Corporate giving this holiday season

By Kati Sigel, Director of Development, Corporate & Foundation Relations

Stores are stocking their shelves with wreaths, candles, and garlands in preparation for the holiday season. Some of us are excited to hear holiday music, while others among us feel the “bah humbug” and relate to Seinfeld’s Festivus, a holiday for the rest of us, as we wrap up the third year of Covid. No matter your feelings about the holidays, it can be rewarding to shift your focus (and your company’s) to your community and find a way to give back in a meaningful way. ?Corporate giving is important because it brings organizations closer to their community and helps staff feel connected to the company through strong, ethical, and conscientious values. Many believe creating value in the community is as important as their bottom line because paying it forward will pay off in goodwill. It’s a win-win for organizations to positively impact the communities they’re operating in, while fostering pride and an increased sense of morale. That’s why some have gone as far as committing to the 1% pledge (whereby corporations pledge to dedicate one percent of their profit, equity, time or products to nonprofits). So whether you have a small team or a dedicated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department, here are some of the ways you can encourage your employer to give back this holiday season - and beyond!

Fundraising events

If you like to organize events and feel connected to a specific organization, consider encouraging your company to host an in-office or staff-giving campaign to fundraise on behalf of a nonprofit. If you tell them what you’re up to, nonprofits often try to make it easy with toolkits to help you facilitate the budget planning, organizing, and publicizing of the event. Shout out to Prince Lobel Tye LLP as one example of a company that holds a staff fundraiser for Lovin’ Spoonfuls every holiday season. Their team mobilizes around our mission of minimizing food waste and food security and involves its employees in making a meaningful contribution to the community. We’ll be catching up with Prince Lobel soon to hear more about their annual campaign - stay tuned.

Volunteering

One of the ways to actively engage with the community is through volunteerism. Many nonprofits have limited resources and rely on volunteers to help not only with daily tasks, such as stocking shelves or sorting donated clothing, but also with the execution of their programming, like one-to-one mentoring programs. This type of experience creates meaning and builds strong relationships between volunteers and the recipient organization. While Lovin’ Spoonfuls is a nonprofit that doesn’t rely on volunteers to rescue food (we use professionally-trained and ServSafe-certified Food Rescue Coordinators to do the job), we facilitate volunteer opportunities through our network of nonprofit partners. We’ve organized volunteer hours with corporations to sort food that our Food Rescue Coordinators have delivered, bring surplus produce to community fridges, and prep rescued vegetables for weekly meal programs. We’ve also organized internal volunteer activities, such as scarf-making, which paired with one of our standard deliveries, allowed us to provide people with both food and clothing. These experiences are memorable, and the positive feelings that result are palpable - strong energy and connection between human beings as they work towards a common goal of food equity and healthy food for all.

Another form of volunteer engagement is pro-bono work. For nonprofits that run lean, experts in various industries can lend insights to a team without a designated staff expert in the role (i.e. a marketing professional can lend support to a nonprofit that doesn’t have a marketing person on staff). Instead of a financial donation, companies can leverage their expertise and experience to help an organization in a particular discipline, such as law, IT, or accounting. Pro-bono work can help nonprofits tackle projects otherwise outside of their budget, while staff members executing the pro-bono project feel a sense of accomplishment and gain practical skills by helping the community.

Donations

While many companies are interested in getting their staff involved, regular monetary donations are an impactful way to give back, too. Donations increase the efficacy of nonprofits’ programming and enhance their ability to fulfill their mission. At Lovin’ Spoonfuls, we’re grateful for the funders who help make our work possible! This is also a good time of year to remind staff about matching gift or payroll donation programs. More people give around the holidays, so ensuring staff know they can increase the impact of their gift throughout the year is important.

Choosing a nonprofit

There are thousands of nonprofit organizations in the region, so finding one that fits your values and passion and has already been vetted is important. Before you start Googling “food pantry,” check with your human resources department or CSR team for recommendations. Many organizations have already done the due diligence of selecting a number of nonprofit organizations in the region that are financially responsible and make an impact in the community. You can also use platforms, such as Charity Navigator and Candid (formerly Guidestar and Foundation Center), which rate nonprofits based on criteria such as their financial health, transparency, and length of operations and provide up-to-date information on the organization’s mission, programming, leadership and impact region. Finally, you can read my article from last year for ideas on choosing a value-aligned nonprofit.

When employees and companies decide to give back to the community, the end result is long-lasting. So, as we near the holiday season, think about different ways you can spread joy and build camaraderie outside of the office. And a reminder to those of us who are humming Seinfeld’s Festivus, while the holiday season is a great time to give, remember that nonprofits operate year-round and can use support beyond the holiday season, too.