Macquarie Group Tops Movember Fundraiser

Men’s health charity Movember has named the Macquarie Group as its highest global corporate fundraiser for 2010.

Macquarie Group raised more than $850,000 this year for the charity whose major fundraising appeal involves men being sponsored to grow a moustache throughout the month of November.

Money raised by Movember in Australia is shared equally between programs targeting prostate cancer and depression in men.

The $850,000 grand total includes the moustache-growing and fundraising efforts of 600 Macquarie Group staff, both male and females, from 30 offices around the world. Macquarie’s philanthropic arm, The Macquarie Group Foundation, matched staff fundraising efforts dollar for dollar.

Macquarie staff and their fundraising moustaches: Shaun Brice, Andrew Keenan, Steven Taub, Filipe Moscoso, John Hughes, Mike Mason, John Loukadellis, Martin Thorpe,

Australia topped the Movember country rankings, raising over $21 million for the popular men’s health charity. Canada came in second and also broke the $21 million mark, with the United Kingdom third on almost $14 million.

The popularity of the campaign is clear, with more than 128,000 Australians taking part in Movember in 2010.

Jim Slattery from Movember says 2010 saw over 129,000 participants take part in Australia alone and their collective actions have proven that men’s health is an issue we are all concerned about and one which needs to be highlighted in order to bring about change.

In Australia, Macquarie Sydney topped the team leaderboard for teams with 11 or more participants, raising $268,621. PriceWaterhouse Coopers – Sydney came in second with $154,255 and Woolworths Limited Support Offices came third with $114,107.

Macquarie Infrastructure Group CEO John Hughes was the second ranked individual in the Australian rankings, raising $35,565. Hughes says Macquarie has been enthusiastically supporting the charity for six years and since 2005, Macquarie staff and the Foundation have donated more than $2.14 million to the cause. Hughes was recently appointed as a Movember board member.

Jim Slattery says the Macquarie Group has played an important and vital part in their success in 2010; helping Movember to achieve its most successful year to date in terms of registrations; and hopefully, fundraising.

Macquarie Group Foundation Head, Julie White, believes the culture of giving among Macquarie Group staff, with support from the Foundation, grows stronger each year

She says that in terms of Macquarie staff interest and participation in their communities, across a very diverse range of philanthropic initiatives, each year is bigger than the last.

In the year to 31 March 2010, the Macquarie Group Foundation, together with Macquarie Group staff efforts, contributed more than $22 million to over 1,000 community organisations around the world.