Tech firms contributed €11.5m to charities in Ireland in 2013

23 May 2014

Tech firms including AOL Ireland, eBay Inc Ireland, IBM, Intel Ireland, Microsoft, Oracle, Vodafone Ireland, O2 Ireland, Eircom and BT Ireland contributed €11.5m to charities and communities groups in Ireland in 2013.

The companies contributed more than €1m in cash donations, €344,000 in employee fundraising and more than €9m in in-kind donations.

Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI) captured this information on an online interactive map entitled the Business Impact Map. The 10 firms are amongst 49 socially minded, large Irish-based companies to feature on the map.

National statistics show that more than €24m was contributed by businesses to the community and voluntary sector in Ireland.

Some €9.5m was given in cash donations, 11m was contributed through in-kind donations and €3m was raised through employee fundraising. Employees also volunteered more than 162,000 hours to local groups and projects during the year.

Unique solutions

BITCI

BITCI further reveals that trends in corporate giving and community involvement have changed significantly, as businesses have adopted a more strategic and sustained approach to how and why they support specific causes and issues in their communities while strengthening their employee engagement programmes.

For example, Intel Ireland’s Intel Involved is a successful employee programme that encourages and recognises staff that identify social issues, come up with unique solutions and use voluntary time to make a difference.

“The businesses featured on the map are positively impacting the communities they operate in by using their strong position to address vital social issues and causes such as youth employment, homelessness and education, where under funding can be hugely detrimental,” said Tina Roche, CEO of Business in the Community Ireland.

“Companies are providing support to the many groups and organisations involved in a range of issues and as a result are reporting increased staff engagement and satisfaction. We would encourage all Irish companies to act this way.”

Donate image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com