Women are more generous than men at responding to office charity collections, according to the Charities Aid Foundation.

An online survey of more than 1,000 people commissioned by CAF in March found that 66 per cent of women had responded to office charity appeals in the past year, compared with 49 per cent of men.

Overall, staff donated a mean average of £46.53 over the year. Of the 30 per cent who had sponsored a colleague to do something for charity, the median average donation was £10.

CAF, which is the UK’s largest payroll-giving provider, published the figures to mark the 30th anniversary of payroll giving.

The research, which was conducted by YouGov for CAF’s UK Giving survey, also found that 50 per cent of respondents were unaware of payroll giving.

Klara Kozlov, head of corporate clients at CAF, said charity appeals at work helped to boost morale as well as benefit good causes.

“While most people will find the money to make donations on an ad-hoc basis, some prefer a more structured approach,” she said. “Payroll giving enables people to make donations direct from their pre-tax pay each month.”