Corporate giving makes a difference in your community. Additionally, it is a great way to engage with your employees. Statistics show a highly engaged workforce increases profitability by 21% and is 87% less likely to leave their place of work.
Some corporate giving examples include:
- Matching donations that employees have made. This means if employees donated $5,000 collectively, your organization also donates $5,000, making the total donated $10,000.
- Volunteer grants. Encourages employees to volunteer with charities of their choosing and in turn, the company will donate cash grants to these charities based on the number of volunteer hours each employee contributes.
- Donating a portion of your profit to an organization. An example is if someone buys your product, you contribute 5% to a charity.
Employee Interest Should Be Aligned With Giving Back
To keep employees engaged in your corporate giving endeavors, try and align those projects with employee interest. For example, if your accounting team likes to volunteer and are CPAs, see if they want to volunteer some of their expertise to local nonprofits who need the aid.
Keep your focus general, or get employee feedback before choosing a focus. You should have an idea of what gets your employees excited and ready to volunteer! Keep in mind that your focus should align with the values and mission of your company.
Choose one of your company values, such as teamwork, seek out organizations that allow you to work as a team. Examples are environmental clean-up or aiding in a children’s after-school program.
DYK? 70% of employees say it is imperative or essential to work for an employer where mission and value align.
What To Know Before You Say Go To Your Next Volunteer Opportunity
Knowing what to ask can make or break the engagement. Set the expectation of what the volunteer opportunities include. Some questions include:
Ensure your employees are aware of all your corporate giving efforts by building promotional pipelines. Getting the word out this way generates interest. It gives people a better idea of what to expect, reducing the likelihood of employees being disappointed and not returning to the workplace giving.
Don’t Try To Force Participation
Volunteering should always be optional for employees. No one likes pressure to do anything, and doing so plays into reducing their engagement. Instead of trying to force employees to take part, try offering incentives to increase participation rates. Try the carrot, not the stick.
DYK? 89% of companies offer paid time off (PTO) or flexible scheduling for employees to volunteer.
One incentive is to offer PTO or a day off to employees for volunteer work. This approach encourages people to participate and not stress about their missing work or even money from their paycheck. Always aim to have volunteering optional to drive employee engagement.
How CyberGrants Plays A Role
CyberGrants maximizes the social impact of your corporate philanthropy. Since 1999, we have delivered web-based solutions to the most respected companies and foundations in the world. We help organizations activate their charitable causes to realize strategic, measurable outcomes.
CyberGrants offers brilliant flexible distribution solutions, ecosystem support, integrated solutions, and a dedicated team. We have a way to dive deeper into engagement in your employee-giving programs. Give your employees the option to support the causes they care about with CyberGrants.
There are many benefits to a highly engaged, motivated workforce. These include increased profit margins, reduced turnover rates, higher morale, a better employee value proposition, and many others.
If you align your corporate giving efforts with employee interests, communicate projects clearly, and avoid mandating volunteering, you can create a culture where employees want to contribute.
Put these fundamental concepts in place, and you will create a natural synergy between your company values and objectives, your employee interests, and the future projects of your business. This synergy will serve as the foundation for all your CSR activities.
Want to connect your employees to the highest mission of your company? Give employees the option to support the causes they care about! Sign up for a CyberGrants demo today!