Change A Life

Change A Life, Computershare’s workplace giving program, was founded in August 2005 with the aim of empowering people facing economic challenges around the world.

Since then, we have raised over AU$13million in partnership with our employees – of which half goes towards our global project, while the other half towards our local community partners in locations close to our offices. This money has been used to fund sustainable agriculture and reforestation, food security, mobile eye care clinics, disaster relief, and a range of programs for children who have needed education or welfare support.

Being a good corporate citizen is extremely important to Computershare, and we are committed to collaborating with not-for-profit organisations to tackle issues our people care about. Our employee engagement surveys consistently reveal how much our people care about our company’s community initiatives.

Every month, over 1,300 employees donate via automatic payroll deductions, and all payroll donations are matched dollar for dollar by Computershare. We empower our people by giving them a vote on the charities we engage with, and encourage them to use their annual volunteering day at the local partners that they selected.

Our global project: an incredible seven years of supporting World Youth International

Computershare’s award-winning partnership with World Youth International (WYI) began in 2017, when employees who donate to Change A Life selected it as our global project to expand the WYI School in Gokarna, Nepal. It was such a huge success that our people chose to continue supporting the school in 2022 by building an IT college that would help fund the school’s wider operations.

This partnership won the Gold Award for “Most Innovative Charity and Employer Relationship” in Workplace Giving Australia’s 2020 Workplace Giving Excellence Awards.

Over seven years, employee donations, matched by Computershare, have raised AU$2 million for the school and helped provide education for over 650 students. These funds helped WYI to make a range of improvements to the school, including building a new boarding centre and a new IT training centre for fee-paying students, upgrading classrooms and other facilities, purchasing two new buses, supporting the wages of extra teachers, extending the school program into Years 11 and 12, and supporting improvements to the quality of education provided.

A number of Computershare employees from around the world have also supported our fundraising effort by completing a series of treks in Nepal in 2018, 2019 and 2023, and a virtual trek in 2022.

The WYI School is now recognised as one of the region’s top schools and is more attractive to fee-paying students, which helps fund its day-to-day operations, enabling the school to become self-sustainable in the future. With the current project ending in early 2026, employees who donate to Change A Life will soon have an opportunity to select the next global project to support.

Trekking to support students to thrive

Computershare staff from various regions have supported World Youth International in recent years through participating in a series of fundraising treks.

Groups of staff trekked within Nepal in 2018, 2019 and 2023, with a virtual trek held in 2022.

The latest trek raised more than US$130,000 for the school, with the first US$100,000 allowing the school to purchase two new buses. This will significantly reduce the amount of time some students spend waiting to travel to and from school each day.

The further funds raised will help fit out newly built classrooms and support the wages of extra teachers. This will help reduce the number of children in each class at the school and improve students’ learning experiences.

Our diversity champion organisation, Year Up United

In 2022, we selected Year Up United as the organisation we support which champions opportunities for diverse communities.

Year Up United is a US-based workforce development organisation that works with young adults who would otherwise be at risk of missing out on education, training, and career opportunities. Their mission is to improve equal access to economic opportunity, education and justice for all young adults – no matter their background, income or locality.

Year Up United's job training program is tuition-free and offers a proven path to career success through access to some of the best companies in the US. It operates more than 30 campuses across the country, many in the same localities as our own offices.

 

Supporting communities local to our offices

Since 2017, Change A Life has partnered with a range of not-for-profit organisations near our offices to provide practical support to local communities. Our employees have a say in the organisations we support, many of which have had a focus on youths and addressing food insecurity.

Some of our people choose to go the extra mile by utilising their annual volunteering day and volunteering for these organisations, either individually or with their colleagues. We have recently participated in various food drives (from collection to packing and distribution), academic tutoring, as well as fundraising painting sessions and bicycle builds for foster children.