Business Impact Map
Business Impact Map shows Irish Companies Contribute Over €27 million to Charities and Community Groups in 2015
Fifty one socially minded Irish companies have formed over 7200 community links and donated over €27 million in cash donations, in-kind donations and employee fundraising to local charities and community groups. This information is being captured by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), on an online interactive map entitled the “Business Impact Map” which gives a county by county breakdown of how companies and their employees supported their local community groups and charities during 2015.
The map is launched Wednesday May 18th as part of BITCI’s Skills for Good event hosted by Bank of Ireland, Dublin where business leaders and NGOs will come together to discuss the business benefits of engaging with communities as it can increase staff engagement and help attract and retain talent.
The map which can be viewed online here captures statistics from 51 of Ireland’s largest companies that are members of Business in the Community Ireland, Ireland’s leading organisation on corporate responsibility and only network for responsible business practices. National statistics show that over €11.3 million was given in cash donations; €10.5 million was contributed through in-kind donations and almost €5.3 million was raised through employee fundraising. Employees also volunteered over 213,000 hours to local groups and projects during the year.
Speaking at the launch event were Shay Walsh, Managing Director of BT Ireland, Gerry Keating, Director of Human Resources, Sue Conlan, CEO Irish Refugee Council and Sharon Morrow, CEO LauraLynn Children’s Hospice. They spoke about the importance of matching volunteering skills of employees with strategic community partners.
According to a report from ‘The Millennial Impact’, millennial employees are looking at an employer’s community engagement when seeking a job, and the quality of the CSR programme influences whether they remain there. The top factors for Millennials in applying for a job are in order; what the organisation does, sells, produces, work culture, involvement with causes, office environment and diversity and HR awards.
Increasingly, employees want to work with companies who have values that align with their own and also expect companies to engage with community groups as standard.
Tina Roche, Chief Executive, Business in the Community Ireland said: “Employees are the heroes of this story. They volunteered over 213,000 hours in just one year alone and we see this increasing all the time. The big trend is utilising professional skills to help local causes and this benefits the charities but crucially is engaging employees and boosting morale”.
KPMG, Positive Impact.
9/5/16
Pic Orla Murray/ Ark Photography
Social issues that received the most support were health at €5 million, community projects at €1.9 million, education programs at €1.8 million and arts and sports projects at €1.4 million.
In the county by county breakdown, counties which ranked the highest for overall funding outside of Dublin were Cork receiving €1.1 million, Mayo receiving €1.09 million, Kildare receiving €742,000 and Galway receiving €567,000. However for employee fundraising Kildare ranked the highest at €406,000 in total followed by Cork at €135,000 and Wexford at €121,000. For volunteering hours, after Dublin, Kildare was well ahead of the rest with over 18,000 hours volunteered. Next were Meath and Cork with 7,600 and 7,300 hours respectively.
