Your company accomplishes great things through the combined efforts of its leadership, managers, and employees. To stand out in today’s world, however, you need to harness this power to achieve more than just profits. One way to do this is through corporate volunteerism.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a rising priority among modern companies due to its profound influence on reputation, employee engagement, and the welfare of society as a whole. By incorporating volunteerism into your company’s CSR strategy, you can directly involve employees in your philanthropic efforts and connect with local communities.

To set your corporate volunteer program up for success, we’ll cover everything you need to know in the following sections:

• Corporate Volunteerism: FAQs
• 7 Corporate Volunteering Statistics You Should Know
• How to Start a Corporate Volunteer Program
• 4 Top Corporate Volunteerism Examples

Ready to build meaningful, lasting relationships with employees, customers, nonprofit partners, and other community members? Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve an existing corporate volunteer program, having a thoughtful strategy will maximize your results.

Corporate Volunteerism: FAQs

Before we delve into specific tips and tactics, let’s set the stage by walking through some frequently asked questions about corporate volunteerism:

What is corporate volunteerism?

Corporate volunteerism is an aspect of corporate philanthropy that involves encouraging employees to commit their time and skills to charitable causes in their communities. To do this, companies establish corporate volunteer programs that formalize these activities and track their overall impact.

While each company’s volunteer program differs depending on its goals, resources, and employees, having one in place is a first step toward demonstrating your commitment to bettering the world around you.

What are the benefits of employee volunteer programs?

Corporate volunteerism brings a host of benefits to everyone involved—your company, employees, and nonprofits. By opening up more opportunities for employees to volunteer for charitable causes, you contribute more resources to the community and empower nonprofits to better serve their beneficiaries.

For business-specific benefits, creating a corporate volunteer program allows you to:

• Engage more employees. Many employees need more than just a regular paycheck to feel invested and fulfilled in their roles. Corporate volunteering initiatives allow them to develop a sense of pride in working for your company since they’re able to contribute to positive change within their communities.
• Attract more top talent. According to PwC, 65% of people around the globe want to work for an organization with a powerful social conscience. Creating and publicizing your company’s employee volunteer program guidelines is an excellent way to catch the attention of socially conscious job seekers.
• Enhance your reputation. These days, customers expect more from companies than just stellar products or services. They want to know that your business strategy involves more than making profits. Through corporate volunteerism, your company can prove its commitment to social good and bring in more customers as a result.
• Develop employee skills. Through volunteering, employees can gain experience and develop abilities they can later apply on the job. This can be anything from leadership skills to technical expertise, like coding. Plus, by organizing team-wide volunteering events, you can foster improved collaboration and communication within the workplace.
• Improve employee well-being. According to the Mayo Clinic Health System, volunteering can improve a person’s physical and mental health, reducing stress and decreasing the risk of general illness. By encouraging employee volunteering, your company can ensure that they report to work each day feeling ready and eager to put in their best efforts.

However, it takes more than just starting a corporate volunteer program to secure these benefits. First, you need to get your employees excited to participate. To do so, create initiatives that resonate with their specific preferences and interests. At the same time, avoid placing pressure on employees to get involved—employee volunteering should be an option at your company, rather than a requirement.

What are the different types of corporate volunteering?

Corporate volunteerism comes in several shapes and sizes. Consider these popular types of employee volunteering to include in your program:

• Direct Service Volunteering. Through this type of volunteering, employees directly interact with nonprofit beneficiaries and community members. For example, they may provide tutoring sessions to local students, walk dogs at an animal shelter, or serve meals to people without permanent housing.
• Indirect Service Volunteering. Indirect service volunteering does not involve interactions with beneficiaries. Instead, employees can support their community by assembling care packages, participating in a beautification project, or creating marketing materials online.
• Skills-Based Volunteering. Also called SBV, this type of volunteering allows employees to make use of their professional skills to advance nonprofit missions. For instance, employees at a law office may provide pro bono legal services to a charitable organization, while those at a web development company may revamp a nonprofit’s website for free.
• Volunteer Grants. A volunteer grant program rewards employees for committing their time and skills to causes they care about. Typically, once they’ve volunteered a minimum number of hours with a nonprofit, they can submit a volunteer grant request to your company. Then, you donate a certain amount of money to that nonprofit, depending on how many hours the employee volunteered.
• Volunteer Time Off. You can think of Volunteer Time Off, or VTO, as an employee internship in the short term. Companies generally offer their staff between 8 and 40 hours each year to spend participating in volunteer activities⁠—such as direct, indirect, or skills-based volunteering⁠—while still receiving their regular paycheck.
• Team Volunteering. These volunteer opportunities double as team-building events for your company. Many nonprofits need larger teams of corporate volunteers to assist them with projects, from constructing houses to participating in a local cleanup activity.
• Mentorships. Through mentorships, employees can make a direct impact on an individual community member’s life. This may involve supporting a student’s personal goals and academic performance or helping a young professional along their career path.
• Employee Internships. Some companies lend their employees to nonprofit organizations by allowing them to participate in internships, enabling employees to provide their skills to the nonprofit long-term. During these internships, your business will continue paying employees’ salaries. Patagonia, for example, permits any employee within the company to spend up to two months working for an environmental group of their choosing.

Each type of corporate volunteering varies in the level of commitment expected from your employees. Micro-volunteering opportunities, like translating a single document or drafting a letter, can take only an hour or so, while initiatives such as employee internships can last several months. Be sure to offer several options that appeal to different employees at your company.

7 Corporate Volunteering Statistics You Should Know

If your company is ready to become a leader in corporate volunteerism, explore the following statistics to inform your approach:

• 71% of employees believe it’s important to work at a company that gives back through philanthropy and volunteering.
• 96% of companies find that employees who volunteer are more engaged than those who don’t.
• Companies see 52% less turnover among employees who participate in workplace giving programs, like volunteer days.
• 60% of companies offer paid volunteer time off (VTO) to employees.
• 40% of Fortune 500 companies offer volunteer grant programs.
• 80% of companies with volunteer grant programs contribute between $8-$15 per hour volunteered.
• Virtual volunteering was the most offered volunteer program by companies to both domestic and international employees.

Staying up to date on the latest corporate volunteerism and philanthropy trends ensures that your company is well-equipped to engage its employees in CSR and create a meaningful impact on society.

How to Start a Corporate Volunteer Program

A successful corporate volunteer program differs from company to company. After all, your guidelines and initiatives depend on your industry, business goals, and employees. Follow these seven steps to piece together your program:

1. Define your goals and priorities.

Identify your corporate volunteerism goals to secure support across all areas of your company. Focus on issues or causes that align with your overall mission and values. General Mills, for example, is a global food company that focuses its volunteerism efforts on supporting food banks and anti-hunger organizations such as Feeding America.

Additionally, send out surveys to your employees to find out which causes are close to their hearts, which skills they would like to apply, and which communities they’re most interested in supporting. Use these insights to guide your decision-making as you build your program.

2. Outline your corporate volunteerism program.

Based on your goals and employee feedback, determine which types of corporate volunteering to implement. If you’re hoping to engage and retain remote employees, for instance, you might promote virtual volunteering opportunities.

Formalize your decision-making by creating an official policy for your corporate volunteer program that lets employees know which organizations your program supports. In this document, you should include information such as:

• Issues or causes supported by the program
• Employee eligibility criteria for participation
• Causes or types of nonprofits excluded from the program
• Contact information for questions related to employee volunteering

Make this policy available to employees and other stakeholders alike. You can even create several versions depending on the audience. An employee-facing version might include more details about participation, while a public-facing version might feature information on how you’ll report the program’s impact.

3. Invest in CSR software tools.

A comprehensive CSR software solution can facilitate your corporate volunteering initiatives and other philanthropic programs you might launch in tandem. Look for key features that empower your company to:

• Share upcoming volunteer opportunities with employees.
• Plan and manage company volunteering events.
• Track volunteer participation and hours.
• Process and follow through with volunteer grant requests.
• Measure the impact of employee volunteering.

Beyond managing your corporate volunteerism, this software can streamline other aspects of your CSR strategy and workplace giving, such as matching gifts.

Check with your CSR provider to see whether your platform integrates with the latest matching gift tools, such as auto-submission, to maximize employee participation. With this feature, your employees will be able to automatically submit matching gift requests when donating to a nonprofit. Rather than checking their eligibility and filling out each required field in your application form, all they would need to do is input their company email address to kick off the matching process.

4. Reach out to potential nonprofit partners.

Develop long-term relationships with nonprofits in your community by seeking out partnerships with organizations that align with your mission and values. For instance, a company with a philanthropic goal of improving sustainability might partner with an environmental nonprofit by setting up employee volunteering opportunities with them throughout the year.

Your company can even go beyond corporate volunteering to sponsor the nonprofit’s events or programs. In return, the nonprofit will typically feature your company in its marketing materials to help boost your reputation, turning your support into a mutually beneficial partnership.

5. Promote your corporate volunteer program.

Once you’ve worked out all the details, start engaging employees in your corporate volunteer ideas by spreading the word about your program. Start by walking through your policy in a company-wide meeting, then host follow-up Q&As as necessary. Link to key documents in your employee portal so everyone can access the information they need to get involved.

Furthermore, you can encourage participation by appointing corporate volunteer ambassadors within your company. These individuals act as authoritative resources for employees interested in your program and serve as an example to inspire people to get involved.

6. Measure your corporate volunteering impact.

To ensure the long-term success of your corporate volunteer program, be sure to measure your results. For instance, some basic metrics to keep an eye on include:

• Employee participation rate
• Total number of volunteer hours contributed
• Volunteer event attendance
• Average amount of volunteer grants awarded

Share this information with your employees, customers, and nonprofit partners to maintain engagement and morale. Many companies compile their corporate volunteerism data into yearly impact reports containing their CSR progress and publish them on their websites to demonstrate their corporate citizenship.

7. Recognize your employees for participating.

Remember that your CSR impact is only possible thanks to your employees’ participation. With this in mind, develop a strategy for recognizing those who engage with your corporate volunteering activities. Some popular methods of employee recognition include:

• Sending a personalized eCard.
• Creating social media shoutouts.
• Spotlighting employees on your website.
• Featuring employees in your email newsletter.
• Giving out volunteer awards.

Ultimately, having a recognition program in place is beneficial to your company as a whole. Frequent appreciation can go a long way toward reinforcing excellent performance, improving engagement, and cultivating a sense of community in the workplace.

4 Top Corporate Volunteerism Examples

If you need a little more inspiration to create your corporate volunteer program, it’s always helpful to learn from other successful businesses. Take a look at these companies’ top-tier programs and consider how you can incorporate their strategies at your business’s scale:

Disney

The Walt Disney Company’s VoluntEARs program has logged around 13 million volunteer hours since its inception in 1983. Throughout the year, employees have the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities, such as:

• Helping food banks deliver food to community members.
• Creating handmade blankets for children’s hospitals and animal shelters.
• Analyzing Great Barrier Reef images to aid conservation efforts.
• Planting butterfly-friendly backyard habitats to support the Monarch butterfly population.
• Recording Disney bedtime stories for children living in rural areas.

Furthermore, Disney offers volunteer grants to its employees, contributing up to $2,000 a year per employee based on the number of hours they volunteer.

AT&T

By 2030, AT&T plans to engage 50% of its employees worldwide in volunteering and giving. As of last year, it has succeeded in engaging 31% of employees in their communities.

To encourage increased corporate volunteerism, the company:

• Recognizes employees with a “Community Impact Award.”
• Offers management employees a paid Community Day for volunteering each year.
• Organizes regular volunteer projects for environmental stewardship, such as building bee habitats and cleaning up parks.
• Providing volunteer grants to 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

AT&T’s volunteers contributed 385,800 hours just in the past year, with employee time valued at $11.6 million.

Verizon

Similar to AT&T, Verizon aims to reach 2.5 million volunteer hours by 2025. The company’s volunteer program focuses on three specific areas:

1. Digital inclusion by tutoring students online to assisting older adults with technology.
2. Climate protection by cleaning up rivers to participating in environmental research.
3. Human prosperity by writing letters to veterans and supporting students with developing career goals.

So far, Verizon has engaged over 95,000 volunteers in over 1.6 million volunteer hours. To invest in its focus areas, the company has partnered with over 39 nonprofits, including the Trevor Project and the American Red Cross.

Salesforce

To facilitate volunteering among employees, Salesforce created a Pro Bono Program called the Impact Exchange, which pairs its skilled volunteers with nonprofit Salesforce customers needing assistance with a particular project. Additionally, the company allows employees to assist schools by leading volunteer programs to support teachers and students.

To provide employees with the freedom and flexibility to contribute to the causes that matter most to them, Salesforce also provides them with seven paid days of VTO every year.

Wrapping Up: Engaging Employees in Making a Difference

Corporate volunteerism is an effective way to boost your CSR program and nurture thriving, collaborative teams within your company. Remember to measure your progress year after year and regularly collect feedback from your employees. Doing so allows you to refine your program for increased participation and greater future results.

For more tips and tools on how to improve your company’s CSR initiatives and boost employee engagement, consider these additional resources:

• Corporate Volunteering Platforms: Boost Employee Engagement. Learn the top features of corporate volunteering platforms, as well as how to select the best option for your company, in this guide.
• A Full Guide to Employee Engagement Tools + 20 Top Picks. Take your employee engagement efforts to the next level by exploring these top 20 tools.
• Top 7 Employee Engagement Companies Leading By Example. How can you better engage your employees? Learn from the top companies in this guide.

Expectations of the modern company have changed. To many people, a successful, noteworthy company is not just one that earns profits or offers enticing employee benefits. To win the support of employees, consumers, and other stakeholders, you must also stand as an advocate for social change. That’s where corporate volunteering comes in.

77% of consumers are more motivated to purchase from companies with CSR initiatives. By facilitating corporate volunteering, your company can power social good while engaging your employees in meaningful, rewarding activities. Whether you already have an established philanthropy program, or you’re just looking to launch one, you’ll need to build a repertoire of compelling volunteer ideas to inspire employees to participate.

We’ve compiled over 25 inspiring in-person and virtual ideas, along with tips on making the most of each corporate volunteer experience, in the following sections:

• Corporate Volunteer Activities: FAQs
• 15 In-Person Corporate Volunteering Ideas
• 11 Engaging Virtual Corporate Volunteer Ideas
• How to Put Your Corporate Volunteering Ideas into Action
• Maintaining Momentum After a Corporate Volunteer Activity

Chances are, many of your employees enter their roles expecting more than just responsibilities and a paycheck. Through corporate volunteering, you can help them find a larger purpose in their roles and encourage them to stay with your company for the long term.

Corporate Volunteer Activities: FAQs

Before we explore corporate volunteer ideas to engage your employees, let’s answer some frequently asked questions to get you started on the right foot.

What is corporate volunteering?

Corporate volunteering, or employee volunteering, refers to the time and skills that a company’s employees dedicate to charitable causes as part of their combined corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts.

Since the estimated national value of every volunteer hour is $31.80, corporate volunteering allows companies to make a substantial difference in supporting nonprofit missions worldwide and leave a lasting impact on society.

What are the benefits of corporate volunteering?

While it’s clear that volunteering brings significant benefits to nonprofits, it can be very rewarding to your company as well. By incorporating corporate volunteering ideas into your philanthropic initiatives, you can:

• Promote team-building. A winning company culture relies on team-building. By assembling employees for a corporate volunteer event, you’ll help them develop collaboration and communication skills that they can then apply to their roles.
• Boost employee retention. It’s one thing to have your employees show up for work every day. It’s another to have them fully invested in their roles and your company’s overall success. Corporate volunteering enables you to better engage your employees by creating a sense of community and purpose among them. This makes them more likely to stick around year after year.
• Increase talent acquisition. According to a survey conducted by Paul Polman, 76% of U.S. employees want to work for a company that is trying to have a positive impact on the world. If your company makes it clear, through its corporate volunteering efforts, that it’s committed to the common good, then you’ll attract many more socially conscious job seekers to your roles.
• Elevate your reputation. Ultimately, corporate volunteering demonstrates that your company is interested in more than making profits. This can go a long way toward building trust and cultivating support within your community.

While other corporate giving initiatives, such as community grants, can lead to similar benefits, corporate volunteering is one of the most popular and effective ways to directly engage employees in your social impact.

15 In-Person Corporate Volunteering Ideas

In-person corporate volunteer activities allow your employees to get directly involved in their local neighborhoods. Consider the following ideas to start engaging employees and strengthening connections with your community:

1. Organize a community cleanup.

Keep America Beautiful estimates that there are nearly 50 billion pieces of litter along U.S. roadways and waterways. Gather your employees to clean up a local park, beach, or other public space in your local area. This will not only create a more beautiful place for everyone to appreciate, but it will also reduce pollution and protect wildlife in the area.

Furthermore, this corporate volunteering idea can inspire local residents to pay more attention to their carbon footprint and how they can take better care of the community in which they live.

2. Spend a day at an animal shelter.

Enlist your employees to help out at an animal shelter for a win-win corporate volunteer activity. They’ll improve the lives of animals in need of homes, and at the same time, experience a boost to their mental health. Studies indicate that spending time with dogs can raise oxytocin and dopamine levels in people, which promote happiness and reduce anxiety.

There are a variety of volunteer roles that your corporate employees can fill at an animal shelter, such as walking dogs, taking pictures of adoptable animals, and cleaning up the shelter.

3. Build homes for people in need.

If your employees spend much of their time sitting in front of a desk, this corporate volunteering idea provides a wonderful opportunity for them to get active for a worthy cause. To organize this activity, you’ll typically partner with a nonprofit, such as Habitat for Humanity, that can oversee your employees’ efforts and guide them through the construction process.

Bank of America is one standout company that champions affordable housing, with a 30+ year partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Their employees spend about 35,000 a year supporting the nonprofit’s initiatives and making a difference in the lives of people facing housing insecurity.

4. Visit a senior center.

There are numerous roles that corporate volunteers can fill at a senior center. Depending on your employees’ skills and interests, they can:

• Speak with and provide companionship to residents.
• Lead arts and crafts activities.
• Help with administrative tasks.
• Assist with meal preparation.

Beyond lending a hand with daily activities, your employees can even plan and host a holiday party or another type of special event to brighten up residents’ lives.

5. Partner with a homeless shelter.

Last year, homelessness in the United States reached record highs. Support your local homeless shelter and assist an increasingly vulnerable population by:

• Preparing and serving meals.
• Helping children with their homework.
• Sorting donated clothes and other goods.
• Leading life skills workshops, such as resume writing.

Planning a corporate volunteer event at a homeless shelter is an opportunity for your employees to make a direct impact on the lives of other people in their community. They can not only help raise awareness about homelessness, but also build meaningful relationships with people in need of compassion and support.

6. Help out at a food bank.

Visiting a food bank is a popular volunteering activity for companies and individuals alike. Employees can work together to sort food at the facility, and then transport and distribute these supplies to support hunger relief in the community.

Disney is another company that has a particularly impactful corporate volunteering program. Employee participants in Disney’s VoluntEARS program often team up with food backs to address the needs of thousands of food-insecure community members. Beyond that, they get involved in initiatives ranging from making blankets to recording bedtime stories for children living in rural areas.

7. Support a school improvement project.

Engage your employees in enhancing the education of local students by participating in a school improvement project. These projects might involve:

• Renovating classrooms.
• Making improvements for accessibility.
• Beautifying the school through landscaping and gardening.
• Expanding and updating a school library.

This corporate volunteering idea is a stellar way to invest in the future generations of your community. To get started, reach out to local schools and identify those in need of support. With a thoughtful approach, your company can build lasting partnerships and set up more corporate volunteering opportunities in the future.

8. Donate blood.

According to the American Red Cross, someone in the United States needs blood and/or platelets every two seconds. Your company can either host its own blood donation drive or encourage employees to attend one that another organization is holding in the local area.

Before the event itself, be sure to provide educational materials to employees to highlight the importance of donating blood and include basic details on how the process works. This ensures that more employees feel comfortable participating when the day rolls around.

9. Run a donation drive.

Beyond donating blood, your employees can arrange and run a donation drive for a range of essential supplies and resources. For instance, your company could collect:

• Clothing
• Food
• Books
• School supplies
• Pet supplies

In addition to encouraging employees to give their new and gently used items, you can invite everyone in your community to get involved. This can help your company cultivate new relationships with potential customers and job seekers while furthering your CSR goals.

10. Start or maintain a community garden.

Establishing or maintaining a community garden allows your company to leave a lasting impact on its community. If there isn’t currently one in your local area, consider renting out a vacant lot and creating a plan for how the garden will benefit everyone in the neighborhood.

If there is an existing community garden nearby, assemble a team of corporate volunteers to help with weeding, planting, and harvesting.

11. Plant trees as a team.

80% of consumers are more likely to buy from and 84% of employees are more likely to work for a company that stands up for the environment. Demonstrate your company’s commitment to the environment and engage your employees in a team-building exercise with tree planting.

One of the easiest ways to organize a tree-planting activity is to partner with a nonprofit or local conservation group dedicated to the environment and reforestation. They’ll have the expertise to guide your employees on how and where to plant saplings.

12. Offer a mentorship program.

Consider launching a mentorship program to facilitate connections between your employees and community members. Employees can volunteer their time to support mentees in areas such as:

• Resume writing
• Job interviews
• Career advancement

Your company can choose to offer a virtual mentorship program as well. This would enable more people outside of your local area to participate, including remote employees.

13. Participate in a literacy program.

Literacy programs are essential resources that empower people of all ages to improve their communication skills and set a foundation for their future success. There are numerous ways your employees can support a literacy program, from serving as a reading buddy to creating educational resources for participants. Or, your company can even create its own.

Costco has its own Volunteer Reading Program that allows employees to support students in schools, community centers, and after-school programs. The company engages over 2,600 volunteers and even provides all the reading materials for the program.

14. Prepare and distribute care packages.

Throughout the year, or following a specific incident such as a natural disaster, your employees can assemble and distribute care packages to people in need. These can include anything from hygiene supplies to first aid kits.

Last year, for example, Delta volunteers delivered grocery boxes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and care packages for service members during USO Fleet Week events.

15. Host a sports clinic.

By hosting a sports clinic, your company can encourage both its employees and community members to engage in physical activity to promote well-being. The process is simple:

• Choose a specific sport or activity based on employee or community interests.
• Find a suitable location for the clinic.
• Promote the event in your community.
• Enlist employee volunteers to run the clinic.

With this corporate volunteering idea, your company can demonstrate its dedication to health and wellness in society.

11 Engaging Virtual Corporate Volunteer Ideas

For companies with remote or hybrid employees, putting together in-person corporate volunteer events may not be as practical or effective. Plus, some employees may want to participate in social change beyond just their local communities. In these cases, consider incorporating some of the following virtual corporate volunteer activities into your program:

1. Tutor students online.

About one-third of school leaders indicate that they don’t have the capacity to provide frequent, one-on-one tutoring to all students who need it, and nearly 20% report that they can’t even provide regular tutoring. By engaging your employees in online tutoring, your company can alleviate staff and resource shortages at educational institutions.

With video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, your corporate volunteers can offer one-on-one tutoring sessions with students. In doing so, they’ll be able to support academic excellence and make a tangible difference in the lives of individual students.

2. Provide translation services.

This virtual corporate volunteering idea is ideal for multilingual employees. Many nonprofits serve diverse populations, which means they may interact with people who prefer communicating in another language. In fact, nearly 66 million people, or around 21.6% of the U.S. population, speak a language other than English in their homes.

To help nonprofits make their services more accessible to everyone, your employees can translate documents, website content, and more.

3. Teach language classes.

Encourage your company’s multilingual employees to teach language classes as part of your corporate volunteering activities. They can conduct these classes over Zoom and facilitate practice discussions among online participants.

To make it easy for your employees to get involved, consider creating language learning materials that they can use in their classes. This way, they can dedicate their time to teaching without having to worry about creating a comprehensive curriculum or worksheets.

4. Plan skills-based workshops.

Your employees are a diverse group of individuals with their own interests, skills, and hobbies. Empower them to share their expertise by hosting workshops for people who are interested in learning a new skill. As a form of skills-based volunteerism, these workshops could focus on topics such as:

• Business management
• Art
• Cooking
• Leadership
• Financial Literacy

If these workshops are related to employees’ roles, they can have the added benefit of reinforcing their skills and knowledge to boost their performance in the workplace.

5. Create content for nonprofits.

To secure enough support for their missions, nonprofits need to produce content to spread awareness and solicit donations. Your employees can assist nonprofits with their marketing efforts in various ways. For instance, they can:

• Write blog articles.
• Craft social media posts.
• Produce short videos.

This corporate volunteering idea leaves employees with a finished product that they can look back on with pride.

6. Pitch in with graphic design.

If your employees have an eye for graphic design, consider having them offer their services to nonprofits. There are many areas where having well-designed images and graphics can come in handy, including:

• A nonprofit’s website
• Social media
• eCards
• Flyers

Whether a nonprofit is looking to redesign its logo or revamp its website, having graphic design services can go a long way toward reaching and engaging new supporters.

7. Help with social media management.

According to Nonprofit Tech for Good, 87% of nonprofits regularly use social media for digital marketing and fundraising. However, with so much activity on social media, it can be a challenge for them to stand out among all the noise. Enlist your social media-savvy employees to help nonprofits by:

• Creating eye-catching social media content.
• Scheduling posts to maximize engagement.
• Interacting with followers.

Doing so will free up more time and energy for nonprofits to focus on other mission-critical activities, such as delivering services to their beneficiaries.

8. Assist with grant writing.

Nonprofits need to seek funding from a variety of sources to continue fulfilling their missions. Many foundations and corporations offer grants to cover program or project expenses—however, a nonprofit must submit a compelling application before they can access those funds.

Since effective grant writing takes time and effort, this is an excellent opportunity for your company to pitch in, especially if you have employees with strong writing and communication backgrounds. They can research grantmakers, help write proposals, and proofread everything before submission.

9. Coordinate remote volunteers.

A nonprofit organization may have plenty of volunteers willing to dedicate their time and skills. Without proper volunteer management, however, they won’t be able to make the most of the resources at their disposal.

Recruit your employees to take over some key remote volunteer coordination responsibilities by onboarding, communicating with, and organizing volunteers in other areas of the world. This creates impactful, satisfying experiences that encourage volunteers to continue supporting a nonprofit time after time.

10. Offer coding support.

If your employees have coding experience, bring them together to offer coding assistance to nonprofits. They can lend a hand with:

• Cybersecurity best practices
• Web development
• General IT support
• Staff training

Additionally, consider opening up support beyond nonprofits and planning workshops for those interested in developing their programming skills.

11. Host virtual fundraising events.

Encourage your employees to take the lead in fundraising for nonprofits by hosting online fundraising events. Doing so allows them to tap into their personal networks and cultivate new supporters for a nonprofit’s mission. Get creative as you determine which types of fundraisers will appeal most to your employees and be sure to poll them on which organization or cause should receive the funds raised.

For instance, you could plan a virtual walk- or run-a-thon that employees can participate in by using their treadmills at home. Additionally, consider hosting silent auctions, raffles, and other contests such as a trivia night.

How to Put Your Corporate Volunteering Ideas into Action

Now that your company has some engaging corporate volunteer ideas up its sleeve, it’s time to start planning an experience that employees will be excited to take part in. Follow these steps to set your next event up for success:

• Gather employee feedback. Survey your employees in advance to determine which types of corporate volunteer events, activities, and nonprofit causes resonate most with them. Use these insights to guide your planning.
• Spread the word about upcoming opportunities. Ensure that your employees are aware of upcoming opportunities, so they can make room in their schedules to participate.
• Communicate about nonprofit causes. One effective way to engage more employees in corporate volunteering is to share more information about the nonprofit causes that they’ll have an impact on. This may inspire them to sign up for your next event and make a difference in the community.
• Consider offering incentives. For employees who are on the fence about participating, add an extra incentive such as paid volunteer time off (VTO) or a free lunch after volunteering to encourage them to get involved.

If you haven’t already, consider investing in workplace giving software to make planning and participating in corporate volunteer activities easier for everyone. A high-quality solution will streamline processes such as promoting volunteer opportunities and tracking employee hours.

Maintaining Momentum After a Corporate Volunteer Activity

For your corporate volunteer program to be successful in the long term, it’s important to understand that each event is not a one-and-done activity. Consider these tips to maintain momentum and keep your employees engaged after volunteering:

Practice recognition

Show employees that you value their participation by recognizing them for volunteering. There are several effective ways to do so, including:

• Social media shoutouts
• eCards
• Branded merchandise

Furthermore, invite employees to give feedback on their experiences to demonstrate your commitment to providing them with more enticing volunteer opportunities in the future.

Share impact

Don’t leave your employees wondering whether their volunteer efforts actually left a meaningful impact on the world. According to VolunteerMatch, 66% of volunteers are motivated by making a difference in their community. Use multiple channels to celebrate the results of each volunteer event, including:

• Website
• Email newsletter
• Social media

Doing so will both maintain employee engagement within your company and boost your reputation among customers and other stakeholders in the community.

Promote other corporate giving opportunities

Beyond taking part in your corporate volunteer activities, there are many ways employees can contribute to your philanthropic goals. For instance, consider offering volunteer grants to nonprofits after employees volunteer a certain number of hours with them.

Matching gifts are another popular program among many businesses, offered by 65% of Fortune 500 companies. Whether your company already has one in place or is considering starting one of these programs, check to see whether your corporate giving software integrates with the latest matching gift tools. Innovative features such as auto-submission, for example, make it easier than ever for employees to submit matching gift requests.

Wrapping Up: Enhancing Your Company’s Social Impact

As with any company initiative, remember to adopt an improvement mindset from the get-go. Identify and track relevant metrics to unearth insights for improving your corporate volunteer program over time. This ensures that you engage more employees and power more impact year after year.

To learn more about corporate philanthropy and employee engagement best practices, take a look at these additional resources:

• Corporate Volunteering Platforms: Boost Employee Engagement. Find the right corporate volunteering solution for your company using this comprehensive guide.
• A Full Guide to Employee Engagement Tools + 20 Top Picks. Create a healthy, productive workplace by leveraging these 20 top employee engagement tools.
• Top Trends in Corporate Philanthropy for 2023: How to Tap In. Keep your company at the forefront of corporate philanthropy by examining these recent trends.

Picture this: you’re the owner of a mid-size technology company that employs around 100 staff members. You’ve been brainstorming ways to boost employee morale and show your target customers that you run a value-driven business making its mark on the world.

You stumble across the idea of corporate philanthropy and, more specifically, employee giving. Quickly, you realize that this one concept can help you meet your previously stated goals⁠—and the tax break would be an added bonus!

You decide to take the plunge and invest in developing a workplace giving initiative that will simultaneously benefit your company, your employees, and a wide range of charitable organizations.

But how can you ensure your staff will actually want to participate? By offering them an employee giving experience that prioritizes their wants and needs and is as simple a process as possible!

Here’s how you can do that:

1. Inform employees of available workplace giving opportunities.
2. Provide employees with ample ways to give.
3. Make it simple for employees to determine eligibility guidelines.
4. Ensure your company is listed in corporate giving databases.
5. Incentivize participation in employee giving programs.
6. Simplify requests with auto-submission functionality.

In this guide, we’ll dive into these valuable tips for employers like yourself looking to make the most of their workplace giving programs.

Ready to get started with our first step? Let’s begin!

1. Inform employees of available workplace giving opportunities.

Before you can expect employees to participate in your workplace giving initiatives, you’ll need to ensure your staff is made aware of these programs in the first place. Prior to that, you’ll need to determine which types of giving programs you’ll be offering:

Here are a few of the most common examples:

• Matching gifts: Your company matches employee donations to qualifying nonprofits, often dollar for dollar.
• Custom matching gifts: Your company selects a particular nonprofit and commits to matching employee donations to that cause.
• Volunteer grants: Your company provides nonprofits where employees regularly volunteer with monetary grants.
• Employee stipends: Your company allocates a dollar amount to each employee annually, which they donate to the nonprofit of their choice.

Regardless of the combination of giving programs you choose, informing your staff about the new offerings and how to get involved is of utmost importance.

According to matching gift research, 78% of individuals eligible for corporate giving programs are completely unaware. As a result, they’re not able to make the most of these philanthropic initiatives.

We recommend providing informational materials that outline your corporate giving programs to all existing staff to get started. For example, you might hold a meeting, send a company-wide email, share a pamphlet, and add an explainer to your employee handbook. Then, be sure your staff knows where to go to seek additional details on the program!

Going forward, you’ll want to educate all new team members about workplace giving opportunities as well.

2. Provide employees with ample ways to give.

There are tons of ways that individual donors can support nonprofit causes⁠. So when you create your workplace giving program, your offerings must be inclusive of all types of employee giving.

Top donation channels might include (but are not limited to):

• Nonprofit websites
• Online giving tools
• Peer-to-peer campaigns
• Text-to-give
• Direct mail
• Recurring gifts
• Phonathons
• Paycheck deductions
• Event pledges
• Workplace giving or CSR platforms

The opportunities are endless⁠—and each staff member at your business might have a different favorite way to give.

According to the same matching gift studies above, “96% of employees at companies with matching gift programs have a strong or very strong preference for their company to match donations made directly to a nonprofit (such as through the nonprofit’s website, peer-to-peer fundraising platform, or mail) rather than only matching donations through a workplace giving software platforms. The more options an employee has to give and to get their gift matched, the more likely they are to utilize available company matching opportunities.”

This means that, in order to provide a positive employee giving experience for everyone, be sure to keep your giving (and matching) channels open.

3. Make it simple for employees to determine eligibility guidelines.

As you work to ensure your company is well-informed about the existence of your employee giving programs, it’s equally critical that your programs’ eligibility guidelines are readily apparent as well. But what are these so-called guidelines?

Let’s take matching gifts (i.e., one of the most-used forms of workplace giving) as an example. In order for employees to participate in your company gift-matching initiative, you’ll need to provide your staff with the following information:

• Donation minimums and maximums: This is the range within which you’ll match employee donations (e.g., $50-1,000).
• Match ratios: This determines the rate at which you match employee donations. This is typically dollar for dollar (1:1) but can go up to 2:1 or 3:1 as well.
• Qualifying types of nonprofits: You might choose a particular type of mission (e.g., environmental organizations) or exclude categories of recipients (such as houses of worship).
• Qualifying types of employees: Most companies match gifts made by all full-time employees, while others may open the programs up to part-time workers, retirees, and even employee spouses
• Submission deadlines: Your submission deadline is the date by which employees must submit a matching gift request to your company in order to be eligible to receive a match. This may be a certain number of months or align with your calendar or fiscal year.

Because these criteria are necessary for employees to determine their eligibility for a company match, it’s important that you communicate this information effectively. Ensure your guidelines are provided in any previously mentioned explainer materials and even on your business’ website. Even interested employees won’t likely be willing to search high and low for this information. If it is hard to find, you’re likely creating an unnecessary obstacle to program success.

Here’s an example of what these criteria can look like:

Plus, as a general rule, keeping your guidelines as open as possible will provide an optimal employee giving experience for your staff. For example, when you set low minimums, high maximums, and generous deadlines, more individuals’ gifts will qualify for your programming. The more employees who qualify, the more will participate. And you know that higher your levels of participation, the more advantages brought to your company.

4. Ensure your company is listed in corporate giving databases.

One of the easiest ways employees can uncover your aforementioned program guidelines is by accessing a corporate giving database. This is essentially a compilation of information on thousands of businesses and their available corporate giving programs.

For example, Double the Donation offers the industry-leading database for matching gifts and volunteer grants. Thousands of nonprofits utilize this comprehensive tool⁠—likely many of the same ones your employees will support.

For organizations that leverage Double the Donation’s embeddable search widget, donors are typically prompted within the donation experience to enter their employer information in search of matching gift eligibility.

If your employees follow this process, you don’t want them to search your company name, only to be met with “no results found.” This can cause discouragement in the process, even if they know how to locate your program guidelines elsewhere. Plus, many well-intentioned donors simply forget to follow up after losing their initial giving inertia.

So what can you do to avoid this scenario? Make sure your business is listed in corporate giving databases, complete with your programs’ eligibility criteria and links to submission forms.

Luckily, Double the Donation accepts submissions for new companies to add to their most comprehensive database, making it as easy as possible for your business to increase its program reach. As a result, you provide the simplest, most optimal employee giving experience while actively supporting their favorite charities.

And if you go the custom program route with a nonprofit partner that uses Double the Donation’s matching gift database, the organization can ensure the program is added correctly using the platform’s one-off match program management feature!

*While 360MatchPro offers custom matching gift program management functionality, this feature is designed specifically for fundraisers looking to manage custom matching gift initiatives—360MatchPro does not work directly with corporations. If you’re a company interested in creating a matching gift program, contact us, and we’ll share information about our corporate vendor partners.

That way, your nonprofit-specific program will populate in that organization’s company search tool but won’t appear as an option for other nonprofit causes in order to avoid confusion.

5. Incentivize participation in employee giving programs.

By now, your employees should be aware of your employee giving initiatives in place and understand how they can participate. But what if your staff requires a little extra push to get involved with your philanthropic efforts?

That’s where strategic incentivization comes in!

If you want to encourage individuals to partake in new employee giving experiences, consider motivating the team with giving goals⁠—either in terms of percentage of overall participation or in total fundraising goals.

Once your team reaches the predetermined objectives, you might treat the company to rewards like these:

• Catered lunches
• Additional PTO
• Casual dress days
• In-house masseuse services
• Gift card rewards
• Professional development opportunities
• Company apparel and/or swag

Be sure to remind your employees that the ultimate benefit of a well-run workplace giving program revolves around providing mission-based organizations the funds they need to change the world. But some extra motivation never hurts, either!

6. Simplify requests with auto-submission functionality.

Want to increase employee participation⁠ in (and satisfaction with) your workplace giving programs? Make it as easy as possible to get involved. And it’s never been easier than with auto-submission!

Here’s what you need to know:

The Historic Submission Process

Once an employee determines that they qualify for a workplace giving program⁠—such as matching gifts⁠—they’ve traditionally been required to complete a request process put in place by the company they work for. Typically, the individual will be asked to provide basic information about their donation (e.g., amount, method of giving, date the gift was made, etc.) and the organization to which they contributed (such as its mission, mailing address, tax ID number, and more).

New Auto-Submission Functionality

Matching gift auto-submission functionality recently came out of beta. Now some programs can offer the new functionality, which substantially streamlines the process for donors and increases the likelihood that matches will be submitted. Instead of asking for all of the above-listed information, companies taking part in auto-submission simply request the individual’s corporate email address. The software ecosystem will take it from there to process, approve, and disburse funding for the match.

Leveraging Auto-Submission Providers

If you’re interested in getting started with auto-submission capabilities, the easiest way is to partner with a CSR management platform that already offers the functionality through a seamless integration with Double the Donation’s innovative technology. These currently include the following providers:

• Millie
• Selflessly
• POINT

If you already work with a CSR platform that doesn’t yet offer this functionality, consider reaching out to your provider to advocate for the technology. After all, auto-submission is available with no added cost⁠—it’s free for both the matching gift company and the software vendor they use⁠—so you can offer the ultimate employee giving experience to your team.

Keep in mind⁠—the more employees who take part in your company’s matching program, the better the results you can expect to see in terms of team member engagement, brand reputation, and more. And auto-submission abilities set your team up for continued success on all accounts!

There’s little to no purpose in investing in an employee giving program if nobody at your workplace will participate. To drive participation, you need to look at your employee giving experience from a staff member’s perspective and determine whether it’s a positive one.

So provide ample opportunities and avenues for giving, make available programs known, simplify the processes involved, and incentivize participation. This can make a world of difference⁠—to your workforce, your community, and even your company’s bottom line.

Interested in learning more about employee giving? Check out our other educational resources:

• Workplace Giving: The Guide for Nonprofits and Companies. Discover some of the most popular types of workplace giving programs and explore the benefits to both nonprofits and companies with our comprehensive guide.
• Increase Employee Engagement with Corporate Giving. High levels of employee engagement mean increased retention and productivity. Corporate giving opportunities can play a part in boosting engagement, so find out how with this article.
• Corporate Social Responsibility: The Definitive Guide. Employee giving and other philanthropic efforts play a big role in CSR. Uncover what else you need to know to be a socially responsible business in this resource.