Give as you Live expands donor survey to the workplace

Howard Lake | 1 July 2013 | News

Online fundraising service Give as you Live is extending its Donor Survey to cover giving in the workplace. The survey has already been completed by 8,000 people so this will expand its coverage.

It is being carried out in partnership with Workplace Giving UK, who will use the findings with employers to help them in understanding how best to engage their workforce.

Give as you Live has already conducted research into employees' attitudes to giving. Its survey of over 1,000 people in employment found that there was a widespread belieft that employers could and should do more to help charities. The survey found that:

• 43% of workers across the UK feel that their company should be doing more to help charities and their local community.
   
• 52%) of employees claim their company does not have an official charity (or charities) that they plan to support this year.
   
• 50% of Londoners felt their company should be doing more to help; elsewhere the percentage was higher – 52% in Scotland, 56% in North East England, and 64% in Northern Ireland
   
• only 41% of UK employees have taken part in charity fundraising activities at work or with colleagues.
   
• 21% were unsure if their employer offered workplace giving schemes.

The survey was conducted by Censuswide between the 21 and 24 June 2013. Data is based on responses from 1,022 people in employment in the UK.

Polly Gowers, founder and CEO of Everyclick Ltd, the company behind Give as you Live, said: "It is sad that employees feel that charity giving in the workplace has taken a back seat… However, there are easy ways to encourage regular fundraising. In the digital age, CSR initiatives needn’t put pressure on people’s time but should be seen as a way to increase employee commitment and morale.”

Elena Joseph, Head of New Projects at Workplace Giving UK added: "It is heartening that [employees] want to engage in giving something back at work. We have always found that the key to successful engagement with companies and their workforces is to make it as easy as possible for employees to join in.

"Whether it’s using digital fundraising methods like Give as you Live, facilitating donations from pay via a Workplace Giving scheme or implementing other micro donation systems so that any employee can take part even if it’s only by giving odd pennies".

Polly Gowers will be speaking about giving in the workplace, the Donor Survey and the future of fundraising at the Institute of Fundraising National Convention on 1 July at 3pm in Meeting Room A.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.