Next Government Needs Workplace Giving Campaign

The next Federal Government should launch a national campaign to promote and foster workplace giving to employers, employees and charities, according to Ted Kerr from The Australian Charities Fund.

Kerr, who is the Non Executive Director and former CEO of The Australian Charities Fund says he is calling for an acknowledgement of the role Government is willing to play with very little impact on revenue.

“I am not calling on politicians to make grandiose election ‘promises’ that will result suddenly in massive growth of workplace giving.”

He says research conducted by The Australian Charities Fund indicates that a large proportion of businesses have never heard of workplace giving.

“Fostering awareness, as well as highlighting its benefits to employers, employees and charities, is vital to engaging employers and maximising participation.

Kerr says the campaign should have two key objectives – growing awareness in particular emphasising the business case and growing participation.

“Based on statistics gathered by the Australian Taxation Office, for the financial year ending 30 June 2012, only 4.4% of the employees at the 3,037 employers through which workplace giving donations were made donated via payroll deductions and less than 1.5% of all Australian employees donated via payroll deductions.

“Best practice programs have participation rates well over 30% and our research indicates around 70% of employees would be interested in workplace giving but need to be asked well. Accordingly, the Australian Charities Fund believes there is significant scope to grow workplace giving by building participation in these organisations by providing them with the appropriate resources to grow high impact programs.

“Also there are many thousands more organisations who do not currently allow workplace giving to which an awareness campaign should be targeted.

“The campaign should have an emphasis on promoting workplace giving to senior business leaders,” Kerr said.

“ In our experience, visible and vocal support from senior management for workplace giving is vital to developing a successful program and our most successful programs are in organisations where CEOs and senior management have communicated the vision and business objectives for the organisation’s program.

“For this campaign to be successful we need a network of collaborators. The Government can provide vital authority to the campaign and organisational support. However, Government needs us (ie the intermediaries promoting workplace giving, business groups and the charities) to assist with pulling it all together.

The Australian Charities Fund connects employers and community organisations by providing advice, capacity building, facilitation and leadership. Find out more at http://www.australiancharitiesfund.org.au