Frequently Asked Questions for Company Secretaries
Below are some questions and answers to assist Company Secretaries in constructing Board Papers regarding the ShareGift initiative.
Q: What is ShareGift Australia?
ShareGift Australia is a not-for-profit organisation that provides shareholders with an easy and tax deductible way to sell and donate small parcels of shares that would otherwise be difficult and expensive to trade. ShareGift Australia donates the cash proceeds to Australian charities with Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status. This provides Australian shareholders with the opportunity to sell their shares and donate the proceeds to charity, without having to pay brokerage fees.
The ShareGift proposition differs from other programmes as selling and donating through ShareGift Australia ensures that 100% of the market value of the shares is used to benefit the Australian community.
ShareGift is endorsed by ASX and ASA. ShareGift was started by JBWere and National Australia Bank to create a sustainable and transparent infrastructure to facilitate giving to the community.
Q: What shares can be donated?
Shareholders can donate any shares held in Australian listed securities.
They can donate any amount of shares to ShareGift Australia. Donations over $2 are tax deductible.
Q: Who are the charities that receive funding from ShareGift Australia?
Unlike other corporate donation programs, ShareGift enables Shareholders to nominate a charity of their choice that may benefit from share sales.
It is important to note that giving is limited to DGRs (deductible gift recipient). This means that charities must have DGR status to be eligible for ShareGift funding. ShareGift does not accept funding applications from individual charities.
The Board of ShareGift Australia has final discretion on distribution. Each quarter, the Board distributes available funds, and in doing so, the Board takes into consideration the recommendations made by donors on the ShareGift Donation Form.
Q: How are recipient charities chosen?
Funding distributions to charities are made on the basis of recommendations from donors.
Q: What is the core proposal for Listed Companies?
The core proposal is that as part of your next mail out to shareholders you include a letter informing your shareholders about the ShareGift service and inviting them to participate. We attach a draft text of a letter for your consideration. We suggest that to minimise your postage costs a ShareGift Donation Form (also attached) be included on the reverse side of the letter.
Q: What are the benefits for a listed company?
ShareGift presents an inexpensive and convenient way to for shareholders to dispose of shares at no cost to themselves and to the benefit of Australian Charities.
Q: What are the costs to a listed company?
The only cost to a listed company is the actual cost of printing. This becomes immaterial if the correspondence forms part of an existing mail out which is how others participating have managed the initiative. It is suggested that a letter is printed with the donation form on the reverse of that letter. This keeps the insert to one page.
Q: What other listed companies are participating?
Examples of companies participating are NAB, Amcor, Fosters, Coca Cola Amatil and ASX.
Q: Is there a minimum amount of shares that can be donated and therefore who is the target audience for a mailing?
The letter can be sent to all shareholders or targeted to those with small parcels of shares. If the latter, a cut-off point will need to be chosen that works best for your particular shareholder group. You may wish also to exclude staff share plan balances (if any).
Q: With a mailing, how are printing and postage costs minimised?
As explained above, it is suggested that to minimise postage costs a ShareGift Donation Form (also attached) be included on the reverse side of the letter and mailed with other correspondence, for example a dividend mail out.
Q: Where should completed donation forms be sent?
Donations Forms can be returned to your own company secretary; to your Share Registry; or direct to ShareGift. A completed Donation Form constitutes an instruction to sell and – if they are returned to your company secretary or Registry – they should be passed on to ShareGift promptly.
ShareGift is responsible for putting the sell orders to market via one of our broker-free brokers - at this stage JBWere or Macquarie Equities. We will also convert any CHESS sponsored holdings to Issuer sponsored holdings (an unavoidable time-consuming process as we have to write to the sponsoring broker).