Festival of giving

Time is money, and it couldn’t be more true in the lead up to Christmas. For the not-for-profit and charity sector, the festive season is at the core of their efforts – donating clothing, food and gifts to Australian families in need.

According to ‘Charitable Giving Index’ (12 months to August 2016) published by National Australia Bank, donations have fallen by 0.3 per cent, the first major decline in at least five years. The variables are stacked up against donations and purpose giving, with the most prominent being coined the ‘Smashed Avo economy’- highlighting the major discrepancies between household income and the cost of living. To reflect the shifts in traditional donating, the not-for-profit and charity sector are applying social enterprise or business principles to charity work.  One such charity is Good360.

The organisation has turned to the corporate world, looking to some of Australia’s largest manufacturers, retailers and organisations for support, particularly leveraging corporate volunteers during the busy Christmas period.

With the aim of getting brand-new, non-perishable goods into the hands of Australians in need, Good360 has been raising funds through crowd funding and philanthropy matching platforms. The money raised has been used to help fund the transport of‘Goodie Bags’ to member charities that distribute them to their communities. The Goodie Bags have been tailored with high quality goods for babies, girls & boys, teens and adults, meaning a special present for those with very little.

Corporate volunteers from Atlassian, Ernst & Young, Staples, Deloitte, Salesforce and Goodman will be in the Good360 warehouse packing the ‘goodie bags’ with toys, cosmetics, clothing and home wares up until Christmas.

“Giving-back is core to the Atlassian business model – we set up the Atlassian Foundation to help us do that. We are advocates of the Pledge 1 per cent movement, encouraging companies to donate 1 per cent of equity, staff time, profits and products. Our relationship with Good360 has been fundamental to help Atlassian, new to volunteering, experience what it means to give back using their staff volunteering time,” said Jonathan Srikanthan, manager of the Atlassian Foundation.

“We are very fortunate to have the support of Atlassian and benefit greatly from their Pledge 1 per cent.  This type of corporate philanthropy is a critical part of the Good360 model.  It is a movement that we would like to see become commonplace in corporate Australia,” Founder of Good360, Alison Covington said.

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