CEO Message – July 2020

2020 a Watershed Year for Workplace Giving

As Financial Year 2020 closes, I take this opportunity to share with the network why there has never been a more important time for workplace giving.

A survey of WGA’s charity partners revealed that the majority of them forecast significant declines in revenue due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

In the last recession in Australia, funding for charities dropped, while at the same time, more than 80 percent of charities experienced an increase in demand for their services.  Analysis has revealed that it’s highly likely that the COVID-19 recession will lead to a larger reduction in funding as forecast falls in GDP will put pressure on corporate and public donors, the significantly larger Federal deficit will make it harder to secure grants and social isolation rules have drastically impacted face to face fundraising and events.

However, WGA’s employer partners have shared that workplace giving is defying this devastating picture.  Employees, whose roles have not been affected, are continuing to donate via their workplace giving program.  Having almost 200,000 working Australians giving regularly from pay is undoubtedly contributing, at this very difficult time, to the ongoing operation of many of our most important charities.  The 50 cents and one dollars from employees add up to almost $80 million per annum when complemented by company matching.

Our goal to reach one million donors continues and the 2019 / 2020 crises have reinforced the importance of workplace giving in the funding mix.  During the crisis, WGA has reinforced to Government and key stakeholders, that there are key areas that require its support to ensure that giving through work is easy, including making it clearer for employers that they are able to easily involve their employees in the program (opt-out), incentivising employees to give (Government donor matching program) and allowing employees to take their workplace giving program with them when they move employer (portability).

In addition, WGA’s websites – 1MDonors and our Public Library are proving to offer all charities and employers  with an interest in workplace giving, a destination to register their support, track progress, learn, research and ultimately support their employees to donate more money to charities.

I congratulate all employers who are engaged in workplace giving and I acknowledge those employers who are now on Quartile 1 of the 1MDonors leaderboard.

It has been a disastrous year for so many in our community and I sincerely thank all the employers, team members and charities who have prioritised workplace giving across their organisations.  Workplace Giving Australia looks forward to working with you in the coming financial year to continue to grow this critical form of funding for those amongst us in need.

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Geddes

CEO, Workplace Giving Australia