Business in the Community Ireland says that 60 member companies contributed over €30m to charities and community groups in 2018, while employees racked up 265,000 volunteer hours on good causes.

Data collected by BITCI has been turned into a ‘Business Impact Map’ online, with a breakdown of how the 60 companies and their employees supported local community groups and charities during 2018.

BITCI has counted €13.5m given in cash donations,  €11.7m in-kind donations and €5.5m raised through employee fundraising.

Chief executive Tomás Sercovich said: “Employees want to work for companies that encourage volunteering as part of everyday business, and want to work where their values align with their employer. 

“Companies understand the critical value of engaging in tackling social issues. Employee engagement is a critical tool to attract and retain the best talent, as employees now expect their employers to have a community strategy in place as standard.

In Association with

“We recently launched The Inclusive Employer, a blueprint for social inclusion as we believe business must play a key role in supporting the employment and employability of marginalised people. We encourage all companies in Ireland to focus their community outreach activities on education and employment,” he added.

This year BITCI has asked member companies to map their community support against the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Business in the Community Ireland members represented on the Business Impact Map are:  A&L Goodbody, Abbott Laboratories Ireland, AbbVie, Accenture, Aldi, Bank of Ireland Group, Boots Ireland, BT, Central Bank of Ireland, Compass Group Ireland, Cook Medical Ireland Ltd., Cork Chamber, Dawn Meats Group, Deloitte, DePuy Synthes, Dublin Bus, eir, EirGrid plc, Energia, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, ESB Group, Fidelity Investments Ireland, Fujitsu Ireland, Gas Networks Ireland, HEINEKEN Ireland, Hovione Ireland, Intel Ireland, Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard, Janssen Pharmaceutical Sciences UC, Janssen Sciences Ireland UC, Johnson & Johnson (Ireland), Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, KBC Bank Ireland, KPMG, Lidl Ireland, Marks & Spencer (Ireland) Ltd, Mars Ireland, Matheson, Mazars, Momentum Support, Musgrave Group, National Lottery, Permanent TSB, PM Group, RTÉ, Servier (Ireland) Industries Ltd., Siemens Healthineers, SSE Ireland, State Street, Symantec, Tesco Ireland,  Transdev Dublin Light Rail Limited, Ulster Bank Ireland DAC, Veolia, Verizon Media, Vermilion Energy, Virgin Media Ireland, Vodafone Ireland, William Fry and ZAGG International. 

The Business Impact Map is available to view here.

Photo (l-r): Tomás Sercovich, Sarah Williams of NCBI, minister Sean Canney and Fujitsu’s Tony O’Malley. (Pic:  Jason Clarke)