Cause Marketing to Attract Talent with Workplace Giving

Why market your workplace giving program?

When companies are on the same playing field as competitors–product, price, promotion, etc.–companies who make a positive social impact have a step up. By taking a stand, becoming relatable, and having a corporate purpose, companies with a positive social impact engage their community more.

To simply put it, people care. It is a lost opportunity if your workplace philanthropy program isn’t being communicated and connected to the people who care. For statistical proof:

Today’s talent cares...

• Employee attraction - 64% say they won’t take a job from a company that doesn’t have strong CSR practices (Cone 2016).
• Employee engagement - 71% say it is either imperative or very important to work where culture is supportive of giving and volunteering (America's Charities Snapshot Employee Donor Research).
• Employee retention - 83% say they would be more loyal to a company that helps them contribute to social and environmental issues (Cone 2016).

Today’s consumer cares too...85% say they would switch brands to one associated with a cause (Cone 2015).

What to market about your workplace philanthropy program?

To get to the ‘why’ we just mentioned, you must have the story and data–the ‘what.'

To start, workplace giving programs need to tell a story. They need an identity that aligns with your company’s mission. Without a story, your community (the ‘who,’ below) won’t be engaged or relate to your corporate purpose. So the first step is to define your social mission and integrate it with your company’s mission and values.

Next, the data. It is very easy to make a positive social impact, but oftentimes, it’s challenging to measure it. Without a measured performance, you can’t tell the story or leverage your social impact. Your second step is to measure your impact (total volunteer hours, dollars donated, impact, etc.), then you can easily show and market the success on the ‘why’ of your program.

Storytelling and data collection can be the most difficult part of marketing your workplace philanthropy program. That’s why Percent Pledge measures and shares the stories of our customers’ social impact programs monthly through impact stats and impact stories. Want to learn more? Request a demo here.

Who is the marketing of your corporate purpose for?

In short, every one of your stakeholders. But if helpful, we’ve laid out some of the key ones below:

• Customers (B2B and/or B2C)
• Employees (Current and/or Prospective)
• Partners (Current and/or Prospective)
• Investors/Board Members/Advisors

Where to market your social impact program?

There are three main places to educate stakeholders about your social impact programs:

1. Your Website
2. Job Websites
3. Social Media

Note: This blog intentionally leaves out certain forms of Cause Marketing that are only relevant to very large enterprises. If you want examples of these, just turn on your TV and pay attention during a commercial break...every single commercial now is a cause marketing campaign!

How to market your workplace giving program?

We’ve laid all that out below and coded these action items to reflect the table stakes items everyone should do, as well as the items that would take your cause marketing efforts above & beyond!

1. Your website

Add your social impact to:

Careers and/or culture pages (table stakes)

Job descriptions including in your perks & benefits section (table stakes)

Footer links (above & beyond) example:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) pages (above & beyond) example:

2. Job websites

Listed below are job websites with items that should be marked in your job listings (table stakes) and include descriptions (above & beyond) based on your social impact program’s benefits.

Built-In:

• Volunteer in Local Community
• Partners with Nonprofits
• Intracompany Committees (e.g. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs))
• Match Charitable Contributions
• Paid Volunteer Time
• Diversity ERGs

Glassdoor:

• Volunteer Time Off
• Charitable Gift Matching

Comparably:

• Happiness Score
• Work Culture Score
• Office Culture Score
• Retention Score
• Environment Score
• Millennials (section)
• Volunteer Time Off
• PTO Donation

Table stakes (benefits included in listing) example:

Above & beyond (combine table stakes with descriptions) example:

3. Social Media

Shown below are examples of Percent Pledge customers marketing their corporate purposee on LinkedIn. To reach table stakes, we suggest sharing your impact quarterly on social media. To go above & beyond, we recommend monthly posts engaging your community and making your company more relatable.

If you want to dive deeper into marketing or enhancing your workplace giving program, email our social impact experts at contact@percentpledge.org.