Business in the Community Ireland revealed this week that top companies contributed more than €198,000 and 687 volunteer hours to Mayo charities and community groups in 2015. They revealed that 19 companies contributed more than €198,000 to support community groups and organisations in Mayo in addressing key social issues and good causes in 2015.
In excess of 260 community partnerships have been established, and employees volunteered some 687 hours to local groups and projects in Mayo. The companies who made an impact in Mayo were Abbott Ireland, BAM Contractors, Bank of Ireland Group, Boots Retail Ireland Ltd, BT, Dawn Meats Group, eir, ESB Group, FBD, IBM Ireland Ltd, Marks and Spencer, MSD, Roadbridge, SSE Airtricity, Tesco Ireland, Top Oil, Ulster Bank, and Veolia.
This information is given by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI ), on its online interactive 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, which can be viewed at www.bitc.ie, 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.
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.”
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.
Nationally, social issues that received the most support were health at €5 million, community projects at €1.9 million, education programmes at €1.8 million, and arts and sports projects at €1.4 million.
