Committed citizenship
Helping improve lives and strengthen communities
We approach our corporate giving with the highest levels of governance, ethics and compliance.
We pursue strategic focus areas to ensure the best use of our resources. These include financial inclusion and literacy, humanitarian aid and community support.
We operate with strong governance over our strategy and individual philanthropic investments and comply with all applicable laws, regulations and Visa policies.
We are transparent in our criteria, decision-making and reporting for charitable giving. All of Visa’s contributions are overseen by the Visa Charitable Contributions Committee, which consists of Visa senior executives, as well as by the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Visa Inc. Board of Directors.
We work with governments, international relief organisations and private organisations to help communities in crisis.
In 2012, landslides displaced hundreds of residents in the town of Sapucaia. The local government was able to use Visa cards to quickly access funds for food, equipment and shelter.
In 2010, fighting displaced 1.5 million Pakistanis. During this crisis, Visa prepaid cards became their lifeline to buy food and other essentials.
Visa partnered with the United Nations World Food Programme to deploy a mobile cash transfer programme for thousands of Rwandan refugees.
Oxfam and Visa joined forces to provide electronic aid disbursements to disaster-prone communities in the Philippines.
Visa supports our communities by contributing to local non-profits and enabling our employees to give back through service and philanthropy.
Many Visa employees are passionate about volunteering their time and expertise to causes they believe in. To encourage the spirit of volunteerism, our Visa Volunteers programme helps employees find local opportunities, create team events and track their volunteer hours. We also honour our leading employee volunteers with the Visa Volunteer Award, which recognises their outstanding contributions to their communities.
To further encourage our employees to give back, our global Matching Gift programme allows employees to donate to an eligible charitable organisation with Visa matching the donation up to $5,000 each year.
We believe our employees are agents of change. That is why, every November, Visa employees around the world come together to donate their time and talent to support non-profit organisations, schools and other community groups in the neighbourhoods where they live and work. This is the capstone of the Visa Volunteers programme and is celebrated at Visa offices around the world.
In Australia we support OzHarvest, the country’s first perishable food rescue organisation which collects quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivers it free-of-charge to charities that benefit people in need.
Australia produces enough food to feed approximately 60 million people, but nearly two million Australians still rely on food relief every year. Much of this food also goes to waste, with the average Australian household throwing out more than $1,000 worth of groceries each year.
This is where OzHarvest steps in, providing quality nutrition to vulnerable men, women and children while minimising food waste and protecting the environment. To date, OzHarvest has delivered over 30 million meals to the needy, and rescues 56 tonnes of food each week that would otherwise end up in landfills.
Visa supports OzHarvest through charitable giving and staff volunteering where our team help with deliveries and food preparation.
In recent years we have also made donations to Starlight Children’s Foundation, Queensland flood