Welcome to the Macquarie Group Foundation 2023 Annual Review, which reflects on the social impact work we’ve been focusing on over the past financial year.
This year marks our 38th year for the Macquarie Group Foundation (the Foundation), and it’s been a pivotal year for us – one in which we’ve made significant progress advancing the Foundation’s strategic direction with the goal of deepening our social impact. We’ve remained passionately committed to our employee-led approach to supporting the communities where we live and work, while also making significant inroads in new areas of work.
These include supporting colleagues in Macquarie’s businesses on shared value initiatives, as highlighted through the launch of the Macquarie Social Impact Award. We also made our first social impact investments and our first global grant to non-profit Generation, which together with the Foundation’s increased grantmaking allocations across all regions, are supporting community organisations reducing barriers to employment around the world.
This year we’ve also made important changes to our pipeline development and grantmaking processes to make them more equitable and inclusive for the communities we support. These positive steps to ensure Macquarie can continue to have a greater social impact. We’re determined to do what we can to build a better future for those who need it the most.
In FY2023 our people and the Foundation together contributed over $A52 million1 in funding to 2,500 community organisations globally and donated thousands of hours of time to community organisations around the world. Over $A570 million2 has now been contributed to philanthropic causes by our people and the Foundation since it was established in 1985.
Supporting our people, businesses and communities to achieve the Foundation’s purpose of building a better, more equitable future is what drives our work.
I’m proud of the work we’ve accomplished over the past year and look forward to the year ahead.
I hope you enjoy reading the Macquarie Group Foundation’s 2023 Annual Review on how we’re deepening our social impact.
Alex Harvey
Chief Financial Officer, Macquarie Group
Chair, Macquarie Group Foundation
This year, our people continued to give their time, money, and skills to the causes they feel passionate about. Macquarie staff alone donated and fundraised $A14.6 million3, a $A2 million increase on the previous financial year. The Foundation doubled the impact of these donations through our matching program, which provides our people with up to $A50,000 in matching each year.
Our people also gave their time, both individually and as part of a team, through hands-on volunteering or by providing professional expertise – whether serving on the board of a non-profit, participating in a mentoring program or consulting to our non-profit partners. More than $A6.6 million4 in value was contributed through skilled volunteering hours alone. In FY2023 Macquarie also introduced two days per year of paid volunteer leave to further encourage employees to contribute their time and skills to community initiatives.
Macquarie’s ninth annual Foundation Week, during which employees can access additional donations for their fundraising and volunteering efforts, saw a total of $A3.2 million contributed to more than 240 non-profits globally. Over 250 initiatives took place across 43 Macquarie offices in 25 countries, with a 9% increase in volunteering events and a $A500,000 increase in funds raised from FY2022 levels.
Read more about the ways our people are contributing to the community in the Annual Review.
As well as continuing to consult with our colleagues in Macquarie’s businesses around business-led community and charitable contributions and volunteering, this year we’ve been focusing on how we can help catalyse more social impact by supporting innovative Macquarie teams to think about solving social issues through their existing business models.
The Foundation, in partnership with the Green Investment Group (GIG) and non-profit Generation UK, established the first-of-its-kind ’green jobs’ program in 2021, which yielded compelling results in its first year. In 2022, together with Generation UK, Macquarie developed a report that reviewed the program, sharing the findings with the broader sector. Following its success in the UK, we are now working with Generation to also implement a green jobs program in France.
To support these shared value efforts across Macquarie, we launched the Macquarie Social Impact Award, in memory of our former Managing Director and Executive Chairman, David Clarke AO (1942 – 2011). Our inaugural winner, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Major Bridge P3 Initiative, managed by Macquarie Capital in the Americas, is an excellent example of shared value – demonstrating how innovative Macquarie teams can intentionally help to solve social issues through existing business models.
Find out more in the Annual Review.
The Foundation’s community support spans our global focus on breaking down barriers to employment, our special grants programs, Macquarie Sports, and the Macquarie Group Collection.
Recognising that many people around the world face systemic barriers to employment, the Foundation uses a range of tools, including grants and social impact investments, to break down these barriers and build effective pathways to employment. In FY2023, the Foundation made new grants totaling over $A8.9 million3, adding to a multi-year grant portfolio that now consists of over 40 organisations in total. This year the Foundation expanded its grantmaking into new countries and made its first global employment focused grant to Generation You Employed, which will support people in Australia, the UK, France, Brazil, and India.
To expand the scope and scale of the Foundation’s impact, our first two investments were made from Macquarie’s $A20 million allocation provided for social impact investing. In FY2023, the Foundation invested in Good Return and White Box Enterprises (WBE), which are generating excellent results to date.
