Supporting our customers, partners and communities
We give back to the communities where we do business by supporting community groups, businesses, customers and partners.
Xero's social impact approach
Xero is committed to fostering positive change in communities around the world by supporting small businesses through strategic community contributions and initiatives. Ethical and responsible behavior is central to our approach to social impact and all aspects of our operations. This includes accountability for the direct and indirect impact of our actions on the human rights, wellbeing, and resilience of our partners, customers, and suppliers.
Our global community contributions
We take a holistic approach to calculating our contribution to communities, which includes cash donations, discounts given to nonprofit organizations, and volunteering contributions. Global community contributions were more than NZ$4.7 million in FY24.
Figure 1: Global community contributions were more than NZ$4.7 million in FY24
We make a conscious effort to purchase goods and services with businesses and small businesses led by underrepresented groups and our social procurement figure for FY24 was $16.2 million.
Our initiatives
In FY25, we established Xero For Good, a social impact initiative to empower small businesses with tools and support, to help with their long-term success and sustainability efforts. Xero For Good delivers impactful programs that strengthen communities through financial education, strategic growth funding, ethical supply chain practices, and carbon footprint management, creating positive change where it matters most.
Current initiatives that fall under Xero For Good include the Xero Beautiful Business Fund, Community Connect (our volunteering program), Xero For Purpose (a 25% discount for nonprofits), social procurement, and carbon accounting app partnerships.
In April 2025, we introduced the Know Your Numbers program in New Zealand.
Know Your Numbers is a free program designed to empower small businesses and entrepreneurs with the financial knowledge they need to succeed. It includes access to digestible educational resources in a variety of formats and mentoring from accounting and bookkeeping professionals.
Find out more about Know Your Numbers.
Visit the website knowyournumbers.xero.com to access free resources.
The Xero Beautiful Business Fund is a global initiative offering more than NZ$750,000 in funding to support Xero small business and nonprofit customers with their growth plans and drive future success. Learn more here.
Volunteering in the community
Xero’s employee volunteer program, Community Connect, supports for-purpose organizations around the world by giving Xero employees one paid day off each year to make a difference in the communities in which they live and work.
Employees can volunteer time in their communities knowing they have Xero’s full support.
In December 2024, we held our first global company-wide Xeros Connect volunteering event with 1153 Xeros participating in 162 activities across 78 charities. Here’s a quick snapshot of the impact!
Xero For Purpose (25% nonprofit discount)
Xero offers a 25% discount on its standard subscriptions for nonprofit organizations globally, providing more than a million dollars in discounts annually to nonprofit organizations and community groups through our nonprofit discount program.
A number of apps that connect to Xero specifically support nonprofits such as Keela and Infoodle. Along with Xero, they help nonprofits save valuable time that can instead be spent on delivering positive impacts for people and the planet.
Find out more about discounted subscription for nonprofit organizations.
Social procurement
Xero developed its first social procurement plan in 2021. The goal is to encourage a shift towards a selection of suppliers, products and services based on not only the current criteria, but also on their social and environmental impact. This will mean that more of Xero’s procurement spend is directed to organizations, initiatives and projects that have a positive impact on the community and the environment. We’ve refreshed our supplier selection criteria to increase the visibility of businesses owned by people or groups who might traditionally be disadvantaged.
Our aim is to work with recognized programs and certifications in the countries where we operate to increase our procurement spend with businesses that are majority owned or managed by people from the following groups:
- women
- minorities
- indigenous and First Nations people
- people living with disability
- LGBTIQA+ people
- veterans
- refugees and asylum seekers
- social enterprises
Supplier diversity
Xero is committed to developing and promoting responsible procurement practices. We are partners of the Ākina Foundation in New Zealand and Supply Nation in Australia to grow relationships with social and indigenous businesses in our supply chain.
Supplier code of conduct
We’ve integrated our supplier code of conduct and risk-based approach into our ongoing supplier due diligence processes. Our procurement team has completed ethical procurement certification provided by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) so that they can better recognize situations where we need to safeguard against unethical behaviours and consider modern slavery risks in our supply chain. We aim to have a positive impact through our influence on our supply chain and by working with socially conscious vendors that fulfill our business needs.
Modern slavery and human trafficking
We are committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in our operations and supply chains. We remain vigilant about understanding our key modern slavery risks; have policies and processes in place to help us address these risks; and we regularly assess the effectiveness of our actions. Given the visibility we have over our operations, we consider our modern slavery and human trafficking risk to be relatively low.
Since March 2022, all Xero employees have been required to undertake mandatory training about modern slavery awareness, to help them recognize the signs of modern slavery and know how to report issues if they have any concerns about any part of our supply chain or operations.
Carbon accounting app partnerships
With carbon accounting becoming increasingly important to small businesses, their advisors, their suppliers, and governments around the world, we want to ensure Xero customers have access to solutions that will help measure, manage, and create a clear path to reaching net-zero goals. So we’ve partnered with industry leading organizations, Sumday and Greenly, to offer carbon accounting solutions for small businesses and their advisors. These apps can be accessed via the Xero App Store.
Taking this a step further, Xero customers can access Sumday's powerful carbon accounting tools free for 12 months provided they sign up before 1 April, 2026. Eligibility and terms apply.
Support for businesses and their advisors
We’re committed to supporting the wellbeing of small business owners, advocating for small business needs with policymakers, and enabling our accounting and bookkeeping partners to contribute more sustainable business.
Mental health and wellbeing support
- Xero offers a range of free wellbeing education courses in Xero Central.
Read more in the Xero blog
Small business wellbeing studies
The Global State of Small Business Owner Wellbeing
The driving force for many small business owners when choosing to start their own businesses is to improve their lifestyle, but how do small business owners actually fare when it comes to wellbeing? That’s what we set out to find out when we commissioned research into the global state of small business owner wellbeing across seven countries – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States – which collected the experiences of more than 4600 small business owners. The resulting report highlights the challenges small business owners are facing and makes recommendations for small business owners, advisors, governments and industry bodies.
Read the report (PDF)
The Next Level report
In 2021, Xero commissioned a study from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER). The study reveals the financial benefits of investing in wellbeing for small businesses. This research was used to produce The Next Level, which offers tips for small businesses to get started with wellbeing, as well as digital tools to become more productive and more profitable.
Read the report (PDF)
One Step report
In a world-first study, we applied behavioural science to identify the key behavioural barriers that might hinder small businesses in choosing to adopt new technology. In this report, you’ll read our findings, including insights specific to each country we surveyed, as well as recommendations that can help small businesses take one step in their tech journey.
Protecting customer data
Xero is committed to protecting the security and privacy of customer data. We use multiple layers of security, provide security assurance reports, and comply with relevant industry standards. For details, see our:
- security web page for assurance reports and more information about data protection
- privacy notice, which outlines in plain English how personal data is used and protected by Xero.
- security noticeboard, where Xero posts alerts on known and potential fraud, phishing and other scams.
Free resources
For businesses
68% of small businesses surveyed by Xero in 2021 want to operate more sustainably but many don’t know where to begin. We’ve produced and collated some sustainability resources to help get them started.
Focusing on sustainability doesn't only benefit our planet, it can also be great for your business’ bottom line. From the basics of carbon measurement, to the unique role accountants and bookkeepers can play in supporting the small business sustainability journey, there’s something on this page for everyone.
Learn more
For accountants and bookkeepers
Xero publishes free guides, reports, books and playbooks which bring together a wealth of knowledge and ideas for running an accounting or bookkeeping business.
More information
Xero's Annual Report 2024 outlines our performance for the year to 31 March 2024 and also includes details of our work in the area of social and environmental impact, and our latest gender diversity figures.
Xero Annual Report 2024 (PDF)
If you need more information, please email sustainability@xero.com
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