So, you’ve been tasked with helping to fundraise at work. Maybe your boss asked you to do it, maybe you’re in HR, or maybe it’s a passion project you’re spearheading. Whatever the reason, you’re taking on a meaningful, albeit challenging, task that will engage employees and infuse your work culture with philanthropic spirit. Unlike setting up your own peer-to-peer fundraiser with one stakeholder, you likely have many stakeholders and several more barriers when you fundraise at work. Mightycause is here to help you navigate how to fundraise at work. We have the 5 keys you need to fundraise for charity at work successfully.

1. Make it inclusive.

This is a no-brainer. A $100 gift may be a drop in the bucket for the vice president or president, but it’s certainly nothing to sneeze at for entry-level employees. Encourage employees to give whatever they’re comfortable with, but also provide alternatives to donating. Set up a volunteer activity or ask for volunteers to help man kiosks during the lunch hour to make it easy for colleagues to give online during the work day.

Also, don’t forget your remote employees! Trello realized a virtual fundraiser was the best way to ensure no employee was left out of the process of making a donation when they set out to fundraise at work. An online giving platform like Razoo makes it convenient for employees to give anywhere at anytime.

Plus, on Mightycause donors can hide the amount they’ve donated or choose to publicly keep their name and amount hidden. This is a great way to ensure inclusivity without making donors feel judged or shamed for their contribution. Every gift counts, and being able to show the collective impact of the group should be the most important!

2. Empower employees to have a choice.

Have you ever been “voluntold” to do something? It kind of takes the fun right out of it, right? Feeling like you have a choice in where you donate to makes it more meaningful to fundraise at work.

Nonprofit marketing team discussing analytics

If you have a diverse workplace, it’s likely that different employees have different causes that are important to them. So, instead of choosing one nonprofit to donate to, give employees options about where to give funds.

If you don’t have the ability to manage multiple fundraisers for different nonprofits, at least empower employees to make the choice collectively. Before you begin to fundraise at work, create an employee survey asking for them to choose between a variety of different charities. You may be surprised to learn a lot of your employees are interested in aiding childhood cancer research, or you could find a lot of people wanting to help rescue horses. You don’t know until you ask, so make sure to get buy-in from everyone!

3. Make it competitive.

One way to increase the camaraderie among colleagues is to truly make it a team effort. Get different floors or different departments to create a fundraiser as part of a team on Mightycause, and watch the donations flow in!

Plus, nothing fuels competition quite like prizes – throw a pizza party for the winning team or give them a “get out of work early one time” card for the holidays. This is a win-win: colleagues will appreciate the team aspect of working together and try to get creative to raise funds. And, this will generate even more donations for the cause!

diverse group of people jumping

4. Make it low-barrier.

Like we mentioned earlier, being “voluntold” is no fun – don’t ask an already busy workforce to drop what they’re doing to go volunteer somewhere an hour away from home. And, don’t ask them to give up their weekend to go to a different location for an in-person fundraiser. Keep it simple.

Online fundraising is the easiest way to fundraise at work, especially if your company is spread among different locations and cities, or has a large percentage of staff working from home. When you ask for employees to donate their time outside of work or make a special trip to the food or home goods store to buy in-kind items, you may take the fun out of the experience of giving (especially if it’s for a cause they aren’t passionate for!). Instead, use online fundraising to allow every employee no matter where they are to have the same experience to fundraise at work.

With Mightycause’s online donation tools, donors can give a gift anywhere at anytime! Plus, it’s super easy to share via email or social media, meaning you’ll have even more opportunities to raise the funds your company wants to fundraise at work

5. Include the company, too!

Don’t forget to truly make it a company-sponsored event. If you want employees to donate to a certain cause, shouldn’t the company do the same? Offer a matching grant to hit your goal, or agree to match the amount employees donate at the end of the campaign to double their impact. The generous spirit of the company will remind employees why they love to work there.

With Mightycause’s matching grants tool, you can prominently display the grant on your fundraiser. Donors will see the amount matched towards their grant, and it’s easy for the fundraiser organizer to track with the matching grants report. Learn more about how to add the matching grant to your page with Mightycause’s support guide.

Still looking for ways to fundraise at work?

Check out this blog on 20 creative workplace fundraisers to get inspired!

Want to learn more?

Request a demo and learn more about Mightycause.

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