This article was published in The Australian Financial Review BOSS as part of their annual corporate philanthropy feature. GivingLarge data is used as a leading source for the list and feature coverage.
Canva, Cotton On and Atlassian among the top 20 corporate givers
The amount of funds donated by the top 50 corporate philanthropists has jumped to $1.7 billion.
Founder-led businesses have developed a reputation for taking a long-term view of the corporate landscape, reinvesting profits and thinking hard before they part with precious capital.
They are also beginning to develop a reputation for giving. Last year, three founder-led companies – design software maker Canva, clothing retailer Cotton On and collaboration software group Atlassian – were among the top 20 corporate philanthropists, donating more to charity than the likes of Wesfarmers, QBE Insurance, IAG, Qantas and Transurban.
In the year to December 2023, Canva distributed $31.6 million for disadvantaged people through the Canva Foundation, which was established in mid-2020 with a donation from co-founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams.
The amount donated in the past year is more than double the $14.7 million given away in 2023, and is likely to keep rising given that Perkins and Obrecht have pledged to give 80 per cent of their fortune to the Canva Foundation.
Atlassian, founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, donated $22.6 million, up from $17.1 million last time, mainly to education-related causes, while Cotton On, founded by Nigel Austin in 1991, gave away $29.1 million in 2024.
The increase in giving programs by the founder-led businesses, as well as by supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths, pushed the amount of funds donated by the top 50 corporate philanthropists to $1.7 billion in 2023-24, the annual The Australian Financial Review Corporate Philanthropy 50 list shows.
The Corporate Philanthropy 50 list is the sister of The Financial Review Philanthropy 50 list, which measures donations from Australia’s richest individual givers. It is the sixth year the list has been calculated, since when donations by the top company givers have risen from $1 billion.
Impressive year
The Corporate Philanthropy 50 list is compiled by John McLeod, co-founder of JBWere Philanthropic Services, and Jarrod Miles, the founder of Strive Philanthropy.
“It has been another impressive year of growth in corporate community investment. Overall, the growth has been across the board, rather than being driven by just a couple of large increases. Seventy per cent of companies showed an increase,” McLeod says.
“This year also saw a prominent appearance from a growing list of newer industry companies such as Canva, Atlassian, Humanitix and Who Gives A Crap, which are approaching the relationship between philanthropy and business as an even more core part of their DNA,” Miles says.The Cotton On Foundation was established in 2007. The foundation raises funds from the proceeds of a raft of products sold by Cotton On, such as tote bags, mints, wipes and hand sanitiser, and distributes the money to charity. The collection model was designed to make it possible for young people to donate.
“[For young people] you have got to make giving easy. We don’t ask for $50 or $100 donations. It’s an average of $3 that they contribute,” says Tim Diamond, general manager of the Cotton On Foundation.
Cotton On has surveyed its global customers, whose average age is 21, to find out where they would like the funds to be spent. The answer is education, the environment and health.
For education, Cotton On supports close to 30 villages in southern Uganda, where 15,000 students have been through schools funded by the foundation. The retailer, which operates 1400 stores globally, has since developed similar programs in South Africa and Thailand, on the Myanmar border.
Diamond says the intention is to survey customers every three years to check their donation preferences. Cotton On has just completed its latest survey.“We think that’s a good cycle to understand, especially from a youth perspective, where things change rapidly,” Diamond says.“[We are thinking] what does it look like in terms of our investment over the next three years? We believe we will probably raise and contribute about $70 million over the next three years. So it’s a pivotal time to look at, where is that $70 million best placed?”Telstra donated $64.5 million in the 12 months to June 2024, a 60 per cent increase on the year before and making the telco one of the top 10 corporate givers on this year’s list.
Justine Rowe, Telstra’s chief sustainability officer, attributes the rise to higher community need, an increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters, and the expansion of the company’s strategic partnerships.
The telco is also “better positioned to measure employees’ engagement and participation in the programs and the support they give”, Rowe says, adding that employees care about the group’s philanthropic activities.
“They take pride in working for a company that prioritises social investment and are motivated by the positive impact their contributions can make.”
The top corporate donor last year was mining behemoth BHP, which distributed $209 million, or 0.85 per cent of its pre-tax profit in the year to June.
Coles and Woolworths made outsized contributions to philanthropic causes, donating $178 million and $143 million respectively, equal to more than 10 per cent of pre-tax profits.
The figure includes surplus food sent to charities such as OzHarvest.
“These donations are having a big impact on the community through organisations like OzHarvest, SecondBite and FoodBank, dedicated to feeding people in need,” Miles says. “This large proportion of ‘in kind’ donations, compared to more direct cash by others, shows as a bigger percentage of pre-tax profit.”
“Gifts of product and employee time volunteering can also have significant community impact. Companies should be looking to commit various resources to communities, depending on their needs and what companies have to contribute from either assets, income or expertise,” McLeod adds.
Three of the big four accounting firms also recorded a drop in their giving programs last year as they were hit by lower demand for advisory services from public sector clients and large corporate clients.
PwC distributed $11.8 million to charitable programs, down from $12.4 million, KPMG gave away $9.8 million, down from $12.9 million, and Deloitte distributed $16.5 million, against $19.2 million last year.
Only EY bucked the trend, donating $20.4 million, up from $18.8 million.
Sources used to compile the list include the GivingLarge report, publicly available company sustainability and CSR reports and The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Amounts include philanthropic donations and in-kind support such as volunteering. The figures exclude staff donations, revenue foregone, political donations, commercial sponsorships or purchases of community goods or services when business in nature.
