Four Ways to Encourage Employee Giving
Four Ways to Encourage Employee Giving
Approximately $5 billion is raised annually in workplace giving across the United States. This number has increased over the last few years as corporate social responsibility has become significantly more important to both employees and the organizations that support this model. One of the best ways for a corporation to become more socially accountable is to institute an employee giving program. Workplace giving can help increase employee engagement and retention. Here are a few ways to get started on encouraging employee contributions:
1. Make philanthropy a part of the organization’s culture.
If you feel defeated by the idea of asking employees to contribute to an annual campaign, take some small steps to embed this into your company culture first. Start with your mission and find ways to include this in quarterly events and updates to your teams. Some employers have even started to find other ways of supporting causes by giving employees the opportunity to volunteer and organize donations as a way to participate instead of always asking for a monetary offering.
2. Listen to employee interests & feedback.
In order to support your employees when it comes to giving back, it is critical to understand what charities and causes are already important to your team members. Send out surveys or take a poll at your team meetings to learn more about ways you may be able to support something your workers are already interested in. After receiving feedback, you can find common themes and develop team building opportunities like volunteer days or social media campaigns that allow your employees to give back together and learn more about needs in your communities.
3. Make it easy to give.
Offer simple and automatic ways to give so that your employees don’t have to put in the additional effort every quarter or year. For some companies, payroll deduction options are incredibly successful. If your organization already has dedicated charities to support, you can present ways for your employees to make pledges for recurring gift options. This will help management to forecast yearly contributions and it also allows for individuals to plan their giving over the year.
领英推荐
4. Host an annual giving week.
Designate a time during the year for employees to give back together! Hosting team giving opportunities allows for giving goals to be more encouraged as employees tend to hold each other accountable in giving at the same time. Some companies hold giving challenges and others post a corporate match that can multiply the impact of an individual donation. Incentivizing donations is a huge plus, but if you don’t have the ability to do that out of the gate don’t worry! You can still host a giving week without having a match.
Takeaway
At the end of the year, showcasing what your organization has done for the community is important in so many ways. However, starting small with these efforts is the best way to build out a model where employees are able to feel included and impactful with their contributions - monetary or not! Consider starting with one campaign at a time and taking feedback at the time of giving or after the campaign closes to learn more about how your team can continue to build on this success.?
Here is an example of a partner that has had a successful employee giving campaign!