Employees raise ‘free’ money via TheGivingMachine
Capgemini is giving employees in the UK an opportunity to donate money to charities, such as Alzheimer’s Research UK, for free, in a first of a kind collaboration with fundraising shopping website, TheGivingMachine.
From 7 July 2011, over 8,000 employees will be given the chance to join the Capgemini Giving Group and every time they checkout at their regular online shops, they will be able to raise money for charity, without having to spend a penny extra.
TheGivingMachine is a unique shopping website which generates donations for over 3,000 charities and school PTAs every time a registered user shops online at any one of over 300 major online retailers. Every year, online shops pay millions of pounds in sales commissions to websites that direct shoppers to them. Shopping through TheGivingMachine turns these commissions into free cash donations. Shoppers are able to nominate up to four charities or schools to support and can even dictate the percentage split for their donations.
The Capgemini Giving Group will give employees the option to support one of the four Capgemini nominated charities; Alzheimer’s Research UK , The Prince’s Trust, Crimestoppers or Raleigh. However, the flexible set up of TheGivingMachine means that employees can also choose to swap one or more of these beneficiaries for their own preferred causes.
Miranda Mays, Community and Corporate Fundraising Manager at Alzheimer’s Research UK, is delighted about the new collaboration; “Fundraising is at the centre of everything we do at Alzheimer’s Research UK and we are excited by any new initiatives which give people the chance to donate money to their favourite charities as they go about their day-to-day lives. We’re really looking forward to seeing the results of Capgemini’s innovative initiative with TheGivingMachine.”
This brand new initiative forms part of Capgemini’s holistic approach to corporate social responsibility and reinforces the company’s commitment to giving something back to the communities in which they function. Amy McCusker, UK Head of Community at Capgemini expands; “We already channel much time and energy into making a positive impact through volunteering, pro bono work and other fundraising initiatives so we are enthusiastic about this ingenious new system which gives us all an opportunity to support our charities every time we shop online. It’s about walking the talk!”
Richard Morris at TheGivingMachine adds; “We want to work closely with companies to help them create dedicated Giving Groups on TheGivingMachine, so that their employees can use it to make free cash donations to their chosen schools and charities. Working with Capgemini to develop the first corporate Giving Group has been very exciting and we hope will pave the way for other similarly dedicated companies to use this facility as part of their own CSR programmes.”
Capgemini Giving Group goes live on Thursday 7 July 2011 and will be introduced to employees at the bi-monthly ‘Community Call’ conference call for all employees. Details will also be featured on the Capgemini intranet and via a companywide email.
Read our guide on corporate social responsibility here.
