The Great Resignation has seen a record 48 million people quitting their jobs in 2021, with another 4.3 million leaving in January 2022. Job resignations have increased 23% above pre-pandemic rates, with most people quitting for a new job. This new hallmark in the labor market has driven employers to find new ways of attracting and engaging with employees to stay competitive in today’s job market.
A new benefit beyond salary that workplaces can tap into for recruiting and retaining employees is offering charitable giving programs. America’s Charities’ Snapshot Employee Donor Research found that 71% of surveyed employees state that it’s imperative to work for a company with a supportive culture for giving and volunteering. This result echoes Cone Communications‘ employee engagement survey, where 74% of employees said the opportunity to positively impact social responsibility issues makes their jobs more fulfilling, and 70% of employees said they would be loyal to a company that valued corporate responsibility.
People want to work for and with socially responsible companies, and they see it as a strong differentiating factor when considering where to work. Knowing this, your company can build a workplace community and culture of giving by involving your employees and meeting them where they’re at. Not to mention, having a reputation as a socially responsible company that improves their communities improves how your current employees feel about working for you, leading to more recommendations and attracting more talent.
In this blog, we’ll show you how to:
- Understand what matters most to your employees
- Give incentive to give
- Set up campaigns everyone can be a part of
- Celebrate the impact of your brand and employees
Understand What Matters Most to Your Employees
Employees want to engage with social responsibility programs, with 51% of employees saying they won’t work for a company without a social mission. You can harness this enthusiasm by keeping in mind the values and causes most important to them.
The easiest way to find out what matters most to your employees for a high-participation giving program is by giving them a say. When employees can express their whole selves at work (i.e., talk about their interests outside of work, such as social justice), they feel more like themselves and engaged with the company. High engagement is the key marker of a successful giving program, as engaged employees have a meaningful connection with your company and will serve as brand ambassadors. Passionate brand ambassadors increase your ability to attract top talent.
Learn what those values and causes are by conducting a survey. You can use the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals as examples of causes that employees might want to commit to. These goals include ending hunger, taking action to end climate change, building sustainable cities, and more. Also, ask your employees what charities they currently give to, where they volunteer, and if they have any personal connections to causes.
Having your employees’ values and causes be your brand’s priorities can help attract talent. Top-tier talent, who can be selective of where to work, typically choose to join organizations they identify with. For example, those who describe themselves as environmentalists will likely join companies perceived to be environmentally friendly. Knowing that your brand’s priority is environmentalism, you’ll help them feel like they belong, which increases employee satisfaction and retention.
Now that you have the employee survey results, you can curate campaigns and charities for recurring giving. Offering employees the choice to donate to causes they care about increases participation because it shows that their company cares about the issues that matter to them. When workplaces do not offer freedom of choice, 30% of employee donors say that they don’t give through the workplace since the causes they care about are unavailable in their employer’s giving program.
Give Incentive to Give
Matching programs are a best practice to engage employees in charitable giving programs, with 84% of donors saying they’re more likely to donate when matching is offered. They do, however, have room for improvement.
Double the Donation has discovered that 65% of Fortune 500 companies and smaller organizations offer matching programs that involve employees donating and submitting a request for a match. These programs have collectively donated $2-3 billion annually. That said, the low participation rate of 10% on average in traditional matching programs has left $4-7 billion in matching gift funds unclaimed each year.
The 18% participation rate and $7 billion in unused funds show that it is time to rethink traditional corporate matching programs. Givinga’s modern match model leverages financial technology capabilities to drive participation by giving employees more control over their donations with pre-funded accounts. Prefunding giving accounts show employees that your brand is dedicated to supporting their philanthropic initiatives and maximizing employee satisfaction. WeSpire and other companies have adopted the modern match model and have increased their participation rates and funds donated by 60% and above.
Other matching strategies that drive engagement include occasional match fundraising campaigns and Point of Sale donations. The occasional match makes it easy to stand up a campaign with urgency and maximize the amount raised by your employees and community. Point of Sale donations allow employees to donate their workplace match funds via any charity or retailer’s checkout page. More than $4.1 billion have been donated via point of sale fundraising campaigns and will only continue to grow.
Set Up Campaigns Everyone Can Be a Part Of
Matching campaigns that everybody can participate in removes barriers that hold back giving programs. These campaigns can involve whole communities, including friends and family of your employees. Public campaigns optimize your brand’s charitable impact, build a community-driven giving network, and foster a workplace culture of giving back.
You can help giving campaigns realize their full potential by:
- Advertising them in-house with email, Slack, and announcements at all hands
- Having employees act as workplace ambassadors for their favorite nonprofits
- Using software that makes it easy for employees to choose their charities with workplace matching funds
- Letting employees deduct pre-tax funds from their paychecks to give directly to charities
- Using software that simplifies the request process if you’re using a traditional matching model
Celebrate the Impact of Your Brand and Employees
You can conduct a charitable giving survey either after each quarter or at the end of the year to gather employee insights on which causes and charities they’d like to keep donating to and how they felt about the programs your company ran during the year, like disaster relief or occasional matching campaigns.
Use employee insights and engagement analytics to plan for next year’s corporate philanthropy goals.
And most importantly, celebrate your team’s philanthropy efforts! Your employees made a positive impact on their communities, and that’s worth celebrating.
Want to differentiate yourself from other companies, attract talent, and retain employees during the Great Resignation?
Givinga works with companies like yours to set up corporate and employee giving and matching programs to build brand affinity and cultivate everyday philanthropy. We help you stand out by providing the benefit of philanthropy made easy. Our modern match model leverages financial technology and prefunding accounts to drive employee engagement and decrease the administrative burden for your team.
We’ll review your unique giving goals during your demo and explain how our Philantech® platform can help you achieve them.
