Corporate philanthropy is a vital way consumers and employees view a company. According to a corporate giving survey commissioned by Benevity, 84% of consumers and 85% of employees agreed that the more a business engages its consumers and employees in its decisions on charitable giving, the more trust consumers have in that business. Additionally, it found that 78% of employees said they are more likely to work for an organization that provides transparency into how that company allocates its charitable donations.
When businesses participate in corporate philanthropy, they create a positive work environment, build trust with their employees, positively impact their community, and create a positive public image. There are many ways businesses can implement corporate philanthropy. Here are a few ways to increase your business’s philanthropic initiatives that you may not have thought of before.
Volunteer Engagement:
After years of being apart and working remotely, your team and staff may feel like strangers. Volunteering is an incredible team-building experience and a great way to create comradery again!
Build volunteer time-off into your employee benefits. Offering volunteer time-off shows your staff that you want them to take time away from the office, as well as give back to the community. In a study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, researchers found that people who volunteered were more satisfied with their lives and rated their overall health as better. Overall volunteering can boost mental health, increase your office’s overall well-being, and get your business out in the community.
Advocate for Philanthropies on Social Media:
Most nonprofits don’t have the budget for a marketing team and rarely have the time to focus on social media. Use your resources and incredible staff to market the nonprofits you believe in. Share, like, or comment to increase the traffic to their pages. Create posts for your feed anytime you volunteer or interact with those nonprofits. When fundraisers are shared on social media, nonprofits can get up to 3x the donations than those that aren’t shared. Help the little guys out by getting them in front of all your followers!
84% of consumers and 85% of employees agreed that the more a business engages its consumers and employees in its decisions on charitable giving, the more trust consumers have in that business.
Host a Donation Drive:
Many nonprofits who accept donations always hope that people will get them exactly what they need. Reach out to a nonprofit or a few with similar goals and see exactly what they need. You can also add a friendly competition component to motivate your employees. Back to school is right around the corner and many organizations are looking to get backpacks for their kids. If you miss the rush for back-to-school shopping, this is for you.
Matching Donations:
A matching grant is a large donation that nonprofits can leverage as an incentive to bring in other donations. Matching grants incentivize and motivate donors to give because a match provides the opportunity for a donation to be doubled or even tripled. Nonprofits are able to increase fundraising and make a larger impact with matches. But matching grants aren’t only beneficial to nonprofits, they can also be beneficial to your business. They offer a great advertising opportunity for companies and businesses. Through the Mightycause platform, organizations also have the opportunity to build a match that shares the logo and name of the match sponsor.
Provide your logo to the nonprofit so they can use it in their email communication and social media content. Nonprofits will be able to advertise their match while highlighting your company. Matching grants are a fun and proactive way to get involved and advertise your company’s philanthropic efforts.
Giving Cards:
Holidays happen throughout the year and gifts are key to showing employees and company members your appreciation. According to a Tremendous Study on Business Wire, this type of action increases employee satisfaction by up to 75%, with 46% saying that this boost lasts throughout the entire year. Corporate philanthropy is a powerful way to not only engage your consumers but also your employees. One way to encourage giving throughout the year is by utilizing Mightycause giving cards. These cards can be purchased and gifted to friends, families, or colleagues. Giving cards provide users the ability to make a donation to any cause of their choosing through Mightycause.
Ways to Utilize Giving Cards:
- Gifting employees with giving cards, increases your philanthropic footprint as well as boosting a company culture of generosity.
- Agreeing to Match any employees giving cards purchased for themselves, families, or friends to foster a greater purpose.
- Gifting departments with one single giving card, encouraging teamwork as they choose a cause or causes to give a donation/s.
Create a Community Challenge:
A corporate community challenge is a fundraising competition featuring nonprofits both your company and employees support. Employees of your company are able to donate or create their own fundraising pages to support the nonprofit of their choice. The goal of a corporate community challenge is to help nonprofits raise as much money as possible for their respective causes. Those that raise the most will receive grand prize donations or grants from your organization.
A company that does an incredible job executing a corporate community challenge is Rocket Family of Companies. The Rocket Family of Companies includes Rock Holdings, Inc. – the parent company of the nation’s largest mortgage lender, Rocket Mortgage – and dozens of other companies who collectively employ more than 30,000 team members across the U.S. Through the Rocket Community Fund, they are committed to building inclusive, thriving, and resilient communities by making data-driven investments in housing, employment, and public life. Last year, Rocket helped participating nonprofits raise over $1.7 Million!
Rocket created a month-long challenge to support all five of their regions, making all employees feel included in the overall campaign. By bringing together all of their employees, they have united for various causes bringing all their teams for a friendly competition.
Whether you are a nationwide company or a small local business, there are a wide variety of ways your company can implement and execute a corporate community challenge. You can break your fundraiser into regions, similar to Rocket, separate by different departments and teams, or you can simply invite nonprofits to participate and leave it up to them to compete for a chance to win any prize or grant money.
A community challenge allows you to combine all of your philanthropic efforts into one. It also allows your company to experience firsthand the efforts nonprofits take to successfully fundraise. Bring your company together by taking these actions to increase your business’s philanthropic initiatives. By using the resources you already have, your company can make a large impact on your community.