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!
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 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:
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:
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.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/DTD_How-to-Offer-the-Ultimate-Employee-Giving-Experience_Feature.png275725Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2023-11-01 21:59:212024-08-16 15:42:38How to Offer the Ultimate Employee Giving Experience
Employee engagement has become an increasingly important part of organizational success. After all, businesses with engaged employees are 23% more profitable than companies whose employees are not engaged.
However, if you’re just starting to prioritize employee engagement, it can be difficult to determine where to begin. It can be helpful to take a look at what other companies are doing to engage their employees to gain actionable insights into how your organization can handle your new priority.
To show you how you can center employee engagement in your organization, we’ll cover the following topics in this guide:
Before we dive into the companies leading by example with their employee engagement programs, you need to understand what exactly employee engagement is and why it’s important. Let’s get started!
What is employee engagement?
Simply put, employee engagement refers to the level of emotional and mental connection an employee has to their team, general workplace, and employer. This translates to the employee’s commitment to the organization and dedication to achieving its goals. There are four different levels of employee engagement:
Highly engaged. Highly engaged employees have very favorable opinions of their team, workplace, and employer as a whole. They’re extremely committed to their organization and willing to go above and beyond to help achieve its goals. Plus, they’re likely to motivate other employees around them with their positive attitude.
Engaged. These employees like their work but might feel less satisfied about certain aspects of the organization. While they’re still committed to their organization’s success, they’re less likely to go above and beyond their call of duty than highly engaged employees.
Unengaged. Unengaged employees feel unattached to their team, workplace, and employer. They’re not committed to their organization and not dedicated to helping achieve its goals. While they’re not unhappy with their work, they aren’t happy either. These employees usually fulfill the bare minimum of their responsibilities and little more. They’ll put time into their work but not their energy or passion.
Disengaged. These employees are actively unhappy with their work and may even be resentful that their employer isn’t meeting their needs. This discontent may result in them acting out on their unhappiness, underperforming in their responsibilities, and even undermining the work of their more engaged coworkers.
As you begin evaluating the general engagement levels at your organization, keep in mind that engagement does not equal enthusiasm. It’s easy to look at a happy employee and assume that they’re engaged with their work. However, employee engagement is tied to your organization. Ask yourself: Is this employee connected to their work alongside being a happy person?
What are the benefits of employee engagement?
We’ve lightly touched on a few benefits of employee engagement. The main one is profitability—employees who are determined to help your organization meet its goals are more likely to do their best to increase your cash flow.
Aside from profitability, here are a few other benefits for companies with engaged employees:
Increased productivity. Businesses with highly engaged employees are 18% more productive than those with unengaged employees. These employees believe that the work they’re doing is important and therefore are more likely to work harder.
Reduced absenteeism. According to Gallup’s employee engagement survey, companies that scored in the lower quartile of engagement were also 81% more likely to experience employee absenteeism. If your employees aren’t showing up for work, it will make it much more difficult for your organization to be successful.
Higher retention rates. If your employees are engaged with their work, their team, and your organization, they’re less likely to seek other employment opportunities. Higher retention rates reduce employee turnover, lowering costs related to re-hiring, onboarding, and training.
Improved recruitment. Happy employees will likely speak about your company in a positive light and be more open about their satisfaction with their work. Your organization’s reputation as an employer will improve through word-of-mouth, which will help you attract top talent and improve the quality of potential employees you recruit.
Positive workplace culture. Overall, the more engaged your employees are, the more positive they’ll be in the workplace. These individuals are excited to work and will raise the spirits of their coworkers, leading to a more positive workplace culture.
Employee engagement is important for all organizations, even those that work in the nonprofit sphere. Plus, it’s especially important for companies that have remote or hybrid employees, as those individuals are more likely to feel emotionally disconnected from their employer due to physical distance.
By prioritizing employee engagement, you’ll be able to leverage these benefits to your organization’s advantage. It’s a win-win—your company will see greater success and your employees will be happier to contribute to that.
The Top 8 Employee Engagement Companies
Now that you know more about what employee engagement is and how it’s helpful for your organization, let’s take a look at the top employee engagement companies that are leading by example.
1. Checkr
Checkr’s employee engagement program emphasizes corporate giving and philanthropy, fostering a culture of generosity and social responsibility among its workforce. This initiative encourages employees to participate in various charitable activities, including matching gift programs, volunteer opportunities, and fundraising events.
By implementing a generous matching gift initiative, Checkr amplifies the impact of its employees’ donations, doubling their contributions to eligible nonprofits. This not only supports the causes employees care about but also enhances their engagement and satisfaction within the company.
Plus, Checkr is recognized as a Certified Leader in Matching Automation (CLMA), which represents its dedication to philanthropy with a streamlined engagement process and more. This makes it easier than ever for its staff to get involved!
2. Adobe
If you’ve worked with or created visual media before, you’re undoubtedly familiar with Adobe. This company offers a product suite for photographers, videographers, graphic designers, and more. Founded on the idea of creating innovative products that change the world, Adobe also prioritizes employee engagement alongside offering technology that empowers people to create.
Here are a few ways the company handles employee engagement:
Work and life integration. Adobe promotes work-life balance by offering a company winter and summer break. Plus, it offers a wellness fund for each employee up to $600 and sabbaticals starting at four weeks off after five years of working at the company.
Learning fund and reimbursement. This company supports employees on their learning journey by offering funds and reimbursements for educational material. It provides a learning fund of up to $1,000 every year and educational reimbursement of up to $10,000 a year.
Frequent employee engagement dialogue. Aside from these benefits, Adobe discusses how leadership can better improve the workplace. It keeps employee engagement dialogue going year-round by conducting regular surveys to understand their workers’ everyday experiences.
Additionally, Adobe has a special focus on helping employees from underrepresented groups gain visibility and grow in their careers. To that end, it provides programs that help employees build leadership skills and connect with other employees across the company.
3. Cisco
Cisco provides innovative cloud-based networking and security solutions to businesses. Its mission is to power an inclusive future for all with technology that connects the world.
Additionally, Cisco believes in creating a workplace where employees can find more than just a job. Ranked by Fortune as one of the best companies to work for, Cisco uses the following strategies to center employee engagement:
Company-wide shut downs. Throughout the year, Cisco will occasionally choose to shut down to let employees recharge. Plus, there’s a company-wide shut down at the end of the year, giving employees time off to spend with families over the holidays.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR). Cisco follows through on its mission of powering an inclusive future for all by giving back to the global community through CSR. It features a reporting hub and is environmentally and socially conscious throughout its entire supply chain, engaging its employees with these practices.
Employee recognition. High performers are motivated to stay connected and work hard with Cisco’s employee recognition initiative. This initiative singles out exceptional employees who deserve kudos for their achievements from colleagues and peer organizations outside the company.
Cisco recognizes that it’s important for workforce leaders to understand employee needs and provide an ideal work experience without sacrificing performance. And its efforts are working, as they are one of PEOPLE magazine’s top companies that care.
4. ExxonMobil
This oil and gas company pioneers new research and technologies dedicated to reducing emissions while creating more efficient fuels. It’s also committed to engaging its employees in meaningful ways—and it’s paying off. In a survey conducted by resume.io, ExxonMobil ranked 15th in employee retention in the United States with a median employee tenure of seven years.
A few of the ways this company focuses on employee engagement include:
Training opportunities. ExxonMobil is committed to enabling its employees to reach their full potential. It invests in talent by delivering educational training courses to employees so that they can develop new skills and initiates a leadership program alongside career advocacy and mentoring programs. Plus, it performs more than 10,000 internal job rotations to support development plans.
Emphasizing thriving. To ensure that employees are thriving in the workplace, ExxonMobile releases company-wide surveys to strengthen its culture framework. Additionally, it supports flexibility, health, and long-term security through its PTO policies, wellness programs, financial planning initiatives, and more.
Centering inclusivity and diversity. ExxonMobil strives to create an inclusive and diverse work environment starting from the top down. Since 2016, women and U.S. minority representation has improved by over 50%, and its employees come from over 160 nationalities. It also fosters inclusive behaviors through annual skills assessments and their culture framework.
This company’s employee engagement strategies have resulted in visible benefits. For example, it was awarded the top most attractive U.S. energy company for engineering students for 10 consecutive years and the second most attractive company globally. It also has strong global acceptance rates from potential employees, about 10-15% higher than other large companies.
Plus, ExxonMobil boasts corporate giving initiatives that keep its employees engaged with philanthropy. If you’d like to learn more about their programs, click on the button below!
5. Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is a healthcare organization that operates hospitals and medical offices and provides health insurance. Aside from caring for the well-being of employees at other organizations, it also focuses on engaging its own employees.
Here are three reasons why Kaiser Permanente is an example of a great employee engagement company:
Investing in employee well-being. Aside from investing in wellness research, this company has implemented various wellness initiatives, including healthy eating and resilience training programs. It offers employees various health insurance packages in addition to plenty of holidays, sick leave, and time off to recharge.
Giving back to the community. Corporate citizenship is one of Kaiser Permanente’s core values and it’s reflected in its employee engagement programs. In addition to weekly community outreach programs, employees have access to quarterly outreach programs to give back outside of the office environment.
Support for veteran employees. Kaiser Permanente is recognized as a top Military-Friendly Employer, offering military transition programs to prepare junior military officers for successful leadership roles within the organization. It actively tries to provide better employment opportunities for veterans and their spouses.
As a health-related company, Kaiser Permanente leadership understands the importance of creating a positive and healthy workplace environment to engage its employees.
6. Microsoft
This technology corporation doesn’t measure employee engagement—it measures employee thriving. It defines thriving as “to be energized and empowered to do meaningful work.” As one of its core aspirations, employee thriving is meant to help employees find their sense of purpose within the company.
A few ways Microsoft focuses on employee engagement and thriving include:
Prioritizing communication. Through its internal employee engagement program, AskHR, Microsoft prioritizes communication between human resources and employees to ensure that employee inquiries are properly addressed. Employees can use the AskHR app to submit a variety of requests that the HR team fulfills promptly. Additionally, Microsoft uses a pulse survey tool to review if employees are thriving and obtain feedback regularly.
Creating a growth culture. This company doesn’t just offer professional development opportunities; it promotes a growth culture and mindset. Rather than being “know-it-alls,” employees should be “learn-it-alls.” Microsoft supports employees seeking professional development by recognizing those who show a growth mindset.
Team-building and networking opportunities. Microsoft acknowledges that forming bonds with coworkers is part of a healthy, thriving workplace culture. It empowers its workers to do that by arranging team-building events to rally employees behind solid company values. For example, it bolsters its commitment to CSR through community volunteering activities.
From Microsoft’s perspective, thriving is different from work-life balance—the former is about being motivated to do meaningful work, and the latter involves an employee’s personal life, too. While it’s possible for an individual to thrive but lack work-life balance or vice versa, Microsoft is dedicated to creating a positive experience in both aspects for its employees.
7. NVIDIA
Multinational tech company NVIDIA designs top-of-the-line graphics processing units, cutting-edge computer chips, and effective employee engagement programs. This organization is dedicated to creating an empowering environment where employees have the support and inspiration to take on the world’s greatest challenges together.
Here are a few elements of their employee engagement strategy:
Physical and mental health. NVIDIA prioritizes physical and mental health by providing a variety of health plans for its employees. It offers a choice between five different medical plans, allowing employees to select the plan that works best for them. It also provides dental and vision plans, flexible spending accounts, and health savings accounts. Plus, it has resources for virtual care, so workers feel empowered to seek the care they need.
Programs for parents. This company has one of the nation’s best parental policies. It includes 22 weeks of fully paid parental leave, unlimited reimbursements for adoption and surrogacy expenses, and plans that cover in vitro fertilization and egg freezing. Additionally, for employees with older children, NVIDIA partners with Collegewise to offer complimentary college preparation resources.
Support for life changes. NVIDIA leadership understands that extenuating circumstances can impact an employee’s ability to work and engagement with their work. From marriage and divorce to moving to losing a loved one, this company offers resources and programs to help employees navigate their life changes.
Although NVIDIA lives in the technology industry, it understands that its employees are not robots or data points and deserve compassion and empathy. It’s committed to supporting its team members holistically, not just as employees, but as humans.
8. Spotify
Spotify is one of the world’s largest music streaming service providers, with over 550 million active users. It offers over 100 million songs and five million podcasts to listeners. Aside from that, it’s also one of the leading employee engagement companies.
A few ways that Spotify keeps its employees motivated and engaged in their work are:
Embracing self-leadership. Spotify leadership encourages all employees to drive their own development. This practice empowers employees to take ownership of their career trajectories and seek out what they need to grow.
Inspiring innovation. Innovation is one of Spotify’s core values, and it acknowledges that to innovate, you must disrupt the status quo. It encourages its employees to find new ways to be disruptive by making it safe to fail. This value creates a culture where employees are not afraid of being bold or taking risks and making mistakes.
Centering sincerity and collaboration. Sincerity and collaboration are two other core values at Spotify. This company puts these values into practice by leading with transparency, engaging with open minds, and delivering honest feedback. Employees recognize that they are all one big team, which means that they share ideas and best practices across business units and despite traditional hierarchies.
When it comes to its employees, Spotify’s approach is that they are all a band—dependent on each other to create the best audio experience. This employee engagement company focuses on creating an environment where employees are energized and excited to inspire those around them and drive innovation.
Additional Resources
Business magnate Richard Branson once said that businesses should “train people well enough so they can leave [and] treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” And these companies do—in some shape or form, they’ve mastered the art of employee engagement to create a great environment where employees are happy and even proud to work. As you begin forming or improving your organization’s employee engagement initiatives, consider taking a leaf out of their book to create a great experience for your team members.
If you’d like to learn more about employee engagement, consider the following resources:
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Employee-Engagement-Companies_Feature.jpg7401680Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2023-11-01 14:11:252024-09-30 20:55:26Top 8 Employee Engagement Companies Leading By Example
With a whopping 85% of employees actively disengaged at the workplace, implementing intentional engagement programs is crucial for ensuring your company’s success. By implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs into your company culture you can access benefits on multiple sides—workforce productivity, community impact, and customer satisfaction.
One of the top workplace giving program ideas is matching gifts. Starting a matching gift program boosts engagement by allowing you to invest in your employees’ passions. However, if you’re new to CSR or don’t know where to start with matching gifts, it can be difficult to know where to start. Don’t worry—this guide will provide you with everything you need to cultivate a more engaged and effective workforce by covering these topics:
Without further ado, let’s explore the valuable relationship between matching gift programs and employee engagement.
Matching Gift FAQs
Whether you’re a newcomer or a seasoned pro, you likely have some questions about the vast world of matching gifts. Let’s get you the answers you need before we move into our engagement strategies.
What are the key terms to know regarding matching gifts?
If you’re new to matching gifts, there are a lot of important terms that you might not be aware of. Here are some definitions to keep in mind:
A matching gift program is a corporate giving initiative that enables employees to get their donation to a nonprofit matched by their employer.
A match ratio is a company’s ratio of how much of an employee’s donation they’ll match. For example, most companies match $1 for each dollar contributed by the employee, but some even pledge $2 for each dollar given by the employee.
Matching gift program eligibility requirements are a company’s rules for which employees can leverage matching gifts and to what extent. For instance, some companies allow retirees and part-time employees to submit matching gift requests, where others only allow full-time employees to participate.
A maximum and minimum match amount are the upper and lower limits of an eligible matching gift. Most companies set the minimum amount around $25 and the maximum at several hundred dollars per year.
A CSR platform is a software solution that companies leverage to manage their matching gift programs. The best CSR platforms can integrate with matching gift processing software solutions like Double the Donation, which has auto-submission capabilities.
All of these terms (and a few more) will eventually be fully fleshed out in your corporate giving policy. If you’d like to more clarity on how other organizations define them, research companies that donate to nonprofits to get a more informed perspective on how you can tailor these ideas to your employee engagement goals.
What are the primary benefits of matching gift programs?
Matching gift programs offer a plethora of advantages for both companies and nonprofits alike. Besides feeling fulfilled after committing a good deed, companies who embrace matching gifts can boost:
Customer loyalty. Customers increasingly favor supporting companies who give back to their communities. In fact, corporate social responsibility can give your company an edge over competitors—70% of consumers want to know that the brands they support are socially responsible.
Brand reputation. With increased customer loyalty comes a stronger brand reputation. Not only will giving back to nonprofits boost customer retention but it can improve acquisition as well.
Employee productivity and loyalty. Employees want to feel supported in their professional and personal passions by their employer, and it shows in their job performance and loyalty. Matching gifts provide a perfect opportunity to invest in each employees’ interests, make a widespread impact on the community, and cultivate a more dedicated workforce.
Talent acquisition efforts. The same principles that boost employee productivity through corporate giving apply to talent acquisition. You can leverage your matching gift offerings to attract and acquire the talented applicants that your competitors want.
Tax breaks. Depending on where your company is based, you can get tax reductions from the IRS for your matching gift contributions.
Community relationships. A matching gift can open the door for your company to form valuable relationships with organizations in your community, especially with nonprofits. For instance, if you notice a high volume of donations going to one nonprofit, you might decide to officially sponsor them and reap even more benefits of corporate social responsibility.
That said, you can’t harness these benefits without putting a sincere effort towards making philanthropy a core value of your company. That means actively promoting your program to employees and iterating on it.
What can affect employee engagement with matching gift programs?
Numerous factors can impact a company’s employee matching gift engagement, such as:
Employee awareness. According to Double the Donation’s guide to matching gift statistics, 78% of donors are unaware if their company offers a matching gift program, and 1 in 3 donors indicate that they’d give more if a match was available. The more employees know about your program, the better participation metrics you’ll see.
Ease of submission. The easier it is to submit a matching gift request, the more employees will participate in your program. Leverage a platform that integrates with an auto-submission provider to keep the process straightforward.
Program guidelines. The stipulations that determine who can participate in the matching gift program and how they can get involved influences the participation rate.
Leadership support. Employees look to leadership to embody company culture and values. If there’s a lack of support or acknowledgment of matching gifts, employees might feel discouraged from participating.
Flexibility in gift types. Some employees might prefer giving all at once, but others might prefer to donate smaller gifts over time. Accommodating multiple giving preferences allows you to interest more employees in getting their gifts matched. After all, our corporate philanthropy trends research found that 39% of surveyed employees wish their companies would allow greater flexibility in when and how they can participate in workplace giving.
Quality of feedback mechanisms. Adapting your matching gift program over time is crucial for keeping it effective as your company changes. Leveraging comprehensive and accessible feedback mechanisms is how you can tailor your programs to be more suited to your employees’ preferences.
To gauge what influences your own company’s matching gift participation rate, survey your employees and ask what aspects are beneficial and where improvements can be made. These answers usually directly correlate with your program’s effectiveness and appeal to your employee community.
Tips for Maximizing Employee Engagement through Matching Gift Programs
Now that your initial questions are answered, you might be wondering how to launch your own matching gift program. Before we go over the details, let’s review the big-picture ways that you can increase engagement.
Create a culture of giving and volunteerism. Whether you ask potential hires about their interest in social responsibility or offer paid time off for company volunteering, you should integrate giving back into your regular schedule. You’ll attract passionate advocates to join your team and cultivate a community that values your CSR efforts, making implementing a matching gift program simple.
Leverage technology and software solutions. As mentioned above, using employee-facing CSR platforms streamlines program management and participation. For instance, using a CSR platform that integrates with an auto-submission platform can cut at least half of the steps in a matching gift submission process.
Sharing the program’s impact with participants. As donors, your employees are entitled to information about your corporate giving activities and progress. Ensure you report on your matching gift program’s metrics, such as the number of participants and the total amount donated by the company, so your employees stay informed about your progress.
Your company needs to do more than simply start a matching gift program to get employees excited about getting involved. Implementing these large-scale atmospheric and program shifts will make it easier for your matching gift program to make a lasting impact.
How to Start an Employee Matching Gift Program
These simple steps can help you start your matching gift program on the right foot:
Develop a corporate giving policy
Before you lay out your specific matching gift policies, you should create a framework for your overall approach to corporate social responsibility and giving. Ensure you cover the following aspects in your policy:
Goals of your program
Bundle options, such as making a higher match ratio available when the employee have volunteered a certain amount
Match ratio
Minimum and maximum match amounts
Eligibility requirements
Types of gifts accepted
Affinity causes that you contribute more to
Tax deductibility information
Submission deadlines
Contact information for the program administrator
Feedback devices
Record all of these stipulations in a visible location, such as the employee handbook or in your employee-facing CSR platform, so your staff has the most essential information at their fingertips. If you make changes to your policy, communicate them to your entire team to keep your program running smoothly.
Pick a CSR platform
If you haven’t already settled on a CSR platform that supports matching gifts, now is the time to research your options and pick the best fit. Keep these important considerations in mind while you choose your platform:
Supports matching gifts and any other corporate giving initiatives you decide to take on
Robust reporting capabilities
Once you’ve narrowed down your prospective providers based on these criteria, schedule demos, consultations, and any other meetings to help you make your decision. Also, remember to include all relevant parties in your research and trial processes, such as your software experts, company leadership, and CSR program chairs, so you get a diverse array of perspectives on the available options.
Communicate the program’s impact to employees
As previously mentioned, one of the biggest barriers to employee participation in matching gift programs is a lack of awareness. To achieve maximum visibility, you should:
Create a matching gifts information page. Many companies have shared drives or Intranet pages where employees can share internal information. Create an internal information hub for your matching gift program where you can post updates and answer questions.
Leverage multiple channels. Whether you’re spreading the word about your program via email or in person at your all-hands meeting, pick company-wide channels to inform your employees about your program.
Host recognition and appreciation events. Leveraging peer feedback is a great way to get employees interested in your new program. Ask employees who have had their gifts matched before to speak to the program’s effectiveness in spreading social good. You could also ask nonprofit representatives from causes related to your company’s focus to speak about how matched donations impact their missions.
Similar to your external marketing efforts, your program will only be as popular as your communications are effective. Use marketing tools such as powerful calls to action and branded images to make your communications stand out.
Celebrate successes and recognize employee participation
Once the matching gift requests start rolling in, you should take the time to thank those who made the program successful—your employees. Showing your heartfelt gratitude can help employees feel more engaged and inspired to renew their involvement going forward. Share your thanks by:
Sending appreciation eCards. Make your thank-you message more memorable than a passing comment in the hallway by leveraging custom employee appreciation eCards. Take it a step further by giving peers the ability to recognize each other for their charitable activity so everyone has a chance to support each other.
Awarding prizes to participants. Creating a competitive, yet fun gamified atmosphere with prizes on the line helps employees get more absorbed in your program and allows you to show your thanks. For instance, let’s say you’re running a matching gift day coinciding with Giving Tuesday. Consider offering all participants a small prize as a thank-you gift and award the top five donors with more valuable gifts.
Creating a yearly award. You might already have a yearly awards ceremony where high performers are recognized for their contributions to the company. You could add an award for “biggest community contributor” or “advocate of the year” to show thanks to the most influential participants.
A little recognition can go a long way in securing long-term support for your matching gift program. As long as your sincerity comes through, your employees will feel the love and keep giving!
Wrapping Up + Additional Resources
Now that you know how and why matching gift programs can influence your employee engagement, it’s time to launch your own efforts! By keeping your employees at the center of your strategy and leveraging the right technology, you can achieve remarkable results for your company, both internally and externally.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/the-impact-of-matching-gifts-on-employee-engagement_feature.jpg10001800Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2023-11-01 05:00:002024-07-09 12:34:51The Impact of Matching Gift Programs on Employee Engagement
What causes your employees to clock into work every day? The obvious answer is their compensation. But what causes them to strive to do their best work, go the extra mile to complete projects, and expand their skills to create more value at your business?
The answer is engagement! Today’s savvy business owners are more than aware of the difference strong motivation can have on every aspect of their company, from lowering accidents and mistakes to improving customer relationships.
With the importance of keeping motivation high, you might assume employee engagement is a priority for most businesses. However, approximately 85% of employees report being unengaged or actively disengaged at work. That’s a big problem for businesses that don’t want to see increased absenteeism, higher turnover, and lower-quality work.
Fortunately, there is a solution if your employees are part of that 85%. Several employee engagement strategies are easy to implement and manage long-term. We’ll explore those tips in this article, but first, let’s define employee engagement.
What is Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement refers to how employees feel about and behave at their work. Ultimately, engagement is a scale that goes from engaged to unengaged to disengaged.
Engaged employees are committed to their work and see it as important. These employees often feel a sense of ownership over their assignments and constantly strive to do better and improve. They feel like they’re an important part of their workplace and want to see the businesses they work for succeed.
Unengaged employees are middle-of-the-road in the scale. They come to work and do their assignments, but ultimately they aren’t that invested in the quality of their work as long as they’re not actively getting in trouble. Before judging unengaged employees too harshly, remember if it’s possible for formerly engaged employees to become unengaged for a variety of factors, such as burnout, sudden life events, and frustrations at work.
Disengaged employees are an active detriment to their workplaces. These employees feel resentful of their place of work and may try to spread that discontentment. They might create a negative work atmosphere, sabotage projects, or simply not show up for work at all.
It is possible to turn the feelings of unengaged and disengaged employees around, but doing so requires taking a hard look at why employees become disengaged in the first place.
What are the Benefits of Employee Engagement?
Outside of preventing actively disengaged employees, is it worth the time and effort to turn unengaged employees into engaged ones? Research shows that yes, it is, and multiple studies have the numbers to back it up, finding that engaged employees:
Are less likely to seek new employment with businesses. Highly engaged employees result in 59% less turnover.
Are absent less frequently. Businesses with engaged employees report 50% less absenteeism.
Are more productive. Studies have found that highly engaged teams have 14% higher productivity.
To tap into these benefits, businesses need to look at their practices, identify any processes or systems that might be leading to disengagement, and start implementing practices that improve engagement. To inspire you to turn around any poor employee attitudes, here are nine of our favorite strategies:
9 Employee Engagement Strategies
1. Collect employee feedback.
Before launching a new product or service, your business collects audience data to understand what customers need and the type of solutions they’re looking for. After all, selling a product designed to fit customer needs is much easier than creating a product first and trying to convince customers it’s right for them second.
The same goes for your employee engagement strategies. Your team is much more likely to respond positively to programs they feel were created with their specific needs and feedback in mind.
Are there any routine processes that are frustrating?
What types of changes would you like to see implemented?
You can make these surveys anonymous to get more honest feedback or ensure each is linked to the specific employee to address concerns and gather more information as needed.
After your initial survey, regularly reach out to employees for more feedback to make sure you’re on the right track. Additionally, vary which employees you survey to collect a variety of feedback and also prevent over-surveying.
2. Create an appreciation strategy.
Even if it’s your job to do a particular task every day, it can be hard to complete quality work and continually strive to do your best if you never hear a thank you in return. Fortunately, implementing an appreciation strategy that takes a deliberate approach to showing employees gratitude is relatively easy.
For example, here are three recognition methods most businesses can get up and running in just a few days:
eCards. eCards are digital greeting cards that can be sent through emails or text messages. While handwritten cards are heartfelt, sending a fast electronic message of thanks is more practical for the workday and allows your employees to receive a meaningful thank-you message as soon as their work is noticed. To implement eCards, you will need to use an eCard platform and go over how to use it with your staff. From there, encourage employees to keep sending eCards whenever they want to congratulate their peers on a job well done.
Employee awards. Some people enjoy a little public recognition, which is why employee of the month awards and their ilk have been a staple of workplace appreciation strategies for decades. Set up informal awards to honor the values you want to see in your employees, such as an award for best mentor, commitment to inclusivity, and creative problem solver.
Perks. Tangible benefits don’t need to be expensive bonuses to motivate employees and make them feel appreciated. For example, you might give everyone in the office a thermos with the company logo or give special thanks to a few overachievers, such as extra vacation days or a gift card to a nice restaurant.
The best employee appreciation strategy depends on your staff. For instance, if your employees are already social and supportive of one another, employee awards are an opportunity for everyone to celebrate, whereas that might not be the case in environments where employees feel competitive with one another.
Use the surveys you conducted earlier on employee experience to learn how they feel about your current company culture and what changes they want to see when crafting your appreciation strategy.
3. Provide employee giving opportunities.
Giving back to your community feels good, and employees want to know they’re part of an organization that’s dedicated to making a positive difference in the world. While your business might have various corporate philanthropy initiatives like sponsoring nonprofits, try providing additional employee giving opportunities that allow your team to feel like active participants in giving back.
A few programs you might consider include:
Matching gifts. Matching gifts are a staple of employee giving programs that enable employees to give to the causes they want to and feel like their specific charitable interests are supported by their employer. In a matching gift program, you would agree to match donations your employees make to nonprofits. You can set restrictions for what types of causes and organizations you’ll support or provide employees with the freedom to distribute their gifts as they please.
Volunteer grants. Support your employees by offering to donate to the nonprofits where they volunteer. This could be a set amount per hour or a certain amount after they reach a certain number of hours, such as donating $100 after an employee volunteers 5 hours. You can also organize corporate volunteer opportunities that your business oversees and where your entire team is encouraged to participate.
Employee grant stipends. Take the financial burden of giving off employees altogether with grant stipends. Rather than donating their own money, employees can use grant funds provided by your business to give to the nonprofits they care about.
Automatic payroll deductions. Make donating a no-brainer by making it automatic. When first joining your company or at the start of a new fiscal year, allow employees to enroll in automatic payroll deductions. Most payroll deductions go to nonprofits the business picks out, so make sure you choose organizations your employees are invested in and have information readily available about these nonprofits’ missions and programs.
Office drives. Make giving a team activity with office drives. Office drives can be monetary in nature but are often more successful for collecting in-kind donations, like non-perishable food or new and lightly used clothes. Physically seeing items pile up can convince people to join in and create a sense of accomplishment for everyone involved.
Beyond these core opportunities, there are plenty of other workplace giving initiatives you can lead, like skilled volunteering or annual giving campaigns. It all depends on what inspires your employees.
When defining your corporate giving strategy, talk with your employees about the causes they care about and how they want to give back. If it seems like there are multiple winners, remember you don’t need to limit yourself to just one giving program. For example, you might offer both matching gifts and volunteer grants!
Whichever employee engagement programs you decide to launch, remember to choose a software solution with features that allow you to run your engagement activities as smoothly as possible.
4. Leverage software for support.
Keeping track of your employee engagement initiatives can become challenging as you grow your motivation program. By leveraging employee engagement software solutions, you can streamline your employee stewardship efforts, measure their attitude toward your organization, and adjust your strategy based on employee feedback.
Here are a few types of software that can help your organization better engage and retain employees:
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) software. CSR software is designed to help manage corporate responsibility initiatives—typically business-led efforts to support employee giving and charitability. This type of software includes matching gift platforms, volunteer grant management, corporate volunteerism software, and platforms for managing employee assistance programs.
Employee appreciation software. These tools help organizations express gratitude toward their employees for their hard work and dedication. These platforms include leadership-to-employee and peer-to-peer recognition platforms, like eCard software.
Employee experience software. This software category includes solutions for improving the overall quality of the employee experience. This typically includes any tools used to send surveys to employees to gather their feedback and summarize their input.
When determining the right software solution for your organization, first consider your employee engagement goals. Which aspects of employee engagement are priorities at your business? For example, if you’re looking to strengthen your recognition approach first and foremost, then appreciation software may be the right choice.
Make sure also to consider your budget and schedule demos for any solutions you’re interested in. Then, be sure to communicate clearly with employees about how you’ll be using the new platform and any tips they need to know to get involved in your initiatives.
5. Host culture events.
An office environment that employees are happy to go to and feel supported working in is nearly unbeatable when it comes to creating positive motivation. However, with 83% of employees preferring a hybrid work environment, building a cohesive work culture can be a challenge.
You shouldn’t necessarily turn away from a hybrid model. In fact, employees have shown to enjoy remote work and the flexibility to determine when they’ll come into the office. Instead, think about how you can engage employees even when they’re remote.
Office culture events are an easy way to mix up the workday, and they’re a highly flexible engagement strategy that can be adapted to all types of workplace models. Here’s how you can host culture events in each of these settings:
In-person only. When all of your employees come into the office every day, they likely already know each other and have made connections. In this work model, your goal is to provide a new context that encourages employees to socialize more openly than they would during their normal work routine. This might involve going outside the office to a nearby park or restaurant or hosting creative after-work events like a knitting tutorial or paint-along.
Hybrid. In a hybrid work model, you can use your culture events as incentives for employees to coordinate their work schedules to choose the same in-office days. For example, if you announce that you’ll order pizza for everyone on a specific day, you’ll likely see more employees show up that day.
Remote only. With remote-only work, you may have employees who regularly work together but don’t really know each other outside of email exchanges and work meetings. For remote employees, host virtual events that provide plenty of socialization opportunities and the ability to show off their personalities and interests. Trivia contests, virtual escape rooms, and movie-watch parties are all easy remote get-togethers to consider.
Rather than having just leadership organize culture events, this can be an easy responsibility to give to your employees. Provide a budget and other necessary guidelines (such as no alcohol) and let trusted employees plan events. This encourages employees to share their interests and frees up leadership’s time.
6. Offer opportunities for growth.
Employees who are serious about their work don’t want a job; they want a career. In other words, they want to grow their role, take on new responsibilities, and generally move up the ladder in their industry.
If employees know their hard work will pay off in the form of career advancement, they’re more likely to take their work seriously and be personally invested. You can provide growth opportunities at your business by:
Offering skill training. Give employees the time and opportunity to improve their skills. This might involve paying for courses they can take in their free time or providing additional training as part of their daily responsibilities.
Promoting internally. It can be tempting to bring in an outside expert when you have an opening, but research shows that companies with strong internal mobility retain employees nearly twice as long as their counterparts. When a manager, director, or specialized employee leaves your business, look inward first to see if anyone has the skills needed to perform the role or would be willing to step up their training to attain those skills.
Providing mentoring opportunities. One of the best ways to prepare your employees for moving into a new role is to have them shadow someone already in that position. Consider implementing a mentorship program that allows employees to get hands-on experience with the roles and responsibilities they want, while also having the safety net of a senior employee guiding them during the learning process.
To create a healthy work environment, encourage supervisors to have frank conversations with their directs about the future they want to have at your company. This can help you shape career paths, provide needed training, and spot retention risks.
This theory proposes that external motivations, such as compensation, can only impact motivation so much. While proper compensation is important and pay raises are appreciated, is an employee who receives a $25,000 bonus really that much more motivated than one who receives $20,000? Or, conversely, is docking an employee $5,000 from their expected bonus actually going to motivate them? Essentially, the theory reports that external motivators like rewards and punishments eventually hit a wall where their impact becomes negligible.
So if throwing money at the problem of disengaged employees doesn’t work, what does? According to the theory, the level of autonomy employees are granted highly impacts self-determination. In other words, providing employees with greater freedom in how, when, and where they approach their work increases their motivation to complete that work and do a good job.
Why? Essentially, autonomy causes employees to feel a greater sense of ownership over their work, and since they feel their work is a reflection on them, they want to make sure it’s their best work.
Consider how you can promote autonomy in your workplace. This might be encouraging greater employee input in how projects are tackled so they can pursue their own ideas, allowing employees to propose ideas and take leadership roles in new projects, or even letting employees decide which days they want to work in the office in a hybrid model.
8. Be transparent.
Trust is a key sign of a healthy workplace. Employees who believe in their employers, know what their company is doing, and understand why certain decisions are made are more likely to feel like they are a part of that company. However, many employees feel in the dark about what goes on with senior leadership as 80% of workers want to know more about how decisions are made at their organizations.
So how can you be more transparent, and is there such a thing as being too transparent? It’s definitely possible to overshare, and there certainly are times to keep information under wraps until you’re ready to announce it.
However, when you can provide the rationale for a decision, even if it’s not positive, do so. Be honest about your current priorities and what is considered when approving or shooting down ideas. On occasion, this might involve discussing sensitive subjects, such as finances.
While sometimes it may seem like it’s better to keep things secret and avoid panic, many employees can tell when something is being hidden from them and will make assumptions of their own. Facilitate two-way communication and be as transparent as possible to prevent anyone from jumping to conclusions.
9. Encourage a healthy work-life balance.
Highly engaged employees can become unengaged, and one common culprit for this is burnout. Burnout is an absolute killer when it comes to productivity, and while many employees appreciate a hybrid or remote work model, working from home does not make your team immune to burnout.
Why? Moving the office to home can blur the lines between the two, leading to an unhealthy work-life balance. While it’s great when employees go above and beyond, working too many hours when employees are supposed to have time off can lead to poorer quality work.
Encourage your employees to reassess their work-life balance and take a healthier approach by:
Creating a no-pressure PTO policy. This might sound obvious, but as a business, when you implement a PTO policy, be prepared for employees to actually take time off. Additionally, while it seems generous in theory, avoid unlimited PTO plans as multiple companies have found that such programs actually result in employees taking less time off due to social pressures. If employees do feel pressured not to take time off, consider why that is and do the hard work of implementing policies that will undo a workplace culture that leads to burnout.
Being clear about what is and isn’t expected during off hours. Some companies ask employees to answer phone calls, check their emails, and work on projects during their off hours. Do not be one of these companies unless you want your employees to get burned out and stop performing their best work.
Discussing how to make an in-home office productive. Provide your employees with tips about creating a work environment in their homes with clear boundaries between work time and off-time. Some people working from home for the first time may assume they’ll be able to juggle other responsibilities like childcare. However, advise against this to prevent workers from getting distracted, resulting in them taking too much time off during the day and having to reallocate work to what should be their off hours.
If you feel your business can’t comfortably operate without asking employees to work additional hours that disrupt their work-life balance, that’s a sign to take a hard look at your business model. Consider hiring new staff, implementing more efficient policies, or limiting the number of projects you take on.
This might seem like a poor business decision on the surface, but peeling back the layers reveals that it’s for the best. After all, if you’re assigning more work than your current employees can successfully complete, your relationships with customers may suffer.
Looking for even more employee engagement strategies? Check our full list of ideas!
10. Improve communication.
Unclear or lacking communication is one the easiest ways to frustrate employees, leading to disengagement. Plus, poor communication has other downsides, such as mistakes, wasted time, and confusion.
When surveying employees about their satisfaction at work, focus on the effectiveness of your communication by asking questions like:
How often do you communicate with your manager? Is this enough? Is this too much?
When you receive instructions, are they clear? How often do you need to ask follow-up questions?
Is it clear how and when to reach out to your manager with questions?
Is our communication platform meeting your needs?
Be wary of both under- and overcommunication. While some businesses pride themselves on overcommunication, poorly implemented policies can easily tip into micromanagement, which reduces employee autonomy and, subsequently, engagement.
A strong communication policy is especially important for retaining remote and hybrid employees since they’ll be operating independently a majority of the time.
11. Uphold company values.
Every company has stated values, such as teamwork, respect, and compassion. However, how often do you see a report in the news of a company with values like these doing the opposite? Due to this frequent phenomenon, many employees are skeptical about whether their employer actually believes in their corporate values.
Prove to your employees that you’re not all talk by upholding company values at every opportunity. A few ways you can accomplish this include:
Linking accomplishments to values. We’ve already discussed how employee appreciation strategies like eCards can boost engagement. Take those strategies to the next level by linking your appreciation to specific company values. Recognition methods like eCards make this easy since they provide a space to explain the value the employee demonstrated.
Getting leadership on board. If your leadership embodies your company values, the rest of your team will likely follow suit. Have leadership model the behaviors and values you want to see in the rest of your team, whether that means being transparent about the company’s current status, giving credit to individuals working behind the scenes, or staying late to work alongside your staff.
Engaging in corporate philanthropy. If your business has a CSR program, ensure it involves giving to charitable organizations that are aligned with your corporate values. For example, if your company values “sustainability,” you might donate to environment-related causes, while a business that promotes its commitment to community might offer a scholarship program.
Ensure your company values are clearly stated in your employee handbook, so your staff can check them any time they need to. However, if you’re properly infusing your values into your workplace, your employees should know them by heart in no time!
12. Set clear expectations.
If employees aren’t sure what they’re supposed to do or how their contributions are benefiting your company, they’re likely to become confused, frustrated, and disengaged. Prevent this by setting clear expectations from day one and ensuring employees know who to contact if they have questions.
At all-hands meetings, take time to explain how each team’s work fits into your business’s overall goals. This gives meaning to employees’ individual assignments and helps them understand what overall objectives they should be working for.
Additionally, remember that clear directions and employee autonomy can exist hand-in-hand. Provide clarity for what your business needs accomplished but, when appropriate, give employees opportunities to add their own contributions, get creative with how they complete their work, and suggest ways to improve on similar projects in the future.
13. Host team volunteer days.
Combine the power of volunteer grants and culture events by hosting team volunteer days. These are official events where your employees volunteer together as a team.
To host a volunteer day, follow these steps:
Research local nonprofits.Check with local nonprofits about volunteer opportunities that could accommodate your team. When researching nonprofits, look for organizations with missions that match your philanthropic goals and have volunteer roles where your team members could lend their unique skills.
Survey employees. After identifying a few prospective nonprofits, survey your team about which nonprofits they would like to volunteer at and when. You can also ask for suggestions for other nonprofits to discover organizations you might have missed in your initial research. If there’s interest in your survey, you might also arrange future team volunteer days to support more worthwhile causes.
Reach out to nonprofits. Do not just show up at a nonprofit with a team of volunteers. Instead, reach out at least a few weeks in advance to explain your team volunteer day, your employees’ skills, and how many people you expect to bring. This allows nonprofits to organize volunteer opportunities that can accommodate your entire team.
Finalize logistics. Confirm your team volunteer event day, how long you will be volunteering, how many employees are going, and where employees should meet up ahead of the event. Additionally, tell employees if lunch will be provided, communicate expected attire, and share any forms or waivers to complete ahead of time.
Host your volunteer days. It’s time for your employees to meet up and volunteer! Ask employees to check in at the start of the day so you have a record of who is volunteering. After the volunteer day, check in again to get employee feedback about the event.
Team volunteer days have several benefits. They give employees the opportunity to give back and serve as a team-building activity at the same time. Implementing team volunteer grants can also encourage employees to volunteer together.
14. Offer competitive benefits.
We’ve already discussed how external benefits can only motivate employees so much, but employees do require that initial motivation before they fully engage with your business. Ensure you provide competitive benefits to attract, retain, and engage employees in your industry.
For example, you might offer:
Competitive wages. Assess salaries and benefits in your industry when setting your own wages, as even highly motivated employees may become disengaged if they feel they are undervalued. Additionally, clearly communicate any changes to compensation so employees know why their benefits are changing and ask questions through the appropriate channels.
Time off. Time off recharges employees, meaning that when they’re back in the office, they’re ready to work hard and be fully engaged. In addition to regular paid time off, consider offering volunteer time off (VTO). VTO provides employees with time off specifically to volunteer, giving them the opportunity and motivation to lend a helping hand in their communities.
Insurance. Show an investment in your employees’ well-being by offering insurance coverage. Ensure this is an opt-in program so employees who want to pursue their own insurance options can do so and don’t feel they are losing benefits when compared to their colleagues who opt in.
The benefits that are adequate for your business depend on your industry, size of your organization, and local area. However, be conscious of employees’ feedback. While all employees would enjoy increased benefits, if employees regularly express the need for expanded benefits or seek other employment opportunities citing better compensation elsewhere, those are clear signs it’s time to reassess your policies.
15. Refine your onboarding process.
For our last tip, let’s go back to the beginning: your onboarding process. Initial employee training will set the tone of their tenure at your business, so ensure they start off on the right foot with a strong, organized, and focused onboarding process.
You can improve your onboarding process by:
Staying focused. Even for experienced professionals, there’s a lot to learn when joining a new company. Avoid overwhelming new employees by focusing the onboarding process on immediate necessities. Ensure employees get a handle on how to complete their regular responsibilities first and foremost. In some cases, consider a protracted onboarding process where employees learn the smaller ins and outs of your company—such as how to send an eCard, host a culture event, or participate in your volunteer program—after their initial work-focused onboarding.
Setting up mentorships. Employees’ managers should guide new employees through onboarding, but it’s also helpful to pair new hires with peers at the same level for additional support and easy question-asking. Ensure new team members have an opportunity to get to know their colleagues and even set up mentorships, where a specific co-worker becomes their go-to person for small questions about daily tasks.
Having resources ready. If new employees ever need to refresh their knowledge, ensure they can do so by having shareable training resources ready. This might include an employee handbook, software guide printouts, and sales call scripts.
Post-onboarding is an opportune time to survey employees to discover if your training processes are effective. Wait a few weeks after onboarding is finished to reach out. This gives employees time to settle into their roles and determine whether their training was useful but not too long that it’s no longer fresh in their minds.
Employee Engagement Strategies: Final Thoughts
From talking to customers and creating marketing materials to coding your website and designing your products, employees are what keeps your business running. The better you can engage them, the more motivated they’ll be to help make your business a success.
You can connect with your team in numerous ways, and these employee engagement strategies are just one place to start. To learn more about how you can motivate your team, explore these resources:
Why Workplace Giving Matters for Nonprofits + Companies. Interested in whether a workplace giving program is right for your business? Learn how these programs impact both the companies that offer them and the nonprofits that receive their contributions.
Top Corporate Giving Software to Drive Employee Engagement. Employee giving programs can quickly get complex, and software solutions can help you track donations, matches, and more. Start researching employee giving platforms with this guide.
However, 78% of donors are unaware of their company’s program specifics, which is why workplace giving platforms are crucial to your company’s CSR success. We’ve created this guide to explore everything you need to know about workplace giving platforms, including:
When it’s easy for employees to participate in workplace giving programs, your company will do more than help its community. Employee engagement levels, your CSR reputation, and nonprofit causes will reap the benefits of an organized and streamlined process for managing workplace giving. With that in mind, let’s get started!
What are workplace giving platforms?
Workplace giving is an employer-sponsored program through which employees can donate to charitable causes in various ways, including matching gifts, volunteer grants, and automatic payroll deductions.
Depending on the type of program your company offers, you’ll have to facilitate different donation methods. For example, if you choose to offer volunteer grants, you’ll have to track employees’ volunteer hours. That’s where workplace giving platforms come into play.
Workplace giving platforms are software solutions that streamline a company’s corporate philanthropy efforts by managing giving and volunteering.
Using workplace giving tools, companies can efficiently manage their philanthropy programs, keep their employees engaged through easy participation, and boost the impact of their CSR initiatives. Let’s take a closer look at the ways workplace giving platforms can maximize your company’s CSR success.
5 benefits of workplace giving platforms
The type of workplace giving platform you need depends on the program your company runs, but there are software options for nearly every type of program. Let’s take a look at how specific platforms can benefit your company’s programs.
1. Matching Gift Management
Matching gift programs are one of the most common offerings companies have in terms of workplace giving.
By essentially doubling the donations their employees make to eligible nonprofits (based on the company’s guidelines), companies benefit nonprofits and help their employees make a difference for the causes they care about. However, running a matching gift program takes a lot of organizational power, especially if your company has many participating employees and donations to track.
To make it easy for employees to participate, choose a workplace giving platform that allows you to:
Track employee donations. Keep track of all employee donations in one central location so you can manage all of your incoming data more easily.
Approve matching gift requests. Approve match requests automatically or with a single click based on minimum/maximum match amounts, eligibility requirements, and other guidelines your company has put in place.
Engage your employees in giving. Engage your employees in the causes they care about by using a workplace giving platform that’s easy to navigate, flexible, and shows your company cares about giving back.
Track your impact. Workplace giving platforms should offer robust, real-time reporting so you can keep track of the social good your company is doing.
Enlist matching gift auto-submission. Instead of requiring employees to complete a separate request process for matching gifts, some CSR platforms now offer innovative auto-submission functionality through a recently out-of-beta integration with Double the Donation’s tools. All it asks for is a corporate email address from the employee donor, and the software system processes the request from there!
The right workplace giving platform should help your company manage its matching gift program with ease, streamline your overall giving process, and encourage employee participation.
In addition to matching gift programs, corporate volunteerism is becoming a larger component of workplace giving. Volunteerism can take many forms, and as companies develop or expand their volunteer programs, the right workplace giving platform can keep them on track for success.
To dive deeper into the ways that corporate giving programs can manage volunteerism, we’re going to break it down into three categories: volunteer opportunities, volunteer tracking, and volunteer grants.
Volunteer Opportunities
The first hurdle your company may encounter when developing a corporate volunteering program is actually finding volunteer opportunities for your employees. Using a workplace giving platform that offers a database of both virtual and in-person volunteer opportunities can help you jump that hurdle easily and efficiently.
Workplace giving platforms vet the nonprofits in their databases, meaning your employees can rest assured that they’ll be working with reputable causes and organizations. Beyond sifting through nonprofit organizations for you, workplace giving platforms also help you create custom volunteer events for your employees, offering features such as:
Planned shifts
Event capacity planning
Registrations
It’s great to get employees involved in your volunteer program, but it’s especially important that volunteers get to have a say in the opportunities available to them. That’s why offering a database of volunteer events is essential. Many companies also offer paid time off for volunteering (known as VTO), which gives employees a direct incentive to participate and increases employee engagement levels.
Volunteer Tracking
Once your volunteer opportunities have been confirmed, workplace giving platforms go further and allow you to track all elements of your employees’ volunteer efforts. This includes:
Volunteer signups
Logged volunteer hours
Your overall impact
Employees can easily track their hours for any kind of volunteer event, while you can view all the wonderful work they’re doing from one central location.
Volunteer Grants
Another way to engage employees in corporate volunteerism is by offering volunteer grants, which are monetary grants awarded to nonprofits in response to employees’ volunteer hours with that organization.
Like with matching gift programs, workplace giving platforms help you monitor volunteer grant requests that come through. As employees track their hours and request grants, you can easily approve and process each request in the same central system—much like you would with matching gifts.
All of these components of volunteer programs are important. Whether you’re offering VTO, trying to make it easy for employees to find volunteer opportunities, or processing volunteer grant requests on a regular basis, workplace giving platforms take the extra legwork out of the equation.
3. Additional Workplace Giving Program Management
Of course, workplace giving is made up of more than just matching gifts and volunteer programs. There are tons of different programs that contribute to CSR, and choosing the right workplace giving solutions can help streamline all of them.
Workplace giving platforms can help you manage:
Automatic payroll deductions: Workplace giving platforms with payroll integrations and features allow employees to select a nonprofit from a large database of pre-vetted 501(c)(3) organizations. From there, they can choose to set up a recurring deduction through the platform for as long as they’d like.
Disaster relief: Workplace giving solutions often offer tools to quickly create new disaster relief campaigns. After all, the faster companies can launch a campaign, the faster they’ll be able to collect and disburse funds to nonprofits in need.
Grant management: Many companies and foundations provide annual grants to important causes and organizations around the world. Workplace giving platforms can help grantmaking organizations manage all aspects of the grantmaking process, including grant proposals, approvals, budgets, and goals.
Workplace giving platforms also help companies build a community within their teams by supporting causes that are important to them.
Use a workplace giving platform to set goals, select nonprofits, spotlight volunteer opportunities, and more. These tools allow you to create a sense of urgency and keep your employees engaged in nonprofit causes and events all year long.
4. Employee Engagement
Whether you’re running a grant program, launching an employee giving campaign, offering payroll deductions, or starting other types of workplace giving programs, choosing the right solution to meet your company’s needs will benefit more than just your team and your brand. It will also deeply engage your employees and strengthen your company’s workplace culture.
Here are a few ways your workplace giving platform can engage employees:
90% of employees are more motivated and loyal who work at companies with a strong sense of purpose. When you invest in software that standardizes the process for getting involved in workplace giving, your program will become a central part of the workplace culture. That way, employees will know your company is serious about making a difference.
87% of corporate leaders believe their employees expect them to support causes and issues that matter to them. Workplace giving platforms, like matching gift databases, can help employees determine their eligibility for certain programs and contribute to the nonprofits of their choice. This encourages employees to support the causes they care about—and lets them know your company is behind them all the way.
Nearly 70% of employees wouldn’t choose to work with a company that lacks a strong sense of purpose, and 60% would take a pay cut to work for a purpose-driven company. By leveraging workplace giving platforms, your company can effectively spread the word about its giving opportunities and standardize the process for getting involved.
It’s clear: Employees are more dedicated to companies that support charitable giving, and workplace giving platforms can help you show your support by simplifying the giving process! Check our list of employee engagement ideas to learn more.
5. Company Reputation
According to NonprofitsSource’s guide to workplace giving, an established giving program can enhance your reputation in the community. And just as your workplace giving platform plays an important role in your program, it also has a large impact on your brand reputation!
Use your solution to:
Demonstrate your commitment. Having a workplace giving program in place is one thing, but investing in software to promote and streamline the process demonstrates a deep level of commitment to charitable giving. When you invest in a dedicated workplace giving platform, employers and community members alike will know your company is committed to making a difference.
Measure your impact. Your workplace giving platform may offer tools for tracking and reporting the impact of your program through metrics like employee volunteer hours and dollars donated. Use these features to share the tangible impact your company makes
Partner with nonprofits. With the right tools, your company can pair its workplace giving platform with nonprofits’ solutions to maximize donations and raise awareness about your program. For example, if your platform integrates with Double the Donation, you can allow employees to automatically submit matching gift requests on a nonprofit’s website. This raises awareness of your program among nonprofits, which may lead to future partnerships and endorsements.
Workplace giving and improved company reputation are components of a cyclical strategy to increase the impact your company makes. Your efforts to give charitably will enhance your brand reputation, which will recruit more customers and supporters for your company. In turn, you’ll receive more resources to invest back into your workplace giving program, making a greater impact overall.
How to start using workplace giving platforms
1. Determine your needs
To start using workplace giving platforms, you’ll first need to decide which solution makes the most sense for your company. When researching platforms, consider the following:
The software’s capabilities: Make a comprehensive list of the tool’s features and determine which ones you’ll use the most. Which features do you need in a platform for your specific giving program?
The vendor’s reputation: Check reviews for the provider of the software. For further insight, you can ask other company leaders for their feedback on platforms they’ve tried.
Ease-of-use: Request a demo of the platform to familiarize yourself with how it’s used. That way, you can determine if you’re comfortable with the tool and how easy it will be for employees to access it, as well.
Don’t shy away from any questions you have for the software provider or during the demo. After conducting thorough research, choose a platform and get started!
2. Educate employees
Your employees are a key part of your workplace giving efforts—after all, their giving is often the first step in your company taking action to give charitably.
Create training materials to go over the platform (and your giving program) with employees. Teach them how to use the platform and how to make the most of your workplace giving programs.
Be sure to incorporate informative materials about workplace giving in new employee onboarding, as well. This ensures that every employee learns about workplace giving from the very beginning of their tenure with your company, maximizing the potential of their giving.
3. Promote your program
Leverage your company’s most frequently used communication channels to promote your workplace giving program, including social media, your website, email newsletters, and any other messaging platforms you use. This not only puts your program in front of employees but also garners the attention of nonprofits, which may partner with you after seeing your commitment to workplace giving.
Workplace giving trends
Interested in exploring new and upcoming trends surrounding workplace giving and the technology that empowers it? Staying on top of changes in the industry can help you ensure your team is equipped with the best tools possible.
Here’s what we’ve seen recently:
1. More mid-sized and small businesses are rolling out CSR programs.
Historically, workplace giving programs such as matching gifts, volunteer grants, and more have been primarily offered only by the largest businesses.
Now, these types of programs are becoming more accessible than ever for mid-sized and small businesses as well! Why? For one thing, the sector’s been seeing increasingly flexible pricing scales for workplace giving platforms, making streamlined management more attainable for companies of all shapes and sizes.
Not only that, but new corporate giving vendors are entering the game with a specific focus on targeting mid-level businesses. This takes a lot of the administrative burden away from company leadership itself, meaning more corporations are willing and eager to roll out the programming.
If you’d like to be inspired by some small and mid-sized businesses with big workplace giving programs, take a look at these examples of CLMA-certified companies:
We love seeing new companies establishing and growing their workplace giving—whether through matching gifts, volunteer grants, or other engaging initiatives for employees. In the end, it means more nonprofit funding, more workplace engagement, and more socially responsible businesses powering good in our communities. We’re excited to find out which companies are next!
2. Workplace giving platforms offer tighter integrations with nonprofits.
Corporate philanthropy programs essentially form partnerships between companies and nonprofits. Workplace giving programs take things a step further, empowering companies to directly support the organizations that their employees are already giving to.
Because a significant prerequisite to workplace giving success has to do with employees engaging with the nonprofits—and submitting their workplace giving requests with their employers—in the first place, it’s essential that companies focus on ensuring a seamless process for doing so.
Workplace giving platforms know this, and that’s why they’re aiming to make the process of using their software as quick and easy as possible for both their corporate clients and, particularly, for their clients’ end users: employees. A huge part of that involves developing tighter relationships with the nonprofits on the receiving end of the programs.
For example, though software providers are focused on selling their tools to corporations offering workplace giving programs, most have built out separate nonprofit management portals with which organizations can facilitate their end of the workplace giving process. Within these nonprofit-specific portals, organizations can easily go in and verify individual donations, volunteer hours, etc., in order to move the requests to the next step. And this end of the platform is typically free for nonprofit causes, helping to further build those relationships through streamlined and accessible technology.
Plus, offering tighter integrations with nonprofits helps make the employee and donor experience more optimal as well. When an organization has already established an account with the workplace giving platforms their supporters use, individuals can typically complete their request process more easily—for instance, having the ability to select from a search of pre-approved organizations rather than having to input all the information for the cause from scratch.
3. Vendors can now offer auto-submission, which fully streamlines match requests for donors.
In order to provide workplace giving technology that truly streamlines and simplifies matching gift programs for donors, nonprofits, companies, and employees, some providers have rolled out brand-new auto-submission functionality, which recently completed its beta testing.
Individuals can now submit their matching gift requests to their employers with a single click directly from the donation confirmation pages of the organizations they support. All they have to do is enter their corporate email address and check, “Yes, submit my matching gift request!”
This video explains how it works.
Now, this helps in a few key ways. For one, it enables organizations to capitalize on donors’ giving momentum right when they’re at their highest level of engagement with the cause: while giving. It minimizes the risk of them saying, “Oh, I’ll do that later,” and then never coming back to it.
Not to mention, it also significantly decreases the amount of time and effort required of a donor to complete the process. Whereas a donor may have previously been asked to provide information about themselves, their donations, and the organizations to which they give, now all they need is an email address. The software ecosystem handles the rest of the data behind the scenes!
This simplicity helps in a few key ways:
Nonprofits can drive more revenue. Organizations can capitalize on donors’ giving momentum when they’re at their highest level of engagement with the cause: while giving. It minimizes the risk of them saying, “Oh, I’ll do that later,” and then never coming back to it.
Donors can breeze through the request process. Auto-submission decreases the amount of time and effort required of a donor to complete the process. A donor may have previously been asked to provide a variety of information about themselves, their donations, and the organizations to which they give. With auto-submission, all they need is their work email address. The software ecosystem handles the rest of the data behind the scenes!
Companies can easily approve match requests. When automatically filled out, forms will have fewer (if any) errors compared to when filled out manually. That means less back and forth, so companies will experience a streamlined approval process.
At this time, auto-submission functionality is made available through workplace giving platforms that integrate with Double the Donation’s matching gift tools. Currently, this includes these corporate giving software providers:
Millie
Selflessly
POINT
And more!
That means that when an employee works for a company outsourcing their workplace program management to a CSR vendor like Millie, Selflessly, or POINT, they are already eligible to participate in auto-submission. That is, as long as the organizations they’re giving to also employ Double the Donation’s software.
But auto-submission remains a rapidly growing innovation; with the solution now out of beta, it will will soon incorporate many more corporate vendors (and their clients), companies (and their employees), and nonprofits (and their donors). And we can’t wait to watch all the matching gift requests being processed when they do!
Additional Resources on Workplace Giving Platforms
If you’re looking for more information about workplace giving and the platforms that can help you be successful, check out the additional resources below:
When it comes to engaging employees in your company’s workplace giving programs, finding tools that promote participation can be challenging. However, it’s well worth the effort since the easier it is for employees to take part in workplace giving, the more likely they are to do so—and the more nonprofits benefit as well.
To help your search, we’ve compiled a list of the top corporate giving software to drive employee engagement, create an organized giving process, help your company promote corporate philanthropy, and fine-tune your corporate giving strategy.
Use this list to find the best corporate giving software for your company and start boosting employee participation in your workplace giving programs. Plus, we’ll also explore top trends seen in modern corporate giving software platforms and how they impact companies, employees, nonprofits, and donors.
But first… what is the CLMA?
One term you might see as you set off in search of the perfect corporate giving software is the CLMA. This designation, which refers to Certified Leaders in Matching Automation, recognizes corporate giving software solutions that go above and beyond in ensuring a seamless and accessible matching gift experience for the programs it facilitates.
Keep an eye out for the following badge to locate CLMA-certified providers.
Millie
Overview of This Corporate Giving Software
Millie is one of the top corporate giving platforms, offering features that support corporate matching gifts, volunteer management, campaign management, and more.
Using Millie, your company can create volunteer events, search for volunteer opportunities, match employee donations according to your budget, and build campaigns around an event or cause.
Millie allows your company to create a social impact program that’s easy to use, flexible, and budget-friendly.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
Millie enables companies to give charitable dollars—funds specifically marked to be donations—to their employees and customers. Recognize outstanding employees and develop deeper relationships with customers and prospects by sending charitable gift cards that can be donated to nonprofit organizations.
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
Yes! This corporate giving software can be integrated with Double the Donation, the industry’s leading matching gift tool with auto-submission functionality. Employees of companies that use Millie will be prompted to enter their corporate email addresses from the nonprofit gift confirmation page to automatically submit their matching gift requests, making it easier than ever for team members to participate in employee giving.
CLMA-Certified?
Yes! Millie is a Certified Leader in Matching Automation, meaning the platform is known to offer the most accessible, streamlined, and transparent matching gift experience in the industry.
Pricing
Millie charges monthly fees based on the number of employees you have.
POINT is a collaborative volunteer platform that provides local nonprofit leaders with the tech tools they need for free, while companies can use the platform to engage employees and boost their CSR programs.
Using the POINT app, companies can manage volunteerism, giving, and partnerships all in one platform that’s easy for employees to use.
When local nonprofits post volunteer opportunities, your company can easily reserve spots for team members or send the information to employees for them to sign up themselves. You can also easily send gifts through a donation tool, strengthen nonprofit partnerships, and leverage automatic reporting.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
When a company buys a subscription to POINT, a registered 501(c)(3) organization gets access to POINT’s platform for free. This allows nonprofits to easily find and manage volunteers, saving them time so they can focus their efforts elsewhere.
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
Yes! POINT integrates with Double the Donation to enable auto-submission functionality. Corporate employees using POINT can enter their email addresses. Then, they’ll receive a list of organizations associated with their app profile which they can submit their match request to. From there, the request is processed automatically!
CLMA-Certified?
Yes! POINT is a Certified Leader in Matching Automation, meaning the platform is known to offer the most accessible, streamlined, and transparent matching gift experience in the industry.
Pricing
Pricing for POINT depends on the number of employees in your company. Visit their website to book a demo.
Selflessly is an all-in-one giving platform for corporate social responsibility designed to empower small and medium-sized businesses’ corporate philanthropy efforts.
This tool offers a range of solutions, including workplace giving, volunteering, gift matching, and reporting.
With Selflessly’s corporate giving software solution, businesses can better engage employees, improve their image with consumers, and support the philanthropic efforts they care about.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
Corporate gift matching is a key component of many companies’ giving efforts, making Selflessly’s donation matching tools one of its greatest assets. Plus, their partnership with Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro allows Selflessly to streamline the giving process for businesses and their employees continually!
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
Yes! Selflessly features innovative auto-submission technology made available through a seamless integration with 360MatchPro. All employees have to do is provide their corporate email address on the nonprofit’s donation confirmation screen, and the rest of the process will be completed automatically.
CLMA-Certified?
Yes! Selflessly is a Certified Leader in Matching Automation, meaning the platform is known to offer the most accessible, streamlined, and transparent matching gift experience in the industry.
Pricing
Selflessly’s dedicated team works with each customer to make sure pricing fits their needs. Visit their website to request a demo or custom pricing.
Uncommon Giving is a comprehensive corporate giving software solution that empowers businesses to manage and amplify their philanthropic efforts. Designed to streamline the process of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the platform enables companies to facilitate employee giving, manage charitable contributions, and track the impact of their donations.
With features like customizable giving options, automated payroll deductions, and detailed reporting, Uncommon Giving makes it easy for companies to integrate philanthropy into their workplace culture. Additionally, the platform fosters employee engagement by offering a wide array of giving opportunities, including matching gifts, volunteer grants, and fundraising initiatives, helping businesses align their charitable activities with their corporate values and goals.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
What makes Uncommon Giving stand out is its lightweight, intuitive solution for companies and their employees, making it easier than ever to get involved with company-sponsored philanthropy. With an easy-to-use mobile app, portable giving wallet, and powerful reporting tools, the platform streamlines the entire giving process, enhances employee engagement, and allows companies to effectively track and maximize the impact of their philanthropic efforts.
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
Yes! Uncommon Giving integrates with Double the Donation’s industry-leading matching gift software to offer groundbreaking auto-submission functionality. This means employees using the tools can benefit from one-click matching gift submissions straight from their favorite charities’ giving forms.
CLMA-Certified?
Yes! Uncommon Giving has earned the CLMA designation for corporate giving software thanks to its dedication to providing seamless and accessible matching gift experiences for its users.
Pricing
Uncommon Giving has pricing that begins at $1,999/year. The platform encourages companies to get a demo to learn more and see the tools in action!
America’s Charities offers a variety of CSR tools for companies looking to grow their philanthropy programs.
Companies can choose from several software options, including three workplace giving technology solutions, special funds management (like employee assistance funds and disaster relief), and standalone services like charitable funds management and payment processing.
One of the most popular solutions, America’s Charities Engage, is an end-to-end giving and CSR solution that lets businesses manage grantmaking, donation matching, workplace giving, employee engagement, and volunteers.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
One size does not fit all, which is why America’s Charities offers a broad range of workplace giving-related services and software solutions. They have also had 40 years of experience in this field and have raised more than a half-billion dollars for tens of thousands of charities through various workplace giving programs.
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
No, this platform does not yet offer matching gift auto-submission functionality.
CLMA-Certified?
No, this platform is not yet a certified leader in matching automation.
Benevity is one of the leading providers of corporate giving software, offering companies employee engagement tools.
Benevity’s platform helps companies find volunteer opportunities, set up and run volunteer grant programs, manage matching gifts, enable payroll donations, and more.
Using Benevity, your company can create a purpose-driven culture for employees, engage employees in current issues, and make participating in your social good programs easy with a mobile app.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
Benevity automates every part of your employee engagement program. This provider also offers integrations with Workday, VolunteerMatch, and Okta to provide employees with better, more convenient access.
Through the Benevity Causes portal, nonprofits gain access to corporate and individual donors and volunteers, leading to even more support from companies.
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
No, this platform does not yet offer matching gift auto-submission functionality.
CLMA-Certified?
No, this platform is not yet a certified leader in matching automation.
Pricing
Contact Benevity to learn more about their services and pricing.
Bright Funds is a leading provider of corporate giving software as a service for workplace giving, volunteering, and grants management.
With a personalized, intuitive experience, Bright Funds makes it easy for your employees to do good.
Companies can set up their Bright Funds’s platform in less than a day with all the features they need to get their CSR program going. That includes matching gifts, volunteer events, custom campaigns, real-time reporting, and more. The fund model allows companies to create funds for disbursement to one or more nonprofits for maximum flexibility.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
With nearly a decade of experience, Bright Funds helps companies of all sizes multiply their impact through a comprehensive CSR platform. In addition to a seamless user experience, the platform supports global giving and helps companies save time with simple program administration, employee engagement tools, and managed donations disbursement.
Bright Funds’ integrations with other popular workplace management systems such as ADP, Okta, Workday, Zenefits, and VolunteerMatch provide a better experience while simplifying implementation.
Plus, the Bright Network is a free portal for nonprofits, allowing them to optimize workplace fundraising with digital tools such as electronic payments and donor reports.
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
No, this platform does not yet offer matching gift auto-submission functionality.
CLMA-Certified?
No, this platform is not yet a certified leader in matching automation.
Pricing
Bright Funds supports companies of all sizes. Fees start at $2 per month per employee for companies under 300 employees and scale based on employee count. Contact Bright Funds for more details and register for a free 30-day trial.
CyberGrants, soon to be Bonterra, is another top corporate giving software solution that offers fully integrated tools for grants management, employee giving, volunteerism, disbursement, disaster relief, and more.
Using CyberGrants, you can create several innovative CSR programs from matching gifts and political action campaigns to charitable spending accounts.
Their real-time reporting, automated payroll, and rules-based approvals make it easy for companies to roll out social good programs and manage them efficiently.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
CyberGrants specializes in two areas: employee giving and grants management. That means if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution for managing grant applications, disbursements, matching gifts, employee donations, and volunteer programs, CyberGrants is a great option.
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
No, this platform does not yet offer matching gift auto-submission functionality.
CLMA-Certified?
No, this platform is not yet a certified leader in matching automation.
SmartSimple is a robust corporate giving solution that offers grant management, employee giving, matching gifts, volunteer management, volunteer grants, and more.
Using SmartSimple’s tools, you can streamline every step of your workplace giving programs, manage volunteering, administer your matching gift programs, and focus on in-kind giving.
Beyond their many corporate giving tools, SmartSimple offers detailed reports, dashboards, and maps using real-time data.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
Beyond its many robust corporate giving solutions, SmartSimple also offers a goals-tracking feature, which allows companies to track goals for each CSR and giving initiative. Define and measure your goals for all of your efforts. Then, share them with the rest of your company and its stakeholders to showcase your philanthropic impact.
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
No, this platform does not yet offer matching gift auto-submission functionality.
CLMA-Certified?
No, this platform is not yet a certified leader in matching automation.
YourCause is a top corporate giving software solution for managing workplace giving, employee volunteering, grants, and more.
Boost participation and employee engagement using their CSRconnect solution, which allows companies to manage disaster relief, seasonal campaigns, year-round matching, peer-to-peer fundraising, and volunteer events.
In addition to tracking donations and hours, YourCause provides robust reporting features that allow teams to track data and recognize outstanding employee participants.
Why This Corporate Giving Software Stands Out
YourCause offers a free portal that allows verified nonprofit organizations to create and manage volunteer events, access donor information, and engage with companies and their employees. In turn, this can help your company form stronger relationships with nonprofits.
Offers Matching Gift Auto-Submission?
No, this platform does not yet offer matching gift auto-submission functionality.
CLMA-Certified?
No, this platform is not yet a certified leader in matching automation.
Pricing
Contact YourCause to request a demo and get more information about pricing.
Corporate Giving Software Trends | What We’re Seeing
Corporate giving software has become increasingly important in powering companies’ giving programs. In recent years, it’s evolved and come a long way in terms of user experience, accessibility, and functionality. And we’re still seeing and expecting big shifts as innovation continues.
Let’s walk through a few key trends that pertain to corporate giving software and how they impact the industry.
Increasing ease of use for companies, employees, and more
As corporate giving technology continues to develop, both the corporations and the nonprofit organizations they support can benefit exponentially. Meanwhile, continuously updated platforms make staying current with the latest advances in technology even easier.
Recently, corporate giving software providers have focused on elevating the UX for the backend users (i.e., the companies purchasing the tools) as well as the front-end users (i.e., corporate employees) to optimize program participation.
The best platforms are even becoming Certified Leaders in Matching Automation to further demonstrate their commitment to providing an optimal experience for employees and the nonprofits they support.
More programs and tools catering to small and mid-size businesses
Corporate giving has historically been primarily exclusive to the largest corporations. There are many reasons for this. Most prominently, the technology infrastructure used to manage CSR programs was designed with Fortune 500 and other mega companies in mind.
Now, however, more and more providers are prioritizing tools that are both accessible and affordable for smaller and mid-level companies as well. In turn, corporate giving participation has opened up to businesses of all shapes and sizes, enabling more employers to take part with ease.
Additional Corporate Giving Resources
If you’re looking to learn more about corporate giving, employee engagement, or the tools that can help you expand your CSR program, check out these resources below!
Increase Employee Engagement with Corporate Giving. Corporate giving is a surefire way to improve employee engagement. Learn how to discuss corporate giving with employees and launch a new workplace giving program.
Matching Gift Software Vendors: The Comprehensive List. Matching gift software matters for both companies and nonprofits. Nonprofits need platforms to facilitate the initial process, while companies should be mindful of CSR tools that integrate with matching gift software, making the match request process easier for employees.
Most match-eligible donors rely on some kind of matching gift forms to complete their end of the matching gift process. However, these forms (and the steps taken to submit them) can look wildly different from one company to the next.
In order to best simplify and guide employee donors through the submission process, it’s important that you understand the ins and outs of paper, electronic, and e-submission match forms—plus form alternatives.
From the nonprofit side, giving your supporters the tools they need to complete a match request helps maximize the matching gift revenue you ultimately collect.
As a main source of corporate philanthropy, matching gifts are not an opportunity you want to miss out on. That’s true regardless of whether you’re looking at it from the nonprofit or the business perspective.
The right matching gift forms—and an understanding of how to use them—can bring your team’s strategy to the next level.
Let’s get started!
What are matching gift submission forms?
Matching gift submission forms are a specific type of documentation used within the corporate matching gift process.
When a company launches a matching gift program, it typically provides employees with access to a blank form (note: while some companies may still offer paper options, these forms are most often made available online and hosted within a corporate matching vendor platform). This document typically incorporates a number of fields that share context into the individual donation, the receiving nonprofit, and the team member submitting the request.
The form is then completed by the donor after making their initial nonprofit contribution as a way to formally request a match from their employer.
Then, the application is submitted to the company through the business’s specified channel. From there, the employer reviews the provided materials, verifies the initial donation, ensures the gift meets the company’s matching criteria, and approves the match.
Why matching gift forms matter
From start to finish, the matching gift process encompasses a few key phases. These include the initial donation, the employee request, the match review, and finally, the corporate gift.
Of these stages, the majority of match-eligible gifts drop off before or during the employee request component. For nearly all companies, the request stage involves the employee donor filling out an online matching gift form. And the ease with which an individual can complete their match form directly correlates to fulfilled matching gift success.
In other words, the best matching gift forms result in more matching gifts.
If that’s not enough of an answer, let’s take a closer look at why corporate matching gift forms matter…
To Donors
From the donor’s perspective, a matching gift form comprises the vast majority of the matching gift experience. Without it, there’s no employer donation ultimately secured, thus inhibiting the amplified giving impact an individual is aiming to make.
Not to mention, the donor is the one who actively completes the form to request a match on behalf of their favorite organization. It makes sense that a positive user experience is a priority for this key stakeholder!
In fact, most fundraising groups see only a fraction of the matching gift dollars available to them. Since one of the most significant roadblocks facing incomplete matches is the submission process, nonprofits understand that optimized matching gift forms can go a long way toward driving matches to completion.
To Companies
Companies invest time and effort into launching their matching gift programs. It goes without saying that they want employees to partake. After all, heightened staff participation levels result in better overall CSR—and, with it, increased employee engagement, improved company culture, unique cause marketing benefits, elevated brand reputation, and more.
However, complicated request processes can be a significant hindrance to team-wide engagement with the offerings. Thus, companies want to establish easy-to-use corporate match forms that provide positive experiences for their employees.
Elements of a corporate matching gift form
Regardless of the type of form a company utilizes, most matching gift submissions request the same pieces of information. And this information generally falls into three overarching categories:
Donor Information
Companies typically request a number of personal data points relating to the individual employee within the matching gift application. Though it can vary greatly from business to business, this information might include:
The donor’s name
Employee identification number
Corporate email address
Personal mailing address
Phone number
Providing these details generally certifies that the donor is who they say they are (i.e., an employee of the company from which they’re requesting a match). Plus, it ensures the employer knows who is requesting the matching gift for their own records and to track participation and donation totals over time.
Nonprofit Information
Most match forms also ask specific questions pertaining to the organization an individual has supported. This might include:
Type of organization (e.g., cultural, educational)
Phone number
Mailing address
Information about the nonprofit can help determine that the organization meets the company’s eligibility requirements (i.e., mission type). Not only that, but it also ensures that the person in charge of the corporate matching program has appropriate contact information for the nonprofit group, should they need to get in touch to verify the initial donation.
Donation Information
This final section is typically where the company asks employees to provide details regarding the original donation. Again, this enables the employer to determine whether the initial gift qualifies for a match (falls within the donation threshold, is submitted prior to the submission deadline, etc.).
Commonly required fields include:
Gift amount
Transaction date
Payment currency
Donation method
Many companies also request proof of the original donation, which nonprofits often provide in the form of tax-deductible gift receipts. And that’s where the individual donor’s side of the matching gift submission typically ends.
However, some employers require the recipient organization to verify the initial contribution themselves. In those cases, a vital step of the matching process falls into the hands of the nonprofit group.
After an employee completes the matching gift request, the nonprofit is typically notified (whether by mail or within a CSR portal) that an employee has requested a match. At this point, the organization must log into the company’s verification system to confirm that the specified employee made a donation to the cause. They may even be asked to provide a letter verifying the organization’s IRS-sanctioned 501(c)(3) status.
3 types of matching gift submission forms (and alternatives)
There are currently three main types of matching gift forms. These include paper, electronic, and Double the Donation’s standard form. However, innovative corporate giving platforms are developing streamlined submission processes that allow donors to bypass the matching gift form altogether.
Each company that offers a matching program is able to establish its own match request process. This includes selecting one or more matching gift forms and/or alternatives to accept.
Let’s take a closer look at each submission type, and the general process asked of donors to complete it.
Paper Matching Gift Forms
When it comes to matching gift forms, paper documents are where it all started. In fact, the first-ever matching gift program was developed before the internet was even invented!
Today, however, most matching gift donors prefer electronic forms; though some companies continue to accept—or even require—traditional paper documentation.
We don’t recommend companies use this type of outdated match form. After all, it’s a lot of extra work for the donor, the nonprofit, and the company itself. Still, it’s important to understand the process should you run into a situation involving paper submission forms in any case.
And here’s how it typically works. Employees at corporations with paper match forms go through the following steps to submit their match requests:
Match Eligibility Identification
The first step involved in any matching gift process is determining match program eligibility. And there can be quite a few factors at play here, including whether the company matches employee gifts at all, whether the employee in question qualifies for matching, whether the donation amount and recipient organization meet the company’s standards, and more.
This information can be uncovered in a few ways, from the company itself to a third-party tool such as Double the Donation.
Request Form Location
The next phase of the process involves locating the appropriate matching gift form. And unfortunately, this can be a bit trickier with paper forms compared to other types of matching gift submissions.
Double the Donation or the employer may provide access to printable versions of the forms online, or they may be requested in person from the HR department or company leadership.
Paper Matching Gift Form Submission
Once the match request forms have been accessed, donors are prompted to complete and submit the document via the channel established by the company. Some employers may accept the forms in person (again, likely to the HR office or manager), while others may require match forms to be submitted via mail to a provided address. Others yet can offer some sort of fillable PDF option, which may be completed and submitted online.
Electronic Matching Gift Forms
Technology is rapidly progressing, so it makes sense that many companies have transitioned to electronic forms. Doing so not only reduces programming costs and administrative lift but also simplifies participation for employees.
Electronic forms give donors a bit more freedom regarding when, where, and how easily they complete their requests.
Here’s what the process typically looks like:
Employee Sign-In / Registration
To access and complete electronic matching gift forms, employees usually have to log into the company’s CSR platform. This step typically involves creating or signing in with a username and password for the site.
In order to locate the login page, individuals may be directed from their company’s HR department or manager, or they might receive a link through the nonprofit to which they contributed—specifically if the organization uses Double the Donation’s tools.
Match Request Submission
Once in, the employee is prompted to complete the actual request process.
Like paper forms, individuals are asked to register their match requests by providing key data points. Though the exact process can vary based on the CSR portal a company uses, donors generally begin by searching for (or adding) the nonprofit they’ve supported from the portal’s list of verified causes.
From there, individuals typically provide a number of data points pertaining to their recent gifts—such as payment type, domain amount, currency, transaction date, and more.
Then the request is complete, and donors can submit their application with a click of a button!
Double the Donation’s Standard Matching Gift Form
Somewhere between a paper matching gift request and a complete online submission portal is Double the Donation’s intuitive standard match form.
Companies can easily opt into accepting this online form, which then enables streamlined automated electronic submissions for their employees. With this offering, donors can more easily complete their matching gift requests, thus increasing program usage and impact overall.
Double the Donation aims to make matching gifts as simple as possible, and the standard form was designed for just that purpose.
Here’s what the process looks like for eligible donors submitting the standard matching gift form:
Employer Selection
As donors give to nonprofits that use Double the Donation’s matching gift software, they’re prompted to enter their employing company in an auto-completing search tool embedded in the donation form. This is done to uncover match eligibility and determine whether the company accepts the standard matching gift form.
Identity Verification and Authorization
If so, the donor is provided with an opportunity to submit their match automatically, directly from the organization’s gift confirmation screen. Typically, all they are required to do here is verify their identity by providing a corporate email address and check a box that authorizes Double the Donation to submit the match request on their behalf.
Behind-the-Scenes Submission
Once authorized, Double the Donation pulls necessary information from the donation process itself and automatically fills in the blanks on the premade standard matching gift form. Upon completion, the form is sent as a PDF document to the matching gift coordinator designated by the company to review and approve as usual.
Matching Gift Form Alternative — Auto-Submission
Online match portals that facilitate electronic request forms have long been working to streamline and improve the match submission process. And Double the Donation shares the same goal.
Now, Double the Donation is partnering with select CSR software providers to do exactly that. By providing an innovative matching gift form alternative, auto-submission allows qualifying donors to submit match requests without a matching gift form at all.
Auto-submission was recently moved out of beta and is now growing its integrated network with CSR solutions.
All they’re typically asked to do is enter their corporate email address on the gift confirmation screen and authorize Double the Donation to submit a match on their behalf. From there, the integrated software ecosystem collects necessary data points and funnels the information directly to the employer’s corporate giving platform behind the scenes.
Then, the company reviews and approves the match within the software system as usual.
This revolutionary new function benefits donors (with streamlined submission processes and fewer roadblocks), nonprofits (with increased match revenue), and companies (elevated program participation) alike. It’s a win-win-win!
And as more companies and CSR providers begin rolling out the feature in partnership with Double the Donation, an ever-growing number of nonprofit supporters will be able to leverage the matching gift form alternative.
Double the Donation has compiled the industry’s most in-depth source of matching gift information. Our comprehensive database provides access to details regarding more than 24,000 companies’ (equating to approximately 99.68% of all match-eligible donors) program guidelines and request processes.
By sharing a summary of each company’s matching gift program, we aim to make it increasingly easy for donors to complete their matches on behalf of the organizations they support.
When donors search for their employers using the associated database search tool, they’ll instantly receive any available guidelines for their employers’ programs. If available (which, over 91% of companies’ forms are), a direct link to online match forms and other related documents will be given to them, too!
Here’s an example of what you might see when searching for an employer with Double the Donation’s matching gift database search tool:
Donors will also be provided with other relevant information, such as:
The company’s match ratio;
Minimum and maximum match amounts;
Eligible employee groups (full-time, part-time, retired, spouses, etc.);
Qualifying nonprofit mission types;
Match request processes and forms (online or offline);
A corporate database can provide powerful insights into thousands of companies’ matching gift programs and next steps. That can go a long way toward maximizing program participation for donors by simplifying the processes involved.
As for companies, make sure your giving program is included in our comprehensive database of corporate match information. This enables employees to have quick and easy access to program guidelines and forms from their favorite organizations’ giving pages! Click here to add your company to Double the Donation’s matching gift database.
Wrapping Up
Matching gift forms play a crucial role in the overall matching gift process—not to mention strategic corporate match fundraising.
At this point, your team should know all about the different types and components of corporate matching gift forms, the value for nonprofits, companies, and donors, and more. Now, it’s time to get out there and start maximizing your matching gift revenue!
Interested in learning more about matching gift best practices? Check out these additional recommended resources:
Take matching a step further with auto-submission functionality.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/DTD_The-Complete-Guide-to-Corporate-Matching-Gift-Forms_Feature.png6001600Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2023-10-25 15:13:582024-10-01 14:41:28Corporate Matching Gift Forms | The Ultimate Guide
As a corporate leader, you know that achieving your company’s goals depends on the collective efforts of your executive team, employees, and other stakeholders. The same goes for your corporate giving initiatives. As philanthropy becomes an expanding priority for companies and consumers around the world, it’s more important than ever to rally everyone in your company to make a combined difference in the community.
While corporate giving programs are appealing to many socially conscious employees, many of them may not participate simply because they aren’t aware of the opportunities. That’s why creating a corporate charitable giving policy is vital to the long-term success of your program.
If your company needs a corporate giving policy, we’ve got you covered. We’ll walk through all the basics and best practices in the following sections:
More than 26 million individuals work for companies with matching gift programs, but over 78% of them are unaware that their company offers this program or know any program specifics. Crafting a comprehensive corporate charitable donations policy is an easy and necessary solution to this lack of awareness.
What is a Corporate Charitable Giving Policy?
Corporate giving is one aspect of a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), or its role in promoting social good within the community. According to the CSR pyramid, businesses should promote social good in all economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic areas of their operations. Philanthropic activities like contributing funds, services, and other resources to charitable causes demonstrate that companies are interested in more than just making a profit.
A corporate charitable giving policy outlines your company’s approach, guidelines, and processes for corporate giving. It serves as a source of truth for administrators and participants alike, spelling out essential details such as eligibility criteria and deadlines.
Only 19% of companies include more than a single paragraph on matching gift programs in accessible employee handbook materials or their website. Rather than leaving your employees in the dark, encourage them to embrace your corporate giving efforts by enlightening them about your programs. The more information you provide upfront, the easier it will be for employees to get involved.
Benefits of Corporate Giving
An official corporate charitable donations policy allows your company to tap into the full benefits of corporate giving. By demonstrating a more serious investment in philanthropy, you’ll be able to:
Elevate employee engagement. Building a work environment with engaged employees is key to boosting their productivity, encouraging innovation, and maintaining their commitment to your company. A well-defined corporate giving program can produce a sense of pride among employees, helping them feel fulfilled and purposeful in their roles.
Increase talent acquisition.Recent research reveals that 54% of U.S. employees are willing to take a pay cut to work at a company with better values, and 56% would not even consider working for a company with values they disagree with. Therefore, having a clear corporate charitable giving policy can attract more socially conscious top talent for your company.
Boost company reputation. The priorities of modern consumers are changing. According to Accenture, 46% of progressive consumers would pay more to support a retail brand that takes action to improve society. A detailed, public-facing corporate giving policy can go a long way toward demonstrating your company’s social priorities and drawing in more customers.
Qualify for tax deductions. By engaging in corporate giving, your company can qualify for tax deductions. This means you can retain more overall earnings while retaining employees and generating a meaningful impact in your community.
To access these benefits, you’ll need to set up an effective corporate giving program that employees are enthusiastic to get involved in.
At the same time, corporate giving affects more than just your company. Thanks to these initiatives, nonprofits can raise more funds, find more volunteers, and acquire more resources for their causes. Mutually beneficial nonprofit-corporate partnerships allow both parties to expand their audiences and achieve more.
Main Types of Corporate Giving Programs
In your company’s corporate giving policy, you’ll specify all of the various corporate giving opportunities that you offer. While these will differ from company to company, let’s explore some of the main types you might include in your policy:
Matching Gifts
A matching gift program allows employees to double the impact of their donations to nonprofits. After they make a gift to a cause they care about, they can submit a matching gift request to their employer. As long as they meet all the criteria, the company will typically match that gift amount and make a contribution of its own to the nonprofit.
Whether or not your company already has a matching gift program, staying up-to-date on popular program guidelines ensures that you design a rewarding experience for your employees. Consider these common matching gift guidelines and trends to inform your corporate charitable giving policy:
93% of companies have a minimum match requirement of less than or equal to $50.
91% of companies match donations at a 1:1 ratio.
Higher matching gift caps yield higher employee engagement, with maximums above $10,000 seeing an engagement rate of up to 40%.
If your company is looking to increase participation in its matching gift program, think about lowering your minimum match requirement and increasing your match ratio. This way, you’ll inspire employees to make a difference by giving however much they’re comfortable with.
Volunteer Grants
Corporate volunteer grants are another popular type of philanthropy similar to matching gifts. However, instead of matching donation amounts, companies award monetary grants to nonprofits after their employees volunteer a certain number of hours there.
In your corporate charitable donations policy, you’ll explain parameters such as eligibility criteria, restrictions, minimum volunteer hours required, and deadlines. Additionally, you’ll need to include how much funding you’ll award for every hour volunteered.
Beyond volunteer grants, there are a few other ways your company can encourage volunteerism among employees. For example, you can provide volunteer time off (VTO) to empower more employees to get involved in their community or organize corporate volunteer events to promote team-building.
Community Grants
Through community grants, companies dispense financial support directly to nonprofits, usually to address a local need or priority within their communities. To obtain this funding, nonprofits must meet the qualifications for the grant and complete an application process, which involves explaining what they’ll use the money for.
A community grant will typically align with your company’s overall mission and values. For instance, a healthcare company may offer grants for nonprofit programs related to improving the health of community members. You can also engage employees by asking for their input in the community grants you provide, such as by giving them the opportunity to nominate nonprofits or vote on causes to support.
Sponsorships
With sponsorships, companies can construct mutually beneficial partnerships with nonprofits as part of their corporate philanthropy strategy. You’ll fund a nonprofit’s event or project, and as thanks for your support, the nonprofit will recognize your company in its promotional materials. This leads to a win-win for both parties, as the nonprofit receives essential funds to conduct its activities and your company benefits from extra marketing.
In-Kind Donations
Your company can supply nonprofits with more than just monetary resources through in-kind donations. These gifts include various goods or services that can power a nonprofit’s mission. For example, you may contribute office equipment, gift baskets for an upcoming auction, or venue space for an event. Additionally, you could involve more employees by having them volunteer to provide free services to a nonprofit, such as graphic design or legal consulting.
Scholarships
Many companies choose to invest in next-generation talent by starting corporate scholarship programs. High school and college students can apply for these opportunities and secure significant funds to cover expenses such as tuition, educational materials, and other school-related needs. You can even focus your scholarships on areas relevant to your company’s sector to cultivate a talent pool of promising candidates in the future.
What to Include in a Corporate Charitable Donations Policy
Regardless of the corporate giving opportunities your company offers, the key to a successful program lies in communicating them effectively to your employees, nonprofits, and other stakeholders. A corporate charitable giving policy should be detailed yet concise, so readers can easily access all the information they need.
These are the main elements you should include in your corporate giving policy:
Overview
At the beginning, include a brief overview explaining the purpose of your corporate giving program. Connect these goals to your company’s larger mission and values. This will ensure that employees understand how their participation contributes to the overall success of your company and inspire them to get involved. Additionally, include a point of contact that employees can reach out to with questions.
Focus Area
If your corporate giving program centers on specific causes or areas of focus, specify these in your employee charitable giving policy. This way, your employees will know which types of nonprofits you prioritize supporting. For example, an education software company may primarily direct its corporate philanthropy efforts toward nonprofits with education-related causes.
Eligibility
Outline the requirements that organizations must meet to be eligible for your support. One common condition among U.S. companies is that only 501(c)(3) entities can benefit from their philanthropic initiatives.
Also, clarify which employees are eligible to participate in your program. Some companies limit engagement in their programs to full-time employees, while others allow part-time and even retired employees to get involved.
Restrictions
List any restrictions or exclusions in your corporate giving program. For instance, your company might have geographical limitations on the nonprofits you support. Or, you might opt not to include political or religious organizations, even if they have 501(c)(3) status.
However, it’s important to note that the percentage of Russell 1000 companies offering “unrestricted matching gifts” grew over 48% over the past three years. This means that more businesses are shifting their programs to broaden their support and create a more significant impact in their communities.
Giving Programs
Include all of your company’s corporate giving opportunities in this section, from matching gifts to scholarships. Be specific about details such as:
Match ratio
Minimum and maximum match amounts
Deadline to submit a request
In the case of volunteer grants, be sure to mention if there is a minimum number of hours an employee must volunteer before they’re eligible to submit a request.
Request Guidelines
In this section of your corporate charitable giving policy, walk through the exact steps an employee should take to submit a matching gift or volunteer grant request. The easier the process, the more likely employees will actually participate in your program.
For instance, 96% of employees prefer that their employer matches donations they make directly to a nonprofit, rather than only those made on the company’s corporate giving platform. Having flexible giving options and eligibility criteria allows you to better accommodate varying employee preferences and interests.
5 Steps to Create a Corporate Charitable Giving Policy
Ready to put together your company’s charitable giving policy and start powering change within your community? Use these basic steps as a jumping-off point:
Clarify your corporate giving goals. Begin by solidifying your corporate giving goals, including the kind of impact you’d like to have on society. Formulate your policy with your overall mission, values, and business strategy in mind. This ensures that all of your efforts contribute to a sustainable, cohesive, and engaging corporate giving program.
Set your charitable giving budget. Take the time to determine the amount of funds your company will allocate to its corporate giving program. This budget will guide you as you work out specific criteria and other details of your giving opportunities, such as minimum and maximum match amounts.
Collect feedback. Send out a survey to employees and other stakeholders to get a better understanding of their priorities, interests, and preferences when it comes to corporate giving. Identify common insights and take them into consideration as you conceive and finalize the specifics of your company’s program.
Define specific criteria and focus areas. Based on the corporate giving opportunities you’re planning to offer, map out the criteria for participation and fund allocation. This includes focus areas, the types of employees eligible to get involved, and any restrictions you may have on which organizations can receive your company’s support.
Verify legal compliance. After you’ve drafted your corporate charitable donations policy, avoid any potential fines, penalties, or losses by verifying that everything complies with local, state, and federal laws. Some points to bear in mind include tax deductions and reporting requirements. For instance, it’s important to understand and communicate that contributions made to organizations without 501(c)(3) are not tax deductible.
Consider creating multiple versions of your corporate giving policy. In doing so, you can share an external, public-facing document that focuses on showcasing your company’s values, devotion to philanthropy, desired impact, and commitment to transparency. Then, you can circulate an internal, employee-facing policy that includes more specific details on eligibility and participation.
Furthermore, once you’ve prepared your corporate charitable giving policy, make sure your company is equipped with all the tools to carry out its program.
For example, workplace giving software that integrates with matching gift tools like auto-submission simplifies the process for employees by automatically submitting requests on their behalf after they donate. This can significantly elevate your corporate giving program’s participation rates and help your company generate more of an impact.
3 Stellar Examples of Corporate Charitable Giving Policies
To set your company’s corporate giving policy and program up for success, it’s best to stay informed about the latest philanthropy trends and best practices. Let’s take a look at well-designed policies produced by other charitable companies.
IBM
As a multinational technology company, IBM considers itself a leader in CSR, detailing numerous charitable giving initiatives in its Benefits Summary. In a dedicated section for CSR, it lists the following opportunities for employees to get involved in, such as:
IBM Service Corps. Through IBM Service Corps, employees can participate in various pro-bono community projects to improve their leadership skills, contribute to social good, and practice problem-solving. Since its inception, nearly 4,000 IBM employees have completed over 1,300 projects around the world.
P-TECH and SkillsBuild Mentoring. These two programs allow IBM employees to become mentors, helping students and job seekers through project-based learning.
IBM Volunteer Grants. Both current and retired IBM employees can secure volunteer grants for the nonprofits they volunteer with, earning $10 per hour after reaching a minimum of 10 hours served.
IBM Matching Grants Program. IBM provides unrestricted matching grants to eligible nonprofit organizations, contributing up to a total of $10,000 per employee each calendar year.
IBM’s policy stands out due to the variety of engagement options the company provides to employees. This encourages more employees to participate according to their preferences and interests.
Verizon
On Verizon’s corporate philanthropy page, the company shares two separate corporate giving policies for matching gifts and volunteer grants. This allows them to go into more detail about each opportunity.
The matching gifts program policy delves into eligibility criteria, request deadlines, and exclusions. It even includes administrative notes, including when to expect matching payments and where to go for more questions about the program.
Similarly, the volunteer grants program policy covers eligibility criteria and other specifics such as the maximum amount that Verizon will contribute to a nonprofit per employee each year.
General Electric
The GE Foundation offers a comprehensive matching gift policy for employees, featuring General Electric’s logo on every page and even reports when it was last updated.
The company lists everything in clear sections, including:
Overview
GE participant eligibility
Charitable organization eligibility
Gift eligibility
Gift matching process
Under each section, General Electric goes into specifics about which types of organizations are ineligible, such as religious organizations, and how the foundation confirms gifts made to nonprofits.
Enhancing Philanthropy with a Corporate Giving Policy
A corporate charitable giving policy sets all of your company’s philanthropy efforts in stone. However, this doesn’t mean that everything is permanent. After you’ve shared the policy with employees and other stakeholders, be sure to collect feedback on both your giving program and the policy itself. Doing so enables you to identify areas to improve, details to clarify, and ways to engage more employees in corporate giving in the long term.
If you’re looking for tips and best practices for embracing corporate philanthropy and building a better workplace at your company, check out these additional resources:
A Full Guide to Employee Engagement Tools + 20 Top Picks.Corporate giving can effectively engage your employees, but what other strategies can you use to boost employee engagement? Explore essential tools your company can leverage to better engage its employees in this guide.
22 Employee Recognition Platforms To Recharge Your Workplace. Want to thank your employees for their participation in your corporate charitable giving program? Discover game-changing employee recognition platforms for organizations of all sizes in this guide.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Corporate-Charitable-Giving-Policy_Feature.jpg7201920Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2023-10-24 20:45:242024-10-28 18:54:04How to Craft a Complete Corporate Charitable Giving Policy
Companies participate in corporate giving for a number of reasons. A corporate executive might be inspired to give back to a particular cause that resonates with them and their values. A different company might do so in order to engage with its employees on a deeper level, fostering a positive workplace culture and driving satisfaction and retention. Another yet may choose to give in order to receive tax benefits or boost their public image.
Tons of businesses partake in matching employee gifts, and most intend to reap all of the benefits listed above. But there are a few that truly stand out in their efforts—specifically when it comes to corporate matching gifts.
Want to find out how? We’ve compiled information to provide you with a solid understanding of the Checkr corporation, its philanthropy and matching gift endeavors, and what makes it stand out from the crowd.
Fun Fact: By working with a CLMA-certified matching gift platform, Checkr has become a Certified Leader in Matching Automation. That means it’s recognized for its dedication to providing the best possible experience for its employees participating in the program.
Company Background: About Checkr
Checkr, Inc. was founded in 2014 with a unique idea to modernize and advance the traditional background check process—while removing common obstacles and enabling a fairer hiring process for all.
Today, this background check screening company aims to aid other businesses with the right technology to make the right recruitment and hiring choices. Checkr is built on the idea of fair chance hiring that works to make the hiring process as even as it can be for all candidates—including those with criminal backgrounds.
And Checkr understands the importance of corporate philanthropy in an overall business plan—especially pertaining to strategic recruitment and retention practices. They’ve even written several blog posts citing matching gifts and overall corporate giving programs as key components for How to Recruit Talented Leaders and How to Increase Employee Retention at Your Small Business. Not to mention, the Checkr team offers its own corporate giving initiatives—including, but not limited to, matching employee donations to charitable causes.
Current Matching Gift Program Guidelines
Checkr matches charitable gifts made by all full and part-time employees at a 1:1 rate. With no minimum donation amount and open match availability to nearly all nonprofit causes, Checkr aims to make its employee matching gift program as accessible as possible.
Not to mention, they utilize matching gift auto-submission functionality to enable one-click matching gift requests, which ensures the process is quick and easy for employee participants.
Let’s take a quick look at Checkr’s employee matching donation guidelines:
Minimum employee donation matched – None!
Matching gift ratio – 1:1, or dollar for dollar
Qualifying employees – Current full-time and part-time Checkr employees
Eligible nonprofit recipients – Nearly all nonprofit causes qualify to receive Checkr matches. This includes:
K-12 schools
Higher education institutions
Health and human services
Arts and cultural organizations
Civic and community organizations
Environmental nonprofits
And many more 501 (c)(3) organizations
Submission process – Checkr employees can leverage auto-submission to complete the matching gift process in seconds from their favorite organizations’ donation forms or submit their match requests manually by logging into the company’s CSR portal, Millie.
New Feature! Auto-Submission With Millie and Double the Donation
Checkr’s employee donation-matching program has many admirable features that make it one of our top matching gift companies. But what really makes this employer stand out in its offering is its matching gift auto-submission functionality.
Checkr employs corporate giving platform Millie to facilitate its matching gift program. Historically, that meant providing an employee-facing portal with which team members can log in, provide basic information about their recent donations, and submit their matching gift requests.
Now, thanks to a successfully implemented beta integration between Millie and industry-leading matching gift software provider Double the Donation, the process for employee donors is easier than ever before.
In fact, all an individual has to do is enter their corporate email address from the confirmation screen of their favorite organization’s donation page. They won’t be rerouted to a separate submission platform or be required to reenter donation details. The software ecosystem handles it all seamlessly behind the scenes!
What to Know About Checkr’s CSR Partner, Millie
In order to bring their philanthropy to the next level, the Checkr team chooses to leverage a social impact platform called Millie. Millie describes itself as offering a simple and flexible matching gift solution that’s budget-friendly for all companies. And for Checkr, Millie is able to help simplify the facilitation of their matching gifts and other corporate giving programs!
Here’s a look at Millie’s key offerings:
Essential matching donation management of programs that encourage both corporate and individual giving;
Campaign-hosting capabilities that enable companies to support and fundraise for various causes;
Remote and in-person corporate volunteer management tools;
Charitable gift cards, affinity groups, gamification campaigns, and more.
Plus, Millie has been at the forefront of corporate giving innovation with its new auto-submission partnership with Double the Donation, which is in its final stages of testing and refinement. This allows businesses like Checkr and more to streamline and elevate philanthropy, ultimately bringing advantages to every party involved. We’re excited to see what they do next, and how they bring forward-thinking companies along with them.
Other Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives
In addition to Checkr’s standout matching gift program, here are a few other CSR efforts that the background check company pursues:
Bounce Back program — Bounce Back is a unique program developed by Checkr with the help of its dedicated employees. By providing tools and resources to post-incarcerated applicants and companies looking to establish fair hiring practices, Bounce Back aids in securing a more optimal workforce for everyone involved.
Free reentry simulation — In order to provide insight into the various challenges involved with employment post-incarceration, Checkr has invested in developing an interactive virtual reentry simulator. This free and accessible tool aims to share perspective and understanding of those looking to reenter society after a criminal record.
Expungement assistance services — Checkr believes that a criminal record should not put an end to an individual’s employment potential. And when it’s possible to clear a candidate’s record and reopen opportunities, the company is dedicated to helping with a fast and affordable solution.
The Checkr website states that “Checkr has committed to the Pledge 1% corporate philanthropy movement, pledging to donate one percent of its employees’ time, one percent of its product, one percent of the equity, and one percent of the profits every year to the mission of enabling fair chances.”
But they often go farther than just one percent! In fact, much of Checkr’s corporate offerings revolve around its overall mission of fair chance hiring.
Concluding Thoughts
Matching gift programs continue to expand in terms of both prevalence and potential. And companies like Checkr are leading the pack. By enabling innovative auto-submission, Checkr is demonstrating matching gift programs of the future.
And while bringing inspiration to other corporate leaders, they’re also benefiting their employees by offering next-level engagement experiences, the nonprofits receiving increased funding through the matching programs, and even their own bottom line.
Dive deeper into corporate matching gifts! Learn more with these additional corporate giving resources from Double the Donation:
Matching Gifts: Your Guide to Growing Your Revenue with Automation. When leveraged effectively, corporate matching gifts have the potential to bring a nonprofit’s fundraising revenue to the next level. And the right tools and strategies can help—learn more in this comprehensive guide.
Corporate Philanthropy Examples: 15 Companies Doing It Right. Looking for more inspiration from charitable-minded businesses? Check out our list of fifteen companies across multiple sectors that are doing corporate giving right. See what your team can learn from these examples!
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/DTD_Company-Spotlight-Article-Millie-Checkr_Feature-1.png6001600Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2023-10-19 15:43:042024-10-02 18:57:41Company Spotlight: Get Inspired by Checkr’s Groundbreaking Matching Gift Program
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Matching-Grants_Feature.jpg3751000Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2023-10-19 13:30:282024-09-23 20:53:44What Matching Grants for Nonprofits Are and How to Find Them
This means that, in order to provide a positive employee giving experience for everyone, be sure to keep your giving (and matching) channels open.
Checkr’s employee engagement program emphasizes corporate giving and philanthropy, fostering a culture of generosity and social responsibility among its workforce. This initiative encourages employees to participate in various charitable activities, including matching gift programs, volunteer opportunities, and fundraising events.
