The number of donors using payroll giving fell by 4% in the most recent tax year, but the amount they gave rose, according to figures released last week by HM Revenue & Customs.

The total number of payroll givers in 2009/10 dropped to 724,000, compared with 754,000 the previous year and 758,000 the year before that.

Despite the drop in donor numbers, the amount of money raised through payroll giving rose to £106m, up on the previous year's figure of £104m but down on 2007/08, when donors gave £109m.

The drop in the number of donors was largely down to the "raft of redundancies" that had hit the UK.

Panikos Efthimiou, charities training manager at the Charities Aid Foundation, says he thinks donations had risen despite numbers falling because of increasing take-up of payroll giving by higher-rate taxpayers.

"For 40% and particularly 50% taxpayers, this is the most effective way to give, and wealthier donors are waking up to that," he says.

"One thing we do at CAF is to encourage charities to engage with their donors and encourage those who pay higher-rate tax to give through payroll giving."

£310m was paid in tax relief to higher-rate taxpayers. Individual donors also received £300m relief on inheritance tax, £70m on gifts of shares and about £30m on payroll giving.

Charities received £3.11bn in tax reliefs for the tax year 2009/10, according to provisional figures from HM Revenue & Customs. This was made up of tax relief for charities of £2.4bn and tax relief for donors of £710m.

The value of Gift Aid payments to charities increased slightly in the same period to just over £1bn, compared with £946m the previous year.

Of the 68,100 Gift Aid repayments received by charities, 29,100 were for less than £1,000 and 110 were for more than £1m.