Employer charity support increases worker loyalty but just 1 in 4 businesses give to good causes
Melanie May | 6 January 2025 | News
More than half of employees (54%) say having an employer that supports charities increases their sense of pride in working there, while 51% say it encourages their loyalty to the company.
However, according to Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) research, 75% of businesses in the UK don’t give anything to charity, whether in the form of cash, in-kind donations or employee volunteering hours.
CAF surveyed 1,880 employees via YouGov and also found that for 47%, having an employer that supports charities increases their willingness to go the extra mile for that employer.
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The impact of employer support for good causes is highest among younger age groups: more than three-fifths (63%) of 16-24-year-olds say their company’s charitable giving increased both their sense of pride as an employee and their loyalty to the organisation. More than half of 25-34-year-olds said the same (57% and 54% respectively). For 45-54-year-olds, the percentage drops to just below half (47% and 48% respectively). For over 55s, around a third of those surveyed saw a positive link.
Philippa Cornish, Head of Corporate Clients at CAF, said:
“We are seeing a growing movement towards ‘responsible business’ and charitable giving should be considered a crucial pillar of these strategies. Giving to charities is good for business. It offers businesses the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to their communities as well as their staff. Corporate giving has become an important when considering whether you want to work for somebody or not. Businesses should remember this when looking to attract and retain new generations of workers, particularly when competition for talent is high.”
The Skipton Group commits 1% of its pre-tax profits to charity, and has recently designed a giving programme. Michaela Wright, its Head of Sustainability, said:
“We are working to tackle significant challenges aligned to housing and money. Our colleagues and members helped to choose which charities to support, ensuring that we’re focusing on meaningful impact across areas that are important to them. Our charitable giving aims to help our members and wider society overcome barriers preventing people from having a home, accessing financial advice and education, and increasing awareness and action to support making our homes warmer and more energy efficient.”
Recommendations for businesses
CAF has provided some tips for businesses wanting to engage employees with their corporate giving:
- Commit to matched giving – such as via supporting colleague fundraisers by matching the money raised with a company donation, or by matching employees’ regular giving, via a payroll giving programme
- Make sure employees can feed into a business’s corporate giving strategy, for example by voting for the charities the company supports.
- Communicate with employees regularly about what the company is doing to support charities, how and why.
- Enable employees to be good corporate citizens in the places where they live and work by offering employee volunteer hours as part of a corporate giving strategy and incentivise their individual efforts through matching donations.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.