Hope for Workplace Giving

While reports suggest the number of companies offering workplace giving is stagnating, one charity encouraging employees to give has reported a 30 per cent increase in donations in the last year.

Charity driver, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), says there has been a rise in workplace giving through the Good2Give online platform, and corporate users are finding marked improvements in staff engagement levels.

CAF said that less than 1 per cent of employers currently offer Workplace Giving to their staff.

The 2015 Koda Capital Australian Giving Review recently found that that Workplace giving is struggling to fulfil its potential.

However the Review noted that, while participation rates for employers and employees alike remain low, improvement prospects hinge on the success of new technology platforms that promise to better connect donors and supported charities.

Chief Executive Officer of CAF Australia, Lisa Grinham, said in launching its Good2Give platform in 2014, CAF has facilitated over 300,000 donations and distributed funds to over 1000 Australian charities in the last 12 months.

“In doing so, it’s also cut previous administrative burdens by over 60 per cent for the employer payroll and the receiving charity,” Grinham said.

“The number of charities workplace giving donors support is increasing, and through these online solutions staff can direct funds to a specific project or appeal that can be set up in a matter of minutes. This just wasn’t possible in Australia before.”

Grinham predicts that as more Australian companies hear about the increasing ease of workplace giving and adopt it into their corporate structures, the concept will become much like choosing a superannuation fund and locking it into your salary outgoings.

“It’s disappointing that such a small number of companies offer workplace giving to their staff however, it says more to the fact that not many people know about it as an effective giving model, or as an effective way to engage employees,” she said.

"Shifting perceptions around the challenges of implementing and administering a workplace giving program is critical if we are going to see emerging solutions like Good2Give being embraced.

“It’s only been through a strategic commitment to invest in this software development that over the last 12 months we’ve been able to optimise the workplace giving experience for donors and make it an easy for businesses to integrate into their corporate structures.

“At present, around 70 per cent of our clients who use Good2Give match their employee’s donations. This includes companies like PwC, Bupa and Toyota. This not only significantly boosts funding for charities but also means employees feel supported by their employer in giving back to the community.”

Grinham said increasing donations comes back to connecting donors to the causes they feel personally connect to.

“Although this makes sense, it just hasn’t been viable for companies to manually facilitate a countless number of donations to separate charities with each payroll,” she said.

Over the year we’ve consistently seen donors really embrace this model. The number of charities receiving donations increases 8 to 10 fold when employees have open choice, and the number of donations and donors doubles.

"The user driven platform has also meant that with a couple of clicks staff can also make pre-tax donations direct from their salary for one-off appeals, for projects or for fundraising events. Again, this flexibility and ease to tap into staff passion just wasn’t available before.

“Drawing on our base figures from August 2014 there’s been a 35 per cent increase in the number of donors, a 35 per cent increase in the average gift and a 78 per cent increase in overall donations.”