Inspiration

Media Release 5th of June – ACF launches the national One Million Donors workplace giving campaign

Media Release

For Release: 5th June 2014

ACF launches the national One Million Donors workplace giving campaign to boost funding for charity

Canberra:

The Australian Charities Fund (ACF) today launched a national campaign to involve one million Australians in workplace giving to raise funds in a low cost, high impact way through their workplaces, contributing much needed resources to charities.

The campaign was officially launched by The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, MP Minister for Communications together with Kelly O’Dwyer, Federal Member of Higgins, Richard Murray incoming CEO of JB Hi-Fi and Australian Charities Fund CEO Jenny Geddes, who discussed the workplace as simply a smarter place for employers and employees to raise funds for charities.

Speaking in Canberra today, Ms Geddes said “The One Million Donors campaign is designed to raise awareness and build Australian workplace giving to scale. Reaching the 2020 target would see Australian workers and their employers contributing well over $300 million each year to charity*.

“One of the keys to employee involvement is leadership from CEOs and senior executives. A recent AskU survey** showed employees want to give through an employer supported workplace giving program and are looking for their senior management to lead by example.

“We have worked with over 120 Australian organisations to establish giving programs. The success of these programs is ensured when there is the passionate commitment of the leader who fosters giving back to the community as integral to a progressive organisational culture, where employees are engaged and working together to make a positive social impact.

“The AskU survey confirms this, with respondents stating that workplace giving should start at the top with CEOs and managers leading by example. Employees are more inclined to donate if the leaders of the company are giving and talking about it.”

ACF has launched the One Million Donors campaign to involve working Australians in giving regularly through their workplaces in the most cost effective

way to give to support the critical, frontline work of charities. “Australian workers also recognise workplace giving is one of the best ways to give when they can see their regular donations contributing to causes and charities that their employer also supports. For businesses that are in a position to match any part of their staff’s donation, this would be a powerful magnet for their workforce to join a program,” Ms Geddes said.

Launching the One Million Donors campaign at Parliament House in Canberra, Mr Turnbull urged business leaders and all employees to support the campaign and to build their brand and reputation through workplace giving.

This opportunity also extends to federal, state and local governments who can champion their workplace giving programs.

The case for employees

Richard Murray, the incoming CEO of JB Hi-Fi spoke at the launch and said that his organisation’s workplace giving program “Helping Hands” had seen employees raise more than $5.5 million in five years, with matching support of the company.

“More than 50% of our staff give through Helping Hands and this tells me that we have a team that understands the purpose of the program and that they want to be part of something that connects us all with the wider community,” Mr Murray said.

The case for charity

Jono Nicholas, the CEO of ReachOut.com by Inspire Foundation, (and a partner of JB Hi-Fi’s Helping Hands program) encouraged other leaders of charities to focus on workplace giving as one of the lowest cost and most reliable ways to deliver funding for their work.

“Workplace giving is a highly valuable income stream for ReachOut.com by Inspire Foundation. By investing in a relationship with an organisation, we’re then able to reach huge numbers of donors and achieve a considerable return on our fundraising efforts.”

“The One Million Donors campaign is a remarkable initiative of the Australian Charities Fund, with the potential to transform the way Australians support charities,” Mr Nicholas said.

Ms Geddes added, “Australian workers are generous and ready to play their part. The wonderful part of workplace giving is the collective impact. An employee may choose to give as little as a 50c or $1 a week, but when that is combined with their fellow workers and potentially matched by their employer, the funds for the charity sector quickly add up.

“The Australian Charities Fund is here to help through our decade long experience in creating high impact giving programs. Imagine the societal impact that we could create if business, government and the charity sector worked together to ignite a giving revolution. Australian workers are ready to play their part,” she said.

Business and charities can find out more about the One Million Donors campaign by visiting www.1mdonors.org.au.

Notes for Editors:

* ATO FY’12 data states that 133,000 Australians give on average $300p.a.

through pre-tax salary donations to charity. Using this rate, one million Australians

giving equates to $300m p.a. (This figure does not include company matching.

In FY’12, company matching was approximately $15m.)

** AskU survey results are attached.

A free way to support charities in 30 seconds. Harness your idle time by answering

questions to support causes you’re passionate about!