One of the most important things about a company is what it gives back to the community. Maeve Dorman, executive sponsor of PayPal Gives talks about how PayPal helps charities and the local community.
PayPal’s corporate social responsibility strategy is focused on ensuring that the company makes a positive and lasting impact on local communities. PayPal’s employees don’t just work in the local community – they help build it, actively supporting local and national charities, community groups, local businesses, schools and colleges.
Through the PayPal Gives initiative, the company actively supports and recognises PayPal employees who participate in charitable giving, volunteering and fundraising opportunities. In Ireland, PayPal donates tens of thousands of euros and provides thousands of volunteering hours each year through this charitable fund.
Here are some examples of the positive and impactful contributions that PayPal has made with Irish charities recently.
PayPal recently announced the donation of more than €55,000 to seven Irish charities. The donations demonstrate PayPal’s commitment to supporting the Irish communities in which it operates. In the last 12 months, the company has donated €110,000 to Irish charities through PayPal Gives.
Five of the charities received funding through the PayPal Gives initiative, a fund that supports and recognises PayPal employees who participate in charitable giving, volunteering and fundraising activities. A further two charities received donations through the PayPal Financial Inclusion Charity Grant Programme.
PayPal Gives
The five charities that received funding through PayPal Gives are ARC Cancer Support, homeless charity Depaul, children’s hospice Laura Lynn, Dundalk Dog Rescue and children’s charity Temple Street Foundation. The organisations were nominated by PayPal employees at the Blanchardstown and Dundalk offices and received a donation of €8,400 each.
ARC Cancer Support will use its donation to continue its work in supporting children and adults affected by cancer and those caring for them. Depaul, will fund a programme that supports homeless women leaving prison; helping them integrate successfully back into their local communities.
Laura Lynn’s donation will help fund its popular annual Light Up event, when the charity turns on its Christmas tree lights. The contribution to Temple Street Foundation will support a new play facility for children in the hospital, while Dundalk Dog Rescue’s funding will enable it to continue to give unwanted dogs a second chance.
Financial Inclusion Charity Grant Programme
Through the Financial Inclusion Charity Grant Programme, two more charities received support from PayPal.
They were selected from a number of charities that pitched their financial inclusion ideas, which aim to help people and businesses that struggle to secure safe and affordable financial services. The chosen charities were Junior Achievement Ireland, which received €9,300 and Outreach Moldova, which received €4,600 in funding.
Junior Achievement Ireland’s programme encourages young people to remain in education, while helping them to develop the skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world. As part of the programme, the charity will provide financial training and workshops for schoolchildren in Louth and 50 PayPal employees in Dundalk have volunteered to help deliver the workshop.
Meanwhile, Outreach Moldova works with orphaned and abandoned children in Moldova with disabilities, chronic illnesses and terminal illnesses. PayPal’s contribution will help it to provide integrated support services and assistance to more than 400 children living in its residential accommodation and temporary residential units.
Charity hackathon
Always looking at new and innovative ways to serve local communities, PayPal recently hosted Opportunity Hack – it’s first-ever charity hackathon in Ireland. The event saw 15 teammates build and develop digital resources for five Irish charities over a 24-hour period. The PayPal techies built a bidding app for the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation that was used for a public art auction which aimed to raise €65,000 for the charity.
The hackathon also resulted in new websites for the National Exotic Animal Sanctuary, Dundalk Dog Rescue and BeLonG To, a non-profit for LGBT young people. PayPal teammates helped Move4Parkinson’s digitise its dance classes and streamline its database.
Giving back to the community
Corporate social responsibility is about giving back to our local community, supporting local businesses, encouraging entrepreneurism and looking out for, and after, our greatest asset – our people.
Our teammates decide which charities we support and they often get actively involved with the charities too. They are passionate about giving back and sharing their skills, they are proud to work for a company that encourages that. Our team feels a great sense of achievement when they see the positive impact we have in the communities we operate in.
The PayPal Gives initiative is something that we at PayPal are extremely proud of, as it reflects the spirit of giving rooted within our company. The programme allows our teammates to see that they are making a real, tangible difference to the charities that they care about in terms of donations, volunteering and fundraising opportunities.
We are delighted to support the charities that received a grant this year and we recognise the invaluable work each of them does.
More than 2,000 of our teammates had their say on which charities we should support this year through the PayPal Gives initiative. Thirty of our teammates have just completed a six-week volunteering programme in Dundalk and more than 100 people participated in PayPal’s float at the Dublin Pride Parade last year.
It’s fantastic to see that level of engagement in PayPal’s CSR initiatives as it proves how important giving back is to our people. They consistently and enthusiastically engage in activities like this and the fact that we invest in CSR is a great source of pride for them.
This helps us to attract and retain our top talent, who enjoy working together in a culture of collaboration, respect and innovation.
By Maeve Dorman
Maeve Dorman is the executive sponsor of PayPal Gives.
