, your eligible deposits would be insured up to £85,000 per depositor per banking group. The platform structure, therefore, enables you to more easily spread your funds up to this value across multiple accounts. However, it is important to remember that the £85,000 limit applies to all deposits you have with a specific building society or bank, both on and off the platform.

 

Is it expensive to use a Deposit Platform?

Typically, a platform will charge fees in one of two ways:

  1. A share of interest (usually between 0.15% and 0.40%), where the platform takes its charges from the interest payable to you.
  2. A fee or payment from the deposit-taker to the platform. This payment will be independent of you but will influence the rate the bank or building society offers.

In both cases, before you invest, the platform should show you the interest rate you will be paid, after charges. 

 

What platform choices do I have?

There are several options available in the UK. Many of these are linked to investment platform providers or member associations. But not all of the platforms – or the accounts they feature – are available to charities. So, when assessing which provider might work best for your organisation, it is important to confirm the support they offer to charities and social purpose organisations.

Find out more about CAF’s Charity Deposit Platform here