This milestone requires you, individually, to design primary research methods to help Your Virtual Race to

(1) Get an understanding of how Multi-National Companies in Ireland introduce and manage wellness programs and

(2) How charities currently organize and/or promote fundraising events that individuals can be sponsored for.

This will require you to identify relevant questions for two surveys and/or interviews, considering some of the following areas:

• How companies introduce workplace wellness initiatives (where they heard of the provider or concept, the criteria they use to choose the provider to work with, the frequency and change of wellness initiatives, etc).
• The approach was taken by charities to either organize and promote events that individuals can then fundraise for or how they get selected as the charity of choice for an event.

Company Information:

Your Virtual Race is supported by Enterprise Ireland and part of the New Frontiers Programme.

Further information on the two markets:

Workplace Wellness Market:

Research has shown that this market is trending upwards. According to the

Global Wellness Institute:

• Workplace wellness was a $48bn market in 2017.
• Only 10% of the global workforce currently has access to workplace wellness programs and services.
• North America 52% of employees, Europe 23%, the Middle East/North Africa 7%, Latin America/Caribbean 5%, Asia 5%, and Sub-Saharan Africa 1%.

Your Virtual Race is targeting larger companies with a workforce greater than 2,000 employees which have at least two locations. Research with Market Line has shown that there are 1,175 companies with more than 2,000 employees with a location in Ireland but headquartered elsewhere and this can be further broken down as follows:

1. 447 companies with between 2,000 and 9,999 employees
2. 351 companies with between 10,000 and 29,999 employees
3. 132 companies with between 30,000 and 49,999 employees
4. 245 companies with greater than 50,000 employees

Globally the number of companies with more than 2,000 employees rises to 11,379 RAND has reported that in the USA 80% of employers with more than 1,000 employees already offer workplace wellness programs and is continuing to rise.

In addition to Corporate Social Responsibility, Employer Branding is helping companies focus on workplace wellness programs to improve culture and community, to help employees to be proud to work for them.

Charity Fundraising market:

According to the UK government, there are over 11,000 registered charities in the UK with an annual income exceeding £500,000.

The Giving USA organization has stated that total charity income in the USA for 2018 was $427.71bn

According to Benefacts Ireland, there are approximately 1,019 Irish charities with income in excess of €1m.