Why give at work?
The idea of corporate social responsibility has received a lot of interest lately as an antidote to the stories of corporate greed that surrounded the Global Financial Crisis. Edward Kerr believes we need to create a vision of a better community achieved by employers, employees and charities working together.
You might think I am directing this question to workers asked to throw a gold coin into a collection tin on dress down Fridays. But I am not.
Many employers allow fundraising in their workplace and a growing number allow donations to charities via payroll deductions. Corporate volunteering also is promoted in workplaces.
Why is this happening? Most employers will answer – it’s part of our ‘corporate social responsibility’ strategy – engaging our staff and building trust with stakeholders. But are their hearts really in it? Or is it largely seen as an optional extra for their business?
All the activities are commendable and generate support for charities. But results are still modest. Today, about $40m a year is donated in Australia by a combination of payroll giving and employer matching donations. Sounds a lot but there is so much unrealised potential. If only10% of working Australians donated $5 a week, an additional $300m would flow to charities (before employer matching donations). And if it became part of our broad-based culture to donate at work (as it is in the USA), the amounts would be huge. The great news for charities is our research reveals this will be largely new money ie most workers donating through the workplace are not replacing their giving from outside the workplace.
FY10 ATO data tells us 100,000 Australian workers made payroll giving donations through 2857 employers. But most money was donated through only about 100 employers.
We need Australia’s Boards and CEOs asking ‘Why are we not promoting giving at work?’ A widespread commitment from business leaders (particularly CEOs) to promoting giving in the workplace would have significant social impact. It’s a leadership thing. It’s about both managing risk for the organisation (building trust and employee engagement) and nation building. And clever leaders understand it’s good for their business if their business is helping to build a strong nation.
It’s no coincidence Boards and CEOs who intentionally articulate their strategy for giving in the workplace lead organisations building really strong brands and creating significant social impact. They adopt holistic and integrated approaches, including, where appropriate, payroll giving, one-off fundraising, skilled and unskilled volunteering, grants and in-kind support. Increasingly, employers are seeking a narrower, deeper and more connected range of community relationships.
We need to create and sell a vision of a better community achieved by employers, their workers and charities working together. To facilitate this, I think we need a true collaboration between charities, business groups, intermediaries promoting philanthropy and government at all levels. A strong, inspiring and combined voice (incorporating a common ‘brand’) could be the trigger to encourage our business leaders to get serious about creating social impact by promoting giving in the workplace. The vision needs to show this is not only good for the community but good for business too. Technology will need to play its part in selling the vision. And governments need to support the collaboration.
