GivingLarge Report Reveals $1.5 Billion in Corporate Giving: A Milestone Year for Australian Philanthropy
The GivingLarge 2024 report has unveiled a significant milestone in corporate philanthropy, with Australia’s top 50 corporate givers contributing a record-breaking $1.5 billion to community initiatives.
The 2024 contributions mark a remarkable 14% increase from 2023, injecting an additional $171 million into community initiatives and continuing a trend of record breaking giving.
As the leading annual record of corporate philanthropy in Australia, the GivingLarge report shines a spotlight on the country’s top corporate contributors, examining trends, challenges, and opportunities in business-led community investment. Now in its seventh year, the report reflects a sector that continues to evolve, with an increasing focus on strategic giving and transparency.
The 2024 analysis underscores the critical importance of corporate giving as Australians grapple with significant cost-of-living pressures, including rising inflation, interest rates, and energy prices.
Companies are pleasingly continuing to step-up their contributions, with this year’s results showing not only record donations but also an improvement in the percentage of pre-tax profits invested in communities, reaching 1.21% of pre-tax profit, a notable increase from last year.
Coles Group emerged again as the number one ranked company (fifth year in a row), contributing 9.9% of its pre-tax profit (rolling 3-year) to the community, which in 2024 equated to a $178 million contribution. These funds were strategically directed towards areas such as food rescue, health, education, and disaster relief, showcasing Coles’ continued leadership in aligning corporate giving with pressing societal needs. Other leading contributors by percentage included Woolworths, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank, Telstra, and CSL, while top dollar contributors included BHP, Coles, Woolworths, Rio Tinto, and NAB.
Funds from Australia’s leading companies were directed to charities and community organisations working in key areas such as social welfare, health, education and the environment—sectors identified as critical to addressing the challenges faced by Australian communities.
The report also highlighted substantial growth in giving from sectors like finance, consumer goods, and energy, with 20 companies in the top 50 increasing their contributions by over 15% compared to the previous year.
The 2024 growth was pre-dominantly driven by 6 companies that each lifted their contributions more than $20 million versus 2023. Santos, Telstra, NAB, Rio Tinto, Woolworths and Coles all reaching deeper into their pockets in 2024, with their total increase amounting to more than $160 million of extra funds to the community.
“This year’s record-breaking contributions come at a critical time for Australian communities,” said Jarrod Miles, Lead Researcher for GivingLarge. “With rising living costs and growing societal challenges, corporate giving has never been more important. The $1.5 billion milestone is not just a financial achievement; it reflects growing commitment from businesses to engage meaningfully with the needs of the communities they serve.”
“2024 results build on years of consistent growth, highlighting that corporate giving has evolved into a steady and integral part of business operations rather than a temporary response,”
A particularly exciting development in this year’s report was the continued emergence from a growing list of new age companies like, Who Gives A Crap, Humanitix, Canva, and Atlassian who are challenging traditional models of philanthropy and giving large amounts to the community.
These innovative organizations are reshaping the relationship between business and giving, seamlessly embedding social impact into their missions and redefining corporate philanthropy in the process.
Miles stating “In true entrepreneurial style these companies have developed innovative and forward-thinking philanthropic models that have helped to reinvent the relationship between business and community. Doing so by placing the firm’s desire to do good in the world right next to their imperative for financial success. An approach that has been met with firm support. It seems to have strongly and sustainably resonated with their customers and employees who they bring on a kind of socially minded adventure year in year out.”
The top 50 list now reflects a diverse range of contributors, including public and private companies, corporate foundations, and successful social enterprises, marking a significant evolution in Australia’s corporate giving landscape.
The GivingLarge 2024 report also highlights a growing trend in best practice reporting. An increasing number of companies are providing transparent data on their community investments, securing third-party assurance, and itemizing contributions. This commitment to transparency further underscores the rising importance of corporate philanthropy and ensures greater accountability for community outcomes.
Philanthropy Australia have been long term supporters of the report and commented on the results and the record breaking giving, CEO Maree Sidey saying
“Congratulations to Strive Philanthropy on this important research work. It is fantastic to read that the top 50 companies collectively invested more than $1.5 billion into communities – a new benchmark for corporate giving”
As the philanthropic landscape continues to evolve, the GivingLarge report offers critical insights for businesses, policymakers, and community organizations. It serves as a vital benchmark, highlighting achievements and areas for growth while encouraging stakeholders to leverage these findings to sustain and expand corporate social investment in Australia.
For more information contact Strive Philanthropy Director Jarrod Miles at [email protected]
Visit www.strivephilanthropy.com.au
Report Available https://strivephilanthropy.com.au/research-reports/
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About GivingLarge
The GivingLarge Report and research sets out to highlight the considerable community contributions being made by some of Australia’s top companies. The research conducted annually by Strive Philanthropy and now in its seventh year analyses the publicly available reports of our top companies, compiling their community investment statistics to develop a unique data set aimed to draw attention to corporate Australia’s efforts in this area. Supported by Philanthropy Australia, the findings of this report help to: Inform future corporate behaviour in community investment; encourage increased contributions & transparency; stimulate best practice sharing and create an environment of healthy corporate benchmarking.
About Strive Philanthropy
Strive Philanthropy is a research organisation dedicated to highlighting the notable philanthropic efforts of corporate Australia within our community. By highlighting corporate generosity, through focussed research and public awareness efforts, we will help to drive valued social change, increased transparency and increased community contributions. Strive has its sights set on working with companies to rapidly grow their mean percentage community investment. A goal that could drive millions of dollars to the Australian community.
