#1 Ditch the ad-hoc for year-round
Establishing a year-round workplace giving & employee volunteering program – which can take many forms – is the way to achieve your two desired outcomes:
- Your employees view philanthropy as a part of company culture.
- Your market views your company as a leading corporate citizen.
#2 Give employees choice
Employees care about different things, and your workplace philanthropy program should be inclusive of those individual differences. Many companies fear the "scale" of doing so – and thus limit their giving to the C-Suite's favorite charities - but with today's technology or even simple surveys, it's easy enough to make room for everyone in your company's philanthropic tent.
Additionally, know that employees expect flexibility with how they give back – donating, volunteering, or both*. Here's a simple starting structure that enables both: year-round workplace giving, with quarterly group volunteer events.
*A recent 2M+ employee study found that engaging employees in both donating and volunteering can reduce turnover by 57%...so providing employees opportunities to engage in both main forms of giving is far more than best practice.
#3 You MUST measure your impact
Impact transparency is the most important component of workplace giving programs, for two main reasons:
- Displaying impact internally creates a virtuous cycle that increases both employee engagement and retention.
- Marketing impact externally makes you look great.
Technology has evolved alongside employee desire to give back, and you no longer need a corporate social responsibility (CSR) team to engage your team in giving. With a unique combo of modern giving technology, volunteer concierge services, and custom impact explainers, Percent Pledge makes workplace giving programs personalized – and easy – for companies of any size.
