Community

Supporting the community

With nearly 400 branches throughout Australia, St.George is well placed to support our communities at a local and national level. Over the years, we’ve been inspired to see the difference we can make through charity fundraising and sponsorship of sporting and cultural events.

Community investment

A number of our programs are well entrenched in local communities and have been supported by St.George for many years. But the centrepiece of our newly developed sustainability approach is ‘responsible banking’. By promoting programs that help achieve financial wellbeing, we hope to facilitate better social outcomes. To this end, our community investment is aimed mainly at projects that:

  • Help to improve the wellbeing, social inclusion and quality of life of children under 18 years in our communities
  • Deliver financial education and literacy, particularly to economically disadvantaged communities
  • Help customers and communities access tools and information to manage their finances more responsibly
  • Minimise adverse environmental impacts on local communities and customers.

Our staff’s involvement in the community

At an individual level, our staff contribute to the community through:

Employee giving: Matching Gifts is one of our company’s best-loved community programs. Every dollar donated by our eligible employees to Australian-based, registered charities with Deductible Gift Recipient status (DGRs) is matched by Westpac Group. To be eligible to participate in the Matching Gifts program, register your charity with Good2Give.

Volunteering: We actively encourage and support our people to volunteer their time and skills to support the local community organisations and causes they are most passionate about.

Our employees can lend their skills to create long-term benefit in the community by acting as mentors in NGOs and social enterprises. They also have the opportunity to share their professional skills by taking part in six to twelve week secondments with Indigenous community organisations throughout Australia via Jawun Indigenous Corporate Partnerships, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to reinstate the rights of Indigenous people to take responsibility for their lives.