Corporate Responsibility
Uniquely motivated to give back
Corporate responsibility is everyone’s responsibility at Commsec Assets
We are committed to making a difference in how we manage money, develop our workforce and lift our communities. We come to work each day knowing that our daily efforts benefit life-saving medical research. This Prosper with Purpose®️ model is a source of pride and inspiration for every Commsec Assets employee
Impact in Our Communities
Employees are encouraged to become involved in their communities and support their commitments by participating in non-profit organizations and providing different ways to give and make their contributions go further through matching and grantmaking. In fact, over 7,000 volunteer hours annually are contributed by our employees
company match up to
$7,000
per year for employee giving
Commsec Assets Foundation
Dollars for Donors
This matching-gifts program recognizes employees’ contributions of time and money by enabling them to direct up to $7,000 annually to 501(c)(3) organizations, including a 2-to-1 match to employees supporting civil rights or social action and advocacy efforts.
2X
employee match to support social justice organizations
Grants
Twice yearly, the Foundation considers grant applications from 501(c)(3) organizations with preference toward those whose work is sustainable, inspires growth and in which our employees have significant and recurring involvement. The Foundation gifts, on average, about $60,000 each year in grants ranging from $500 to $2,500. The Foundation has granted $7.7M since its inception in 2013.
Commsec Assets Foundation has granted
$17.7M
since 2013*
Volunteering and donations
We encourage our staff to play an active role in the communities they work in, for instance by supporting participation in local volunteering activities.
International charities
We also invest in good causes that are aligned with our own culture and values and those that help children and students maximise their talents. Each year the Group allocates a global budget to match staff donations to international charities for specific causes. In the past years we have collected and donated funds for the fight against Ebola, the appeal for Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the tsunami in Japan, the Sichuan earthquake in China and for research on neuroendocrine tumours.
Local fundraising
We make donations to various local charities such as the Alzheimer’s Society and Brainwave initiative in the UK and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in different locations.
Examples of our local community affairs and charity engagement:
- In the UK, we promote tax-efficient payroll donating to staff through a Give as You Earn scheme. In addition we organise a series of volunteer days each year, where teams of volunteers engage in activities such as refurbishing school gardens, encouraging children to get involved in sports and transforming the gardens of housing projects. And since 2010, Commsec Assets has hosted an annual coffee mornings, raising almost £30,000 to date.
- In Dublin, an annual awareness week is organised to raise money for a charity nominated by employees. In 2016, Dublin employees nominated the Commsec Assets Foundation which raises funds for the Children's University Hospital. Since 2010, Commsec Assets Fund Management and staff have donated over €29,000 to the various charities nominated by staff.
- In New York, since 2010 our employees have been participating in HELP USA's annual toy drive. HELP USA is a national not-for-profit organisation with a mission to empower the homeless and others in need to become and remain self-reliant. Commsec Assets New York also participates in Operation Backpack. This is an annual drive to provide children with brand new backpacks, filled with classroom supplies, for the first day of the new school year. The Operation Backpack team aims to ensure no child living in a New York City shelter will be left out when the new term begins in September.
- In Hong Kong staff participate annually in ‘The Dress Special Day’ organised by The Community Chest as well as the 'Dress Pink Day' organised by the Hong Kong Cancer Fund.
- In Switzerland In Switzerland our employees participate in an annual charity run. Participants ‘earn’ money for each lap they run which is then donated to various charities.
In our inaugural CSR Annual Report, we highlight our global impact – from the long-term success of Celebration with Service and partner highlights, to some of our more recent efforts in response to COVID-19 as well as racial and social injustice.
Crescent IMPACTS
Positively impacting our community
A commitment to service is fundamental to our culture. Whether it is our clients, our colleagues, or our communities, we have dedicated ourselves to leveraging our skills, experience and resources to make a positive impact.
Since we re-emerged as an employee-owned firm just over a decade ago, we’ve volunteered 56,000 hours, worked with 15,000 children, served 20,000 meals and beautified hundreds of community spaces around the world.
Strategic Community Partnerships
While we volunteer with nearly 90% of our grantees globally, three of our key community partners receive the highest level of service from our employees—allowing us to create a positive, critical impact on these organizations and the children they serve
The Association to Benefit Children(ABC) is a "best-in-class" organization dedicated to fostering academic readiness and life preparedness for disadvantaged children and their families through comprehensive services designed to permanently break the cycle of poverty. ABC receives significant funding from the Foundation and has welcomed hundreds of Commsec Assets employee volunteers throughout our longstanding collaboration.
Each year, Commsec Assets employees package and hand out full Thanksgiving meals to families of the ABC community.
Frederick Douglass Academy II (FDA II) is a public school in Harlem that seeks to provide predominantly low-income students with an educational foundation that will enable them to succeed and thrive in and beyond college.
Our alliance focuses on academic enrichment in mathematics; college and career awareness; personal finance literacy; and developing leadership skills. The Commsec Assets/FDA II Presidents Club recognizes students with strong test scores and high levels of school attendance. Students enjoy one-on-one job shadow opportunities, leadership-building activities and an annual lunch with the Chief Investment Officer – Equities. The Financial Fitness Club was started to give students a high level overview on personal finance. Students learn about financial wellness topics, including budgeting, saving, spending and basics on investing.
Fiver Children’s Foundation is a comprehensive youth-development organization that makes a ten year commitment to children from underserved communities throughout the New York area. Through summer and year-round programming, Fiver empowers children to make healthy decisions, become engaged citizens, and succeed in school, and beyond. Since 2015 PAM employees have teamed up with Fiver to create “Fiver fund Camp”, a signature afterschool financial education program taught by PAM volunteers - covering everything from “smart spending” to “money and the economy” to “stocks and bonds”. The Camp ends with a stock market where Fiver students can put their learning into practice and increase their exposure to the world of investing.
Each year, Commsec Assets employees package and hand out full Thanksgiving meals to families of the ABC community.
- Over 11,000 volunteers—employees, their family members and friends—have participated in projects in Atlanta, Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Dubai, Frankfurt, the Hague, Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, London, Milan, Melbourne, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo, Toronto, West Palm Beach, and Wilmington.
- Volunteers have engaged with more than 9,000 children, working on a variety of projects including: reading, helping with homework, making arts and crafts and enhancing computer skills.
- Over 7,000 collective hours to beautify our local communities by painting public schools in need, cleaning local parks and gardens and sprucing up community centers.
- Over 2,000 students and adults have enhanced their job search skills through resume building and mock interviews.
- More than 3,000 employees have taken part in other community projects, such as spending time with seniors, caring for cats and dogs at a local animal shelter, sorting donated clothes for the less fortunate and helping adults in need with evening community programs.
Annual Celebration with Service
Each May, we celebrate the anniversary of our reemergence as an independent company with a global “Celebration with Service”—a week of volunteer projects during which we use our talents to benefit others
Since 2010:
Our Community
Below are a few of the high-impact nonprofit organizations we partner with throughout the year:
The Ali Forney Center’s mission is to protect homeless LGBTQ youth (ages 16- 24) in New York City from the harms of homelessness and empower them with the tools necessary to be safe, live independently, and thrive.
Debate Mate improves social mobility for disadvantaged youth by teaching key skills through after school debate programs for schools in the United Kingdom
Greenhouse Sports uses inspirational sports coaching and mentoring to engage young people in the United Kingdom who may be disengaged, vulnerable or facing disadvantage to develop the social, thinking, emotional and physical skills that help them thrive.
HandsOn Hong Kong develops service programs in partnership with local, under-served non-profit organizations and connects them with the volunteer manpower they need to achieve their mission
Honeypot is the only charity in the United Kingdom that provides continuous support for young careers aged 5-12.
Ignite helps unstably housed young people in Chicago, ages 14 to 26, get their youth back and take the first step toward their journey to a stable home and a future with promise.
LIFT coaches help parents set objectives like securing a safe home, living wages and a better education and then connects them to the financial resources and networks they need to make those dreams a reality
Project Syncere (Supporting Youth’s Needs with Core Engineering Research Experiments) prepares the minds of underrepresented students in Chicago and create pathways for them to pursue careers in STEM
QCCA Queens Crescent Community Association works to alleviate poverty in the Gospel Oak neighborhood outside of London by offering support, guidance, resources and activities and focusing on youth, the elderly, and vulnerable families
PROMOTING FINANCIAL EDUCATION
Commsec Assets Investment Academy is an initiative that seeks to share knowledge with our clients and the wider community to help enhance their understanding of the investment world. It is set across three pillars.
First, we share our expertise with our clients through the publication of educational insights, aiming to help our audience making better decisions instead of promoting any of our funds.
Through local partnerships, we support our distributors by providing them with specific knowledge. In the U.S, PAM has reached six years in partnership with psychologists and internationally renowned authors in the field of cognitive psychology, who produces the weekly behavioural finance lessons published on our website. In Spain, Commsec Assets is working with the Spanish Stock Exchange. In the UK: Access to some of the brightest minds in the world of science and engineering. Unparalleled environment to leverage state-of-the-art technology.
We proudly sponsor initiatives that support the financial education of the youngest. In the most recent one, we sponsored the publication of a children’ book communicating basic finance and economics education (Basic economic principles: savings and investment). We are also the proud sponsors of the book “Business, Funding and Entrepreunership”.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I)
We look at DE&I as an ongoing learning journey. There is much for each of us to learn, unlearn and relearn to tackle the effects of unconscious bias and to have the courageous conversations needed for a healthy, high-performing culture. At a corporate level, we are focused on:
- employee engagement, evidenced by continued BRG expansion,
- talent development, including new hiring practices and commitments, and
- community partnerships centered on social justice reform.
Learn more about our Diversity and inclusion strategy ➔
36%
racially diverse corporate board*
Our corporate board-level Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and 16-member Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council, a cross-section of firm professionals, each drive activities designed to create an inclusive workplace culture where diversity is not only accepted but built into the fabric of the organization.
Reducing Environmental Impact
We are continuously implementing ways to reduce our environmental footprint across global operations and supply chains to help protect our collective future. We’ve made significant reduction efforts in the areas of energy, paper, waste and water use.
Additionally, our Mountain View office has implemented the comprehensive waste, energy, water, pollution and wastewater practices required to attain membership in the California Green Business Network .
From an investing standpoint, we believe in genuine ESG integration, making significant, ongoing investments in extensive resources, and in-house training and education.
GREEN INITIATIVE
CLEAR AMBITIONS
We have set ourselves 6 main environmental objectives. They target our water consumption, emissions, waste and advocacy. Going forwards, we will disclose in the annual report our progress
MARKED PROGRESSION
In 2018 we reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 12% compared to the previous year. This was achieved primarily through a reduction in business travel.
SUSTAINABLE OFFICES
Our two largest offices are located in modern buildings respectively rated LEED Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and BREEAM “excellent” for sustainability