Monetizing Volunteerism with Double the Donation Volunteering

Volunteers are the lifeblood of many nonprofit organizations. They dedicate their time, energy, and skills to help you achieve your mission. But did you know that their time could also generate significant financial revenue for your cause? While many organizations are familiar with matching gifts for cash donations, fewer are taking full advantage of the opportunities for monetizing volunteerism. This is where corporate volunteerism programs come into play.

By leveraging the right fundraising software, you can transform hours of service into monetary grants. In this guide, we will explore:

• What it means to monetize volunteerism
• The growing importance of workplace volunteer programs
• How Double the Donation Volunteering helps
• Kicking off: Helpful, step-by-step implementation tips
• Examples of nonprofits monetizing volunteerism successfully
• FAQs about monetizing volunteerism

Let’s dive in, examining how this powerful fundraising tool can revolutionize your workplace giving strategy and help you take full advantage of the revenue potential sitting within your volunteer base.

What Does It Mean to Monetize Volunteerism?

Monetizing volunteerism can be defined as the practice of leveraging time spent volunteering to generate financial revenue. It essentially turns hours of service into dollars for your cause. While this can take many forms, the most significant and lucrative opportunity lies within corporate volunteerism, specifically through volunteer grants (also known as “dollars for doers” programs).

Under these corporate programs, companies provide a monetary grant to a nonprofit after their employees have volunteered for a specific number of hours.

This creates a win-win for everyone involved. The nonprofit receives essential labor and additional funding. The corporation meets its corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals and boosts employee engagement. The volunteer feels a deeper sense of impact, knowing their time is generating real financial support for a cause they care about, even without having to open their own wallets to do so.

While the concept is straightforward, the execution can be complex without the right tools. Many volunteers do not know these programs exist. Even if they do, they may not know how to submit a request. This lack of awareness results in millions of dollars in potential revenue being left on the table every year. To capture these funds, nonprofits need a proactive strategy to identify eligible volunteers and guide them through the submission process.

The Growing Importance of Corporate Volunteer Programs

Corporate social responsibility is no longer just a buzzword; it is a crucial business imperative. Companies are increasingly seeking ways to engage their workforces and give back to their communities. Consequently, volunteer grant programs are becoming more prevalent and generous.

According to Double the Donation’s research on recent volunteer statistics, more than 40% of Fortune 500 companies currently offer volunteer grant programs. Furthermore, 80% of companies with volunteer grant programs offer between $8 and $15 per hour volunteered. This means a single volunteer dedicating just a few hours a month could generate hundreds of dollars for your organization over the course of a year. When you scale this across your entire volunteer base, the revenue potential is substantial.

In addition to grants based on hours served, many companies also offer volunteer time off (or VTO). This benefit gives employees paid days off to volunteer. When nonprofits actively promote these opportunities, they make it easier for corporate employees to say “yes” to volunteering, thereby increasing the pool of individuals who might eventually trigger a volunteer grant.

How Does Double the Donation Volunteering Help?

Double the Donation is widely recognized for its nonprofit fundraising software, with a historical focus on corporate matching gifts. However, our platform has expanded to a comprehensive solution designed to maximize revenue across all workplace giving channels. Our tools for volunteering specifically target the gap between volunteer intent and corporate funding.

The core of our offering lies in our extensive database and seamless integration capabilities. We maintain the world’s largest and most accurate database of corporate giving programs. This includes detailed information on volunteer grant policies, minimum hour requirements, submission deadlines, and links to electronic submission forms.

Here is how our fundraising software empowers your organization:

• Identification: We help you identify which of your volunteers work for companies with existing volunteer grant programs. This is done through intuitive search tools integrated directly into your volunteer registration forms or dedicated web pages.
• Education: Once a volunteer identifies their employer, our tool provides them with company-specific guidelines in real time. They can then instantly see if they are eligible and what the specific requirements are.
• Automation: We automate the follow-up process. Rather than your team manually chasing down volunteers, our system sends personalized emails reminding them to log their hours and submit their grant requests.

By streamlining these steps, Double the Donation removes the bulk of the administrative burden from your team. This allows you to focus on delivering a positive volunteer experience while our software works in the background to capture additional revenue.

Kicking Off: Helpful, Step-by-Step Implementation Tips

Ready to start monetizing volunteerism? Implementing Double the Donation’s complete set of tools is designed to be quick and effective. Follow these steps to integrate volunteer grant promotion into your existing workflows:

1. Integrate Double the Donation’s Search Tool

The first step is visibility. You need to make it easy for volunteers to find out if their company offers a grant. To do so, place Double the Donation’s company search tool directly on your volunteer information pages, registration forms, and confirmation screens. This prompts volunteers to search for their employer at the moment their engagement level is highest.

2. Proactively Capture Employment Data

Information is power. When volunteers sign up for shifts or events, include an optional field for “Employer” in your intake forms. Knowing where your supporters work allows you to identify high-value opportunities for corporate sponsorships and grants later on, too!

3. Automate Post-Event Outreach

The best time to ask for a volunteer grant is shortly after the service is completed. Therefore, configure your fundraising software to send an automated thank-you email up to 24 to 48 hours after a volunteer shift.

This email should include:

• A heartfelt thank you for their hard work.
• A summary of the impact they helped create.
• A direct link to the Double the Donation search tool or their company’s specific submission form if you already have their employment data.

4. Review and Analyze Your Data

From there, use Double the Donation Volunteering’s dashboard to track your progress. Monitor which companies are being searched for most frequently and track the status of grant submissions. This information helps you further refine your strategy and proves the ROI of your volunteer management efforts.

Get Inspired: 4 Nonprofits Monetizing Volunteerism Successfully

Seeing how other organizations leverage these tools can spark ideas for your own strategy. These four nonprofits have integrated corporate volunteerism incentives into their digital presence to drive revenue effectively. Let’s take a look!

Long Island Cares

View the page here: https://www.licares.org/how-to-help/volunteer/

Long Island Cares, a food bank dedicated to ending hunger in the Long Island area, places its volunteer grant promotion front and center on its website. Within their volunteer landing page, the organization utilizes a bold header that reads, “See if your company offers Volunteer Grants!” immediately followed by the seamlessly embedded Double the Donation search tool.

By placing this widget directly under their main navigation bar (accessible via their “Volunteer” tab), they ensure that every person looking to help is immediately educated on relevant opportunities to multiply their impact. This approach captures volunteer intent at the exact moment they are looking to engage, ensuring no potential corporate revenue is overlooked.

Veterans Community Project

View the page here: https://vcp.org/take-action/ways-to-volunteer/

The Veterans Community Project (or VCP) focuses on ending veteran homelessness. Their website features a robust “Ways to Volunteer” section that highlights group and corporate opportunities alike. To increase engagement, the organization uses clear messaging to encourage corporate groups not only to lend a hand but also to investigate their employer’s grant programs.

Not to mention, the Veterans Community Project does an excellent job of quantifying the value of its supporters. Within its impact page, the team explicitly states that its 5,300+ volunteers contributed a value of more than $827,000 in a single year. This sets a powerful stage for monetizing volunteerism by asking for volunteer grant engagement and more.

Further down their site, under a section titled “Corporate-sponsored volunteering,” VCP continues to educate its supporters about the variety of incentives available. They specifically mention Paid Volunteer Time Off (PVTO) alongside volunteer grants, encouraging corporate employees to utilize their company benefits to spend the day building homes for veterans while being supported by their employers. And they proactively provide all the information an individual would need to complete a corporate giving request for their employer, making the process a quick and easy one.

Carolina Tiger Rescue

View the page here: https://carolinatigerrescue.org/get-involved/

Carolina Tiger Rescue engages animal lovers to help maintain their sanctuary. The team has done an excellent job of diversifying its revenue streams by promoting corporate grants alongside individual volunteering. Their “Get Involved” page is a hub for engagement, where they educate supporters on how easy it is to double their impact. Their strategy shows that organizations in any niche, from animal welfare to human services, can effectively monetize volunteer hours.

Plus, Carolina Tiger Rescue proves that removing friction is the key to securing volunteer grants. In order to drive real results, the team does more than just ask for the grant; they provide every single piece of information a donor needs to submit the request immediately. Right next to the Double the Donation search tool, they list their Tax ID number, mailing address, and specific contact information for their Donor Services team. This strategy eliminates the need for a volunteer to click away to find legal details, significantly reducing the abandonment rate during the submission process.

Letters to a Pre-Scientist

View the page here: https://prescientist.org/volunteer-matching/

Letters to a Pre-Scientist connects students with STEM professionals. Their model relies heavily on skills-based volunteering. They focus on educating their specific demographic (STEM professionals often work for large tech and science corporations with generous CSR budgets) about the availability of corporate grants. By embedding the search tool and providing clear instructions on their “Volunteer” page, they ensure that their volunteers can easily monetize their mentorship hours.

In fact, they even excel at “doing the math” for their volunteers. On their dedicated “Volunteer Matching” page, the team explicitly states: “We estimate each STEM pen pal donates 10 hours of their time throughout the school year.” Since many corporate grant programs require a minimum number of hours (often between 10 and 40), this statement immediately validates the volunteer’s eligibility.

Furthermore, the organization incorporates a robust FAQ section below the search tool that defines exactly what volunteer grants and matching gifts are, providing a comprehensive education hub for their supporters.

Monetizing Volunteerism: Frequently Asked Questions

Still have questions regarding how your organization can monetize volunteerism with workplace philanthropy? Check out these FAQs to learn more:

Do volunteer grants require a 501(c)(3) status?

Yes, most corporate giving programs require the recipient organization to be a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit or a registered educational institution. However, some companies also support other types of tax-exempt organizations. The specific eligibility criteria for each company are detailed within our database.

What if a volunteer doesn’t know if their company offers grants?

This is exactly why tools like Double the Donation are essential. It removes the guesswork! A volunteer simply types their company name in the search widget, and the platform provides immediate answers on eligibility, minimum hour requirements, and submission links. This empowers the volunteer to act without needing to contact their HR department manually.

Can we monetize past volunteer hours?

Often, yes! Many companies allow employees to submit grant requests for volunteering performed within the current calendar year, or sometimes up to several months past the service date. While submission deadlines can vary by employer, it’s certainly worth sending a retroactive campaign to your volunteer list at the end of the year to capture any unclaimed funds from the previous months.

How much funding do volunteer grants actually provide?

While the amount largely varies by company, the impact is significant. Research indicates that 80% of companies with volunteer grant programs offer between $8 and $15 per volunteer hour. Some corporations may instead provide a lump-sum grant once a specific threshold of hours (e.g., 20 or 40 hours) is met.

While a few dollars an hour might seem small in isolation, it adds up quickly, especially when you have multiple volunteers or corporate groups participating.

What about Volunteer Time Off?

While Volunteer Time Off (VTO) is not a direct way to monetize volunteerism (meaning your nonprofit does not receive a check simply because someone used VTO hours), it is still a powerful way to drive value. These programs allow employees to volunteer during the workday without losing pay.

By promoting VTO, you remove the barrier of “time” for many working professionals. This helps you get more volunteers in the door, providing essential labor and skills that save your organization money. Furthermore, bringing in these corporate employees increases your chances of securing volunteer grants later, as engaged employees are more likely to log their hours for financial rewards.

How does this relate to employer appends?

If you have a list of volunteers but don’t know where they work, consider utilizing employer appends services. This process scans your existing records and adds employer data where available. Once you have this data, you can send targeted emails to volunteers who work for grant-offering companies, significantly increasing your overall conversion rate.

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Wrapping Up & Next Steps

Monetizing volunteerism is a powerful way to diversify your fundraising revenue and deepen your relationships with supporters. It transforms a simple act of service into a financial contribution that sustains your operations. By utilizing Double the Donation as your primary fundraising software for workplace giving, you can automate the discovery and submission process, ensuring you never miss out on these valuable grants.

Don’t let your volunteers’ hard work go unrewarded by corporate philanthropy. Start capturing the revenue your organization deserves today.

Ready to unlock the financial potential of your volunteer base? Connect with our team to learn more about Double the Donation Volunteering.