Corporate Consulting Archives - Page 2 of 3

Top Corporate Giving Software to Drive Employee Engagement

October 25, 2023/in Learning Center, Corporate Consulting /by Adam Weinger

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.

Here are some top popular options:

Millie
POINT
Selflessly
America’s Charities
Benevity
Bright Funds
CyberGrants
SmartSimple
YourCause

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.

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.

Pricing

Millie charges monthly fees based on the number of employees you have.

Learn more about Millie!

POINT

Overview of This Corporate Giving Software

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!

Pricing

Pricing for POINT depends on the number of employees in your company. Visit their website to book a demo.

Learn more about POINT!

Selflessly

Overview of This Corporate Giving Software,

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.

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.

Learn more about Selflessly!

America’s Charities

Overview of This Corporate Giving Software

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.

Pricing

Contact America’s Charities for specific pricing information and to request a demo.

Learn more about America’s Charities!

Benevity

Overview of This Corporate Giving Software

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.

Pricing

Contact Benevity to learn more about their services and pricing.

Learn more about Benevity!

Bright Funds

Overview of This Corporate Giving Software

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.

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.

Learn more about Bright Funds!

CyberGrants

Overview of This Corporate Giving Software

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.

Pricing

Contact CyberGrants for a demo and to learn more about pricing.

Learn more about CyberGrants!

SmartSimple

Overview of This Corporate Giving Software

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.

Pricing

Visit SmartSimple’s website for pricing information and to request a demo.

Learn more about SmartSimple!

YourCause

Overview of This Corporate Giving Software

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.

Pricing

Contact YourCause to request a demo and get more information about pricing.

Learn more about YourCause!

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 user experience 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.

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!

From Disengaged to Inspired: A Guide to Employee Engagement. In this article, we break down the basics of employee engagement, how they benefit your company, and what you can do to roll out a successful employee engagement program.
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.

Corporate Matching Gift Forms | The Ultimate Guide

October 25, 2023/in Learning Center, Corporate Consulting, Learning Center /by Adam Weinger

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.

On the other hand, as a company, considering all available options for submission forms can make a big difference as you work to develop and finetune your matching gift program.

In this guide, we’ll provide everything you need to know about corporate matching gift forms, including:

What are matching gift submission forms?
Why matching gift forms matter
Elements of a corporate matching gift form
3 types of matching gift submission forms (and alternatives)
How a matching gift database fits in

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!

To Nonprofits

An estimated $4 to $7 billion in available matching revenue goes unclaimed each year. That’s funding that could be going to nonprofit causes but is ultimately left on the table by qualifying organizations and their donors.

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:

The recipient organization’s name
Website URL
Employer identification (or tax ID) number
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.

Learn more about matching gift auto-submission here.

How a matching gift database fits in

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);
Submission deadlines;
Other available programs (i.e., volunteer grants).

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.

Nonprofits interested in benefiting from our innovative matching gift database and automation software can do so by requesting a demo here.

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:

Matching Gift Process: A Complete Step-by-Step Overview. Corporate matching gift forms essentially kick off the match request experience. Walk through the entire process in this detailed guide to see each step in action.
8 Ways to Encourage Donors to Submit Matching Gift Requests. Providing easy access to donors’ matching forms can go a long way toward driving requests to completion. Check out several other practices for doing so!
Matching Gift Guidelines | Ratios, Minimums, Maximums & More. Before completing a matching gift form, you’ll need to understand the company’s match eligibility guidelines. Discover common criteria and how to locate it here.

Take matching a step further with auto-submission functionality.

In this guide, we’ll cover all you need to know to create your own complete corporate charitable giving policy and boost employee participation.

How to Craft a Complete Corporate Charitable Giving Policy

October 24, 2023/in Learning Center, Corporate Consulting /by Adam Weinger

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:

What is a Corporate Charitable Giving Policy?
Benefits of Corporate Giving
Main Types of Corporate Giving Programs
What to Include in a Corporate Charitable Donations Policy
5 Steps to Create a Corporate Giving Policy
3 Stellar Examples of Corporate Charitable Giving Policies

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. By contributing funds, services, and other resources to charitable causes, companies can demonstrate that they’re interested in more than just making a profit, but also improving society as a whole.

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.
Matching Gift Videos | Examples and Best Practices. Encourage more employees to participate in your matching gifts program by learning how to create an educational matching gift video.
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.

This article will review CSR statistics to help you supercharge your CSR approach.

16 Impactful CSR Statistics Charitable Companies Should Know

October 23, 2023/in Corporate Consulting, Learning Center /by Adam Weinger

The top companies know that sales are no longer everything. Employees, consumers, and investors want to know that businesses are committed to making the world a better place in their everyday operations. That’s where corporate social responsibility (CSR) comes in.

CSR encompasses a company’s efforts to contribute to society, from corporate philanthropy to environmental advocacy. Since CSR refers to various programs and initiatives, it can be difficult to conceptualize its impact and how companies should approach it.

To illustrate the multi-faceted nature of CSR, we’ve compiled a list of 16 helpful CSR statistics. This data will show the necessity of adopting CSR and which methods companies should use. Let’s dive into it!

1. 93% of employees think companies should lead with purpose.

When employees come to work each day, they want to feel like they’re making a difference. Even if their jobs don’t directly affect those in need, employees take comfort in knowing that the companies they work for use their revenue and team time for good.

Make sure your employees are up to date with your company’s CSR initiatives. Consider sending monthly or quarterly updates about steps your business is taking to make the world a better place. Your team will take pride in knowing their employer is committed to improving society and your local community.

2. 71% of employees think it’s important to work at a company that gives back through philanthropy and volunteering.

More specifically, employees want to get involved in your CSR efforts. The two easiest ways for them to do so are corporate giving and volunteering.

When you start a corporate giving program, you show employees that you care about their interests and want to work together to give back to the causes they’re passionate about. There are a variety of different elements your corporate giving program may include, such as:

Matching gifts. Many companies will match employee donations to their nonprofit of choice, typically at a 1:1 ratio.
Volunteer grants. To incentivize employee volunteering, companies may contribute to nonprofits based on the number of hours their employees volunteer.
Fundraising matches. Instead of matching employee donations, fundraising matches apply to funds individual employees raise for walkathons, runs, or other events.
Community grants. Nonprofits can apply for grants offered by companies in areas such as disaster relief.
Annual giving campaigns. Companies may run specific fundraising campaigns during the end of the year or dedicated giving days.
Automatic payroll deductions. With automatic payroll deductions, employees can easily donate to their favorite causes on a regular basis.
Annual grant stipends. While annual grant stipends are somewhat rare, some companies distribute a predetermined amount of money to employees each year for them to donate to their nonprofits of choice.
Internal employee fundraising. Nonprofits and companies alike may rely on their team members to raise money for worthy causes.
Scholarships. Businesses may help students pay for tuition, living expenses, food, and other associated costs.
Sponsorships. For nonprofits hosting events, corporate sponsorships can be very helpful in securing necessary funding. Additionally, these nonprofits may promote and publicly thank their corporate sponsors, allowing businesses to gain positive publicity.

To ensure your employees understand how your program works, create a corporate charitable giving policy that outlines your program’s components and requirements. For example, you may limit donations through automatic payroll deductions to only environment-oriented nonprofits if sustainability is your company’s primary focus.

In terms of volunteering, you can encourage your employees to participate by developing a formal corporate volunteer program. Reach out to local nonprofits to line up volunteer opportunities for your team. You may also survey your employees to find which organizations they already volunteer with and organize volunteer events with those nonprofits.

3. 65% of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs while 40% offer volunteer grant programs.

The two most popular forms of corporate giving are matching gifts and volunteer grants. Matching gifts occur when an employee contributes to a nonprofit, and their employer matches that donation. While most companies match employee donations at a 1:1 ratio, some may match at a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio.

No matter the matching ratio your company decides upon, matching gifts have the potential to double—or even triple—a nonprofit’s donation revenue. With this type of corporate giving, you incentivize employees to give back to their favorite causes and help worthy nonprofits earn more along the way.

Volunteer grants are like matching gifts with a volunteer twist. Instead of matching donations, companies contribute to nonprofits based on the number of hours their employees volunteer with them. As a result, companies can have a massive positive impact on their nonprofit partners by offering them additional funds and corporate volunteers.

The companies with the most successful matching gift and volunteer grant programs use corporate giving software. This type of platform allows businesses to manage components of their corporate giving programs, including:

Employee donations
Automatic payroll deductions
Matching gift requests
Volunteer hour logs
Volunteer grant requests
Team volunteer opportunities
Company corporate giving metrics

With all of their corporate giving information in one central location, companies can more easily communicate with their employees about their philanthropy programs and ensure donation request forms are completed in a timely manner.

4. 78% of donors are unaware if their company offers a matching gift program.

It’s difficult to make a large impact with your matching gift program if your employees don’t know about it. That’s why it’s so important to include matching gift guidelines in your corporate giving policy and promote matching gift opportunities to your team.

On the other hand, even knowing that your company’s matching gift policy exists doesn’t guarantee that supporters will participate. In fact, 16% of donors know their company offers matching gifts, but they’re not sure if they’re eligible or how to submit a request. Companies can make the matching gift process easier by leveraging corporate giving software.

Keep in mind that businesses like yours aren’t the only ones using corporate giving software. Nonprofits also use this technology to encourage matching gifts and volunteer grants among their supporters, which will overlap with your employees. Many nonprofits embed corporate giving database tools within their donation pages that allow donors to search for their employer, determine their eligibility, and submit a matching gift or volunteer grant request.

When your company’s corporate giving software integrates with nonprofit platforms, the nonprofit software will seamlessly send matching gift and volunteer grant requests to your system. Plus, software that specifically integrates with auto-submission tools can make it even simpler for your employers to get their gifts matched. Check out this video for an in-depth look at how auto-submission works:

Typical nonprofit corporate giving software enables donors to fill out their information and send matching gift and volunteer grant requests to their employers. With auto-submission, the process is even easier. All employees have to do is input their corporate email address, and the platform will send their employer the appropriate request on their behalf.

This approach ensures that more donors send matching gift and volunteer grant requests, increasing corporate giving participation and employee engagement. When choosing corporate giving software, look for a platform that integrates with those that have auto-submission capabilities, such as 360MatchPro, for best results.

5. 96% of companies find that employees who volunteer are more engaged than their coworkers who don’t.

In addition to benefiting those in need, volunteering can also improve employee engagement. When you organize volunteer shifts for your employees, you give them the opportunity to build valuable teamwork skills. Additionally, employees who work for companies that provide volunteer grants and facilitate volunteer outings feel empowered by their employer to make a difference.

Corporate volunteer programs give employees a hands-on opportunity to get involved in CSR. They’ll feel more invested in your company when they can directly contribute to your social good efforts, leading to higher engagement in the workplace.

6. 88% of Millennials find their jobs more fulfilling when their employers provide CSR opportunities.

With Millennials making up 39.4% of the workforce, it’s important to tailor your company culture to this large segment of working professionals. An overwhelming majority of Millennials believe CSR opportunities enhance their roles.

For many corporate employees, their job descriptions don’t necessarily include helping communities in a direct way, but most people feel best about themselves when they’re making a positive impact on others. CSR opportunities help close this gap.

Employees who give to their favorite causes or volunteer with nonprofits through their companies’ corporate giving programs feel a greater connection to the business. CSR makes jobs more than just jobs; these types of initiatives empower people to work with their employers for the betterment of society.

7. 55% of employees say they would take a lower salary to work for a socially responsible company.

Many employees feel so passionate about CSR that they would rather work for a socially responsible business than make a larger salary at a company that doesn’t prioritize CSR. This data is striking because it shows that companies in the midst of recruiting and hiring can entice applicants with their CSR initiatives.

While people certainly want to be paid in accordance with their skills and experience, there’s a growing sentiment that job fulfillment is sometimes more important than salary. As evidenced by the two previous CSR statistics, CSR programs enhance the employee experience and make people feel connected to their workplace.

Companies that want to attract purpose-driven applicants should take the time to develop comprehensive CSR programs. That way, they can demonstrate their commitment to social good and encourage prospective employees to join in.

8. 89% of corporate executives think employees are more satisfied when their company has a strong sense of purpose.

Not only do employees report that they prefer companies with a social conscience, but corporate executives also notice a difference in employee attitudes when companies are driven by CSR. Leadership teams recognize that CSR gives employees something to work toward in addition to their career goals and aspirations.

When employees feel satisfied in their roles, they’re more likely to put their best foot forward in the workplace. As a result, employees will be more productive and invested in their work, resulting in better outcomes for your business objectives.

9. 58% of companies say workplace giving programs are important in retaining employees.

One of the biggest challenges of running a business is retaining employees. Over the long run, it’s much more cost-effective to retain employees than hire new ones. Additionally, keeping the same employees around allows you to leverage their expertise and knowledge of the company to drive your goals forward.

That’s why when companies find an employee retention method that works, they stick with it. Since workplace giving programs make employees feel more fulfilled and engaged at work, they also help ensure employees stay with their current employers. Consequently, employees who participate in corporate giving have 75% longer tenures in the workplace.

10. 77% of consumers want to purchase from companies with CSR initiatives.

Your employees aren’t the only ones invested in your CSR program. CSR is becoming increasingly important to consumers, so much so that it’s influencing their purchasing decisions.

This figure indicates the potential positive financial impact of adopting CSR practices. To ensure customers know about the work your company does to better society, make sure to advertise different elements of your CSR program using a variety of platforms. Here are some examples of how you can promote your charitable efforts:

Posting pictures of your corporate volunteers on social media
Including how much your company donates to different causes each year on your product packaging
Updating your customers on your current CSR projects through your newsletter

While CSR may not directly influence sales, it can reveal your core values to consumers who feel inclined to support charitable businesses.

11. 73% of investors look to invest in companies that improve the environment and society as a whole.

Investors have the potential to skyrocket your company to success. These days, investors are not only looking for companies with high profitability but also those that are making a positive impact on the world around them.

Implementing CSR efforts and reporting on them can increase the likelihood that purpose-driven investors support your business. Be sure to research potential investors ahead of time and include information about your CSR program in your pitches, especially for investors who have shown a demonstrated interest in CSR.

12. 96% of G250 companies report on their sustainability efforts.

In its Survey of Sustainability Reporting, KPMG explains that G250 comprises the world’s 250 largest companies by revenue. Considering nearly all of them report on their sustainability efforts, we suggest your business does the same.

Reporting on your CSR efforts, such as sustainability initiatives, increases transparency with stakeholders, including employees, consumers, and investors. When you’re compiling your annual report, you may notice gaps in your CSR strategy that you can address with your team. That way, you can ensure your strategy is comprehensive and represents your company’s commitment to its values and specific CSR interests.

13. 87% of global investors accuse companies of “greenwashing” their sustainability reports.

When reporting on your CSR efforts, especially those that pertain to sustainability, it’s important to clearly describe the specific initiatives your company has carried out. It’s easy for companies to say they’re committed to sustainability without clarifying which components of sustainability they’re targeting and the actions they’re taking to do so. This practice is called greenwashing and leads to distrust among investors and the public.

Participants in PWC’s Global Investor Survey propose that companies who are serious about sustainability should structure their sustainability reports like financial statements with reasonable assurance. That way, companies can demonstrate the specific actions they’ve taken to promote sustainability and differentiate themselves from businesses that partake in greenwashing.

14. 76% of companies use CSR reports to enhance their reputation.

After learning about the positive impact of CSR on employees, consumers, and investors, it should make perfect sense that many companies report their CSR efforts to boost brand reputation. More than anything else, a company’s CSR program illustrates that it cares about its stakeholders’ priorities and uses its power and profits to help those in need.

For accurate, data-based reporting, start by pulling relevant data from your corporate giving software. Your platform likely keeps track of metrics such as how much money your company has raised and how many employees have participated in your CSR efforts. You can also use this data to evaluate which elements of your CSR program are most successful and which need to be revamped.

Then, you can obtain qualitative data for your reports by surveying stakeholders and nonprofits you’ve worked with. For example, you may interview an avid employee about their experiences as a volunteer and speak with a representative from your nonprofit partner to learn about the impact your CSR efforts have had on their mission. These types of testimonials can provide authenticity to your CSR reports.

15. The top 10 corporations alone donate $2 billion annually to nonprofits.

This CSR statistic quantifies the substantial impact CSR has on charitable organizations. Ultimately, your company’s CSR initiatives can provide much-needed revenue to nonprofits that can use those funds to better assist their beneficiaries.

Find nonprofit partners that align with your company’s core values and mission. For example, companies that sell food products may partner with an organization that fights hunger. That way, your CSR efforts will be more meaningful and authentic to your business.

16. 94% of major US corporations plan to increase or maintain their corporate giving over the next few years.

CSR is not slowing down anytime soon. The majority of companies are growing their corporate giving programs to support even more causes and communities.

This data point indicates that CSR is not just a trend. It’s now a given for companies that want to stay relevant and positively perceived in the eyes of all stakeholders.

Additional Resources

Whether you’re looking to engage your employees, “wow” your consumers, win over stakeholders, or make a tangible difference in the community, CSR can help you achieve your goals. By contributing to nonprofit causes, you also satisfy your stakeholders and improve your brand image as a philanthropic company.

We hope these CSR statistics helped you better understand the trends and impact of CSR. For more informative statistics, check out the resources below:

Corporate Giving and Matching Gift Statistics [Updated 2023]. Want to learn more about the ins and outs of corporate giving and matching gifts, two important components of CSR? Check out our list of relevant statistics.
What’s the Impact of CSR? FAQ & Key Benefits for Businesses. While we covered the basics, there’s always more to learn about CSR. This article will answer your remaining CSR questions and includes additional CSR statistics.
Choosing the Best CSR Software: A Guide for Smart Businesses. CSR software can help you organize your CSR efforts. In this guide, you’ll learn how to select the best CSR platform and absorb some more helpful CSR statistics along the way.

Checkr top matching gift company example with auto-submission

Company Spotlight: Get Inspired by Checkr’s Groundbreaking Matching Gift Program

October 19, 2023/in Learning Center, Matching Gift Companies, Company Spotlights, Corporate Consulting, Learning Center /by Adam Weinger

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.

One such company? Checkr!

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.

This includes:

Company Background: About Checkr
Current Matching Gift Program Guidelines
New Feature! Auto-Submission With Millie and Double the Donation
What to Know About Checkr’s CSR Partner, Millie
Other Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives

Let’s begin with the basics.

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:

Millie + Double the Donation: Elevated Corporate Giving with Seamless Partnership. Companies working with Millie can reap the benefits of a seamless integration with Double the Donation⁠⁠. This allows them to empower their teams with auto-submission capabilities and more.
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!

This guide to corporate citizenship will outline the importance of meaningful community impact for all organizations.

Corporate Citizenship: Creating Meaningful Community Impact

October 19, 2023/in Learning Center, Corporate Consulting /by Adam Weinger

With 77% of consumers aiming to support socially responsible companies and 93% of employees believing that companies must lead with purpose, it’s increasingly important for businesses to give back to their communities to set themselves apart from the competition. That’s where corporate citizenship comes in—by centering this concept at your organization, you’ll be able to reap a variety of benefits and see even greater success.

To help you embrace corporate citizenship at your company, we’ll cover the following topics:

Definition of Corporate Citizenship
Corporate Citizenship versus Corporate Social Responsibility
Developing Corporate Citizenship: The 5 Stages
Getting Started with Corporate Citizenship
Examples of Corporate Citizenship

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of corporate citizenship and the steps you can take to prioritize it in your business. Let’s get started!

Definition of Corporate Citizenship

Corporate citizenship is defined as a company’s contribution to the community it operates in. This concept covers how the company exercises its rights, responsibilities, obligations, and privileges within the local environment to meet its legal, ethical, and economic responsibilities. Organizations that prioritize corporate citizenship measure their success not just with return on investment (ROI) but also their social impact.

Focusing on corporate citizenship also brings a variety of benefits, empowering businesses to:

Build trust with customers. A common criticism of businesses is that they are overly greedy and inconsiderate of their community. Through corporate citizenship, you’ll show customers that you care about more than just your bottom line, securing their trust.
Set yourself apart from competitors. As the corporate landscape becomes increasingly competitive, corporate citizenship allows you to set yourself apart from rival businesses in a positive way. By doing so, you’ll be able to attract more customers.
Attract new talent. Aside from attracting new customers, strong corporate citizenship practices also appeal to potential employees. Talented individuals seeking new work are likelier to apply for employment at your business, filling vacancies in a timely fashion.
Increase employee engagement. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, employees who aren’t engaged cost the world almost $9 trillion in lost productivity. Through corporate citizenship, you can demonstrate that you share similar values with your employees to secure their engagement and motivate them to perform highly.
Promote employee retention. With almost 70% of employees saying that they won’t work for a company that doesn’t have a strong purpose, having dedicated corporate citizenship practices will help your business retain existing employees.

As expectations for businesses grow higher, your company must rise to meet them to stay competitive. From employees to customers to society at large, these groups all care about your company’s purpose and how you’re giving back to the community. Great corporate citizenship goes beyond surface-level issues. Instead, it requires you to establish practices and initiatives that address a variety of challenges using your unique resources.

Corporate Citizenship versus Corporate Social Responsibility

You may be thinking: Wait a minute! This sounds familiar. Isn’t corporate citizenship just a synonym for corporate social responsibility?

While there are varying definitions of corporate citizenship and corporate social responsibility (CSR), according to the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship (BCCCC), corporate citizenship is a larger umbrella term that encompasses CSR. Corporate citizenship refers to the impact a business has on society. CSR refers to the specific activities that are happening within a company that will further its corporate citizenship. This includes projects, campaigns, and initiatives.

Additionally, another term that is associated with corporate citizenship and CSR is environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). This term helps us to categorize corporate citizenship efforts as environmental, social, or governance-related.

So, for example, let’s say a restaurant has decided to focus more on corporate citizenship. They start by considering the amount of food waste they produce. To reduce that waste, they then decide to donate any leftover food to local food pantries. In this situation, the food donation program would be considered CSR that aids in environmental and social causes. Add this program to the restaurant’s other rights and responsibilities in society, and you get a greater picture of their corporate citizenship.

Developing Corporate Citizenship: The 5 Stages

According to the BCCCC, there are five stages to corporate citizenship. In this section, we’ll go over each stage to help you determine which stage your organization is in and how you can become a better corporate citizen. Let’s dive in!

1. Elementary

At the elementary stage of corporate citizenship, an organization is more concerned about complying with existing laws than it is about creating a positive impact on its community. There’s little to no actual interest in corporate citizenship from leadership. Any CSR programs are undefined, underdeveloped, or even nonexistent. Any efforts made are mostly to protect the organization’s reputation, and these efforts are often viewed as performative.

That’s not to say that all organizations in the elementary stage of corporate citizenship are only doing the bare minimum because they don’t care about social or environmental good. For example, some small businesses may be at this stage simply because they do not have the resources for further community involvement.

2. Engaged

In this stage, company leaders begin to take an interest in society’s expectations and corporate citizenship. They experience the beginnings of a mindset shift for their organization’s role and responsibilities. Corporate citizenship in this stage is policy-focused—leaders create programs or initiatives that encourage employees and managers to take part in social and environmental good. Plus, they begin to have more discussions with shareholders and stakeholders who are interested in more innovative corporate citizenship practices.

Although organization leaders and employees are engaged with corporate citizenship, at this stage they’re still reactive in their policies rather than proactive. This is still only the start of corporate citizenship, and companies still have lots of room for improvement.

3. Innovative

As companies move through the stages of development, they gradually become more involved and proactive about corporate citizenship. In this stage, policies become more defined as business leaders discover methods that work for their organizations. This leads to an increase in program launches to support corporate citizenship, such as corporate philanthropy initiatives.

During this time, there may be some internal restructuring to make it more convenient for the company to fulfill its responsibilities. Additionally, there are usually increased discussions with stakeholders, experts, and leading companies.

4. Integrated

By the end of the innovative stage of corporate citizenship, a company’s biggest challenge will be to create a cohesive citizenship strategy. In the integrated stage, leaders are constantly setting new standards and monitoring performance in all areas, including social, environmental, and financial.

At the end of this stage, a company’s corporate citizenship efforts will be fully integrated into its core values, everyday activities, and lines of business. Plus, they’ll determine exactly how deep their commitment to citizenship is.

5. Transforming

A company in the transforming stage is often viewed as a leader in corporate citizenship. These organizations take their citizenship extremely seriously, and many aspire to make the world a better place. They partner extensively with other organizations to address problems socially and environmentally. Businesses in this stage are the ones everyone else looks up to as an example of great corporate citizenship.

Getting Started with Corporate Citizenship

If you’re unsure how your organization approaches corporate citizenship, then it’s likely that your company is in one of the first few stages of developing a corporate citizenship strategy. If you’re ready to begin your journey, consider these jumping-off points:

Re-examine your core values. Consider your core values and how they might be hindering your ability to become a great corporate citizen. Brainstorm ways to adjust your core values to support your dedication to corporate citizenship. For example, you might choose to center the concepts of respect and empathy toward employees, customers, and the greater community.
Prioritize ethics and sustainability. Implementing ethical and sustainable business practices may require operational changes at your company. However, making those changes will show other organizations and customers that you’re prioritizing corporate citizenship. Consider how your organization can reduce waste, conserve resources, and even support eco-friendly projects.
Embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Many businesses face criticism for what is perceived as performative social corporate citizenship, especially surrounding the topic of DEI. Although you may be just beginning your journey to becoming a better corporate citizen, seriously consider the way DEI plays into your business. Examine your hiring practices, create inclusive policies, and invest in training to ensure that you’re up to date with the best DEI practices.
Engage in corporate philanthropy. Part of becoming a better corporate citizen is giving back to the community. Through corporate philanthropy initiatives such as workplace giving campaigns, sponsorships, volunteer grants, or matching gifts, your business can contribute to the success of nonprofits in your community.

As you develop programs and make changes to become a better corporate citizen, share them with stakeholders and your customer base. Inform them of your intention to focus on corporate citizenship and ask them if they have any feedback for your company. By doing so, you’ll not only be including your community in the discussion, but you’ll also be crowdsourcing suggestions and getting a read on how your organization is perceived from the outside.

Examples of Corporate Citizenship

To help you understand how you can center corporate citizenship in your organization, here are a few examples of organizations with great corporate citizenship programs:

Microsoft. Microsoft has committed to four key areas where technology can benefit humanity and our planet. They’re determined to support inclusive economic growth, protect fundamental human rights, create a sustainable future, and earn the trust of their customers. Since 2017, they’ve helped over 50 million people in rural communities gain access to affordable broadband. Plus, in 2022, they trained over 4.5 million people in digital skills and connected them to opportunities in the digital economy.
Lego. As a toy manufacturer, Lego’s greatest step toward corporate citizenship is committing to fostering a healthy planet through sustainability. Since 2014, they have been a partner of the World Wildlife Fund. They’ve committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, reducing manufacturing waste, and using renewable energy in their manufacturing process.
Ben and Jerry’s. This ice cream company’s mission is to meet human needs and eliminate injustices in local, national, and international communities. They integrate these concerns into their day-to-day business activities by focusing on supplier diversity, sharing responsibility with other businesses, and ensuring all farmers in their supply chain can thrive. They’ve had a B Corp certification since 2012, demonstrating their commitment to being a great company for the world.

Becoming a good corporate citizen requires you to go above and beyond compliance on social and environmental matters. While that may seem overwhelming to an organization that’s just starting, keep in mind that it’s extremely difficult to jump straight to the transforming stage from the elementary stage of corporate citizenship. Start small and slowly grow your efforts to become a leader in the corporate citizenship space.

Additional Resources

Being a good corporate citizen comes with many benefits for your business, but above all, it allows your organization to be a responsible member of society. As you begin making adjustments to focus on corporate citizenship, don’t be afraid of making large operational changes. By doing so, you’ll better engage your employees, enhance your reputation, and make a greater difference in your community.

If you’re interested in more resources about corporate citizenship, check out the ones below:

Top Trends in Corporate Philanthropy for 2023: How to Tap In. Prioritizing corporate philanthropy supports your corporate citizenship goals. This guide covers the top trends and how you can leverage them.
Corporate Volunteer Grants: The Basics & How to Secure Them. — With volunteer grants, you can give back to the community by encouraging your employees to volunteer with local nonprofits. Learn more about volunteer grants here.
How to Advocate for a Matching Gift Program to Your Employer. — If you want to see your company prioritize corporate citizenship, you can start by advocating for a matching gift program to your employer. This is a low-stakes way of getting them involved in corporate philanthropy.

Explore this ultimate guide to employee engagement.

From Disengaged to Inspired: A Guide to Employee Engagement

September 29, 2023/in Learning Center, Corporate Consulting /by Adam Weinger

As a company, managing employee expectations and productivity can be a challenge. You want to keep them feeling satisfied and fulfilled in their work, but how exactly do you accomplish that?

In this guide, we’ll explore the key principles and strategies for sustaining employee engagement. Specifically, we’ll cover:

The Basics of Employee Engagement
5 Ideas for Effective Employee Engagement
Measuring Employee Engagement

Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to amplify your existing employee engagement initiatives, these insights will help you create an environment where employees feel valued, motivated, and fully invested in their work.

The Basics of Employee Engagement

Before you attempt to engage your employees, ensure that you have foundational knowledge to guide your strategies.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement refers to the commitment that employees have to their work, team, and organization. It is a measure of how motivated employees are to go to work each day and how passionate they are about contributing to the success of the company.

Why is employee engagement important?

Recent workplace statistics prove that engaged employees are invested in their work, leading to higher levels of innovation, better customer service, and increased job performance. They are also less likely to leave your company, reducing turnover and the associated recruitment and training costs.

Take a look at these combined polls that indicate the good, the bad, and the ugly as they relate to employee engagement:

To summarize, 77% of employees believe a strong workplace culture allows them to do their best work. Companies that commit to creating a strong culture see 59% less turnover and a 23% increase in profitability.

However, an overwhelming 85% of employees admit to not being engaged at work, and only 22% of companies know what’s driving their disengagement, which can be detrimental as disengaged employees cost their organizations upwards of $605 billion dollars a year.

Who should be in charge of employee engagement?

Employee engagement is a collective responsibility that involves multiple stakeholders within an organization. While there may not be a single individual solely in charge of employee engagement, the HR department often plays a central role. HR professionals can develop programs aimed at increasing engagement—such as training, recognition, and feedback mechanisms—and monitor the success of these initiatives through surveys.

Managers also have a significant influence on employee engagement, as they directly interact with their teams and can motivate, mentor, and provide suggestions for growth opportunities. Therefore, it’s crucial for organizations to foster a shared responsibility for engagement, where everyone contributes to creating a positive and engaging workplace culture.

5 Effective Employee Engagement Ideas

Now that you have a basic understanding of what employee engagement is and why it’s important, you can begin implementing strategies to engage, retain, and empower your workforce.

1. Encourage Corporate Giving

Most people take pride in working for socially responsible organizations. If you haven’t already, create a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program that emphasizes your commitment to ethical, social, and environmental justice.

CSR activities often involve collaboration and teamwork, whether it’s choosing a charitable cause to support or volunteering as a group. These experiences can strengthen team bonds and foster a sense of community among employees, leading to improved working relationships and a more engaged workforce.

Consider kickstarting your CSR program with the following initiatives:

Matching gift programs

When employees see that you value their charitable efforts, they are more likely to take pride in being part of your organization. One of the easiest ways to support your organization’s philanthropic endeavors is through matching gifts. Under a matching gift program, you agree to match an employee’s donation with an equal or predetermined percentage of their own funds.

Traditionally, employees participating in a matching gift program have to go through a multi-step process to submit their contributions. First, they will navigate to the company’s matching gift management portal and search for the recipient organization by entering details like its name, mailing address, and tax ID number. Once the correct listing was found, they are prompted to provide information about their donation, including payment type, amount, currency, and date, and possibly upload a copy of their donation receipt.

While developing your matching gift program, your company should try to eliminate as many barriers to participation as possible. This can be accomplished through auto-submission. Auto-submission functionality is a trailblazing initiative, recently released from beta, made available through Double the Donation and its CSR platform partners—including Millie, Selflessly, POINT, and more.

When a company leverages one of these corporate giving solutions to facilitate its matching gift program, all employees have to do is provide their corporate email address (or another piece of identifying information), and the software will take care of the rest, encouraging more employees to engage in your corporate giving initiatives.

Learn More About Matching Gift Auto-Submission

Volunteer grants

Promote community service opportunities by allowing employees to participate during work hours or providing paid time off for volunteer work. You can also encourage volunteering by offering volunteer grants, which provide funds to the nonprofits your employees volunteer at. This type of initiative not only benefits the community but also fosters teamwork among employees.

Aim for long-term, sustainable volunteer programs rather than one-time engagements. Ongoing initiatives will make a more significant impact on your community and employees.

2. Promote Professional Development

Employees are more likely to feel engaged when they see a clear path forward within your organization. Create opportunities to sharpen their skills, knowledge, and career development through:

Training: In addition to initial onboarding and orientation, offer ongoing training programs that focus on both job-specific skills and soft skills like communication, leadership, and problem-solving. Use a mix of training methods, including in-person workshops and online courses, to accommodate various learning styles.
Advancement: Encourage employees to create Individual Development Plans (IDPs) that outline their career goals. Managers should review IDPs with employees during one-on-one meetings and provide guidance on the skills and experience needed for advancement in different roles or departments.
Mentorship: Implement mentorship or coaching programs where experienced employees can guide and support those looking to advance their careers. These programs can provide valuable insights and networking opportunities for employees.
Continued education: Offer financial assistance or time off for employees pursuing additional education or certifications related to their roles. Create partnerships with educational institutions or online learning platforms to make learning resources more accessible to employees.

Professional development is an investment in your company’s human capital. Allocate the necessary resources, including budget, time, and personnel, to develop and deliver effective programs.

3. Get Creative With Recognition

Chances are your business already has employee recognition practices in place. For instance, you might offer performance bonuses, public praise, and awards like “Employee of the Month.” While these methods can be effective in engaging employees, they may feel unappreciated if recognition feels routine and uninspired.

Switching things up with an innovative solution like eCards keeps recognition fresh and exciting. Digital thank-you notes can be shared quickly through email, making them a popular choice for instant recognition.

Here’s how it works:

Choose an eCard creation platform with employee recognition capabilities. It should also offer a variety of templates, customization options, and scheduling features.
Select an appropriate eCard template that matches the occasion or purpose of recognition, whether it’s for a birthday, work anniversary, outstanding performance, or another event.
Personalize the eCard by adding the recipient’s name, a heartfelt message, and any relevant images, graphics, or logos. Consider tailoring the message to highlight the specific reason for recognition, such as a recent achievement or milestone.
Choose the delivery date and method. You can send the eCard immediately or schedule it for a future date, depending on your preferences and the timing of the recognition event.

For more information on how eCards can boost employee engagement, watch this video:

4. Promote Work-Life Balance

Promoting work-life balance is essential for engaging employees and fostering a healthier, more productive workplace. Set reasonable working hours and encourage employees to disconnect from work when they are off the clock.

Keep in mind that a culture of work-life balance should be cultivated from the top down. Leaders and managers should model this balance by respecting employees’ time and encouraging them to prioritize self-care. Encourage employees to take regular breaks and vacations, setting realistic expectations for response times to emails or work requests outside of regular hours.

By demonstrating a commitment to work-life balance and providing the necessary support, you can create an environment where employees feel engaged in their roles and fulfilled in their personal lives.

5. Foster an Inclusive Work Environment

Inclusive workplaces foster a sense of belonging among employees, regardless of their background, gender, race, sexual orientation, or other characteristics. When employees feel like they belong, they are more likely to be engaged because they are comfortable being themselves and contributing their unique perspectives.

Here are a few ways to promote a positive and inclusive workspace:

Implement inclusive hiring practices that consider candidates from various backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Ensure that job postings and interview panels are free from bias.
Establish policies that prohibit discrimination and harassment in all forms, including that based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and age.
Foster a culture of open and transparent communication where employees feel comfortable expressing their thoughts, concerns, and ideas without fear of retribution.

Creating a positive and inclusive work environment is an ongoing process that requires commitment from all levels of the organization. It’s essential to continually assess and refine your efforts, seek feedback from employees, and adapt to evolving best practices in diversity and inclusion to create a thriving workplace for everyone.

Looking for even more ideas? Check out our list of 50+ employee engagement ideas!

How to Measure Employee Engagement

After launching your engagement initiatives, analyze turnover rates, absenteeism, and performance metrics to determine their effectiveness. Additionally, send out surveys and have one-on-one discussions with employees to gauge their level of commitment to your organization.

Based on their feedback, employees can be grouped into three levels:

Engaged: Engaged employees are highly committed, enthusiastic, and invested in their work and the organization. They take pride in their roles, often go above and beyond job expectations, and are motivated to contribute to the company’s success.
Not engaged: These employees often do the minimum required to fulfill their responsibilities and may not actively seek opportunities for improvement or growth. They can become disengaged if their needs and interests are not addressed.
Actively disengaged: Disengaged employees are disconnected from their work and your organization. They are typically less productive and will eventually leave the organization if their concerns are not addressed.

Identify and take measures to re-engage disengaged employees to prevent further decline in morale and performance.

A Final Note About Employee Engagement

Remember, employee engagement is not a one-time initiative. It’s a continuous journey that requires commitment, dedication, and a genuine desire to create a workplace where employees feel inspired to do their best.

For more information on employee engagement, check out these additional resources:

Why Workplace Giving Matters for Nonprofits + Companies. Looking to learn more about workplace giving programs? Check out our guide!
A Full Guide to Employee Engagement Tools + 20 Top Picks. Ready to engage your employees? Learn which tools to leverage in this guide.
Increase Employee Engagement With Corporate Giving. Corporate giving programs do a lot to increase employee engagement. Learn how in this guide.

This article discusses the importance of employee engagement and lists twenty tools your organization can use.

A Full Guide to Employee Engagement Tools + 20 Top Picks

May 26, 2023/in Corporate Consulting /by Adam Weinger

What comes to mind when you think about employee engagement? Excitement, enthusiasm, maybe meaningful team collaboration? All of those elements are the results of an effective engagement program. And they all contribute to an improved workplace culture where people not only have to work but enjoy doing so.

Employee engagement may make sense in theory, but how should your organization cultivate it on a daily basis? In this guide, we’ll explore the basics of employee engagement for your company and discuss 20 tools your organization can use to foster a positive work environment.

Employee Engagement Tool

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eCardWidget	Creative peer-to-peer recognition	Explore eCardWidget
Kudos	Gamification elements	Explore Kudos
Limeade Listening	Data filters and insights	Explore Limeade Listening
Reward Gateway	Immediate and trackable recognition	Explore Reward Gateway
Goody	Practical and meaningful gifts	Explore Goody
WorkTango	Customizable recognition option	Explore WorkTango
Motivosity	Automated gift card inventories and balances	Explore Motivosity
Awardco	Service to over 100 countries	Explore Awardco
Mo	Customizable habit tracking	Explore Mo
Bonusly	Monthly reward allowance	Explore Bonusly

Qualtrics CoreXM	Performance management tool	Explore Qualtrics CoreXM
Culture Amp	Custom driver analysis view	Explore Culture Amp
Officevibe	Custom polling option	Explore Officevibe
15Five	Scalability	Explore 15Five
Reflektive	List of company goals	Explore Reflektive
Monday.com	Automation tools	Explore Monday.com
Slack	Collaborative file and document sharing	Explore Slack
GoogleMeet	Video conferencing	Explore GoogleMeet
Asana	Progress visualization tools	Explore Asana
ClickUp	Virtual networking spaces	Explore ClickUp

Why Does Employee Engagement Matter?

Your organization is most likely juggling a lot of different tasks—you have performance metrics to hit, clients to impress, and meetings to manage. That said, should employee engagement really be a priority? Recent statistics definitely suggest so.

Here are some combined polls that provide insights into employee engagement, including the good, the bad, and the ugly:

The Good

Highly engaged businesses achieve 59% less turnover.
77% of employees agree a strong culture allows them to do their best work.
Highly engaged employees result in a 23% increase in profitability.

The Bad

85% of employees are not engaged at work.
Only 22% of companies know what’s driving their employee disengagement.

The Ugly

Actively disengaged employees cost their organizations $483 to $605 billion per year.

As you can see, employee engagement can make or break a workplace in more ways than one. If your employees aren’t motivated and engaged, at best, you’re not efficiently achieving your goals, and at worst, you’re wasting resources.

On the other hand, engaged employees can be the secret weapon that lets your organization hit more performance benchmarks at a faster rate. They also stay at your organization longer and do their best work every day. So, how can you prioritize employee engagement? By leveraging dedicated employee engagement tools!

How Can We Boost Employee Engagement?

While every organization is different, there are some tried-and-true techniques that you can implement to energize and motivate your employees, including:

Listening and responding to employee feedback. Encouraging employees to provide feedback on your company culture and business practices allows you to tailor your workplace for employee satisfaction. Of course, you don’t need to implement all recommended changes, but simply acknowledging your employees’ ideas demonstrates that you value their input.
Giving employee recognition awards. Both formal and informal recognition initiatives are crucial to making employees feel accomplished and inspiring them to achieve their goals. You could implement a Bravo system where peers can recognize each other for outstanding work and highlight strengths that management might have missed. Or, you could deem a team member Employee of the Month, complete with a plaque and a gift card.
Offering employee wellness initiatives. According to Gallup, healthier employees are more engaged employees, and vice versa. Your organization can cultivate a healthy company culture by actively facilitating wellness initiatives. For example, you could hold a steps contest where the employee who walks the most in a month gets a prize. Additionally, you could offer time off for mental health days and respect work-life boundaries.
Providing competitive compensation and benefits. While fair compensation is crucial, you should consider how your other benefits contribute to employee engagement. Consider offering benefits such as flex work, PTO, corporate giving, health insurance, bonuses, continued education, and upward mobility to boost employee satisfaction.
Engaging in team-building activities. Tackling team activities outside of work helps your employees work better in-office. For instance, volunteer outings are a great way to strengthen teamwork across your organization. Also, embarking on company retreats is helpful for giving employees a change of scenery while still honing their professional skills.
Establishing a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. Employees want to know that they’re working for companies that support the greater good. When you establish a CSR program, you demonstrate that your business cares about the same causes as its employees and wants to make the world a better place. As a result, employees will feel more empowered to continue working at a company that does more than just provide a product or service. Common initiatives in CSR programs include matching gifts and volunteer grants, both of which involve companies donating to the nonprofits their employees care about.

Now that you have some ideas for improving your organization’s employee engagement, let’s review some of the software solutions that can help you make it happen.

What is an Employee Engagement Tool?

Employee engagement tools are software applications that a company uses to increase internal communication and boost employee satisfaction. There are a wide variety of tools available and choosing the right one will depend on your organization’s needs. For instance, a company that wants to streamline its project management process between separate departments might look at an engagement tool like Asana. Or, an organization looking to track employee productivity more effectively may invest in a timesheet software solution.

Usually, human resources departments take the lead when introducing employee engagement tools and recognition platforms. Eventually, if the platforms succeed at providing engagement value to your organization, they’ll become a part of your new employee onboarding materials and day-to-day workflow.

Employee Engagement Tool Benefits

What can you expect from an employee engagement tool? Depending on which provider you go with, the benefits will vary. However, here are a few common advantages:

Enhanced teamwork and collaboration. Employee engagement tools open the door for more productive team projects and simplified collaboration.
Increased employee retention. Part of employee engagement is employee satisfaction, and a useful tool will add value to your company’s work experience.
Stronger company culture. Engagement tools open lines of communication and can help reinforce company values leading to a stronger, more vibrant company culture.
Increased productivity. With the right tools, your company can break down silos and work together more efficiently.
Improved feedback and communication. Using employee engagement tools to recognize and reward employees can make them feel more valued. Additionally, employees can offer and receive more useful and recent feedback.

To help you discover which employee engagement tool is right for your company, we’ve broken down our top picks based on employee recognition, feedback, and internal communication. You can adopt one of these tools or several at a time depending on your budget and needs. Remember that as your team expands, you’ll also need a scalable tool to keep new and existing employees engaged.

Top Employee Engagement Tool: CSR Software

One of the best ways to engage employees is to develop a CSR program that highlights your company’s values and gives back to the causes your employees care about. For example, your hiking supplies business may focus on helping organizations that encourage sustainability and protect wildlife. When employees see their company making a positive difference in the world, they’ll be more motivated to stay at the company long-term.

Corporate social responsibility programs can have a lot of moving parts. Here are just a few examples of initiatives your program may include:

Matching gifts. Matching gifts occur when companies match the donations their employees make to nonprofits. Typically, employees donate and fill out a matching gift request form to notify their employer. Then, the company contributes to the nonprofit, helping the organization boost its donation revenue.
Volunteer grants. Volunteer grants function similarly to matching gifts, except instead of donating based on employee donations, companies donate based on employee volunteer hours. Employees can track their volunteer hours with their nonprofit of choice and fill out a volunteer grant request so their employer can contribute.
Fundraising matches. Let’s say an employee participates in a walk-a-thon and collects pledges based on the number of miles they intend to walk. Companies that offer fundraising matches would match the amount the employee raises and contribute it to the same cause.
Automatic payroll deductions. To make it easy for employees to get involved in your CSR program, offer automatic payroll deductions. That way, employees can contribute to their favorite causes each month without having to manually navigate to nonprofit donation pages.
Learn more about how CSR impacts businesses!

You may be wondering how your company can juggle all of these components to properly engage employees. The answer is CSR software.

CSR software is specifically designed to help companies manage their CSR programs. With all the forms and information associated with your program in one place, you can keep track of all relevant data and make it easy for employees to get involved. Check out the CSR program elements that software can help you organize:

Employee donations
Automatic payroll deductions
Matching gift requests
Volunteer hour logs
Volunteer grant requests
Team volunteer opportunities
Company CSR metrics

The best CSR platforms go one step further in increasing employee engagement by integrating with nonprofit-facing tools. On the nonprofit side, many organizations use matching gift software to streamline matching gift requests, and some software providers even offer auto-submission functionality that submits matching gift request forms on the donors’ behalf. Look for CSR software that integrates with auto-submission tools to increase program participation and employee engagement.

Employee Engagement Tools for Employee Recognition

Annual or even biannual performance reviews are not enough to keep your employees active and engaged. They benefit from continuous feedback both from managers and peers. Managerial recognition helps directs know that they’re on target and keeps them motivated to keep going. Peer recognition boosts camaraderie and reinforces teamwork.

Additionally, employee recognition extends to celebrating milestones and anniversaries. If your employee has been working productively for five years, for instance, you can use an engagement tool to publicly applaud their impressive performance.

1. eCardWidget

eCardWidget is a powerful digital retention tool built to prove to employees that they are more than just a number. These digital eCards are easy to make, send, and receive, making it easy for businesses to fold into their existing employee recognition programs. To start your engagement campaign, simply add your custom company branding, sort by company value (or any other internal goal), and draft a quick recognition note! Check out this video to learn more about how it works:

What we love about eCardWidget

eCardWidget is the perfect peer-to-peer eCard site that lets employees share good news and quickly celebrate one another for their accomplishments.
They have extensive experience as they have helped over 3500 organizations retain top talent and create a welcoming environment.
This tool works on all major platforms and seamlessly plugs into any website or intranet, making it easy to add to your internal company portal.

eCardWidget stands out because it’s extremely easy and enjoyable to use. With the ability to customize eCards using different fonts, colors, and images, you can personalize your recognition efforts and invite employees to use their creativity.

Additionally, eCardWidget provides insights into which employees are sending and receiving eCards. That way, you can gauge which of your employees are contributing to your internal company culture and which are being commended most often by their peers. You may want to recognize these employees more formally for improving the workplace environment.

Pricing: eCardWidget includes free options to Enterprise Options ($200) to best fit your team’s size and internal engagement goals. See the pricing page for more information.

2. Kudos

Kudos is another workplace peer-to-peer recognition tool that provides actionable insights into employee performance and culture. You can also use Kudos to create rewards that reflect your company’s goals, values, and overall culture. That way, employees can feel motivated and acknowledged for their hard work.

What we love about Kudos

- Kudos easily integrates with apps your team might already be using like Slack, Mircosoft Outlook, and Teams, so you don’t have to spend time learning a whole new platform.
- Kudos uses fun gamification elements like badges, points, and rewards and can win real prizes like gift cards or even AirPods.
- With anonymous monthly, Sentiment Surveys, your organization can get a feel for overall employee morale and make critical adjustments.

Pricing: Visit Kudos’ website and talk to their sales representatives for more pricing information.

3. Limeade Listening

Formally known as TinyPulse, Limeade Listening is a solution for enhanced listening, 1:1 coaching, and employee recognition. This data-backed tool provides opportunities for employees to provide regular, transparent feedback so that they can show up to work as their best selves every day.

What we love about Limeade Listening

You can easily discover and recognize your company’s cultural leaders with management-driven and cross-departmental recognition.
Limeade Listening lets you use data filters and insights to identify and reward those producing outstanding work.
Their tools help managers visualize problem areas and help facilitate regular one-on-one conversations.

Pricing: Visit the Limeade Listening contact page for more information or to book a demo.

4. Reward Gateway

Reward Gateway offers a tailored employee reward and recognition program that supports everyone. You can use their platform to quickly celebrate daily success through automation and endless redemption options. Their branded mobile app can even let you celebrate other employees on the go!

What we love about Reward Gateway

Reward Gateway offers on-the-spot rewards so managers can send immediate and trackable recognition that never lets good work go unnoticed.
With digital or in-person delivery, the sender can decide which method works best for their schedules and will make the recipient feel most valued.
Reward Gateway also offers employee wellness support content to support your company’s physical, mental, and financial goals.

Pricing: Browse Reward Gateway’s website and schedule a demo to find a pricing solution that suits your team.

5. Goody

Goody is an all-in-one platform for business gifting with no address needed. This simple solution lets recipients provide their shipping information once they accept your gift or they can easily swap it for something else if needed. Plus, with their regularly updated gift collections, you can choose from a selection of best-sellers or trending products.

What we love about Goody

Goody’s promise to provide “no tacky corporate gifts. Ever.” makes their gift selection unique and full of practical and meaningful gifts you can easily tailor to suit employee preferences.
With the ability to send gifts and gift cards to 140+ countries worldwide, Goody makes it easy to recognize global employees.
Goody also lets you access gift receipts, status updates, and thank-you notes in one platform so you can check and update your records accordingly.

Pricing: Goody’s plans vary from a free Starter Plan, a $20 Monthly Plan, or a customizable Team Plan for HR, Sales, and Marketing Teams.

6. WorkTango

WorkTango’s holistic employee recognition and rewards, employee surveys and insights, and goals platform provide an effective employee experience. Its recognition and rewards experience amplifies key organizational values and can help your organization foster connections across hybrid and in-person teams.

What we love about WorkTango

Worktango offers a customizable recognition option that your team can tailor to peer-to-peer, top-down, or bottom-up recognition initiatives.
You create and schedule custom nominations and rewards that reflect your company’s values and are budgeted within a single location.
Your team can use the metrics dashboards to identify key influencers and keep a pulse on culture with real-time analytics.

Pricing: Schedule a demo with the WorkTango team to learn more and see how their solution fits into your company’s budget.

7. Motivosity

Motivosity is a workplace solution built to help your team understand every stage of the employee journey. From recruitment to hiring to engagement and development, Motivosity helps your team understand your each of your employee’s career goals and make measurable progress by providing a meaningful growth path. Its employee rewards and recognition add-on helps your team make consistent employee appreciation a reality.

What we love about Motivosity

Motivosity’s automated gift card inventories and balances let your team participate in how employees are rewarded without having to keep track of bookkeeping.
Your team can automate company-wide initiatives with custom awards and badges like employee of the month.
Motivosity lets you easily implement spot recognitions for employee birthdays, milestones, and anniversaries.

Pricing: Contact Motivosity to get a pricing quote based on your team’s size and engagement needs. They promise to offer a 6-month money-back guarantee.

8. Awardco

Awardco is an employee recognition platform that promises to offer millions of employee rewards with free shipping and zero markups. This recognition solution has partnered with Amazon Business to make rewarding effective and easy for both the sender and recipient. That means that your company can feel good about gifting your employees something that they actually love.

What we love about Awardco

Because of Awardco’s partnership with Amazon, they can offer service to over 100 countries with reliable delivery.
Awardco’s custom, meaningful rewards catalogs let your company curate the perfect rewards selections for your specific employees.
Integration with Slack and Microsoft Teams means sending support, recognition, and encouragement does not take extra time or effort.

Pricing: Book a time with Awardco’s sales team to schedule a demo and discover a pricing quote for your company.

9. Mo

Mo’s platform is built to improve retention, increase engagement, and boost productivity. Their software can help your company “drive change faster” with a long feature list from employee engagement and rewards and recognition to communication and insights. Specifically, Mo’s employee recognition can help your team create sustainable engagement habits and celebrate meaningful moments.

What we love about Mo

Mo incorporates automated Boosts to nudge teams to share and celebrate moments that align with your goals and reinforce positive habits.
With customizable habit tracking, Mo empowers leaders to create habits built for their specific teams using readymade templates.
This tool offers access to a variety of gift cards from popular brands to reward employees. Budget controls and assistant distribution also keep teams in line with budget constraints.

Pricing: Mo provides a $3 Monthly Starter Plan, a $5 Level Up Plan, or a Custom Plan with advanced security and advanced customer support.

10. Bonusly

Bonusly provides a streamlined, all-in-one engagement platform that fosters candid, social, and expressive recognition. The platform’s global catalog lets you select gift cards from popular brands like Nike, Apple, and Starbucks. You can also display digital signage showing recent bonuses in your workspace.

What we love about Bonusly

Bonusly’s organized monthly allowance gives employees the chance to give each other small bonuses to recognize their peer’s contributions.
The platform’s public feed lets everyone see and celebrate employee wins in real time.
With custom rewards, your company can tailor rewards to your company’s atmosphere from selecting memberships to gifting athletics shoes or even adding a personal recognition note from the CEO.

Pricing: Bonusly offers $2.70 monthly Core, $4.50 monthly Pro, and Custom Plans for mid-size to large organizations.

Employee Engagement Tools for Feedback

Employees want to know what they’re doing well and where they can improve on a regular basis. And with 36.2 million Americans working remotely, it’s a must to keep this feedback loop open and accessible. Additionally, incorporating reliable feedback is a way to safeguard against quiet quitting or the common practice of employees leaving unexpectedly. Providing consistent and reliable feedback is the perfect way to mitigate that risk while nurturing positive and candid relationships with managers and directs.

Feedback-based employee engagement tools can help your organization cultivate a rhythm of regular feedback that can put both managers and employees at ease. Browse through our top picks to find a platform that best fits your company’s reporting and communication needs.

11. Qualtrics CoreXM

A leader within the employee feedback space, Qualitrics offers three suites to create exceptional customer frontlines, high-performing teams, and products. Qualtrics Core XM, or teams-based performance management, has scalable goal-setting functionalities with automated pulsing for regular feedback.

What we love about Qualtrics CoreXM

Qualitric CoreXM provides a useful tool that can help your team predict future satisfaction rates and adjust current processes accordingly.
This performance management tool can be tailored to every point along the employee journey from onboarding to development and exit.
The end-to-end 360 Development tool makes it simple to analyze feedback and construct a personalized development program for every employee.

Pricing: Contact the Qualtrics CoreXM support team or request a demo to find the right Qualtrics solution for your organization.

12. Culture Amp

Culture Amp’s employee engagement platform can help your organization build high-performing teams through an agile, trusted review process. Managers can review data based on the lifecycle stage of their employees, by demographics, or by time frame with customizable views. This tool is built to foster growth conversations for individual employees, teams, and whole companies wanting a culturally aligned performance process.

What we love about Culture Amp

You can access a custom “driver analysis” view to understand which employees are key contributors to office morale and engagement.
Account managers can set up specific surveys for teams to which only a designated manager has access to view the responses.
Culture Amp’s Skills Coach integrations with Slack, Email, and Teams make it simple to send daily micro-learnings for your team to develop new skills and foster positive habits.

Pricing: Culture Amp divides its pricing options between company sizes, from 25 to 1,000+ employees, so your organization can choose platform capabilities that align with your goals.

13. Officevibe

Officevibe is an intuitive platform that places managers at the center of their team’s success. Trusted by over 8,000 companies worldwide, Officevibe provides impactful performance and development tools that can be tailored to your team’s needs. Performance reviews, continuous performance monitoring, one-on-one meetings, and OKRs, and goal setting can be accessed and tracked in one place.

What we love about Officevibe

Officevibe gathers insights to identify both dissatisfaction sources and opportunities for increased efficiency, so your team can access a holistic view.
This tool offers a custom polling option to help you understand your team’s perspectives on current projects.
Your team can set weekly automated surveys to individual team members and package the results into a shareable report for the whole organization.

Pricing: Officevibe’s pricing ranges from a free package to a $5 per month package that can be billed annually or monthly.

14. 15Five

15Five is a performance management tool that provides simple and effective reviews for your team to maximize productivity. This tool specializes in actionable engagement surveys that employees actually want to complete and managers can easily understand. These surveys take only 6 minutes and can be completed from anywhere, making engagement as easy as possible.

What we love about 15Five

Managers can customize their survey questions using 15Five’s list of valuable prompts so that they can get specific answers to their most crucial questions.
Managers can also set different viewers for each employee, so the right eyes are recording employee responses.
15Five provides a scalable solution that enables managers to create groups related to achieving team-wide and company-wide goals.

Pricing: 15Five offers four pricing options which range from $4 per month to $14 per month depending on your company’s platform needs.

15. Reflektive

Reflective’s performance management platform helps companies scale constructive and ongoing conversations to increase employee satisfaction. This platform includes solutions for 1:1 conversations, reviews and check-ins, and feedback cadences. That way, high performers can get their voices heard and receive actionable development insights.

What we love about Reflektive

Managers can easily conduct yearly, quarterly, or monthly performance reviews through the platform.
Employees can add peer feedback within the platform in addition to top-down feedback through manager-controlled morale polls.
Reflektive includes a handy feature that lists out your company’s organizational goals and team goals so directs can always reference what they are working towards.

Pricing: Talk with the Reflektive sales team to schedule a performance management consultation and discuss your company’s engagement goals.

Employee Engagement Tools for Internal Communication and Project Management

With more and more projects to manage, employees to onboard, and growth goals to hit, the need for highly efficient internal communication has dramatically increased. Additionally, with every new communication touchpoint, your company needs a project management solution that grows with you. To find a technical solution that streamlines your team and your work, you’ll need to research the top players. To help you get started, we’ve drafted our top picks:

16. Monday.com

Monday.com is a well-known engagement tool to boost your team’s alignment, efficiency, and productivity. This highly customizable platform can be tailored to suit creative and design, software development, marketing, project management, sales and CRM, task management, HR, and so much more.

What we love about Monday.com

Monday.com provides customizable views that allow individual team members, teams, and administrators to select a view that’s most optimal for them.
The platform includes convenient automation features that notify team members when they need to complete flagged tasks.
Monday.com’s campaigns dashboards, status tracker, monthly planning, date column, and a slack plugin can help your team keep tabs on every project’s status.

Pricing: Monday.com’s pricing ranges from a free to a $16 seat per month Pro Package to a deluxe Enterprise Package for larger teams.

17. Slack

Slack is a channel-based communication tool with organized systems built to connect your teams across departments, offices, and time zones. This tool also allows you to build your own workflows enabling you to switch between fewer tabs during your routine tasks. Plus, with Slack’s immediate and straightforward internal communication systems, your team can enjoy sending and receiving fewer emails.

What we love about Slack

Slack offers chat, audio, and video clips so your team can easily hop on a huddle or talk things out live.
Slack’s easy-to-use communication channels result in fewer meetings and faster team progress.
This communication tool has collaborative file and document sharing so that your team can seamlessly tell and show your work.

Pricing: Depending on your organization’s needs, you can select a Free Package or an Enterprise Grid Package for large-scale team collaboration.

18. GoogleMeet

GoogleMeet offers comprehensive video conferencing services ideal for remote, hybrid, and global employees. The video conferencing tools let individuals using different devices and screens connect from anywhere with a stable internet connection. Businesses can use GoogleMeet to conduct meetings with up to 500 internal or external participants.

What we love about GoogleMeet

Your team can access GoogleMeet from their phone, tablet, or laptop.
Anyone with a Google account can easily set up and access GoogleMeet, making it simpler than ever to attend meetings or hold conferences.
GoogleMeet provides live captioning, meeting host controls, screen sharing, and Google and Microsoft integrations to keep your meeting organized and efficient.

Pricing: GoogleMeet provides a $6 Business Starter Package, a $12 Business Standard Package, and a $18 Business Plus Package all billed monthly.

19. Asana

Asana is an effective platform for cross-functional work. With calendar tools, timeline charts, goal tracking, automation, and workload management, Asana offers a wide range of management and collaboration capabilities. You can also sync tasks across multiple projects, to see work in different contexts without creating duplicates.

What we love about Asana

Asana has Mind Maps, wireframes, and checklists to visualize progress for larger and more involved projects.
The real-time chatting features and task assignments can create clear management workflows and ensure everyone knows which objectives to focus on.
Asana’s time-tracking features and insights give your team an inside look into how your team divides time per project.

Pricing: Asana’s pricing plans range from a Basic free plan to a $24.99 Business Plan that includes advanced integrations with Salesforce, Adobe Creative Cloud, Tableau, and Power BI.

20. ClickUp

ClickUp is a work solution customizable to fit any type of work from personal tasks and team collaboration to company-wide organization. ClickUp’s nonprofit selection is especially useful for tracking funding and calculating budgets in addition to creating and sharing accessible volunteer schedules. ClickUp’s variety of project management, remote work, personal, CRM, and business operations make it really simple to find a solution that works best for your organization.

What we love about ClickUp

ClickUp’s virtual networking spaces make cross-departmental meetings a breeze.
Clickup offers beginner, intermediate, and advanced templates to structure your workflows the way you want.
Within the project management template, your team can create a sprint system that tracks performance with real-time reporting metrics.

Pricing: ClickUp’s pricing provides a Free Package that’s best for personal use along with four other pricing packages that range from $5 monthly to $19 monthly.

Employee Engagement Tools: Final Thoughts

Choosing the right employee engagement tool can be a powerful way to transform your organization’s recognition, feedback, communication, and project management. These tools help you also solve problems before they arise and maintain employee retention.

Did you enjoy this guide to employee engagement tools? Check out these resources to keep learning:

Top Corporate Giving Software to Drive Employee Engagement – Interested in engaging employees in corporate giving programs? Read this guide to discover a list of the top corporate giving software your company can use to build your corporate giving strategy.
Employee Gifts: A Complete Guide + Top 10 Gifts – Acknowledge and engage your employees with meaningful and practical gifts. Learn the most popular gifts and how your company can support a positive work environment with this ultimate guide.
11 Effective Employee Engagement Strategies for Businesses – Looking for more ways to engage your employees? Check out this list of employee engagement strategies!

This is a basic guide about how you can use corporate giving to increase employee engagement at your company.

Increase Employee Engagement with Corporate Giving

September 2, 2022/in Corporate Consulting, Learning Center /by Adam Weinger

The importance of employee engagement, which is defined as the emotional and functional commitment an employee has to their organization, cannot be overstated. According to Gallup, companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%.

As we discuss in another article, engaged employees are also happier, stay with companies longer, and are more philanthropically minded.

While the benefits are clear, employee engagement is a struggle for most companies, with over 71% of employees reporting that they are not fully engaged.

One effective way your company can increase employee engagement is through corporate giving. When companies offer accessible ways for employees to get involved in philanthropic endeavors, whether that’s through matching gifts, corporate volunteerism, or other forms of nonprofit support, employees will be more likely to participate. This in turn boosts their engagement level.

In this article, we’ll discuss some basics of employee engagement and dive into how you can use corporate giving programs to increase your employees’ engagement. This includes:

Three Key Drivers of Employee Engagement
How Companies Can Increase Employee Engagement
Using Corporate Philanthropy to Increase Employee Engagement
How to Implement or Enhance Your Corporate Giving Program
Conclusion: Why Corporate Giving Programs are a Win-Win for Everyone

Let’s get started.

Three Key Drivers of Employee Engagement

It’s said that employees don’t leave companies; they leave people, and it’s true. Many of the reasons employees claim they aren’t engaged in their company have to do with people.

Let’s take a look at these statistics and the key drivers behind employee engagement:

Employees’ relationships with their direct managers: 80% of employees who were dissatisfied with their direct manager were disengaged.
Employees’ belief in senior leadership: 70% of employees who lack confidence in the abilities of senior leadership are not fully engaged.
Employees’ pride in working for the company: 54% of employees who are proud of their company’s contributions to society are engaged.

Offering corporate giving programs can have a positive impact on all three drivers of engagement. When leadership takes an interest in corporate philanthropy and makes a point to focus on how the company can help the community, employees tend to view this in a positive light.

How Companies Can Increase Employee Engagement

There are many strategies companies can use to increase employee engagement. Dale Carnegie highlights five great reasons to do so, and we’ve added a few ideas that our own research has shown enhances employee engagement:

Senior leadership must articulate a clear vision to all employees. Without a clear goal, employees will not know what they’re working toward.
Employees should be encouraged to openly communicate and influence the company’s vision with their input.
Direct managers should foster healthy relationships with their employees.
Senior leadership should continuously demonstrate that employees have an impact on their work environment.
Managers should show employees that they are valued as true contributors, giving them a sense of empowerment.
Managers should organize and encourage team volunteerism in communities as a way of giving back and encouraging social interaction outside the office.
Companies should give back to local nonprofits. Corporate giving programs, like matching gift programs and volunteer grants, are a great way for corporations to support organizations that employees care about.

Management and senior leadership should take a hands-on approach to encouraging employees to engage with these opportunities at their company. Now that we’ve covered the basics of employee engagement, let’s jump into corporate giving specifically.

Using Corporate Philanthropy to Increase Employee Engagement

Keeping employees engaged and helping the community at the same time seems like a pretty great deal, right? That’s why many companies are investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR) to help improve the communities in which their employees live and work.

One major component of CSR is corporate philanthropy, and within that, there are several corporate giving programs companies can offer. When employees participate in those programs, this enhances their view of the company and gives them an opportunity to help nonprofit organizations that they care about. More and more companies are realizing these benefits, leading to an increasing trend of corporate philanthropy programs being implemented and expanded by businesses across the country.

In order to boost employee engagement, companies can:

Offer matching gift programs. Nearly two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies offer a matching gift program that makes employees’ charitable contributions go twice as far. Matching gift programs help engage employees by showing them that the company not only encourages donating, but takes part in it as well. Employees can feel proud knowing their employer gives back.
Encourage volunteerism. Whether a company offers paid time off for employees to volunteer or encourages employees to team up and participate in fundraising events, employee engagement can skyrocket when volunteerism is part of a company’s philanthropic culture. Allowing employees to band together to better the community helps them feel like the company supports them and will boost their dedication.
Offer volunteer grants. Volunteer grants are donations that companies make to nonprofits after an employee has volunteered for a certain amount of time. Volunteer grants demonstrate a company’s commitment to helping worthy causes and instills a shared sense of philanthropy among employees, boosting engagement and satisfaction.

When companies support the causes their employees care about, this helps strengthen the relationship between not just the company and its employees, but also between the company and the nonprofits they help. All of these effects come together to create a positive reputation for the company, happy employees, and a better community.

How to Implement or Enhance Your Corporate Giving Program

When it comes to corporate giving, managing your program can be overwhelming. After all, if your company offers a matching gift or volunteer grant program, you’ll need to track each employee donation and volunteer hour, as well as the requests that come through for matches or grants.

Corporate giving software for companies is an effective option that many corporations already take advantage of. These solutions allow companies to manage workplace giving, matching gifts, volunteer opportunities, and more.

For example, the right corporate giving solution equips your company to:

Set up and view employee donations, such as automatic payroll deductions.
Review and/or automatically approve matching gift requests.
List volunteer opportunities for employees.
Track employee volunteer hours.
Manage and approve volunteer grant requests.

Whether you’re setting up a new corporate giving program or trying to build on what you already have, corporate giving software can help you get the most out of your program. After all, the easier it is for employees to log in and participate, the more engagement you’ll get in the long run.

If you’re looking to get started with corporate giving or improve and better manage your company’s philanthropic programing, working with a software provider will allow you to incorporate all of the recommendations above and begin seeing real results as soon as possible.

Conclusion: Why Corporate Giving Programs are a Win-Win for Everyone

In summary, there are many benefits of incorporating giving programs like matching gifts, volunteer grants, and volunteerism. These include:

Employees getting to experience an enjoyable and rewarding team-building event.
The corporation giving back to the community.
The corporation’s reputation in the community being enhanced through positive press coverage and other channels.
The nonprofits receiving volunteer support and/or additional funding.

While there are a multitude of ways to increase employee engagement, utilizing corporate giving programs can be one of the most beneficial options for employees, companies, and nonprofits alike.

Additional Employee Engagement & Corporate Giving Resources

If you’re interested in learning more about corporate giving and employee engagement, we’ve compiled some excellent resources for you:

Corporate Giving Programs: The Ultimate Fundraising Guide. Want to learn the basics around corporate giving programs? Check out our ultimate guide!
Corporate Philanthropy: The Ultimate Guide to Giving. Corporate philanthropy is huge these days. Learn more about it with our comprehensive guide.
Employee Engagement: The Essential Guide. If you’re just getting started with employee engagement for your company, we’ve broken it down here!

How to Start a Matching Gift Program [For Companies]

August 3, 2022/in Learning Center, Matching Gift Companies, Corporate Consulting, Learning Center /by Adam Weinger

Thousands of companies host matching gift programs that encourage and amplify employee giving to nonprofit causes. When an individual works for such a company, they are able to make a donation to their favorite charitable organization and request a corporate match as well. This stretches the impact of their initial gift further, allowing them to make a more significant difference with their dollars.

While these types of programs are continuing to grow in popularity among companies and their employees alike, unfortunately, not all businesses offer gift-matching. But it’s not too late to get started!

If you’re a corporate leader looking to find out how to start a matching gift program for your company, you’ve come to the right place. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk through the key actions that, when done right, will enable you to develop an effective matching program for your business. These steps include:

Setting a budget and goals for your donation-matching program.
Identifying matching gift threshold criteria.
Determining eligibility for your matching gift programs.
Deciding how your company will facilitate matching.
Establishing your matching gift request process (and deadline).
Exploring matching gift auto-submission to simplify participation.
Crafting an employee-facing matching gift policy document.
Informing employees about your matching gift initiative.
Ensuring your matching gift program is added to the top matching database.
Collecting data, tracking impact, and making program improvements.

Companies match gifts for a wide range of reasons. These typically encompass business-related benefits such as increased employee engagement, improved reputation, tax deductions, and more⁠. In fact, employees and consumers alike are now more than ever demanding corporate social responsibility from the brands they support.

Studies show that more than 77% of employees reported a sense of purpose as a part of the reason they selected their current employer, while 2/3 of young employees won’t take a job at a company with poor CSR practices, and 55% of employees would even take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company. At the same time, 90% of consumers worldwide are likely to switch to brands supporting good causes, while 66% would pay more to CSR-focused businesses.

However, genuine altruism can be another key driver behind matching gifts and other workplace and corporate philanthropy programs. Corporate leaders know they have the opportunity to make a real difference in the world and utilize their businesses to do so. And launching a matching gift program is a particularly impactful way to go.

Let’s dive in with the first step.

1. Set a budget and goals for your donation-matching program.

Before you can (or should) launch any new corporate initiative, it’s important to begin with your budget and goals. The same is true for matching gifts. These two criteria will guide the rest of your efforts⁠—your budget because it allows you to determine your new program’s limits and goals to help prioritize objectives and establish what success looks like.

When it comes to budget, we recommend setting a figure that is on the higher end of realistic for your business. That is because, although not every employee will choose to partake, you want to be sure you have the funding should you end up with higher participation rates than you’d initially expected.

You’ll also need to determine where this money will come from. Keep in mind that, though some companies reallocate funding for their matching gift programs from an existing philanthropic budget, others opt to establish a match reserve that is above and beyond any prior giving.

Now, for your goals; two of the most common types of objectives that a company might set in terms of matching gift program success have to do with dollars donated or employee participation. For example, you may decide that your goal for the first twelve months of your program is to contribute $X thousand dollars through employee matching gifts. On the other hand, perhaps you set a primary objective to incite X% staff participation in your matching gift program’s foundational year.

For additional context, take a look at the participation rates from several top matching gift companies in the financial, technology, consumer goods, and pharmaceutical industries:

Regardless, either objective structure works; it’s just a matter of ensuring your team is on the same page.

2. Identify matching gift threshold criteria.

Once you have your budget and goals set, it’s time to establish the boundaries of your program. Essentially, this criteria determines the total amount of funding that is available to each employee on an annual basis and should include the following details:

Ratios ⁠— Your matching gift ratio is the rate at which you agree to match employee donations. 1:1 is by far the most common match rate, with 91% of companies match donations doing so at a 1:1 ratio. However, some companies (approximately 4%) choose to match at a lower rate, such as .5:1, while others (5%) match at a higher rate, such as 2, 3, or even 4:1. For context, if an employee were to make a $100 donation, a 1:1 match would involve a $100 corporate gift, while a .5:1 match would result in a $50 match, and a 2:1 ratio would produce a $200 match.
Minimum amounts ⁠— Next is the minimum amount that your company agrees to match. Minimums are typically set in order to ensure employees are requesting corporate funds for the organizations they truly care about and support with their own dollars. Overall, 93% of companies with matching gift programs have a minimum match requirement of less than or equal to $50, with the average falling at $34. However, minimums can be as low as $1, and some companies choose not to set minimum gift amounts in the first place.
Maximum amounts ⁠— On the other end of the spectrum, nearly all companies set maximum match amounts that they’re willing to pay. Maximum caps allow corporations to manage their budgets properly and ensure there is funding available for any eligible employee to participate. Our research shows that 80% of companies’ matching gift maximums fall between $500 and $10,000 annually per employee, the mean amount coming in at $3,728.

Some businesses even vary their guidelines depending on an individual’s employment status or job type. For example, executive-level team members may be eligible for a 2:1 match up to $20,000, while all other employees receive a 1:1 match up to $10,000. In the same vein, you may decide that part-time and retired employees can request a particular amount of match funding, while current full-time staff are eligible for a higher level.

3. Determine eligibility for your matching gift programs.

Beyond monetary amounts, many companies also set specific eligibility criteria regarding the employee types that qualify to request matches, nonprofit mission types that qualify to receive matches, and contribution types that qualify as initial donations. Let’s take a look at each in further detail as you decide which kinds of gifts your company is willing to match:

Employee participants ⁠— Most matching gift programs are divided into eligibility status based on employment with the company offering the program. Typically, any combination of current, full-time, current part-time, and retired employees will qualify to get involved. However, some companies take things a step further by offering program eligibility to spouses and other family members of current and former staff members as well.
Donation types ⁠— By this point, you should have already determined the amounts you’re willing to match per employee in a pre-determined period. Now comes the question of which types of donations are eligible for corporate matching. Nonprofit donations can be made through a wide range of channels, including (but not limited to) an organization’s website, online donation tools, peer-to-peer giving campaigns, text giving, direct mail, recurring donations, phonathons, paycheck deductions, event pledges, stock donations and other gifts of securities, and more.
Nonprofit recipients ⁠— Though many companies will match gifts to any nonprofit organizations, others will choose specific mission types to either focus on or exclude from the matching initiative. For example, churches and other strictly religious organizations are some of the most common exclusions from companies’ matching programs. On the other hand, some companies will choose a specific cause type (often educational institutions) to which they will exclusively direct matching gift funds. Overall, companies typically choose from organizations in categories such as higher educational institutions, K-12 schools, health and human services, arts and cultural organizations, civic and community organizations, environmental organizations, and more.

In order to ensure an optimal employee giving experience, experts recommend providing a large number of choices for employees to give⁠ and to get their gifts matched⁠. Similarly, your company will likely see significantly increased participation levels should you open the program to as many employees and nonprofits as possible.

However, if your company does not have the budget or the bandwidth to introduce a fully-fledged matching gift program, another option to consider would be a custom matching gifts program. What’s the difference? Rather than matching gifts to any or all nonprofit causes, a custom matching gift initiative involves a more direct partnership with a single fundraising organization. From there, a time constraint is typically established (for example, doubling all staff donations to a breast cancer research center made throughout Breast Cancer Awareness Month). You’ll want to encourage employees to support the selected nonprofit during the span of the campaign, then your company will match the total given to make each dollar go farther toward the organization’s mission.

While more limited in scope, custom matching gift programs can be an excellent way to forge mutually beneficial nonprofit-corporate partnerships, rally employees around a particular cause, and gain critical experience in matching gifts. When you see the impact you can make with a custom program, you might even decide to go all in with a traditional matching gift offering!

*While 360MatchPro offers custom matching gift 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.

4. Decide how your company will facilitate matching.

Even after launching your matching gift offering, maintaining an effective program will require some continuous upkeep from company leadership. However, you don’t have to do it all manually if you choose not to.

There are generally two key management methods you can choose from:

In-house program management ⁠— Many companies⁠—particularly small businesses⁠—start by matching gifts on their own. While this can keep program overhead costs low, it will require additional investments of time and effort from corporate management. After employees submit their matching gift requests, there must be a process in place to facilitate the review of employee submissions, verify initial donations meet matching criteria, approve corporate matches, and disburse match funding.
Outsourcing to third-party solution ⁠— The alternative to in-house management is outsourcing aspects of your matching gift program to a third-party solution. Though this path will typically involve paying fees to various software vendors, it ultimately saves your team time, effort, and resources. Working with a matching gift software vendor (we have reviews of several top providers for businesses of all shapes and sizes here) allows your company to take a more hands-off approach to matching gifts while streamlining the processes involved for employee participants.

Either practice works, and many companies find that they begin with an in-house management style but later upgrade with corporate giving technology to elevate their efforts. As you make your decision, keep in mind that CSR is an investment that tends to bring substantial benefits to your business as a whole.

5. Establish your matching gift request process (and deadline).

In order to participate in your newly developed matching gift program, employees need to know how to participate and how long they have after making their initial nonprofit donations to complete the request process. Regarding the latter, most companies set their program participation deadlines according to one of the following schedule approaches:

Number of months following an initial donation ⁠— Most commonly six or twelve months following the date of an employee’s initial donation, this type of matching gift deadline works on a rolling basis. If an employee donated to a nonprofit on a certain day one year, they might qualify to request their match until the same date the following year. Or, they might remain eligible for six, nine, or even eighteen months after their original gift, depending on the company offering the program.
End of the calendar year ⁠— For companies that utilize the calendar year to organize their matching gift programs, it’s simple to determine when a match request is due. Whichever year the initial donation was made, the match must be submitted by December 31st of the same year. This is true regardless of whether the gift was contributed on January 1st or December 1st. However, this can result in employees who give later in the year having significantly less time to submit their matches.
End of the calendar year + grace period ⁠— Similar to the previous type, some companies choose to enact a matching gift deadline based on the end of the calendar year and then add on a grace period. The grace period is typically a few additional months into the next year. This means that an individual’s match request would typically be due by February, March, or April following the year in which the initial donation was made.
End of the fiscal year ⁠— If your company operates on a schedule other than the calendar year, it might make sense for your team to set your matching gift deadline in relation to the end of that year instead. Drawbacks to this method may occur if employees are not aware of the fiscal year the company runs on, so be sure to proactively communicate your deadline to employees if so.

Other common stipulations include that the employee must be gainfully employed by the company at both the time the donation is made and the time the match request is submitted and paid out.

As you craft your submission deadlines, you’ll also want to determine which information you’ll request from employees looking to submit their match requests. Common requirements include the employee’s name, organization name, mailing address, and tax ID number, and donation amount and type. You may also ask for a copy of the individual’s donation receipt, and some companies choose to verify each donation with the organization itself (though that can be a hassle for all parties involved).

You’ll also need to establish and ultimately communicate the way in which employees will go about requesting their matches. If you choose to manage your program with a matching gift software vendor, be sure to direct team members to the company’s online match request portal. If you end up facilitating your program in-house, ensure individuals know how to complete the submission process and have the resources they need to do so.

6. Explore matching gift auto-submission to simplify participation.

When you offer a matching gift program for your employees, you want them to partake. Otherwise, you limit the benefits of the initiative that you’ve invested your time, energy, and resources into developing.

Thus, in order to boost participation in your program, it’s important that you make the process involved in doing so as quick, easy, and painless as possible. And the best way to do so is by enabling matching gift auto-submission!

Auto-submission functionality is a trailblazing initiative made available through Double the Donation and its innovative CSR platform partners—including Millie, Selflessly, POINT, and more.

When a company leverages one of these corporate giving solutions to facilitate its matching gift program, they automatically empower employees to get their gifts matched directly from their favorite nonprofits’ websites. Whereas previously, donors were required to complete a separate request process and provide nonprofit and donor information, all they need to do with auto-submission is provide their corporate email address (or another piece of identifying information).

From there, the software systems process the request seamlessly behind the scenes, reducing roadblocks for employees and resulting in elevated engagement in the programming.

7. Craft an employee-facing matching gift policy document.

Some of the biggest reasons employees fail to participate in their companies’ matching gift programs, even if they make qualifying donations, is that they are unaware of their eligibility or lack understanding of the match request process and, subsequently, end up missing the deadline. Therefore, it’s essential that you take steps to communicate your program’s guidelines and instructions for participation to eligible employees.

One of the easiest and most effective ways to do so is by producing employee-facing documentation with all the information your staff will need to get involved. This should include your company’s match criteria, such as:

Match ratio
Minimum and maximum donation amounts
Qualifying employees and nonprofit causes
Types of donations and submission deadlines
Matching gift request process and links to online forms
Participation in auto-submission

Once you have all the information in one place, it’s easy for employees to determine whether their most recent donations are eligible for matching and take the initiative to participate. Keep in mind that, as you make adjustments to your matching gift program, it’s important to ensure your corporate giving policy documentation is as accurate and up-to-date as possible.

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE MATCHING GIFT POLICY TEMPLATE

8. Inform employees about your matching gift initiative.

Once your program is live, it’s time to begin promoting the opportunity to your employees. This is an essential, though often overlooked, step in the process. In fact, our research shows that despite 26 million individuals working for companies that match gifts, more than 78% of the group has never been made aware of the programs.

Unfortunately, many of those individuals never go to request corporate matches regardless of their eligibility to participate. In the end, that means companies are not reaping the maximum benefit of the programs they worked to establish.

Thus, in order to make the most of your business’ match initiative, it’s imperative that you take the time to ensure your workforce is aware. What this looks like specifically can vary from company to company.

You might:

Send out a team-wide email;
Announce the inception of your program at a meeting;
Add a section to your office policy handbook;
Incorporate matching gifts in your onboarding process going forward;

Or even all of the above.

The bottom line is that your employees should know about the program and be reminded of the opportunity multiple times throughout the year.

9. Ensure your matching gift program is added to the top matching database.

Directly informing your staff about your newly developed matching gift program is critical. Now your team should be aware of the initiative and ready to get involved. But you also want to ensure that employees are reminded of the program opportunities directly after making eligible nonprofit donations⁠—ideally from the organizations themselves.

For that to occur, you’ll need to first confirm that your matching gift program is added to the leading database of corporate matching gift program information: Double the Donation. Once added, employees will be able to search your company and receive program-specific details straight from the organizations they support, often within a donation confirmation screen widget or follow-up email.

From there, employees can navigate to your company’s matching gift request forms online and complete their submissions while leveraging their post-donation momentum. It simplifies the process involved for team members and results in significantly more matches being completed⁠—meaning more nonprofits receiving funding and increased benefits for your company.

To add your company, follow this link and provide the information requested. This includes your company name, submission materials (such as links to online forms, PDF uploads), and eligibility criteria.

(Hint: the more information you share, the easier it will be for employees to participate in your program.)

10. Collect data, track impact, and make program improvements.

This last stage of the matching gift development process involves taking a look at the program you’ve created and determining whether it meets the criteria previously set in place during step #1. You should be collecting and analyzing data throughout the process (made particularly simple when utilizing program management software). Now, this data comes in handy to help determine program success.

For example, did you meet or exceed your goals? If so⁠—what happens now? Will you set loftier goals for the future and continue matching? If not, how will you adjust your program strategy to ensure your team is on track to reach your goals this time around?

You can also take a closer look at your company’s data to determine and communicate program impact. This should answer questions like how many and to which nonprofits did your company give? What amounts were donated through both employee gifts and corporate matches?

Finally, you’ll want to explore ways to continuously improve your matching gift program in the months and years to come. Consider ways to drive employee engagement in your programming. Elevate giving by increasing your match ratio or maximum donation cap. Or simplify participation in your program by enabling matching gift auto-submission for your employees! You can even use dedicated employee recognition platforms to call out those who participate. As your company grows, your matching gift initiative should grow alongside it.

It doesn’t have to be difficult to get started with matching gifts, and your company’s programming doesn’t have to be the most built-out initiative before you can make it available to employees. Everyone has to begin somewhere, and following the nine steps above will allow you to build a solid foundation for your workforce.

Good luck, and happy matching!

Interested in learning more about matching gifts and developing optimized employee giving initiatives? Check out these other educational resources for companies here:

How to Offer the Ultimate Employee Giving Experience. Find out what your employees want in a workplace giving program with this insightful guide! Follow the provided tips and suggestions to develop a top-notch philanthropy initiative.
The Impact of CSR on Businesses: A Guide For Corporations. Why do companies match gifts, let alone participate in any CSR efforts? Explore this resource and dive into the key benefits of corporate giving to businesses like yours.
Why Workplace Giving Matters for Nonprofits + Companies. Learn more about workplace giving programs, the benefits of these initiatives, and how they help build mutually beneficial relationships between nonprofits and corporations.