It’s not hard to announce to employees that you’d like them to donate to a worthy cause. The question is, “How you get them to want to do so?” Giving programs, after all, can increase employee engagement and morale. Studies show that the three biggest drivers of employee engagement are directly related to employees’ relationships with their managers, their belief in senior leadership, and their pride in the company. By encouraging employee giving, you can boost all three! Not only do you encourage employees to participate at work, but you invigorate them with a sense that your company’s purpose is about more than the simple nine-to-five.
How Do You Encourage Workplace Giving?
Create multiple giving opportunities. A one-time fundraiser is one thing. You never know why some employees might not have donated. Maybe they couldn’t find a landing page where they could make the donation, so they signed off. Reaching out to employees with multiple opportunities to give can make it much easier for them, however, and much more likely to happen.
Cultivate your relationships with nonprofits and other volunteer organizations. This one might seem obvious—after all, to spend time donating time and money to a nonprofit, your company is going to have to have some sort of relationship with them. But you can incentivize your employees to donate simply by raising awareness of what those organizations are doing.
Start off with simple steps. Sign up to newsletters to see if there are interesting fundraising opportunities coming down the pipeline. Reach out to someone at the nonprofit and see if they offer any incentive programs themselves. You never know what creative methods might emerge from your relationships with nonprofit organizations.
Consider matching gifts on behalf of the company. Nothing quite perks up an employee’s ear like hearing that the company is putting its money where its mouth is. It’s one thing to talk about employee donations and charitable giving. It’s another thing to commit to matching the donations they make. This draws attention to the charity in question, it tells employees that you care just as much as they do, and it raises awareness for an important cause. As a result, 84% of donors indicate that they’d be more likely to give if their employer offers a match!
Use “corporate giving cards” or “cause cards” to let employees choose. One way you can introduce the concept of employee donations is to take care of the donations on their behalf—and let the employee choose their charity. This gets employees invested in the idea of choosing a nonprofit organization they’d like to donate to, for starters. But it also warms them up to the idea of associating their work with their passion. That is a great way to create a deeper sense of commitment to and meaning in the work you do as a company.
70% of employees say it’s important to work somewhere where both the mission and values of the organization align. Simply introducing the idea that your mission and your values align with the work your employees do every day is not only a great way to incentivize donations. It’s a great way to keep your employees happy with the work they do.
How Do I Get Employees to Participate in Fundraising?
On one hand, it’s great to introduce the ideas of corporate social responsibility by incentivizing employee donations. Something as simple as a gift card can do a lot to change the way employees think about their work, even if it’s a trivial amount of money at first.
But how do you get employees to want to participate in the act of fundraising itself? It’s the next step to creating a culture of giving. Here are some ideas to get you going:
Use a corporate charity platform to simplify things. The more complicated it is to create matching gift programs and volunteer outreach programs, the less likely it is your organization will follow through. A platform like Millie can be a nice foot in the door to greater things. It offers the infrastructure you need to create matching programs, for instance, which will immediately incentivize more employee donations and participation.
Educate employees about what giving means. Some employees might already be up to date with charitable organizations in your area. Others may not. Either way, raising awareness of what’s going on in your community can go a long way towards directing employee attention to the idea that they can make a difference.
Monitor your participation rates and adjust accordingly. There’s an old saying in business: what gets measured gets managed. With a platform like Millie, you can keep tabs on your participation rates with ease. This will help you identify areas where your employee giving program can improve.
Raise awareness for your workplace giving programs. Sometimes, larger companies already have giving programs in place. It just so happens that employees aren’t aware of them. In fact, 78% of match-eligible donors have no idea whether their employer offers a matching gift program. For this reason, it’s a good idea to remind employees about what’s available to them. You might also consider highlighting specific nonprofit stories to help create awareness among employees who otherwise might not look twice at what’s going on with your corporate giving programs.
Can Employees Donate Money to Other Employees?
It will depend on your local regulations and corporate policy, but you’ll find that this is allowed in all sorts of places. However, you’ll want to make sure the donations are for a legitimate setback for an employee, such as a medical crisis, funeral expenses, or a similar emergency situation that’s largely out of the employee’s control. You may be able to set up a “crisis fund.”
Not only are these types of funds a huge help for the employee in question, but they help other employees to foster a sense of camaraderie and building toward the common good. There’s no better way to create that sense of being on a team like reaching out to help someone in need.
With the right systems in place, you can incentivize employee donations in a variety of ways. And it’s probably best that you use multiple strategies. Cultivate a culture of giving at your company and you’ll be rewarded with a better sense of meaning, purpose, and employee engagement in your workplace.
