Business News examines how big business chooses which community organisations to support.
The West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Wesfarmers will celebrate 30 years of partnership in 2023.
This makes their connection one of the world’s longest in terms of an orchestra and a corporate entity, according to PhD research at RMIT University on corporate sponsorship in the arts.
Informal at first, the collaboration stretches back to 1928, when Wesfarmers’ radio station 6WF broadcast the orchestra’s concerts live.
A formal ongoing partnership was established in 1994 with the goal of encouraging artistic excellence and community engagement.
Wesfarmers Arts manager Helen Carroll said the relationship had endured due to the calibre of the work WASO produced and its broad impact in the community.
Ms Carroll said the partnership was mutually beneficial, and Wesfarmers’ employees got a lot out of it.
“Our people are going to the concerts but we’re having the musicians come into our building and talking to us about their lives and their careers and the evolution of music in Western Australia and what it means to be an artist,” Ms Carroll told Business News.
WASO is one of 14 organisations to receive a share of the $3.2 million distributed by Wesfarmers Arts in the 2022 financial year.
Wesfarmers Arts focuses on providing long-term support for organisations in the visual and performing arts, including Co3 Contemporary Dance, National Gallery of Australia, and West Australian Ballet.
Its longest formal agreement is with the Art Gallery of WA, which dates to 1986 when corporate support for the arts was rare.
“Wesfarmers was there, in those early days, as the only corporate working consistently with the arts to make a difference in the cultural life of the community,” Ms Carroll said.
“A lot of that was attributed to the vision and foresight of people like Trevor Eastwood and Michael Chaney, and subsequently Richard Goyder, in the development of Wesfarmers in the last 30 years, understanding that the arts make this huge impact and play a huge role in society.”
Ms Carroll said the corporate affairs team worked with the chief executive and the board to make decisions about partnerships.
A key criterion used to assess companies was whether they were creating world-class work, either in WA or nationally.
“Producing world-class, ambitious work that really celebrates art, and is elevating, and important and compelling,” she said.
“Following on from that is a confidence that the organisation or that art is being shared with the community in a very genuine and audience-building capacity.”
In total, the Wesfarmers group contributed almost $25 million in direct social investment to community organisations.
Its other charitable giving endeavours focus on medical research and wellbeing, education, and the arts.
The sustainability reports of other large WA corporates indicate how they choose what organisations to support.
BHP distributed $46 million in WA, heavily weighted towards the areas in which it operates.
It contributed $5.5 million to organisations in Newman, $21.5 million to those in Port Hedland, $10.3 million to the Pilbara region and $8 million to other causes in WA.
A BHP spokesperson told Business News the company’s aim was to provide services and investments that built capacity and capability to address regional issues, including lack of access to education, healthcare and childcare services.
Fortescue Metals Group totalled its social investment, including in-kind support, partnerships, and subsidies for its Pilbara residential employees to $63.2 million.
Of the headline number, $2.8 million was given in donations, $1.8 million to partnerships and sponsorships, $36.2 million for Pilbara training programs and $20.5 million for support of Pilbara residential employees.
Fortescue detailed its Social Investment Framework, which it uses to choose the organisations it supported, in its 2021 sustainability report.
The framework is based on four principles: organisations need to have purpose; they must be accountable and monitor progress; their initiatives must be developed with respect to communities; and donations must be deemed to be ethical investments.
Its support is then focused on organisations in the health and wellness, education and development, environmental responsibility and arts and culture sectors.
Arts and charitable organisations to receive support from Fortescue in 2021 included the Royal Flying Doctor Service, The Salvation Army and Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA.
In the legal sector, WA-based firm Lavan has recently remodelled the way it coordinates its charitable giving and pro bono legal support.
Previously an ad hoc affair, the pro bono practice has been led by Garth Tinsley since late 2021.
Mr Tinsley said the investment of the firm in this area was driven by obligation–the state government will only engage with lawyers that undertake a certain amount of pro bono work–and opportunity.
“[It] improves reputation, recruitment, and retention of great employees, building client relationships, and, even in a pro bono sense for us, it’s about learning and development opportunities for our lawyers as well,” Mr Tinsley told Business News.
He said the firm engaged with charities and organisations that approached it, and those in which employees had a special interest.
“We’re not the ones best placed to understand the needs of community in some places and support,” Mr Tinsley said.
“We rely on working with community organisations, the ones on the frontline, who can provide us input on the different causes and the needs out there.”
As part of his new role, Mr Tinsley developed three criteria to assess organisations and projects to see if they were a fit for the organisation.
The causes it supports generally fall into one of its four priority areas based on its staff’s passions and expertise: vulnerable women, domestic violence, and gender equality; youth, with a focus on mental health; people with disability; and First Nations people.
Proposals are also assessed for the mutual benefit they can provide and the sustainability of funding and leadership at the organisation.
From there, a committee of senior leaders makes a final decision using the framework.
“Then there’s a small committee who makes a final decision so that we ensure we’re not just indulging whims, as it were, but we’re doing something consistent with the framework we’re trying to adopt,” Lavan litigation and dispute resolution team partner Iain Freeman said.
Mr Freeman said the firm had a budget for how much it spent on partnerships each year but was flexible to be able to respond to need.
Some of Lavan’s long-term partners are The Salvation Army, the Rottnest Channel Swim and Youth Focus.
Meanwhile, affordable home loan provider Keystart has implemented a unique employee-driven model for giving.
Staff members nominate and vote on a charity to fundraise for and volunteer with throughout the year.
Donations are then matched dollar-for-dollar by Keystart. Since the program started in 2011, the organisation has raised more than $100,000 for charities and not for profits, including Zonta House and Headspace.
Last financial year, Keystart employees raised $4,763 for The Smith Family, which was matched by the organisation to give a total of $9,526.
Keystart chief executive Paul Graham said the team would be partnering with Ruah Community Services in the 2023 financial year.
Mr Graham said Ruah had been nominated by a team member who was passionate about meaningful change at a grassroots level.
