7 February 2020

In February 2020, Findex celebrates the second anniversary of the Findex Community Fund.

Since 2018, Findex is proud to have donated over $1.1M to charities across Australia and New Zealand with a vision of creating equal access to opportunity in the areas of health, education and entrepreneurship

As a significant employer in the regional areas in which we are located, Findex is connected to its communities. We believe with strong community values, engaged teams, and focusing our efforts, we can make a real contribution to improving health, providing access to education and ultimately building sustainable communities in both regional and metro areas.

The Findex Community Fund was created to support charitable organisations that focus on bridging the gap in the areas of health, education and entrepreneurship between regional and metro areas.

For example, did you know that young people in regional Australia are less likely to aspire to higher education? Currently, only 39 per cent of young people in regional areas and 32 per cent in remote areas aspire to higher education [1]. Compare this to 68 per cent of young people in metropolitan areas [2] and you can start to see how important supporting organisations such as Country Education Foundation and Yalari in Australia are at connecting young people with potential they didn’t know existed.

Additionally, the Australian Early Development Census determined that when children across Australia start school each year, one in five are developmentally vulnerable [3]. In rural and remote Australia, the rate of childhood vulnerability is two to three times higher yet one in three children are unable to access developmental health services [4]. Through partnering with organisations such Royal Far West and Ronald McDonald House Charities Aus, we aim to improve the lives of patients and their carers as well as connecting families with the health care.

Regional and remote communities are a big part of the Findex story. As a business with offices in over 110 locations across Australia and New Zealand, and 75% of our offices located in regional areas, isolation is a concept that our regional teams can relate to. One of the ways we address this isolation is by creating equal access to opportunities for people no matter where they live – or their circumstance.

Since we started the Findex Community Fund in February 2018, we’ve been looking at ways to make a bigger - and more specific - impact to creating this equal access. The Findex workplace giving program is unique in that donations pledged by our employees are matched in the areas of health, education and entrepreneurship by Findex’s charitable entity Findex Community Fund. Implementing this measure integrates a clear charitable impact for our business with a vision to give back to the communities that we are connected to across Australia and New Zealand.

[1] The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) https://www.acer.org/au/

[2] The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) https://www.acer.org/au/

[3] Australian Early Development Census https://www.aedc.gov.au/

[4] Australian Early Development Census https://www.aedc.gov.au/