Change A Life

• Corporate
• Environmental, Social and Governance
• Social
• Change A Life

Computershare’s charitable foundation Change A Life was founded in 2005 with the aim of empowering people facing economic challenges around the world.

Since then, we have raised over AU$12 million, in partnership with our employees. 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’re committed to collaborating with charitable organisations to tackle issues our people care about. Our employee engagement surveys consistently reveal how much our people care about our company’s charitable initiatives.

Every month, more than a thousand of our 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 organisations we engage with and encourage them to use their annual volunteering day at the local organisations that they selected.

Our global project, supporting World Youth International

Our relationship with World Youth International (WYI) began in 2017, when employees who donate to Change A Life selected them for a five-year project to expand the WYI School in Gokarna, Nepal. Over five years, donations from our employees, matched by Computershare, raised AU$2 million for the school and helped provide education for over 600 students.

We helped make a range of improvements to the school, including building a new boarding centre for fee-paying students, upgrading classrooms and other facilities, extending the school program into Years 11 and 12, and supporting improvements to the quality of education provided. 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 their day-to-day operations.

In 2022, our employees decided to support World Youth International again. Over the next few years, we’ll partner with them to build a new IT training centre that will provide tech education for 140 students a year. Fee-paying courses will be created for people of all ages and all skill levels, helping the WYI School move towards their goal of being self-sustainable. These fees will be used to fund the schooling of underprivileged children at the WYI School.

The Computershare-WYI partnership won the Gold Award for Most Innovative Charity and Employer Relationship in Workplace Giving Australia’s 2020 Workplace Giving Excellence Awards.

 

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 close 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 and many of them to date have had a focus on young people.

Some of our people choose to go the extra mile by volunteering for these organisations, either individually or with their colleagues.