Charity begins at home for Galway businesses

Twenty nine companies in Galway contributed just short of three-quarters of a million euro to support community groups and organisations last year.

Over 300 community partnerships have been established through this contribution of €748,000 euro to help address key social issues and causes – and on top of that, employees volunteered over 5,000 hours to local groups and projects in Galway.

The information was collated by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), for 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 2014.

The companies – either based in Galway or with operations here – included A&L Goodbody, Abbott Ireland, Amgen, Arup, BAM Contractors Ltd, Bank of Ireland, BaxterStorey, Boots, BT Ireland, Enterprise Rent A Car, ESB, IBM Ireland and Intel Ireland.

They also included KBC Bank Ireland, Kellogg’s, KPMG, Marks & Spencer, Microsoft Ireland, MSD, Oracle Ireland Ltd., Roadbridge, RTE, Shell E&P Ireland Ltd., State Street, Tesco Ireland, Top Oil, Topaz, Ulster Bank and the Vodafone Ireland Foundation.

The map which can be viewed online at http://livemaps.bitc.ie captures statistics from 48 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 €10.5 million was given in cash donations; €8.6 million was contributed through in-kind donations and almost €3.5 million was raised through employee fundraising. Employees also volunteered over 212,000 hours to local groups and projects during the year, a significant increase from 162,000 in 2013.

Social issues that received the most support in Ireland were health at almost €6.6 million, education programmes at €2.3 million, children and youth projects at €2.28 million and poverty programmes at €2.26 million.

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. According to a PWC Millennials Study in 2014, 1 in 2 recent college graduates are seeking a company that has CSR values that align with their own.

In addition, companies know that promoting volunteering amongst staff can improve morale and engagement.   88% of HR Executives believe that volunteerism has a positive impact on reputation and is valued by and benefits staff according to a 2013 Deloitte Volunteer Impact Survey.