NFPs Expand Workplace Giving Month Campaign

Prominent Not for Profits have joined the Workplace Giving Month campaign, expanding the program industry-wide and driving a 36 per cent spike in participation.

Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), London Benchmarking Group and Giving West recently signed on as official supporters of the June campaign, driven by the Australian Charities Fund (ACF).  

Held for the fifth time this year, Workplace Giving Month aims to encourage the promotion of existing workplace giving programs, as well as inspire more organisations to set them up.

“We’re delighted to collaborate with our industry partners to promote workplace giving. We have a goal to see one million Australians donating through the workplace by 2020, and hope that by working together as an industry we will achieve this,” Jenny Geddes, CEO of The Australian Charities Fund said.

CAF CEO Lisa Grinham said workplace giving provides the opportunity to transform the way Australians support charity and that her organisation sees huge value in organisations working together as an industry to maximise their impact.

“CAF, along with our clients, are immensely proud of our contribution to making this year’s Workplace Giving Month the most successful one yet,” Grinham said.

To mark the evolution of Workplace Giving Month into an industry-wide event, a new #1Mdonors identity and website were created and promoted across the sector.

The 124 businesses that registered this year employ an estimated one million Australians across a diverse range of industries including finance, retail, travel, insurance, entertainment, government and mining.

“While it is fantastic that so many large organisations support workplace giving, it is encouraging to see more small-to-medium enterprises setting up programs,” Geddes said.

“Smaller businesses increasingly recognise that customers and staff have an expectation that they ‘give back’ to the community, and workplace giving offers them a low-cost, high-impact way to do this.”  

ACF said that while the official results from Workplace Giving Month promotions were still being collated, even best practice workplace giving programs had benefited from this year’s campaign.

They cited tech retailer JB Hi-Fi who increased its participation rate from 55 per cent to 65 per cent over the course of June.

“We have been blown-away by the generosity of our staff this Workplace Giving Month. Our team is passionate about supporting our charity partners as they can see the enormous impact they are able to make together when each person contributes just a small amount,”  Richard Murray, CEO of JB Hi-Fi said.

Businesses and charities can find out more at www.1Mdonors.org.au