Frequently Asked Questions
Workplace giving — or employee giving — is a simple, efficient and flexible way for employees to donate part of their pay as a tax-receiptable charitable contribution. By filling out a pledge form, employees can opt to give through payroll deductions or by lump sum.
Charitable giving brings employees together and strengthens workplace engagement — making organizations more productive and profitable. With HealthPartners, you also get access to highly valuable health information that improves employee wellness. You can read more about the benefits of working with us on our Healthy Workplaces page.
A workplace giving campaign also projects a positive company image and strengthens an organization’s commitment to social responsibility. Research shows that 71% of employed Canadians believe employers who offer workplace giving care about their communities.1 And because we offer donor choice, employees can decide themselves which of our charities they want to receive their donations. When donors don’t specify a choice, their donations are shared among all of our member charities.
HealthPartners connects your employees to 17 trusted and respected Canadian health charities:
- ALS Society of Canada
- Alzheimer Society Canada
- Arthritis Society Canada
- Canadian Cancer Society
- Canadian Hemophilia Society
- Canadian Liver Foundation
- Canadian Lung Association
- Crohn’s and Colitis Canada
- Cystic Fibrosis Canada
- Diabetes Canada
- Heart & Stroke
- Huntington Society of Canada
- Kidney Foundation of Canada
- Mental Health Commission of Canada
- Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada
- Muscular Dystrophy Canada
- Parkinson Canada
1 HealthPartners Study by Angus Reid survey of 1,004 employees, 2012.
Our workplace campaigns help you motivate and engage your employees not only to give but also to “live healthy” through events, information sessions and more. We provide inspirational, motivational speakers, host displays and tours to engage your employees and raise their awareness of important health issues. Learn more about our Living Proof speakers’ series, lunch and learn sessions, “Seeing is Believing” tours and HealthPartners@Work events.
We make giving easy. We eliminate the paperwork for employees, accepting donations through payroll deductions so employers don’t have to track donations or write and mail cheques. Spreading donations throughout the year, we collect pledges regularly on behalf of 17 leading health charities. Donors can choose where they want their money to go, or have a proportion of their donations support all members. Every dollar has an incredible impact on the lives of Canadians.
We have national reach and local impact. No matter which part of the country you live in, your donation to HealthPartners is felt locally. There are over 1,200 HealthPartners member locations across Canada, delivering over 1,100 programs and services in the some of the smallest towns and largest urban centres.
Donations made through HealthPartners enable our member organizations — with the assistance of many dedicated volunteers — to provide direct support to individuals living with chronic disease across the country. As well, HealthPartners members contribute to research that benefits all Canadians through earlier risk identification, new treatments and individual participation in research trials.
We all know someone — a family member, friend, loved one or colleague who has learned that they have cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, heart disease, kidney disease, MS or any of the other diseases represented by HealthPartners. As our population ages, those numbers are expected to increase.
Your donation goes to support life-saving research that leads to better treatments, cures, early diagnostic tools, as well as local programs and services that Canadians have come to rely on every day. These improve the everyday quality of life for people touched by a major illness or chronic disease. You can find out more about the inspiring stories of those living with chronic disease through our Living Proof speakers’ series.
According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, 25-50% of people living with chronic illness will also suffer from depression, and a Statistics Canada survey found that about 20% of caregivers of chronically ill individuals reported experiencing depression as a result of their caregiving responsibilities. For these and other reasons, mental health is a crucial part of the way HealthPartners supports those living with chronic disease. Our member health charities work to help Canadians manage the mental health issues they experience as a result of living with long-term illness.
When you give to HealthPartners, your gift benefits the 87% of Canadians who are most likely to be affected by one or more of the illnesses our charities are working hard to eradicate. These funds are dispersed to our 17 member charities. However, HealthPartners understands and respects that many Canadians want to give to members who have been there in their time of need, so those funds are directed to the appropriate charity.
Every organization has a cost of doing business. In the charitable sector, we often combine our cost of fundraising and administration together when reporting back to donors. At HealthPartners, we do our best to keep these costs as low as possible, and our national direct cost of fundraising and administration is approximately 17%.
Some donors wonder why they should contribute to our charitable partners through HealthPartners: while there are many the following are the most important. Firstly, for every dollar designated to one of our charities through HealthPartners, they get a share of the overall HealthPartners pooled dollars that they would not have access to if a donor gave directly to them. Secondly, we help reduce their own cost of fundraising, meaning that more dollars can be invested in research, programs, services and advocacy. HealthPartners offers good value for employee donations, and has raised over $200 million for our 17 health charities – which have touched the lives of millions of Canadians in every community across the country.
HealthPartners is governed by a Board of Directors with representatives from each of our 17 member charities, which upholds our accountability to deliver the funds we receive and to do so transparently. As part of that transparency commitment, we hold an annual cheque presentation ceremony. In 2017, we publicly presented more than $11 million dollars to our member charities.
Our Board of Directors periodically reviews applications for new members. To become a member of HealthPartners, a health charity must fund peer-reviewed research, offer public education and health promotion programs and provide support services and programs in the community — both for people living with illness/disease as well as for those who care for and support them.
Seventy-one percent of employed Canadians want the opportunity to donate to the charity of their choice.1 HealthPartners provides that choice, encouraging them to find causes they genuinely wish to support. Ninety-seven percent of companies that offer choice in their workplace giving programs say it increases employee participation, and 66% report it boosts employee morale.2
More choice means more participation — 79% of companies that moved from United Way-only campaigns to expanded campaigns reported that donor rates went up.3 By providing you with a single, integrated point of contact for 17 different charities, we allow employees to choose the charities that resonate with them on a personal level, improving engagement and motivation. We can also run integrated or semi-integrated campaigns with other charities your company wishes to support, thus offering employees even more choice. We work with you and your campaign model to determine the best approach.
1 HealthPartners Study by Angus Reid survey of 1,004 employees, 2012.
2 LGB Associates, Workplace Giving Works, Make it Work for you, 2010
3 Ibid
Health impacts the bottom line. The estimated price tag of chronic disease and serious illnesses is estimated at $90 billion a year in terms of health treatments and lost productivity. On the other hand, good health drives business success, improving employee morale, job performance, productivity, absenteeism rates and benefits costs. We support both patients and caregivers, encouraging the physical and mental wellbeing of Canada as a whole.
We help you run your own customized campaign under your brand and on your own timeline. We provide a campaign tool kit, volunteers and promotional resources to help you every step of the way — plus speakers to help you motivate and engage your employees. We also offer different levels of integration with other charities you wish to support.