Welcome to Workplace Connections - your new regular ACF e-newsletter.

Why Workplace Connections? As category leader in workplace giving our focus is helping our employer and community partners achieve greater social impact through engaged employee giving. The heart of our business model is built on creating connections. We bring together employers and community partners, and help employers connect and engage with their employees more meaningfully.

In coming e-newsletters we plan to share with you ideas, knowledge and skills to engage employees, build effective relationships and increase support for the community sector in a sustainable and low cost manner.

You can help by contributing stories or story ideas and best practice case studies from which other employer and community partners can learn to help fuel success.

Edward Kerr
CEO, The Australian Charities Fund

ACF's new model became fully operational on 1 October marking the beginning of a new chapter in the growth of engaged employee giving in Australia.

Just over a year ago, ACF commenced a strategic review aimed at identifying what we needed to do to help our employer and community partners achieve greater social impact through engaged employee giving. The result of this review is our new operating model which will assist ACF in three important ways:

• Ensure we continue to play a leadership role in facilitating employee giving with Australian employers and the community sector
• Ensure we can respond to the growing demands on our resources to provide support to both our employer and community partners, and
• As a non-profit organisation, provide us with the funding needed to sustain our mission, impact and future growth.
  

Since May we have conducted more than 150 meetings with senior leaders from organisations we work with currently to discuss our proposed new model. The vast
majority of our employers have agreed to partner with us under the new model and over 110 community organisations have agreed to partner with us.

Partners gain exclusive access to proprietary leadership tools including:

• ACF workplace giving program materials
• Workshops driving creative employee engagement
• Charity champion training and successful workplace giving program learning
• Knowledge sharing and insights from our ongoing research program
• Growth initiatives and access to advisory support from our experienced team of workplace giving specialists

Workplace giving differs from other types of fundraising and needs community organisations to adopt a different approach. In particular, we will be encouraging our community partners to respond creatively to the insight gained from our Cutting to the Heart of Workplace Giving research which identified donors want to know the difference their donations make. Also, non-donors are much more likely to join their organisation's WPG program when this difference is spelt out.

ACF is proud that the workplace giving programs it facilitates lead the category with a 16% average participation rate. However, ACF also believes there is significant potential for further growth. Effective communication and celebration of workplace giving achievements are key to growing awareness and participation.

ACF will be encouraging employer partners to lift the veil on workplace giving and give it greater visibility.

Our measures of success include increasing the:

• Awareness of employee giving programs
• Number of ACF facilitated programs, and
  
• Employee participation rates in ACF facilitated programs.

ACF will succeed if our employer and community partners commit to working with us actively to build a culture of employee giving across the Australian workforce.

The founding members of ACF's new Employer Leadership Initiative were announced at our Conference held mid-September.

The employers that have committed to leading the growth of employee giving with us are:

• ANZ
• Australia Post
• Bain & Company
• Ageing, Disability and Home Care, Department of Human Services NSW
• Goldman Sachs
• The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
• JB Hi-Fi
• Mallesons Stephen Jaques
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Singtel Optus Pty Ltd

This group has provided ACF with additional financial support and have committed to provide thought and implementation leadership.

Goldman Sachs Co-CEO Stephen Fitzgerald said "Goldman Sachs in Australia is a member of the Australian Charities Fund Employer Leadership Initiative due to the role ACF plays in providing advice and expertise in structuring corporate workplace giving programs."

Mallesons Stephen Jaques Special Counsel Jane Farnsworth said Mallesons' vision was to achieve community impact through engaging partners and staff in workplace giving.
"Today our commitment to the community goes beyond donating money, skills and time to developing strong mutually beneficial partnerships with our workplace giving charities. We are proud of the social impact achieved through our collaborative workplace giving projects."

Boasting one of the highest workplace giving participation rates in Australia, Mallesons has extended workplace giving to its London and Hong Kong offices. Part of the Mallesons in the Community program, it has encouraged a shared sense of identity and purpose for partners and staff across Mallesonsʼ local and international offices.

You'll find more information on our ELI members on our website and over time we will be sharing more learning and insights about why these organisations are at the forefront of workplace giving and community and employee engagement.

While there are 10 founding members, ELI is not a closed group and ACF is hopeful many more leading employers will seek the opportunity to become part of the leadership initiative as awareness and commitment to workplace giving grows.

Click here for more on the ELI Members

"Giving Pays has helped us create a more cohesive, positive and engaged workforce. It has become the foremost vehicle for team and morale building and helps demonstrate our values, foster a more connected workplace and provides a source of organisational pride."

Julianne Sanders
Acting Director, Corporate Communications
Ageing, Disability and Home Care, Department of Human Services NSW

Recognising leadership and collaboration are critical to help grow awareness of workplace giving, one of the hot ticket agenda items getting the focus of ACF and its newly appointed Employer Leadership Initiative is a national campaign.

Aiming to kick off during 2011, ACF CEO Ted Kerr said ACF and ELI members are working actively toward developing a campaign focused on lifting workplace giving's profile amongst working Australians and growing participation.

More than two-thirds of survey respondents agreed the Government should fund a national campaign to promote planned giving, and especially payroll giving. Conducted by Pro Bono Australia during the first week of this year's election campaign, more than 1,500 people working in the not-for-profit community sector shared their views.

Kerr said ACF and ELI members believe growing awareness and understanding of the difference workplace giving can make would benefit all sectors.

The Productivity Commission Report into the Contribution of the Not-for-Profit Sector highlighted the level of giving by Australians is likely to rise significantly if planned giving - especially through payroll giving - is encouraged.

Feedback from our conference held last month, that brought together for the first time both our employer and community partners, has been overwhelmingly positive.

A key theme of the conference was the importance of collaboration.

Over 175 people from our employer and community partners took advantage of the opportunity to share, listen and learn from our diverse speaker line-up.

Changing formats, we mixed things up this year with short power sessions and longer presentations covering a broad range of relevant themes including the challenges of collaboration, what corporates can learn from the NFP sector, new models of social investment, social media, volunteering and creative employee engagement.

You'll find speaker presentations, videos and our photo gallery by logging on to our site.

Highlights from three of our presenters with food for thought employer and community partner opportunities follow below.

"Workplace giving democratises CSR."

• Short-term funding contributes to the not-for-profit sector's "hand-to-mouth existence" undermining genuine collaboration. Social innovation is constrained by corporate caution and bureaucratic risk aversion.
• Organisations need to work together to co-design new partnerships that overcome the asymmetry of power. Not just boards, CEOs and senior executives but employees, case-workers, community activists and 'street-level' public servants need to be involved.
• Workplace giving engages people in a way that gives authenticity to the partnership between the corporate and community sector. It creates a reality that "goes beyond the confused rhetoric of corporate social responsibility".
• Companies are now more focused on the impact of social and environmental behaviours on corporate longevity. They are also increasing their emphasis on measuring social return on investment.

Employer partner opportunity

When collaborating with community partners, consider funding commitment horizons. How do they impact your community partner mix and the cause areas your organisation and employees wish to support?

Community partner opportunity

Are you committed to demonstrating to corporate partners and their contributing employees the difference their workplace giving donations are making?

“Regardless of the size of a business, connection with our community and giving back is important, particularly for staff.”

• The Institute is the first member-based professional association to extend its workplace giving program ‘Everybody Counts’ to its membership with particular focus on small to medium sized chartered firms. This groundbreaking initiative focuses on the ‘collective’ potential to support the work of its charity partners.
• ICAA recognised that small to medium sized chartered firms lacked the resources to easily make a workplace giving program a reality. Leveraging its impact and reach as a professional membership body, ICAA is working with ACF to package comprehensive workplace giving resource kits with step-by-step instructions, tools and templates for implementing the program within member practices.
• A successful pilot program convinced ICAA to support a national program rollout to be launched to Relationship Managers later this month.
• Everybody Counts offers small to medium practices access to a proven program to help build their reputation as an employer of choice by creating a strong culture of community involvement, thus enhancing their reputation among clients and the local community.

Employer partner opportunity

Could you increase employee engagement and organisational pride by doing more to visibly recognise and celebrate the difference and impact your collective donations are having with your community partners?

Community partner opportunity

Do your workplace giving programs go beyond recognising and celebrating individual donors to tap into the ‘collective’ impact of donors coming together in support of a cause?

• 1 student in every year 12 classroom in Australia will have attempted suicide. Only 2 in 7 seek professional help. Inspire Foundation uses technology and social media to reach the other 5 who, for whatever reason, don’t want to talk to those around them to get help.
• Facebook lets Inspire reach young people before they are conscious they need help. Twitter lets them keep people up-to-date on new information about mental health. Twitter also points them to reports and statistics showing the impact Inspire is having. This helps to educate people about the cause allowing supporters to promote Inspire to their friends.
• Giving helps a donor’s mental health and well being. Social media offers an opportunity to enhance people’s efforts through recognition, demonstrating appreciation and elevating self-esteem.
• Learning shows people following Inspire Foundation on Twitter are not all financial supporters but engaging at an earlier stage before committing their support. 

Employer partner opportunity

Workplace giving is about creating a community of engaged donors who care and want to make a difference. How could you use social media to encourage staff to talk about your workplace giving programs and the difference it is making?

Community partner opportunity

How could you use social networks to bring employer and employee donors together connecting with and inspiring them through shared stories bringing to life the difference their donations are making?

ACF is currently conducting two research projects - Project Connect and Project Engage. Each is exploring opportunities to improve the effectiveness of workplace giving communication.

Part of ACF’s ongoing commitment to research and knowledge sharing, each project builds on The Giving Business and Cutting to the Heart of Workplace Giving research insights.

Project Engage is a qualitative research project drawing on confidential interviews with community and employer partners and employees to review the efficiency, effectiveness and engagement of ACF’s current communications processes across internal and external audiences.

Collaborating with a roundtable group representing employer and community partners, Project Connect explores the viability and desirability of direct communication between community partners and employees.

Due for completion at the end of 2010 and in quarter two 2011 respectively, both projects are on track and already adding value to the evolution of our business.

Recent consultation with the not-for-profit sector has resulted in the expansion of the PwC Transparency Awards to include NFPs with >$5 million in revenues versus >$10 million in previous years. A new Most Improved Award will be presented to the 2010 nominee showing the most significant improvement from their 2009 submission.

2010 Transparency Award categories:

• Generate revenue >$20m (category 1, capped at 30 registrations)
• Generate revenue >$5m but less than or equal to $20m (category 2, capped at 40 registrations)

Category winners receive $20,000 while the runner up in each category receives $10,000 towards training and development or study tours.

Conducted in association with the Centre for Social Impact and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, Sarah Buckley, Director, Corporate Responsibility, PwC said the awards give not-for-profit organisations the opportunity to demonstrate they take transparency and reporting seriously.

Reviewed by a panel of experts, all entrants will get a report giving them individual feedback on their reporting practices and sector trends.

Register on-line at http://www.pwc.com.au/about-us/corporate-responsibility/transparency-awards/index.htm by 5pm Friday 29 October 2010.

ACF's account management team line-up has the experience, talent and passion to make a difference working with our partners.

Under our new model every ACF employer partner has an assigned account manager while each of our 100+ community partners has a dedicated contact.

Click here to read about the ACF Team

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