After such a successful Giving Tuesday, we caught up with one of our founding partners, NatWest Group, to find out more about their #GiveBack2020 campaign.
For #GiveBack2020, NatWest donated over £410,000 to charities that its employees and colleagues support.
What did NatWest Group do for #GiveBack2020?
This was the 7th year we had supported Giving Tuesday, and for us, 2020 was hugely significant given this was positioned against the backdrop of a global pandemic. Recognising the devastating financial impact that COVID-19 had had on the sector, Giving Tuesday provided us a vital platform to highlight the need for our colleagues and customers to give back more than ever before, and help to make it easy for them to support the causes they care about.
We delivered a campaign to promote Giving Tuesday to our colleagues globally, encouraging them to think about how they could #GiveBack2020, and signposting them to our colleague charitable giving programmes, including our three days volunteering leave. We also ran a Payroll Giving campaign to incentivise more colleagues to join this scheme, recognising that establishing a regular income is hugely important for charities. For every new joiner to the scheme, and for existing members who increased their monthly donations, we gave a charity donation of £125. We also encouraged colleagues to use their voice to share the #GivingTuesday message on social media.
For our customers, we engaged with 1.45 million MyReward current account holders, encouraging them to exchange their reward points for a charity donation, and we matched donations up to £50.
How did NatWest Group find #GiveBack2020?
Due to COVID, we had to pause a number of our employee volunteering programs, and with many individual fundraising events also cancelled, Giving Tuesday presented us with that perfect moment in time to highlight other ways our colleagues and customers could give back, be that through donations and volunteering their time. The day was also about shining a light on the charity sector and celebrating the societal value it creates and the lives that these wonderful charities help day in day out.
“Giving Tuesday is one of those moments where we can stop and give back”
What impact will the money raised have?
We’re a really diverse organisation, with colleagues operating in the UK and overseas so our approach is to support our people to give back to the charities and good causes they are passionate about. We were overwhelmed by the response we received from our colleague Payroll Giving campaign. As a result, NatWest Group donated almost £315,000 to the fantastic charities that our colleagues support each month. Due to the new joiners and increased donations, those charities will see an annual increase in over £300,000 of donations if our colleagues maintain their levels of monthly giving. Through our customer campaign, 11 charities received donations which totalled £292,959, which includes matched funding of £100,000 from NatWest Group.
What’s special about Giving Tuesday to NatWest Group?
Giving Tuesday is one of those moments where we can stop and give back, as well as taking part in a huge global celebration. It helps us shine a light on important causes and support our colleagues’ and customers’ charitable giving. The Giving Tuesday team is fantastic at guiding you through everything with advice and tips. Everything the team provides to their partners makes the whole day really easy and flexible.
Any advice or top tips?
Get involved! If your business has a charity partner, Giving Tuesday is a brilliant opportunity to show your support and rally colleagues around a cause. If you don’t have a charity partner, the flexibility of Giving Tuesday means you can support your colleagues to donate to their favourite charities in all kinds of ways, which is the approach we took. The more people that get involved with Giving Tuesday, the better!
