My family has always given 10% of our money to charity, it's not always been easy

Hannah Miller says a “generous life is a good one” and in keeping with that principle, her and her husband have always given away 10 per cent of their income to charity – even at the start of their careers when they were in low-paying jobs.

45-year-old Hannah, an ex-assistant headteacher from Birmingham who now runs her own coaching business, says her Christian faith is the “impetus” for her giving and that she has encouraged her three sons to follow the same principles.

In the past 10 years, her business has given away 10 per cent of all of its sales to a range of organisations, which comes to £85,000 in total.

This week, research from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) found that the wider UK public donated an estimated £13.9bn to good causes in 2023.

But it said there was considerable “untapped” potential in the sector, and that if the UK’s 537,000 millionaires parted with just 1 per cent of their wealth, they could boost the charity sector by £12bn.

Hannah says that though it may be difficult for some people to part with their cash, the way she has always looked at it since a young age, is that the money she gives to charity is “non-negotiable.”

“We’ve almost always seen it as part of what we do, in the same way I’ve never thought about not paying my council tax,” she says.

She and her husband Sam, who is now a charity director, have been married for 25 years and made the decision to donate the portion of their income at the start of their relationship.

Earlier in their married life she thinks the family’s income was probably only around £15,000 – though this would be more today accounting for inflation – and they were still paying to rent their own home, but remained committed to their 10 per cent rule.

“I’ve never felt pressured, it’s just something we have always had as a principle,” she says.

In terms of charities, she says as well as supporting her local church, she has given to a wide range of causes.

“We’ve got a few people that we know who are involved in the charity sector, so there’d be some element of supporting the work that they’re involved in.

“In terms of other things there are causes we care about, like social inequality – there is a charity called Urban Devotion in Birmingham, which we are keenly involved with,” she explains.

Hannah admits that there have been periods where continuing with her commitment has been really hard.

An example is when she left her role in schools to start her business, coaching company Sidekick.

“There have been times when it’s been hard definitely. When I left my job as a teacher that was risky. Fortunately, my husband’s really comfortable with that sort of risk,” she adds.

She says: “Don’t get me wrong, I have joked about it, thinking, ‘we could have done this or that’ if we were not giving away the money, but I haven’t really gone there in terms of thinking ‘I could keep this’.

“I could have had more resource for other things for my business as well – but I’m following this principle.”

Polling from Yougov suggests most Brits do give some money to charity regularly.

The pollster recently found that though 36 per cent of people had given to no charities in the past three months and 6 per cent did not know, the rest had given to at least one.

In fact, 3 per cent had given to six charities or more.