FORMERLY KNOWN AS PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
For 25 years, Microhive (formerly known as Pennies from Heaven) has been asking employees to donate the pennies from their payslip to charity. The concept is based on the belief that small donations, collectively, can make a big impact and to date has raised £8m for over 800 charities.
The concept of Microhive came from watching Superman 3! Richard Pryor, working as a computer programmer, realises that everyone’s paychecks are being round down to the nearest cent, so he begins diverting away those small amounts into his own account and uses it to become a world class super baddie! We decided to use the concept of collecting lots of small amounts but to empower it to make a positive impact.
So from our superhero beginnings we have come a long way. We are now a diverse family – we have high street retailers, supermarkets, utility companies, banks, snack makers, TV makers, lawyers, gyms, holiday companies and universities to pull out a few of our employers running Microhive.
Our partners include Aldi UK, Bank of England, Barclays, Citibank, Connells, Entain, Harrods, HSBC, Moto, Scottish Power, Sysco, The Works, TUI, WHSmith’s & Zellis. We are also working with more than half of NHS Organisations across the UK and to date NHS employees have donated over £1.6m, much of which has benefited NHS charities.
It has always been our vision to raise £1m a year through the scheme (currently ~£700k) and we knew that when we achieved this, we would strive for £2m. We had this unquenchable thirst to do more with micro giving but had yet to articulate our brand story – who are we are what are we striving for.
In 2023 we began reviewing our brand, working with branding agency Brand Potential. Brand Potential helped us unlock our vision.
We are a restless fundraising company that makes giving easy for individuals and businesses. We want to be a key force in transforming the way people give to charities and have ambitions to constantly develop new opportunities for micro-giving. Let’s ask people to give when they win on the horses, the lottery or at bingo. Why not micro-donate when you are gaming or if you are a business with an extensive supply chain, lets empower them to join in with your corporate fundraising. The list is endless and the appetite great.
To deliver this ambition we could see we needed a new brand name. The concept of small change giving through pay was working but the name Pennies from Heaven was not working for everyone. The brand was creating false assumptions for some (religious and palliative charity connections) and we needed our brand to be appropriate for all. After many hours of brainstorming and discussion, our new brand name, Microhive, was created, its unique, adaptable and leans on the ask of small donations and the sense of collaboration and growth in the hive.
Rebranding has been an exciting journey and we are exceptionally grateful to Sixtwo for creating and building this engaging and impactful new website. We wanted a website that helped serve all our sectors and individuals by providing them with all the information they need to join the micro-giving community while also showcasing our new look.
We are Microhive, on a mission to empower change one penny at a time.
