Almost 9 out of 10 Australians believe businesses have a responsibility to contribute to social change, according to new research conducted by YouGov Omnibus. The study surveyed across the Asia Pacific region, including 1,000 participants from Australia. A couple of the key findings included, 45% of the Australian participants gave to charity and a further 56% believed that businesses should be doing more to support charities.
At MS Research Australia, collection of regular workplace giving contributions from employees is a way that businesses can get involved. 24 organisations across the nation including Telstra, Macquarie Bank, NAB, Westpac, Australia Post and Suncorp currently provide workplace giving opportunities to their staff.
One of our longest and generous workplace contributors is Hannah Griffiths. Hannah is a Library Technician in the City of Boroondara in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and she contributes fortnightly directly from her salary. Through regular pre-tax donations, Hannah’s contributions to MS research over the years has grown substantially.
Hannah said “I was talking about this scheme the other day and trying to work out when I started, I think it was 11 years ago, it’s just so natural to me. I hope others also consider supporting MS Research Australia in this same way”.
Thanks to supporters like Hannah, in the last financial year, the combined generous support received from all of our workplace givers was enough to fund an incubator grant at a world class MS research laboratory in Australia.
With many organisation matching their employee’s pre-tax regular donations, this form of financial support proves to be the most effective form of giving for all involved. These donations are processed through the business’ payroll department on the behalf of the employee and allow the employee to receive an immediate tax benefit, rather than at the end of the financial year. Please consider joining this growing trend of giving and ask your employer if they offer a workplace giving program.
For more information on how to get involved with workplace giving, please go to our website.
