Many people support social contribution activities. But when it comes to taking action, they often face significant obstacles. How can a company bridge this gap?

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation (the Trust Bank) is working to boost momentum for social contribution activities among its employees. Guided by the Group's purpose of remaining “committed to empowering a brighter future,” Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has defined priority issues for its sustainability management that aim to realize a sustainable environment and society. Through its financial services and other business operations, the Group has been active in tackling social issues and building a sustainable society. However, many social issues remain that cannot be solved by direct financial business engagement. To address these cases, the Group established a framework to allocate a portion of its net operating profit to social contribution activities, including donations and volunteer work.

MUFG has identified five priority areas in its social contribution activities: “Development of the Next Generation and Support for Children,” “Environmental Conservation,” “Preservation and Succession of Culture,” “Financial and Economic Education,” and “Disaster Relief and Other Support.” Centered on these cores, the Group has launched an organization-wide initiative driven by five underlying thoughts and values expressed by its workers, including taking advantage of our wide range of connections with communities and people in order to carry out activities and expanding employee empathy through participation in social contribution activities. Yuko Tobita, Senior Research Officer of the Sustainability Planning Office, Corporate Planning Division, reflects on what goals the Trust Bank set out to achieve within this framework.

“As we lead sustainability initiatives, there was a concern that our office might become complacent and self-righteous, and we thought there must be a way to better incorporate the opinions and ideas of individual employees. So, with the aim of lowering the hurdle of individual participation in non-business sustainability activities, we started the initiative based on the concepts of ‘ease,’ ‘self-direction,’ and ‘choice' to encourage broader engagement."

In 2023, the Trust Bank launched an internal newsletter app, “Kakehashi,” to connect the company and its employees. By downloading the app to their personal mobile devices, employees can easily access information on company news, employee benefits, career development and training, and employee perks anytime, anywhere.

The app has had approximately 6,000 downloads to date. To encourage access, the company introduced “MUTB Points," which users earn through the “Try Your Luck” daily roulette game. The employees can apply these points to support NPOs and other organizations working to address social issues.

“NPOs are active in a wide range of fields. So, our administrative office identified organizations based on our five priority areas," explains Tobita. “Employees can choose the organization they wish to support from the list and use points for them. The company then donates 30 yen per point. Since fiscal year 2023, 1,000 employees in total have participated in the initiative.”

To date, six organizations have received donations, including the Japan Braille Library, Kidsdoor (which supports low-income families raising children), and the Japanese Red Cross Society. The total amount for the 2023–2024 fiscal year reached approximately 20 million yen.

For the third iteration in fiscal year 2025, the company launched a public appeal using social media and changed the beneficiary organizations to broaden the circle of support. On the Trust Bank's new Instagram account “&Sustainer!!,” launched in April 2025, the company solicited a wide range of feedback on the initiative and introduced a system in which donations are made based on the number of “likes.” With a rate of 100 yen per “like” (capped at 500,000 yen per organization), the campaign received approximately 9,000 “likes," exceeding expectations.

A total of seven organizations were selected as the fiscal 2025 recipients. These included five under the “Development of the Next Generation and Support for Children” category, which were selected for the fiscal 2024 non-profit startup support program “Soil x MUFG,” in addition to the Japanese Red Cross Society, which received one of the largest amounts of support the previous year, and Bridge for Smile, which supports young people leaving foster care facilities.

Soil, which partners with MUFG, is a public interest incorporated foundation that provides seed funding to nonprofit startups. Their support recipients are all newly established groups working on projects that are “not profitable but are meaningful.” The company hopes that these organizations' backdrops and challenges will motivate more donations, as they are relatively easy to identify, allowing employees to better understand and appreciate the impact of their donations.

In an effort to further encourage commitment to social contribution activities, the Trust Bank interviewed employees who have taken part in the initiative. Looking at the interview results, Tobita feels that as the initiative continues, signs of change are emerging across workplaces. The following are some examples of employee responses to the initiative.

“I got involved because of the company newsletter app. I hadn’t paid much attention to social contribution activities before or made any donations. But making donations through these internal activities sparked my interest. Now, I hope to do my part, however small it may be.” (Takayuki Suzuki, Section Chief of the Secretariat in the Corporate Administration Division)

Yumiko Nakayama, who works at the System Management Division II, System Management Office, Pension Trust Division, also joins Suzuki, saying,

“To be honest, I hadn’t really felt a personal connection to social contribution activities, but this initiative made me want to donate. I wouldn’t have been able to do this on my own. I’m grateful to the secretariat for giving me that push.”

Kazuya Yamamoto, Research Officer in Management Group, Retail Banking Business Compliance Division, agrees.

“It started when my boss recommended the company newsletter app, and I began collecting points, competing with a senior colleague. When I was in school, I myself was the recipient of a scholarship from a foundation affiliated with the company. It's not that I’m looking for something in return, but I continue to collect points every day because somewhere I feel that the current activities may lead to making connections with someone someday.”

For employees interested in social contribution activities, taking that first step can be difficult, whether because securing time in their busy daily lives is a challenge or because they don’t know where to start. Tobita says that is precisely the reason why her team launched the initiative.

“It's not the mechanism of converting points to donations that's the most important. I believe what’s truly important is creating an ‘entry point’ for each employee to engage with society. Even when people agree with the concept of social contribution, it often ends there without leading to concrete action. I want to bridge that gap, even if just a little. I’d be delighted if people came to see social issues not as something ‘far away' from them, but as an extension of their work and daily life. It is the accumulation of small acts of engagement that represents the vision we are striving for.”