ANZ Bank Reveals Winning Advice When Entering The Annual Australian Workplace Giving Awards

The annual Australian Workplace Giving Awards are open for entry from corporates, businesses and charities, providing the opportunity to celebrate Australia’s largest corporations and their employees’ incredible impact on Australia’s much-loved charities. Winners from the 2022 awards have shared their advice for entering, including ANZ Bank, awarded Gold in the Best Employer Grants Program (joint winner).

ANZ Bank, awarded Gold in the Best Employer Grants Program for their employee-led community program, details how their program won in a Q&A with Workplace Giving Australia. In 2022, $389,450 from ANZ was granted to 19 community organisations. Now in its 36th year, the program has distributed more than $6.3 million to 920 community organisations across Australia. When asked what made her apply for the award Brianne Keogh, Social Impact Manager from ANZ, comments:

We felt a strong sense that the community grants program had delivered something special over the period and wanted to get the recognition it deserved. Our people are the biggest contributors who generously donate every fortnight to the Foundation; those who are Sponsors on applications; and people who volunteer their time and expertise to support grant recipients. We wanted our people to be awarded and recognised for their efforts of fostering a culture for this program to thrive.

Brianne Keogh goes on to say:

The Australian Workplace Giving Awards is a prestigious honour which recognises organisations for their outstanding workplace giving programs. It provides people insight into what ‘good looks like’ and offers inspiration to organisations (of all sizes) with how they can commence or improve their own giving related programs that ultimately supports the community.

When asked for her top advice she noted that the organisation should “consider what’s unique and special about the program and category that you’re looking to enter” and “start thinking of your application early. Don’t leave it to the last minute.”

Workplace giving enables support for causes while fostering a sense of purpose and unity within organisations. Recent research highlights that workplace giving offers advantages beyond good corporate citizenship and taxation benefits, with analysis highlighting workforce expectations and talent retention advantages and 85% of the survey respondents saying it is personally important that a company has a workplace giving program. The research also shows that if employers matched staff donations and these employees gave one extra dollar per week, charities could receive an additional $1 billion annually.

Workplace Giving Australia CEO David Mann says that “with 85% of employees reporting that they want to work for an organisation that supports charities, there are obvious benefits to employers who are genuinely wanting to create great places to work, enabling and promoting workplace giving benefits to the workers, the business, charities and the wider community.”

Entries for the awards are now open with submissions closing Thursday, August 31st 2023. Finalists will be announced on Friday, October 6th, with the awards night celebration scheduled for Tuesday, October 31st, in the dual locations of Sydney and Melbourne.

Read the full Q&A here for more tips on entering the awards here