Starfish Staff Giving was developed to provide a meaningful way for our staff to support UniSC students by donating to the UniSC Study Support Bursary. The Study Support Bursary aims to support equity groups from low socio-economic backgrounds with a preference for students who need employment to support their studies. One of the objectives of the additional financial support is to encourage recipients to apply more time to their studies, with less focus on paid employment.

Payroll giving is a means by which employees donate money on a regular basis to the UniSC Study Support Bursary, or a UniSC funding priority of their choice. The donation is deducted directly from your salary pre-tax and will appear as a donation on your payslip under the ‘Deductions for Period’ section.

Starfish Staff Giving generates funds wholly and solely for UniSC students, by way of staff donations to the UniSC Study Support Bursary. 100% of all staff donations go directly to this Bursary, therefore allowing UniSC to grow the funds and assist more students in financial need.

In 2018, UniSC received 2,601 applications for scholarships or bursaries from students hoping they could alleviate some of the significant financial burden incurred by study. UniSC was in a position to award 1143 scholarships and bursaries this year. It is the role of the Starfish Staff Giving to support as many students as possible who need our help!

Each UniSC Study Support Bursary has a value of up to $2,500 and is paid in instalments to each recipient student over the semester, ensuring they have regular access to funds in order to cover costs associated with their study – for example: transport, internet costs, meals and text books.

UniSC has Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status, so all donations over $2 from UniSC staff are completely tax deductible.

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Payroll giving operates through UniSC’s payroll system. UniSC staff are currently paid fortnightly, so your donation will automatically be donated in this cycle.

One-off donations are gratefully accepted for Starfish Staff Giving and other UniSC funding priorities at any time of the year. Another way you could consider supporting students and other UniSC funding priorities is through leaving a bequest to UniSC in your Will.

Please contact the Advancement Office at advancement@usc.edu.au if you would like to organise a one-off donation, if you are considering leaving a bequest to UniSC, or have already left a gift for UniSC in your Will.

No, but $2 is the minimum tax deductible donation.

No. All payroll deductions are made pre-tax. The tax advantage is realised immediately in each pay period and you will not need to lodge a claim in your annual tax return. Please contact payroll@usc.edu.au for more details.

No. Joining Starfish Staff Giving is entirely voluntary.

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Yes, you can. But UniSC encourages staff participating in Starfish Staff Giving to commit to a reasonable length of time of donations because frequent changes become expensive to administer.

When completing your UniSC ‘Authority to Deduct’ form you will be asked if you would like your giving to remain anonymous, or if you are happy to be listed as a supporter on public lists from time to time. We encourage you to be listed as a supporter, as a means of encouraging others to get involved! UniSC will never identify individual donors without the donor's permission. Please contact advancement@usc.edu.au for more details.

The advantage of payroll giving programs such as Starfish Staff Giving is that the University is able to direct 100% of all donations directly to its nominated funding priority, in this case the UniSC Study Support Bursary.

Employees will be provided with regular feedback on how their donations to the Study Support Bursary are being distributed, and opportunities to hear directly from UniSC students just how this support has impacted on their capacity to study successfully.

Visit the Starfish Staff Giving page or contact the Advancement Office.