Professional Services Sector Most Generous Givers

Employees at professional services firms are the most generous workplace givers in Australia, with 18 per cent of employees engaged in donations programs, compared to just 3 per cent in the charity sector, according to new data.

Workplace giving provider Good2Give launched its new interactive Industry Evaluation tool on Tuesday, which provides a market snapshot of the past 12 months that organisations can use to assess their giving program across 11 sectors, including charity, government, healthcare and IT.  

The tool also breaks down giving performance by company size, gender, and employer donation matching.

Good2Give CEO Lisa Grinham said the professional services sector was three times more likely to give via a workplace program, which provided a “strong target” for other industry leaders to aspire to.

“With almost 20 per cent of staff making regular donations to charities, this is a significant contribution to Australia’s charity sector,” Grinham said.

“Their employees are also very generous, giving approximately $70 a month to charity. Topped up by company matching and their average monthly donation comes to $114 per month, or more than $1,300 a year.”

Grinham told Pro Bono Australia News there were a number of reasons why professional service employees were generous workplace givers.

“One is that we’ve seen a lot of the professional services firms really using their technology well to engage employees,” she said.

“They’re also quite generous when it comes to matching donations, and also [have] strong leadership from the top.”

Employees in the charity sector ranked among some of the lowest sectors, with 3 per cent using a workplace giving program, at an average monthly donation of $42.  

Grinham said there were a number of barriers for charity employees to engage in workplace giving, including the limited availability of company-matched donations, at just 25 per cent.

“We’re… very much encouraging the charity sector to get behind workplace giving and offer the opportunity for their employees to give because we think that’s a great way to be a great employer, and that charities should strive to be great employers like anybody in the private sector,” she said.

“I think certainly a lot of people who work for charities are already very generous. [There’s] a divide around what people are paid in the charity sector versus the private sector.

“I think people in the charity sector are very generous full stop, but maybe it’s more difficult for them to actually make regular donations. But we’re trying to encourage more charities to offer their staff the opportunity to give.”

She said this was the first time the industry data was made broadly available.

“It’s incredibly helpful for companies who offer workplace giving to be able to access latest industry data to help build realistic targets and make positive business cases for workplace giving in their company,” she said.

“Of course there are many variables that influence a program’s success including whether a company matches employee donations, how often their programs are promoted and whether the company has leadership encouraging a giving culture.

“The data overwhelmingly suggests that matching employee donations inherently boosts employee generosity resulting in a 60 per cent increase in the average donation.

“Considering that only 57 per cent of professional service firms currently match staff donations, there is strong potential to further boost the industry’s contribution if companies meet employee generosity halfway.

“Our recent Workplace Givers Revealed research of 1,000 workplace givers revealed that 86 per cent said their company’s workplace giving program made them more proud to work there. As the link between being a good corporate citizen and employee morale hits home, these enquiries to increase uptake of workplace giving programs is incredibly worthwhile – for our communities, but also our workplace morale.

“It’s encouraging to see more and more companies introduce and invest in their workplace giving programs to boost employee pride in the good times and the bad.”

Good2Give’s data accounted for close to 20 per cent of Australian employees who make workplace giving donations, as well as a broad sample size of more than 100 companies.