Workplace Giving
Strengthen the connection between your workplace and the community with our new giving model that allows your charitable giving to have a bigger impact, collectively.
Workplace Giving is a popular concept in North America, where many corporations and small businesses encourage community giving from all levels of their organisations. Philanthropy is encouraged from a young age, as workplace giving is seen as an affordable and accessible way to connect with the community.
Current workplace giving funds include:
How Workplace Giving works
The Acorn Foundation Workplace Giving programme allows you and your team to support our community through our simple yet effective, three-step process:
You decide to set up a fund for your business and invite employees to contribute
Employees use payroll deductions (as little as $5-$10 per pay period) to participate in the fund, and, as a company, you choose to support it in one of several ways:
- Seed the fund to get it started
- Match employee contributions
- Provide incentives/prizes for internal events to promote the fund
The Acorn Foundation team consult with your management and staff to select the best fund option to suit your needs
These options give you total flexibility and range from:
- A pass-through fund, where 100% of the donations are distributed to the community each year
- An endowment fund, where 100% of the donations build in equity so once the fund reaches $50,000, the interest earned is contributed to the community forever via annual distributions
- A combined fund, with perhaps 50% of the donations passing through each year and 50% of the donations building an endowment for the future
Your team sets up a Giving Committee to manage annual sign-ups and decide what community groups to support
This is where the fun and rewards really step in for your staff in terms of professional development, team building and doing social good
Why should you participate in Workplace Giving?
Whether you own a business, manage a team or work within a team, adding another layer of purpose to your day is enriching. Social enterprise brings a greater meaning to why you do what you do. At the Acorn Foundation, we believe the benefits of this sort of giving are immense, not just on our community but also for your business.
- It strengthens connections - social Workplace Giving strengthens the connections between a company, its employees and the community.
- It builds pride - the company is viewed as a positive corporate citizen that offers a desirable place to work.
- It unites employees – you’re all working for a common goal, while promoting healthy competition between departments, shifts or office locations.
- It allows everyone to feel they are contributing - because the focus is on participation rate, rather than dollar contribution, everyone is afforded the opportunity to contribute.
- It allows the fund to build quickly since donations from a large group flow directly into the fund and results can be seen right here in the Western Bay of Plenty.
- It manages your giving to add real impact – thereby reducing, or eliminating, the need to review one-off sponsorship requests. All your corporate giving projects can be consolidated and managed within this fund.
Giving back feels good, and when it’s a team effort, momentum builds quickly.
That’s why Workplace Giving makes good business sense.
Workplace Giving Information Document