THE COMPLETE GUIDE FOR AUSTRALIAN CHARITIES
How to Set Up Workplace Giving and Start Receiving Regular Corporate Donations
Published by GoodCompany · goodcompany.org · Updated April 2026
This guide walks through everything an Australian charity needs to know to set up a workplace giving program — from eligibility requirements and platform selection to maximising donations, building corporate relationships, and measuring your impact. Written by the team behind Australia's longest-running workplace giving platform.
Whether you are exploring workplace giving for the first time or looking to grow an existing program, this guide gives you a clear, practical path forward.
What you will find in this guide
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What workplace giving is and why it matters for charities
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Whether your charity is eligible
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How to choose the right platform for your needs
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A step-by-step setup checklist
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How to maximise donations once you are live
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How to build lasting relationships with corporate partners
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How to measure and report your impact
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The most common mistakes charities make — and how to avoid them
1. What is workplace giving — and why should your charity care?
Workplace giving is a collective term for programs that allow employees to support charities through their workplace. The most common form is payroll giving — where employees authorise a regular pre-tax deduction from their salary, which is passed on to one or more charities. But workplace giving has grown well beyond payroll deductions to include volunteering, matched giving, fundraising campaigns, and charity gift cards.
For charities, workplace giving represents one of the most reliable and cost-effective income streams available. Unlike grant funding, it is not tied to a project. Unlike events, it does not require large upfront investment. And unlike one-off public donations, it creates recurring, predictable revenue that allows you to plan ahead.
The numbers behind workplace giving in Australia
$390M+
donated via workplace
giving in the past
decade
6,000+
Australian businesses
with giving programs
60%
of Australian
workplaces have a
giving program
51%
of employees want to
choose which charities
they support
Source: Workplace Giving Australia Research and Insights Report, 2024.
What makes workplace giving different from other fundraising
Most fundraising is episodic — a campaign, an event, an appeal. Workplace giving is structural. Once an employee sets up a recurring payroll donation, it continues until they actively cancel it. The average workplace giving donor gives more frequently and at higher cumulative amounts than the average public donor.
For the charity, this means:
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Predictable monthly income you can budget against
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Lower cost-per-dollar-raised compared to events or direct mail
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Access to employed professionals who are often higher-income donors
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Potential for employer-matched donations that double the impact at no extra cost to you
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A pipeline into corporate volunteering and partnerships beyond just cash
"Since coming on board with GoodCompany we have been thrilled with the support we have received. We not only receive regular donations through workplace giving participants, but have connected with volunteers who have helped us develop and lodge successful grant applications." — GoodCompany charity partner
2. Is your charity eligible?
Workplace giving in Australia has specific eligibility requirements set by the Australian Tax Office. Understanding these upfront saves significant time and avoids disappointment later.
The two non-negotiable requirements
1. Registration with the ACNC
Your charity must be registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). If your charity is not yet registered, visit acnc.gov.au to begin the process. Registration is free, but the assessment can take several months, so plan accordingly if you are starting from scratch.
2. Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status
Your charity must hold Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status with the Australian Tax Office. DGR status is what makes donations tax-deductible for the donor — and it is the fundamental eligibility requirement for any workplace payroll giving program. Without DGR status, employees cannot claim a tax deduction for their payroll donation, which removes one of the key incentives for participation.
DGR status is assessed by the ATO separately from ACNC registration. Many charities hold both, but some ACNC-registered charities do not have DGR status. Check your status at abr.business.gov.au.
BEFORE YOU START
If your charity is registered with the ACNC but does not yet hold DGR status, you cannot participate in tax-deductible payroll giving. You can still receive one-off credit card donations through platforms like GoodCompany, but the payroll giving channel requires DGR status. Contact the ATO to begin the DGR application if needed.
What if you are an international charity?
International charities without Australian ACNC registration and DGR status are generally not eligible for Australian payroll giving. However, some platforms including GoodCompany support international giving in limited circumstances — contact the platform directly to discuss your situation.
Quick eligibility check
☐ Our charity is registered with the ACNC
☐ Our charity holds DGR status with the ATO
☐ Our charity operates in Australia (or we have confirmed international eligibility with the platform)
☐ We have a valid ABN
☐ We have a bank account in the charity's name for receiving disbursements
3. Choosing the right platform
Four main workplace giving platforms operate in the Australian market: GoodCompany, Good2Give, Benevity, and Catalyser. For most Australian charities, the platform decision comes down to three questions: which corporate clients use it, what it costs you, and how much support you receive.
What to look for in a platform
Network of corporate clients
The most important factor is which companies are already using the platform. If your target corporate partners are on a particular platform, you need to be there too. Platforms vary significantly in their client rosters — some focus on large enterprise, others on mid-market or SME.
Cost to charities
Reputable workplace giving platforms charge corporate clients, not charities. Be wary of any platform that charges charities a listing fee or takes a percentage of donations. GoodCompany, for example, is free for charities and passes 100% of credit card donations directly to the charity.
Ease of setup and ongoing management
Consider how much time your team will need to invest. Can you set up your profile without specialist help? Is the dashboard intuitive? Can you update your listing, add volunteering roles, and access reports without contacting support?
Volunteering support
If your charity can accommodate volunteers — skilled or general — look for a platform that supports volunteer listings alongside donations. The best outcomes for charities often come from combining financial and in-kind support. A corporate partner that volunteers with you is more likely to increase their donation, nominate you for matched giving, and advocate internally for long-term commitment.
Reporting and receipting
You need to be able to provide donors with tax-deductible receipts and to report on impact. Good platforms automate receipting entirely and provide charities with donor data and disbursement reports. This matters both for donor relationships and for your own internal reporting.
GOODCOMPANY
GoodCompany is free for charities, passes 100% of credit card donations directly to your account, automates tax-deductible receipts, provides monthly disbursements, and offers a network of over 100,000 corporate members across Australia and New Zealand. Setup takes minutes. goodcompany.org/charity-solutions
Should you be on multiple platforms?
Yes — in most cases. Different corporate clients use different platforms, and being listed on more than one maximises your visibility across the corporate sector. There is no conflict in being listed on multiple platforms simultaneously, and it costs nothing for charities to do so. Think of each platform as a separate distribution channel for your cause.
That said, focus your active promotional effort on one or two platforms where your existing and target corporate partners are most concentrated. Being listed everywhere but engaging nowhere is less effective than building genuine presence on the right platforms.
4. Setting up your charity on GoodCompany: step by step
Setting up your charity on GoodCompany is free, takes approximately 30 minutes, and does not require any technical expertise. Here is exactly what to do.
Before you begin: what you will need
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Your charity's ABN
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Your ACNC registration number
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Your DGR status confirmation (from the ATO or your ACNC registration)
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Your charity's bank account details for donation disbursements
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A logo file (PNG or JPG, ideally at least 300px wide)
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A description of your charity and the work you do (250–500 words works well)
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At least one photo that shows your work in action
The setup process
Step 1: Register your charity
Go to goodcompany.org/charity-solutions and click to register. You will be asked to provide your charity name, ABN, and contact details. GoodCompany verifies your ACNC and DGR status during registration.
Step 2: Build your charity profile
Once approved, you will have access to your charity dashboard. Complete your profile fully — this is what corporate employees see when they browse charities to support. Include:
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A compelling one-paragraph description of your mission and impact
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Your logo and at least two photos showing your work
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Your key cause areas (used for search and filtering)
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Stories and updates that show donors what their money does
PRO TIP
Charities with complete profiles — including photos, impact stories, and regular updates — receive significantly more donations than those with minimal profiles. Spend an extra hour here. It pays off.
Step 3: Set up your Dollar Handles
Dollar Handles are specific, named donation amounts tied to a tangible outcome. Rather than asking donors to 'donate any amount,' a Dollar Handle says '$50 provides hot meals for a family for a week' or '$20 buys a mosquito net for a child at risk of malaria.' They are the single most effective way to increase donation amounts on a giving platform.
Set up a minimum of 8 Dollar Handles at varied price points. For corporate payroll giving, focus on lower amounts ($2–$24 per fortnight) since these are the most common contribution levels. For public and one-off donors, include higher amounts ($50–$500+). Each Dollar Handle needs a unique title, a description, and a compelling image.
Step 4: List your volunteering opportunities
If your charity can accommodate volunteers, list your roles. GoodCompany distinguishes between skilled volunteering (professional skills applied to your work — legal, marketing, IT, finance) and team volunteering (group activities for corporate teams). Both are valuable, and listing roles increases your visibility on the platform significantly.
You do not need to have formal volunteer roles established to start — even a general 'we welcome skilled volunteers for our programs' listing generates enquiries you can then develop into structured roles.
Step 5: Go live and promote your listing
Once your profile is complete, you are live and visible to GoodCompany's network of corporate members. Now the active work begins — promoting your listing to the corporate sector and building relationships with the companies most likely to support your cause.
5. Maximising donations once you are live
Being listed on a workplace giving platform is the starting point, not the finish line. Charities that passively wait to be discovered receive a fraction of the donations that actively promoted charities do. Here is how to accelerate.
Tell your existing supporters
Your most reliable source of new workplace giving donors is people who already support you. Email your donor list, post on social media, and include a call to action in your regular communications: 'Does your employer have a workplace giving program? Search for [your charity name] and sign up for regular giving.'
Many donors do not know workplace giving exists, or do not know their employer participates. Making them aware is free and often generates immediate sign-ups.
Reach out to your corporate network
Think about every corporate connection your charity has — event sponsors, board members' employers, companies whose staff have volunteered with you, businesses in your local area. Each is a potential corporate partner. A personal email from your CEO or board chair to a contact at a company is worth ten generic outreach attempts.
The goal of initial corporate outreach is not to close a donation — it is to start a conversation. Ask to meet the CSR manager, offer to present at an all-staff meeting, or suggest a volunteer day. Relationships precede revenue in the corporate giving world.
PRO TIP
Companies that use GoodCompany are actively looking for charities to support. You can increase your visibility to them by keeping your profile active — post updates, add new projects, respond to volunteer enquiries promptly. The platform surfaces active charities more prominently than dormant ones.
Make your case in industry language
Corporate CSR managers speak a different language from charity fundraisers. They talk about employee engagement, ESG commitments, matched giving programs, and social return on investment. The more fluently you can speak to their needs, the more effective your outreach will be.
When approaching a corporate partner, lead with what you offer them:
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Employee volunteering opportunities that build team cohesion
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A clear, measurable impact story they can include in ESG reports
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The chance to nominate your charity for their internal matched giving program
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Recognition in your annual report, social media, and event materials
Keep your profile fresh
Charities that update their GoodCompany profile regularly — new photos, impact updates, stories from the field — maintain higher visibility in search results and tend to attract more donors. Aim for at least one meaningful update per month. Think of it like a social media presence for your cause within the platform.
Apply for matched giving
Matched giving is when a company matches employee donations — often dollar for dollar, sometimes two-to-one. For charities, a matched giving arrangement doubles the financial impact of every donation at no additional cost to the donor. Many GoodCompany corporate clients run matched giving programs and are actively looking for charities to include
.
Ask your GoodCompany account contact which of their corporate clients offer matched giving and how to get nominated. Some companies allow employees to nominate their preferred charities for matching. Getting even one corporate partner to include you in a matched giving program can significantly boost your annual income.
6. Building lasting corporate partnerships
The highest-value outcome of workplace giving is not individual donations — it is a genuine, long-term corporate partnership. A company that is deeply engaged with your cause will volunteer, run fundraising events, include you in their matched giving, nominate you in their CSR reports, and advocate for you internally. These relationships take time to build but are transformative for charity sustainability.
What corporate partners want
Before approaching any company, understand what they are trying to achieve through their CSR program. Companies typically want:
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Meaningful employee engagement experiences, not just a logo on a wall
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Clear, measurable impact they can report to boards and shareholders
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Alignment between your cause and their values, brand, or business
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Reliable, professional partnerships that make them look good internally
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Recognition — genuine, genuine recognition — for their contribution
The more clearly you can articulate how your partnership delivers on these things, the more successful your corporate outreach will be.
The partnership development arc
Stage 1: Awareness
The company knows your charity exists and has a positive impression. This is achieved through your platform listing, public visibility, and any shared connections.
Stage 2: Engagement
A company representative connects with you — attends an event, books a volunteer day, or meets your team. This is the most important stage and where most charities stall. Create easy on-ramps: a volunteer day, a site visit, a presentation to staff.
Stage 3: Commitment
The company formalises support — payroll giving, a matched giving arrangement, a multi-year sponsorship, or a partnership MOU. This usually follows at least one successful engagement experience.
Stage 4: Advocacy
The company actively promotes your charity internally, nominates you for awards, includes you in board presentations. This is the goal. Companies at Stage 4 become part of your fundraising infrastructure.
PRO TIP
GoodCompany's Volunteer Mystery Bus is one of the most effective ways to move a company from Awareness to Engagement. A team arrives not knowing where they are going, spends a day doing meaningful hands-on work, and leaves with a deep emotional connection to your cause. Ask GoodCompany about organising a Mystery Bus experience for your prospective corporate partners
How to approach a company you do not know
Cold outreach to a CSR manager is low-yield. Warm introductions through board members, volunteers, or mutual connections are high-yield. Start there. When you do need to make cold contact:
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Address it to the CSR Manager or Head of People and Culture specifically
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Open with the connection to their business (location, industry, values alignment)
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Lead with a concrete ask — a 20-minute call, not a vague 'partnership'
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Attach one page of impact data, not a long brochure
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Follow up once, politely, if there is no response after two weeks
7. Measuring and reporting your impact
Impact measurement is not just good practice — it is your most powerful fundraising tool. Donors and corporate partners who see clear evidence of what their money achieved give more, give again, and tell others. Charities that cannot articulate their impact struggle to grow their donor base.
What to measure
For workplace giving specifically, the key metrics to track are:
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Total donations received (monthly and cumulative)
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Number of active donors
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Average donation amount per donor
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Matched giving amounts (where applicable)
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Volunteer hours contributed
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Number of corporate partners
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Retention rate — what percentage of last year's donors are still giving this year
GoodCompany provides dashboards and reports covering donation totals, volunteer hours, and donor activity. Use these as the foundation of your impact reporting.
Translating financial data into impact stories
A report that says 'we received $42,000 in workplace giving donations this year' is less compelling than one that says 'workplace giving donations this year funded 840 nights of emergency accommodation for families at risk of homelessness.'
Work backwards from your Dollar Handles. If $50 funds one week of meals for a child, and you received $18,000 in payroll giving, that is 360 weeks of meals — nearly seven years of nutrition for one child, or a year for seven children. Find the number that makes the scale of your impact viscerally clear.
Reporting to corporate partners
Corporate partners expect reporting. Build a simple annual impact report for each corporate partner that includes:
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Total financial contribution (donations + matched giving)
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Volunteer hours contributed by their team
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The outcomes those contributions funded (in plain language)
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A personal story or quote from someone affected by the work
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A thank you — specific, genuine, not template-generated
Deliver this in person or via video call where possible, not just as a PDF attachment. The conversation it creates is worth as much as the report itself.
8. The most common mistakes charities make
After 25 years of working with thousands of Australian charities, GoodCompany has seen the patterns that separate thriving workplace giving programs from stagnant ones. These are the most common mistakes — and how to avoid them.
Mistake 1: Setting up the profile and waiting
The most common mistake is treating platform registration as the endpoint. Listing your charity is the starting point. If you want donations, you need to actively promote your listing to your existing supporters and proactively reach out to corporate partners. Passive listings generate passive results.
Mistake 2: Neglecting Dollar Handles
Charities with vague, poorly designed Dollar Handles consistently underperform. 'Donate any amount to support our work' is not a Dollar Handle — it is an abdication of the fundraising conversation. Tell donors specifically what their money does. Make it tangible. Make it emotional. Make it feel like a decision that matters.
Mistake 3: Ignoring volunteering
Many charities focus entirely on cash donations and overlook volunteering opportunities. This is a significant missed opportunity. A corporate team that volunteers with you becomes emotionally invested in your cause in a way that a payroll donor does not. Volunteer relationships convert to long-term corporate partnerships at a much higher rate than donation-only relationships.
Mistake 4: One-size-fits-all corporate outreach
Sending the same letter to fifty companies is rarely effective. Research the company before you reach out. Understand their CSR priorities, look at which charities they currently support, identify the right contact. A personalised, well-researched approach to five companies will outperform a generic approach to fifty.
Mistake 5: Not following up on corporate enquiries quickly
When a company contacts you about a volunteering opportunity or partnership, response time matters. A CSR manager who expresses interest and does not hear back within 48 hours will move on to the next charity. Assign someone to monitor and respond to corporate enquiries promptly, even if only to acknowledge and set a timeline for a fuller response.
Mistake 6: Failing to acknowledge and thank donors
GoodCompany automates tax-deductible receipts, but automated receipts are not the same as genuine acknowledgement. Consider sending a personal thank-you to new workplace giving donors — especially those who set up recurring giving. A simple, warm, human email from your CEO goes a long way. The cost is minimal; the retention impact is significant.
Mistake 7: Not asking for matched giving
Matched giving is the highest-leverage opportunity in workplace giving and the one charities most often fail to pursue. Many companies will match employee donations if a charity asks — but the charity has to ask. When you have a corporate partner whose employees give to you, ask whether the company runs a matched giving program and how you can be included.