Giving while you work

Prepare to embrace the new financial year with these workplace giving resolutions. Benefaction guaranteed!

PLEASE EXPLAIN

Giving while you work means donating your time, money or skills to a chosen cause with the support of – or facilitation by – your workplace. You can be an employee or business owner. You can give individually, or on behalf of your organisation, or together with your colleagues as representatives of your workplace.

WHY GIVE AT WORK?

Whether you give from your kitchen table or your office desk, it’s the commitment that counts. But giving while you work has its benefits:

•  Participation in fundraising is great for team building and workplace morale

•  Giving while you work frees up your leisure time – job done!

•  Workplace giving motivates involvement in other community activities

DON’T TRY THESE AT HOME:

7 WAYS TO GIVE WHILE YOU WORK

1. Payroll deduction

If you’re an employee you can donate money to any number of causes through a workplace giving program administered by your employer. Simply nominate your preferred recipient organisation, specify the donation, and the amount will automatically be deducted from your earnings each time you get paid. Because the organisation receives the donation as a lump sum from your employer, its administrative time and costs are greatly reduced, so 100% of your dollar goes to the cause. All listed organisations must be Deductible Gift Recipients (look up the Australian Business Register here) and donations must be over $2 to be tax deductible. Your employer will document your participation at the financial year’s end.

2. Pro bono services

Pro bono, or “for the public good”, traditionally describes the provision of legal services for free or significantly reduced fees to those who can’t afford them. Increasingly though, professionals in the marketing, technology, design and consulting sectors are offering their skills for nothing – or close to it – in the same spirit of social responsibility. As a pro bono provider you will learn greater resourcefulness, sharpen your negotiating skills, gain a wider variety of experiences and possibly benefit from opportunities that may not have presented themselves in the commercial world. To find a group to give to pro bono go to Our Community’s Directory of Community Organisations or register with Good Company.

3. Product giveaways

Another option is to provide pro bono product instead of service. Giving away goods at cost or no cost is a great way for your company to support the community and possibly promote its product at the same time! Think about who supplies first aid kits to sports fundraisers, why real estate agents provide promotional signage for public events or how raffle ticket prizes are secured. Last year’s stock or seconds and samples can be highly valued by opportunity shops, school fetes and raffle organisers.

4. Corporate fundraising

You could easily fulfil your yearly giving commitment just by participating in a handful of fundraising days. There are many fun and highly successful programs that your workplace can sign up for. Try the Biggest Morning Tea (Cancer Council), Red Nose Day (SIDS and Kids), Jeans for Genes (Children’s Medical Research Institute), World’s Greatest Shave (Leukaemia Foundation), 40 Hour Famine (World Vision) and Movember (Men’s health) for starters. If you and your workmates prefer fundraising in the fresh air, there are some great opportunities to pound the pavement for sponsorship dollars: Oxfam Trailwalker (Melbourne/Sydney) the Cancer Council’s Mothers Day Classic (national) or the RSPCA’s Million Paws Walk (national).

5. Corporate volunteer programs

Try working for someone else for a day! Join your colleagues over a hot stove, knee-deep in rubbish or down a production line and experience the realities of food wastage, environmental pollution or crisis care, amongst other things. There’s great satisfaction in helping others, not to mention opportunities to broaden your professional network, reinvigorate your morale and bridge the gap between your company and your community in a meaningful, hands-on way. Try: Fareshare, Landcare Australia and Oxfam Australia.

6. Open door policy

Can your workplace provide an opportunity to someone less fortunate? Australian-based international law firm Freehills has invited vendors from The Big Issue into its Sydney, Melbourne and Perth offices to sell the magazine to staff in a welcoming, safe environment where sales are pretty much guaranteed. Vendor Emma is given lunch and space in the library where staff assist with her ongoing studies. She thrives on the support and ongoing contact. In a like-minded way, a renowned Melbourne restaurateur regularly hosts her favourite cause’s biggest fundraiser of the year. She provides the venue, food and drink while they wine and dine supporters. Your workplace might be able to contribute meeting space, provide access to the photocopier, or access to your staff – ask your employees what the groups that they volunteer with might be able to use.

7. Holiday spirit

Most workplaces make a big deal about Christmas. There’s usually a party, a staff-run Kris Kringle and, to top it all off, a token gift (or more) from the boss. How would you and your colleagues feel about forfeiting one of these bonuses for a donation of equal value to a cause instead? Many international aid agencies promote gift catalogues (goats, mosquito nets, classroom resources) at Christmas time, but a cash donation to a local cause would be equally well received. Get into the holiday spirit GIVENOW!

JUSTICE FOR FREE

In an address to the Victorian Bar in April 2009, former High Court Justice The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG hailed pro bono work as “a unique and essential contribution to the proper administration of justice”.

He noted the case of Andrew Mallard who was jailed in 1994 for the murder a Perth jeweller. After hundreds of pro bono hours spent trying to proving his innocence, a successful second leave application to the High Court saw Mallard’s murder conviction quashed, the charge against him formally withdrawn and his freedom reinstated after 12 years in prison.

Kirby is a passionate advocate for pro bono programs for Australian law schools. “If law students only met clients in large offices that charge standard fees, they may never get a taste of the variety of legal problems that affect their fellow citizens in the wider community,” he has said.

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