What to Know About Accessibility in Workplace Fundraising

Workplace giving serves as a particularly powerful tool for nonprofits and other fundraising groups. Corporate donation matching and volunteer grant initiatives allow supporters to amplify the impact of their engagement, and payroll deductions empower donors to automate recurring contributions through their employers. However, getting involved in these programs can seem complex and overwhelming, which is why it’s crucial to prioritize accessibility throughout your efforts to simplify participation wherever possible.

What you don’t want to do is cause supporters to face needless barriers due to an inaccessible workplace giving experience. And that’s why highly accessible software is a must-have in all situations.

In this guide, we’ll explore the impact of accessibility for matching gifts and other forms of workplace giving, and discuss practical strategies to unlock your full potential:

The Importance of an Accessible Workplace Fundraising Strategy
Components of Accessibility in Workplace Giving Engagement
A Review of the Most Common Accessibility Standards
Double the Donation’s High-Level Accessibility Framework

Accessibility is not just an ethical obligation in fundraising. It’s also a strategic decision that can significantly impact matching gift results by maximizing the inclusivity of your efforts. And the more you know, the better you can position your team for success. Let’s begin!

The Importance of an Accessible Workplace Fundraising Strategy

The importance of accessibility in matching gifts and other employee-led fundraising cannot be overstated.

Adhering to accessibility standards aids organizations in creating inclusive digital experiences that cater to individuals with disabilities, improving their overall access to information and services. When it comes to workplace giving, prioritizing accessibility means that all supporters can receive and interpret the information needed to get involved.

Not only will this result in more completed matching gifts coming your way, but it also ensures that participating donors have a more optimal experience doing so. This allows you to continue fostering positive relationships with supporters, who will appreciate your team’s commitment to inclusivity.

Plus, if you receive funding from government sources or other grantmakers with accessibility requirements, you can ensure your organization is up to par⁠and won’t miss out on any opportunities available to you.

Components of Accessibility in Workplace Giving Engagement

A well-thought-out corporate fundraising strategy typically involves a multifaceted approach to promoting employee-directed engagement. As a result, an effective accessibility plan should expect to account for multiple aspects of your overall engagement strategy.

Written Information

Much of your audience is likely coming from a place with no prior knowledge regarding corporate philanthropy and workplace giving. Thus, you’ll likely produce written content to explain the significance and process of employee-led giving programs, encouraging donors to get involved.

From dedicated matching gift letters to quick blurbs in online content, it’s essential that you keep accessibility in mind. To ensure inclusivity in written materials, we recommend implementing the following practices:

Prioritize clear and concise language. Avoid complex or jargon-filled messages to increase readability and comprehension among your audience. It’s generally suggested that online content targets a 6th to 8th-grade reading level!
Follow a logical heading hierarchy. Organizing content using proper heading structure (i.e., H1, H2, H3, etc.) helps facilitate navigation and understanding for users who employ assistive technologies.
Utilize appropriate formatting. Formatting techniques such as short paragraphs, bulleted and numbered lists, and sufficient line spacing make written materials easier to consume. Plus, it increases “skimmability,” which is often the key to online content.
Enlist descriptive links for CTAs. When encouraging readers to take a specific action in digital communications, use descriptive link text when possible. This provides meaningful context as to the purpose of the intended action. For example, instead of a generic “Click here,” you might say, “Click here to search our employer matching tool.”

Multimedia Marketing Materials

An effective marketing plan typically encompasses a number of multimedia elements to attract and retain your audience’s attention. When incorporating images and videos to complement your written materials, accessibility should be a key consideration.

For matching gift videos, include closed captions to accommodate viewers with hearing impairments. This ensures inclusivity and allows everyone to engage with your content. Additionally, when using images, provide descriptive alternative text (ALT text) that accurately describes the visual content. This will assist users who rely on screen readers to understand the context and meaning of digital images.

Online Donation Platforms

In addition to the content you create yourself, it’s vital that any third-party resources are accessible. For example, your online donation pages may be created by a fundraising technology provider and embedded into your organization’s website. Still, it’s your organization’s responsibility to ensure that the forms meet your predetermined standards.

This will likely include screen reader compatibility, form field accessibility, clear navigation, responsive design, and more. Otherwise, you may end up with frustrated potential donors abandoning the giving process⁠. And without that initial donation, your nonprofit won’t qualify for the subsequent matching gift.

Looking for an online giving platform that will offer an optimal supporter experience? Double the Donation integrates with some of the industry’s top donation tools. Check out our searchable directory of 100+ partners here!

Dedicated Corporate Giving Technology

Similarly, you’ll want to ensure that your workplace giving software is committed to meeting accessibility standards as well. Typically a separate tool that integrates directly into your online donation platform, corporate matching gift, volunteer grant, or payroll giving technology should also focus on offering an inclusive experience for your supporters.

Keep in mind that this should encompass every aspect of your promotions, from an embedded company search tool in your giving forms and confirmation page plugin to personalized email follow-ups. Key elements to remember include screen reader and other assistive technology compatibility, responsive design, form field accessibility and color contrast, and more.

And to ensure your technology provider continues to adhere to ongoing accessibility standards, it’s a good idea to look for a solution that conducts regular accessibility testing and complies with relevant standards.

At Double the Donation, we continually prioritize accessibility and strive to provide all users with a seamless experience. (Hint: Click here to skip to an in-depth look at Double the Donation’s accessibility criteria.)

A Review of the Most Common Accessibility Standards

There are several accessibility frameworks and guidelines that help ensure tech-based products and services are accessible to individuals with varying abilities. Understanding the scope, priorities, and value of each criterion can go a long way as you develop your own organization’s approach to accessibility in matching gift fundraising.

Here are some of the main standards you might see when discussing digital accessibility:

Section 508

Section 508, established in 1973 and revised in 1998, is a U.S. federal law that mandates accessibility standards for electronic and information technology used by federal agencies. It outlines specific requirements for software applications, websites, and other digital content to be accessible to individuals with disabilities. Compliance with Section 508 is crucial for federal agencies, organizations providing goods or services to government agencies, and organizations receiving federal funding.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, is a widely recognized set of guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It provides detailed technical specifications and success criteria to make web content more accessible. WCAG has different levels of conformance, including A (minimum), AA (intermediate), and AAA (highest), which provide varying degrees of accessibility.

Accessible Rich Internet Applications

ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is a set of technical specifications that enhance the accessibility of web content and applications. It provides additional attributes and properties that developers can use to make dynamic web content and interactive components more accessible to assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

European Accessibility Act

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is legislation the European Union adopted in 2019 to harmonize accessibility requirements for various products and services as a way to build on the EU’s Web Accessibility Directive. The EAA aims to ensure equal access to digital technology across member states and improve the accessibility of information society services throughout the European Union.

Canadian Accessibility Standards

In Canada, accessibility standards tend to vary significantly by province or territory. For example…

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) → sets accessibility standards for Ontario (including requirements for accessible websites and software).
The British Columbia Accessibility Act → dictates standards for British Columbia.
The Act to Secure Handicapped Persons in the Exercise of Their Rights with a View to Achieving Social, School, and Workplace Integration → establishes standards for Quebec.

These differing standards provide specific recommendations (and, in some cases, requirements) to ensure that developers design digital content with accessibility in mind. It’s important to remember that no one framework is above any other. Instead, it’s important to determine which set of criteria most closely aligns with your organization’s needs, audiences, and objectives.

Establishing a framework for your nonprofit⁠, and utilizing software and other technology that does the same⁠, ultimately certifies that your matching gift and other fundraising strategies comply with the applicable standards above. Ultimately, the goal is to deliver an optimized, accessible workplace giving experience for your supporters.

Double the Donation’s High-Level Accessibility Framework

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Check out our Trust Center, or contact our team directly to request the most up-to-date security and accessibility reports.

At Double the Donation, we understand the importance of providing highly accessible tools for our clients and their end users. Of the various accessibility standards highlighted above, the most applicable criteria regarding accessibility in matching gift fundraising is that of Section 508⁠: the U.S. Federal accessibility standard. Thus, this is the framework that our team has committed to ongoing compliance with. Plus, our tools meet the criteria for ADA and WAI-ACT compliance as well.

In 2018, Double the Donation became the first matching gift provider to receive a VPAT (or Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) to reflect and communicate this compliance. Since then, we’ve conducted extensive annual re-testing to renew our VPAT each year. This allows us to ensure that we continue to meet updated standards, reflecting the ongoing development of both our tools and the accessibility guidelines we adhere to.

In other words, Double the Donation’s matching gift technology exceeds the U.S. federal government’s revised accessibility standards, as outlined in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

To this day, we also remain the only matching gift tool or corporate fundraising software platform with a VPAT⁠. This demonstrates not only our ongoing commitment to accessibility but also our user-centric product design and general stature as the leader in workplace giving technology.

Wondering what that entails? The following elements are flagged as compliant by Double the Donation’s tools, according to WCAG 2.1.

✓

Workplace Fundraising Accessibility Checklist

Visual Design, Color & Contrast

Images on the website contain relevant alternative text.
No information is conveyed to the user via an image of the text.
Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.
The website adheres to minimum contrast standards (ratio of at least 3:1 against adjacent colors) for text and non-text elements.
No information on the website is based solely on sensory characteristics such as shape, size, location, sound, etc.

Screen Reader Compatibility & Structure

The website has consistent headers and table structures to establish clear information and relationships.
Screen readers are easily able to identify most (if not all) of the information available on the website.
Visually impaired users are easily able to perceive the relationships between a particular element and its role.
The sequence of the content present on the website is meaningful and appropriate and does not affect the meaning of the provided content.
The language attribute is correctly defined for the web pages.
The website has complete start and end tags, attributes, and unique IDs.
All website elements have proper labels associated with their role, and the screen reader recognizes them correctly with updated values as well.
Updated content automatically notifies visually impaired users who are accessing the website via a screen reader.

Responsive Layout & Display

Does not restrict view or operation to a single display orientation.
Fully responsive UI when zooming without loss of content.
Does not require two-dimensional scrolling on zoom.
Compliant with WCAG text spacing requirements.

Navigation, Focus & Controls

The website supports keyboard navigation and input functions.
Keyboard focus moves sequentially without getting trapped.
The focus moves in a correct sequence (left to right and top to bottom).
Elements have focus visibility and operate with a single pointer without complex gestures.
No down-event of the pointer is used to execute actions.
No interactive element is triggered automatically on focus.
Change of context does not happen when adjusting input control.
Content triggered by focus is dismissible, hoverable, and persistent.
A mechanism is provided to disable moving or scrolling content.

Labels, Links & Content Clarity

Descriptive and accurate page titles are present throughout the website.
Headings and labels provide sufficient detail of the content described.
All links provide appropriate link text indicating their purpose.
Labels include text defined in code to assist speech recognition tech.
Visible labels and instructions are provided for all form fields.
Identical components share consistent functionality identification.

FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF!

Demo Double the Donation to see our workplace fundraising tools (and how we prioritize accessibility) in action.

Contact our team →

In other words, Double the Donation takes accessibility seriously⁠; and we continue to pursue a positive user experience for donors, volunteers, and development teams of varying abilities.

Wrapping Up & Next Steps

By making a tangible effort to highlight and prioritize accessibility in your organization’s workplace giving strategy, you can foster a sense of inclusivity within your fundraising. After all, you surely want all of your supporters to be able to support your cause in this way.

So take the steps to audit your existing strategy. Is your website up to standard? Does your workplace fundraising platform adhere to a fully accessible framework? (Hint: if you already use Double the Donation’s tools, the answer is yes. If you’re not already a client, click here to get a personalized demo!)

When everyone, regardless of their abilities or limitations, can contribute to your nonprofit’s matching gift success, you’ll be set to make the most of the workplace giving opportunities in your network. Best of luck!

Interested in uncovering more ways to improve your workplace fundraising? Check out these recommended resources to keep learning:

Top Workplace Giving Companies: Leaders in Philanthropy. Explore some of the most well-known companies with matching gift, corporate volunteering, and payroll deduction programs. These generous employee-led giving initiatives can help kickstart any organization’s fundraising!
8 Ways to Encourage Donors to Submit Employee Matching Gift Requests. Accessibility in matching gift fundraising can go a long way. And these additional tips and strategies can help drive more matching gifts to completion than ever before.
Developing a Workplace Fundraising Plan (Free eBook). Access our in-depth strategy guide to learn how your team can grow revenue through workplace giving programs. Uncover next-level planning insights, proven marketing tips, and KPI-tracking recommendations.

Ready to get started? Find out how our Section 508, ADA, WAI-ACT-compliant, and VPAT-certified fundraising software can help:

What to Know About Accessibility in Workplace Fundraising

The Importance of an Accessible Workplace Fundraising Strategy