Are young people engaged with giving?

There is growing evidence of increased charitable giving by young people and that they are more engaged in social issues than previous generations. Our research demonstrates clearly that the proportion of society’s youngest generations giving their time, support or donating money to charitable causes is increasing at a faster rate than the older age groups.

Our findings evidence what automotive manufacturers may already be aware of from the habits of their own employees, particularly if they offer payroll giving or volunteering days.

What are the IMPLICATIONS AS AN EMPLOYER?

In response to the philanthropic ambitions of their employees, automotive manufacturers are well placed to facilitate their employees’ own charitable instincts by offering payroll giving. For those who do not offer such a scheme they may be denying them access to tax-efficient giving and preventing money reaching charities in need of financial support.

WHAT MESSAGE DOES YOUR CHARITABLE ACTIVITY COMMUNICATE TO YOUR STAKEHOLDERS?

Based on the extensive experience in our Corporate Advisory team of developing successful charity partnerships for our clients, we know that people, product, and profit should all play a part. But even a partnership that hits those notes will fall short if automotive manufacturers don’t also communicate to their employees a clear alignment between its corporate charity partnerships and its wider business strategy. We have found that who the partnership is with can be as important as the support that flows between the two partners.

That is not to say that community investment and charitable giving is uncommon across the automotive industry. The latest SMMT Sustainability Report states that in 2015 its signatories reported making charitable donations of almost £5 million, plus in-kind contributions worth more than £1.2 million, and gave over 160,000 hours of their time. Outside of those signatories, and extending more globally, those numbers will be significantly higher, reaching the hundreds of millions.

Such activity demonstrates that the automotive industry is clearly engaged in social causes, but to what extent is such engagement strategic and undertaken with the intention of demonstrating a philanthropic commitment to customers? And as large employers, is it used to drive employee engagement and create brand champions across the workforce?

Those are just some of the questions that automotive manufacturers need to be asking themselves as they consider the relationships they want to have with members of the millennial generation now and in the future.

CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY INSIGHT