The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, qut

Australian context

The period 2010-2011 saw over 50,000 new employees join corporate schemes and the total value of workplace giving increasing 44% over the previous year (Australian Charities Fund 2015). By 2011-2012, payroll giving – employee contributions plus matched giving by employers – contributed A$56.5 million in donations (The Australian Charities Fund and Centre for Social Impact 2013, p. 5). In 2012-2013, individual employees donated A$28 million through workplace giving, representing 1% of total giving in Australia. By 2013-2014, total donations through workplace giving had risen to A$31 million (Australian Taxation Office 2015b).

In 2015, there are 22,500 registered charities in Australia, 37% of which have been granted Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status by the ATO (Cooper 2015). Workplace giving now contributes more than A$90 million to Australian charities (Australian Charities Fund 2015). Workplace giving is now regarded by advocates as a critical and effective means of supporting charitable causes by Australians (One Million Donors 2015).

Despite supportive government policy (The Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership 1997), the uptake of workplace giving in Australia has been reasonably slow, with less than 5% of employees participating in those workplaces in which it is offered (Wilson 2015). The history and engagement in philanthropy in Australia has differences to other developed countries (Leat 2004a, 2004b) and Australian donors may also be different (Lwin and Phau 2010). There is little research on the impact of these differences on workplace giving in the Australian context.

The Australian Charities Fund (ACF) has played a major role in the facilitation of workplace giving in Australia. It appears that most of the comprehensive research conducted on workplace giving in Australia has been conducted by or has involved the ACF. The ACF partners with some of Australia’s most prominent companies including BHP Billiton, Commonwealth Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), King & Wood Mallesons, JB Hi-Fi, Foxtel and Hoyts (Australian Charities Fund 2015).

The ACF was influenced by the success of the sector in the US. It describes its role as being the “architect, driver and thought leader of workplace giving as the most effective and efficient way to channel donations from both employees and employers to the charitable sector and increase their capacity to achieve social change” (Australian Charities Fund 2015).

Jenny Geddes, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the ACF, says that the organisation is on a “mission to help working Australians appreciate that workplace giving is the most effective and efficient way to support charity. We advise employers and charities to help them raise awareness of, and drive participation in workplace giving” (Geddes 2014).

The benefits of workplace giving for employees, companies and the community have been defined by PwC, and is cited in Figure 10.2 below.

Figure 10.2 Benefits for employers, employees and charities from payroll giving (Centre for Social Impact 2009)

“Employees like the simplicity and convenience of an automatic tax deduction each pay period. They value the opportunity to give back to the community and appreciate that in general, 100% of their donations go direct to the charity.

The most commonly reported benefits:

Enables employees to engage with the community and make a difference – 71%

An efficient way to support the community – 63%

Reinforces the business’ positioning as a good corporate citizen – 56%

Just over one-third of businesses with payroll giving programs saw them as a way of boosting employee morale.”

In Australia, matched giving entails, for example, dollar for dollar or two for one dollar contributions (occasionally with an individual or total company cap) to charitable organisations (Centre for Corporate Public Affairs and Business Council of Australia 2007).

A 2009 survey conducted by the ACF found employee giving matched by the employer was an important factor for employees wanting to give in the workplace (Australian Charities Fund 2010). The study determined that after employer matching of their payroll giving, employees were motivated to give also by the convenience of payroll giving arrangements, individual employee engagement with a charity or cause, tax efficiency, and deliverance of impact with minimal outlay (Australian Charities Fund 2010).

Most companies manage workplace contributions to a limited number of organisations, typically in an array of fields encompassing the environment, community welfare, overseas aid, the arts and public health.

Employees are involved frequently in selecting the organisations to which they partner by a representative committee, focus group or survey. Some organisations offer individual staff selection culminating in an array of recipient organisations from individual staff selection (Centre for Corporate Public Affairs and Business Council of Australia 2007).

JB Hi-Fi, an Australian home entertainment retailer, operates a successful workplace giving program, and has become one of the leaders of workplace giving in Australia. More than 55% of JB Hi-Fi’s 7,000 employees participate in the company’s workplace giving program. Employee contributions are matched dollar for dollar. It has been stated that much of the success of the company’s workplace giving performance can be attributed to strong endorsement from the company’s executive and board (Australian Charities Fund 2015).

The JB Hi-Fi board and senior management team give 1% of their salaries via the program. JB Hi-Fi has contributed more than A$7.5 million to charitable organisations in just over seven years (Australian Charities Fund 2015). JB Were reports that workplace giving is attracting 4.5% of employees at companies who offer the program in Australia (McLeod 2014).

It is reported that ‘if just 10% of working Australians donated $5 per week through their pay, an additional $260 million would be generated each year for the community’ (PwC 2009, p. 2).

Key issues, latest research and emerging trends

The arrival of the high-energy ‘Millennials’³ and a highly technological environment, contribute to an evolving workforce which expects to be involved in decision-making. Employees want to ‘own’ the workplace and have confidence in the charity (Australian Charities Fund 2010; Bailey 2014; Feldman et al. 2015; Osili, Hirt and Raghavan 2011; Wilson 2015). On a small scale there may be a male-dominant gender effect in workplace giving (Romney-Alexander 2002) and public sector and academic workplaces, particularly in the US, which present peculiar challenges (Agypt, Christensen and Nesbit 2012; Borden, Shaker and Kienker 2014; Nesbit, Christensen and Gossett 2012). Most employees now want to volunteer time as well as money (Bailey 2014; Harder 2010). Positive company attitudes to and enthusiastic promotfund-rion of CSR can affect the employee/employer engagement with workplace giving (America's Charities 2015; Haski-Leventhal 2013; Pro Bono Australia 2015; Smith 2013; Upham 2006).

The future of workplace giving in Australia will be closely tied to best practice CSR which supports a range of giving options, including volunteering and matched donations, underpinned by a creditable charity sector.

National research in Australia conducted in April and May 2014 using a smart phone application developed by PwC in collaboration with the ACF provided insights and encouraging long-term prospects for the industry in Australia (Australian Charities Fund 2014b). The study found: