Workplace Giving Month

Last month, Suncorp celebrated Workplace Giving Month by co-hosting an event that brought together charities, corporates and strategic partners. At this event, I had the pleasure (and terror) of presenting Suncorp’s new employee giving program and participating in a panel discussion alongside Flight Centre and Vita Group.

If you haven’t heard of workplace giving, here’s the elevator pitch. Workplace giving enables employees to make pre-tax donations to their favourite charity through their pay. If you’re an employee, you reap the tax benefit. If you’re a corporate, you pat yourself on the back for investing in your community and increasing employee morale and retention. And if you’re a charity, you exhale because you secured a low-cost and reliable funding source to keep doing what you do best.

Impressed? No wonder we dedicate a month to celebrating workplace giving!

This year, Suncorp launched its new employee giving program as part of our commitment to building resilient people and communities. The new program includes matching our employees’ giving. Thanks to research conducted by our strategic partner, Good2Give, we know that our people are three times more likely to give when their donation is matched. Over the coming months and years we’re looking forward to seeing more of our people getting involved in workplace giving (and feeling all the warm fuzzies).

After presenting our programs, I, and the super impressive guest speakers from Flight Centre and Vita Group, took part in the panel discussion. Not surprisingly, the audience asked the age-old questions when it comes to workplace giving. Should we have an opt-out or opt-in model? Should we nominate charity partners or offer choice? And should we engage our employees from the top-down or from the bottom-up?

To be honest, in my opinion, there’s no right or wrong. I think it depends on your people, your leadership team and your organisation. Offering workplace giving at all is a step in the right direction, and is something I will continue to advocate for.

Thank you to Good2Give, Workplace Giving Australia and Corporate Citizenship for hosting this event with us.