As the holiday season approaches, there’s a unique opportunity to connect with employees through charitable initiatives. This time of year—also known as the season of giving—is the perfect moment to boost employee engagement through meaningful workplace giving programs. The holiday season is a time when people are naturally more inclined to give back. For Employee Experienceand People leaders, incorporating these initiatives into your holiday plans can have a significant impact on employee satisfaction, morale, and retention.
Here are five practical ways to drive employee engagement during the giving season, and how Percent Pledge can help you launch these initiatives effortlessly.
1. Launch a Giving Tuesday campaign
Giving Tuesday, the global day of generosity, falls right after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It’s a great opportunity to engage your employees and make a difference. Create a Giving Tuesday campaign that encourages employees to contribute to causes they care about. Many companies match donations, which can double the impact and make participation even more appealing.
Percent Pledge advantage: Our Giving Platform allows you to set up corporate donation programs and employee giving programs in just a few clicks. We make it incredibly easy for your employees to donate to the charities they care about most. Plus, our Campaigns feature gives you a central landing page to share across the company, easy donation options for employees, team competitions with leaderboards, and more. With Percent Pledge, Giving Tuesday campaigns are easy, engaging, and impactful.
Beyond Giving Tuesday, other cause holidays, like Veterans Day and International Human Rights Day, also offer opportunities to align your giving campaigns with important dates. Subscribe to our Cause Holiday Calendar to easily add every important date to your work calendar.
2. Organize community volunteer opportunities
There’s nothing like coming together as a team to give back. Organize group volunteer opportunities to create a sense of camaraderie among your employees. Whether it's preparing meals at a shelter, assembling care packages, or participating in environmental clean-ups, group activities build strong connections between your teams internally, as well as the communities you serve externally. Compared to the amounts companies spend on offsites for team building and agencies for brand or reputation, community volunteer events are one of the most cost-effective investments a company can make, especially during the holiday season.
Percent Pledge advantage: Our volunteer event planning services take the heavy lifting off your hands by organizing group volunteer events for you—from logistics to execution. Organizing large group events can feel like planning a wedding, but with Percent Pledge, your company can offer impactful team-building opportunities without the hassle. Customers pair these services with our volunteer management system, which makes everything from logging hours to tracking volunteer engagement incredibly easy.
3. Offer virtual volunteer opportunities
With many teams still working remotely, virtual volunteer opportunities offer a convenient way for employees to contribute from anywhere. Consider online mentoring, virtual fundraising events, or skills-based volunteering for nonprofits. These options give employees the flexibility to give back without needing to be physically present.
Percent Pledge advantage: We offer two simple solutions for virtual volunteering. First, we provide ready-made, plug-and-play virtual volunteer events for teams, so you can engage employees across locations. Second, we give employees access to a database of virtual volunteer opportunities, allowing individuals to find local causes they can support remotely, no matter where they are based.
4. Organize drives for critical causes
The holiday season is a critical time to address issues like hunger and homelessness. Organize team campaigns such as food drives, coat drives, or toy drives to support communities in need. This time of year is especially hard on vulnerable children and families. These kinds of drives not only support important causes but also foster a deeper sense of purpose and community within your workforce.
Charities like Blessings in a Backpack provide critical food security to children who rely on school meals and face food insecurity during the holiday break.
5. Provide matching donations
The end of the year is when many employees are already donating to causes they care about. Offering to match their charitable contributions not only boosts the impact of those donations but also creates a positive association for your employees between you—their employer—and their causes. People are deeply emotionally connected to the charities they champion, and corporate matching donation programs are a small deed that can make a big impact.
Percent Pledge advantage: Matching donations manually can be a slow, inefficient, and time-consuming process, requiring HR, Finance, and other internal teams to collaborate. Percent Pledge simplifies this by automating corporate donation matching. Our platform verifies the charities are registered, automates tax receipts for both employee and company donations, and ensures compliance with tax-deductible donations. Percent Pledge provides a great user experience for employees to get their donations matched, and eliminates all the additional administrative work for internal teams. Best of all, you can launch your matching program instantly—enabling you to capture this opportunity without any delays, implementations, or training.
This holiday season, use charitable giving as a tool to enhance employee engagement and foster a stronger sense of community within your company. Whether you’re setting up a Giving Tuesday campaign, organizing group volunteer opportunities, or offering corporate donation matching, Percent Pledge is here to help every step of the way. Get a demo today.
