In Mayo in 2013, businesses donated a total of €458,011 in cash and in kind donations to local charities and community groups. More than 1,295 hours were volunteered by local employees and over 134 community partnerships were supported. This information is being captured by Business in the Community Ireland, on an online interactive map entitled the Business Impact Map which gives a county by county breakdown of how companies such as A&L Goodbody, ESB, Intel Ireland, Diageo Ireland and their employees supported their local community groups and charities during 2013.
The map which can be viewed online at http://livemaps.bitc.ie captures statistics from 49 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 almost €9.5 million was given in cash donations, €11 million was contributed through in kind donations, a significant increase from €6 million in 2012, and €3 million was raised through employee fundraising. Employees also volunteered some 162,000 hours to local groups and projects during the year. Social issues that received the most support were health at €5.2 million, education programmes at €5.5 million, children and youth projects at €4.6 million, and community programmes at €2 million.
BITCI further reveal that trends in corporate giving and community involvement have changed significantly as businesses have adopted a more strategic and sustained approach to how and why they support specific causes and issues in their communities while strengthening their employee engagement programmes. Intel Ireland’s Intel Involved and KPMG’s Project BRIGHT are just two of the successful employee programmes that encourage and recognise staff who identify social issues, come up with unique solutions and use voluntary time to make a difference.
“This is our fifth year to compile these national statistics on the Business Impact Map. In a year that has seen a decline in charitable donations in Ireland, and as times are getting tougher, what we have noticed is that companies are contributing more in the way of in kind donation, pro bono support, and employee volunteering hours. This shows that companies are still keen to have an impact on society and on their local areas but are providing support in different ways and using their own skill set to provide job placements, mentoring, pro bono work, or other products and services free of charge to local groups and charities on a long term basis.” said Tina Roche, CEO of Business in the Community Ireland.
In the county by county breakdown, counties which ranked the highest for overall funding outside Dublin were Kildare receiving €2.5 million, Cork receiving €1.1 million, Galway receiving €623,000, and Mayo receiving €458,000. However for employee fundraising Cork ranked the highest at €161,000 in total, followed by Galway at €126,000 and Limerick at €125,000. For volunteering hours, after Dublin, Kildare was well ahead of the rest with more than 23,000 hours volunteered. Next were Meath and Cork with 10,900 and 8,200 hours respectively.
Mayo member companies profiled on the map are: Abbott Ireland, Bank of Ireland, BITCI - Schools' Business Partnership, Boots Retail Ireland Ltd, Bord Gáis Networks, BT Ireland, Coca-Cola Ireland, EirGrid Group, ESB, IBM Ireland Ltd, Intel Ireland, Kellogg's, Microsoft Ireland, MSD, PepsiCo, Shell E&P Ireland Ltd, Topaz, and Ulster Bank.
