How to Organize a Successful Donation Drive for Employees
Before the end-of-year holidays ramp up, corporate social impact leaders can be found hard at work finalizing their plans to host a donation drive that benefits their employer’s nonprofit partners. While useful during many times of the year, donation drives tap into the generosity of the holiday season and become creative ways to support the communities where employees live and work.
If your donation drive includes the collection of gently used items such as business attire for organizations like Dress for Success, you and your colleagues are helping to keep items out of landfills and redirect them to those who can benefit from their use.
We’ve put together a checklist to help you get started planning a donation drive for your colleagues. Add these tips to your employee champion resources should they be responsible for planning a donation drive in their market.
Before your donation drive begins
Determine which community needs will be addressed by your donation drive; Then identify the nonprofit organizations you’d like to support
Contact those agencies to determine what they need and identify whether any needs are more critical than others.
Decide in consultation with these partners which items will be collected and m
ake sure you understand any limitations (i.e., what they don’t need), any specific guidelines about clothing and how much they can store once donations are delivered.
Engage a planning committee in setting goals and how to measure progress
You could decide to set a goal for gathering a certain number of items, collecting specific tons of food or reaching out to a specific number of people. Think realistically about these goals and what might influence them; you don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver. Then keep track of how you are doing and designate someone to be responsible for updating the group on how you are progressing toward your goals.
Organize logistics and set your plans into motion
Determine the duration of the drive; often a donation drive will last two to three weeks to give employees ample time to gather the items requested and make a plan for drop-off. Develop your internal communications plan to last the duration of the drive and include a variety of messaging and formats. Make sure the communications include the reasons why these items are needed, who they will benefit, your goals and any guidelines specific to the items requested. You’ll also need to arrange for supplies that you might need including collection bins or boxes if not provided, storage space for donated items and any incentives you might employ. Don’t forget to coordinate with your buildings’ facilities team to find the right space for the collection and storage of items to occur. Plan to collect items in highly visible but fire-code-safe locations.
Consider these options:
Single-site drop off: You ask employees in each market to bring donations to one location during set hours on a specific day. You may need to recruit additional volunteers to ensure the collection site and process runs smoothly.
Extended donation drive: It might be more convenient to set up multiple collection points with drop boxes where people can leave their donations over the course of multiple days or weeks. Volunteers can collect the donations once per day and transfer them to storage or deliver them to partners if requested.
Plan accordingly if many of your colleagues are now hybrid or fully remote
Make sure they know where and when to drop off donations so they feel included in the opportunity to support their community. You might also consider promoting your partners’ “online wish lists” if you feel that some employees would prefer to donate those requested items, whether they are in the office or work fully remote.
During your donation drive
Remind and motivate employees to support the donation drive
Consider creating a friendly competition among departments, floors or locations. Keep track of which location gathers the most items. Record which individual or team contributes the most items. Recognize the donors with bragging rights or small rewards. Always keep in mind that no one should feel pressured to give so keep any competitions or incentives light-hearted.
Monitor and showcase the progress employees are making toward achieving the drive’s goals
As items are collected and you need to transfer them to storage or to the partners’ selected locations, take photos before moving items off-site or as they are delivered to your partner to use in your communications. Purchase more supplies or collection boxes as they are needed.
After the donation drive ends
If requested, sort and count the collected items
Go through the donated items collected and sort the items according to the organization’s guidelines. Try to get an accurate count of what has been received so that you can share with employees and with your partner organization and keep track for future drives that your employer might host.
Deliver the donations
If you haven’t needed to deliver the donations during the drive, find a mutually good time to deliver them to your partner agency. Recruit employee volunteers to help complete this task. Take photos during the delivery to use in your final communications so that those who donated can feel pride in contributing. Touch base with the recipient organization a few weeks later to see how the donations were distributed and plan for your next collaboration.
Celebrate success
Share the total number of items you collected with all of your participants. Thank employees for participating and show gratitude to those who took on a leadership role. If possible, include any stories of how the donations will support your partners’ beneficiaries. Consider how you and your planning team could improve for next time.
5 Questions You Should Ask to Strengthen and Scale Your Pro Bono Program
Whether tapping the enthusiasm and talent of employees in St. Louis or Singapore, research continues to show that creating impactful volunteer opportunities doesn’t only benefit communities in meaningful ways—it can enhance your business, too. At Points of Light, we are committed to providing resources for community-minded companies that want to strengthen and scale effective employee volunteer programs.
Below is a quick list of research and resources that will help you address the most asked questions about skills-based and pro bono support of nonprofits and help strengthen your company’s social impact programs. Use these resources to become more effective champions of this work.
Q. How do I make the business case to senior leadership to invest resources into implementing a skills-based volunteer or pro bono program?
The case for skills-based volunteering is clear and compelling. While nonprofit organizations will always need traditional volunteers to help them advance their mission, they are also in need of strategic support that builds capacity. Pro bono volunteers can help design human resources policies, implement technology upgrades, develop marketing campaigns and review legal documents.
All of this work is necessary for any organization to thrive, but often nonprofits don’t have the budget for these tasks set aside each year, as they use their much-needed funds to continue supporting their beneficiaries. That’s where skills-based and pro bono volunteers can play an outsized role in their operations.
Providing ways for employees to use their skills in support of nonprofit partners reaps dividends for businesses, too. It can help you achieve business goals related to recruitment and retention. It can help provide a lower-cost way to train and upskill employees. It can also support leadership development at all levels. And those are only the employee-related benefits!
Inviting your employees to donate their time and talents to NGOs can also support your company’s bottom line by increasing positive public perception of your company’s brand, building customer loyalty and bringing innovation to your company’s products and services.
For additional proof points that will appeal to senior leadership, check out ACCP’s
Q. I work for a small business and am not sure if we can get involved in pro bono like larger companies might?
The most common concerns for small businesses when considering an employee volunteer program are related to cost and capacity. But there are creative ways to manage skills-based volunteerism so that it works for smaller businesses, including:
Determine the maximum amount of time an employee can volunteer per fiscal year.
If production runs are tight, recommend the employee volunteer after work hours, and determine appropriate compensation.
Ensure proper cross-training of employees (and their ability to cover others’ assignments). This allows operations to continue when the employee is volunteering.
Allow employees to utilize their sick, personal or vacation days for pre-approved volunteering opportunities.
Allow employees to “donate” their sick, personal or vacation time to other employees who would like to volunteer.
Check out our article on mobilizing employees even if you have a small team for additional pointers.
Q. Where can I find best practices for designing a great pro bono program?
There are many great resources to help you design and implement the pro bono volunteer program that will make the right sense for your business, your colleagues and the communities in which your business operates. And the most important first step is understanding the needs of those communities and the nonprofits that support them.
(where your skills-based program runs efficiently and effectively, and delivers needed impact) lies at the intersection of those community needs, the skills and interests of employees, business priorities and constraints. Check out additional expert resources from Taproot Foundation
First, consider your existing grantees, who might also be in need of pro bono support. Then, consider contacting the following networks, organizations or online resources that can connect you with local nonprofits and skills-based volunteer opportunities.
Points of Light’s Global Network is comprised of volunteer-mobilizing organizations in 39 countries around the world. They can help you identify NGOs that need skills-based support and may also be able to help you design and implement your strategy.
Taproot Plus offers an online tool to match nonprofit and small business needs with volunteers with the right skills and expertise.
Catchafire is another online tool that connects skilled, virtual volunteers with nonprofits that need their expertise.
Common Impact is a one-stop-shop that can help your business design and implement a skills-based strategy while also helping you find nonprofits that need your employees’ talents.
Points of Light Engage is an online database of volunteer projects, many of which require the expertise of skilled volunteers.
Q. What can I do to help nonprofits be ready for skills-based volunteers?
Help your nonprofit partners increase their readiness to make the most of a skills-based project by sharing with them the organizational readiness assessment available through
. It’s a free, online tool with extensive resources to help build nonprofit capacity to navigate skills-based volunteering, including pro bono efforts.
Getting Started with Pro Bono Volunteering
Pro Bono Week, an annual celebration of the talented volunteers who share their skills with nonprofits around the world, is about to kick off during the third week in October. For companies that have not yet thought about how their employees and their unique skills sets can contribute to pro bono volunteering, here’s a primer on getting started.
First, what is pro bono volunteering?
Often referred to as “skills-based volunteering,” pro bono applies the talents of professionals to challenges in communities or gaps in the skills and services needed by nonprofit organizations. Pro bono service is actually a type of skills-based volunteering (SBV) wherein volunteers contribute their professional skills — typically the same exact skills they use to perform their job every day.
Pro bono volunteers provide expertise that directly supports a nonprofit’s internal operations, which strengthens the infrastructure and capacity of the organization, and becomes a powerful driver of social impact. By leveraging all types of workplace skills — from IT support and strategic planning to marketing and HR consulting — pro bono volunteering helps nonprofits expand their reach and become more sustainable, while allowing employees an opportunity to build and practice their skills.
Where can you start with pro bono volunteering?
1. Assess Your Business Needs and Competencies
The right place to start is with a thorough internal review and discussion about what makes sense for your business and your colleagues.
Which unique skills and competencies do your employees possess and which might need shoring up? Although you may be in the marketing industry, consider the broad array of skill sets that professionals at your company can offer—ranging from HR and strategic planning to marketing and IT support.
How much time and resources do you have to manage and support a new volunteer program?
Will you have internal buy-in from management? If not, what might you need to obtain this?
Would employees volunteer on an ongoing basis or, perhaps to start off, should you consider a well-defined timeframe during the year?
Would the preference be to align your pro bono volunteer program with a strategic area of focus for your business (such as education, nutrition or healthcare), or would you allow employees to determine which causes they volunteer for?
Should you start small? Even some of the most successful pro bono programs at the largest corporations start modestly. If your business has a presence in multiple markets, think about piloting a project in one market and build from there.
2. Determine Nonprofit Partner Needs and Readiness
Next, begin to identify nonprofits that might be a good fit with your company’s goals. You might consider working with a member of
to connect you with an appropriate nonprofit, or you might partner with nonprofits your company or foundation already supports with contributions.
Once you’ve connected, ask the organization’s team if they have a need for the skills that you’ve identified as the right ones for your company to offer. This might be an area that is essential to the nonprofit’s mission but may be underfunded or under-resourced. Always let your partners guide the discussion around their needs rather than imposing your priorities on them.
Then, help your nonprofit partners increase their readiness to make the most of a skills-based project. Share the organizational readiness assessment with them available through Capacity Commons provided by Common Impact and the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation. It’s a free, online tool with extensive resources to help build nonprofit capacity to navigate skills-based volunteering, including pro bono efforts.
3. Develop a Scope of Work
Once you’re collaborating with the right partner, you’ll need to work together to determine the project or projects you’ll be working on.
Agree to a set of deliverables, timeframe, project leadership and points of contact, and support for both the nonprofit and employee volunteer(s). Document them.
Work with the nonprofit to create agreed-upon expectations.
Mutually define what success looks like.
Determine how the project’s success and impact will be tracked and measured. Consider the difference the project will have on the nonprofit and the community they serve, as well as employee volunteers.
Discuss and draft a post-project support plan. This step will help ensure the sustainability of your efforts and will help the nonprofit maintain your pro bono recommendations or services after the project has ended.
4. Implement the project
You’ve got the right understanding of your employer’s goals, the skills you can provide, the right nonprofit partner(s) on board and projects mapped out, but now the real work begins.
Match volunteers to projects based on their interests and skill sets. A great way to do this is to develop a “job description” that will help volunteers better understand the skill sets and expertise, time commitments and leadership roles needed to complete the pro bono project.
Set expectations with partners and volunteers upfront and manage expectations throughout the project.
Organize regular check-ins with your partners and volunteers to discuss progress, challenges and future deadlines.
Monitor project milestones. Reassess and adjust the project’s scope if necessary.
5. Evaluate and celebrate success
Once the project is completed, measure the project’s success against the indicators and metrics outlined in the scope of work.
Issue a survey to your employee volunteers to gauge the outcomes and impact of their volunteer assignments on business priorities like skill development, leadership development and other factors important to your employer.
Issue a similar survey to your nonprofit partner to assess the outcomes of the volunteer assignment on the effectiveness of the collaboration, the efficiencies gained, how it will help them increase their reach and other factors important to them.
Reflect on what went well and what didn’t go well in the project and determine how that can be improved in the future.
Take time to recognize and celebrate employee volunteers for their work and the project’s results. Consider a pro bono volunteer spotlight in internal or external communications or as part of your employee volunteer recognition strategy.
Remember, you don’t have to go down the pro bono route alone. There are several great organizations that specialize in skills-based and pro bono volunteering like
. And if Points of Light’s Corporate Solutions team can be a resource to you as you think through how, why and when to mobilize your colleagues in pro bono volunteering, don’t hesitate to reach out. Happy Pro Bono Week!
How CSR Programs Reduce Cost and Boost Impact
It’s well known that companies benefit from the halo effect that corporate social responsibility (CSR) provides, but did you know that social and environmental impact work and ethics policies can significantly reduce operating costs too?
Companies “do well by doing good” when they design and execute successful CSR programs that generate income through building brand awareness and loyalty, mitigate risk in the forms of expensive crises and fines, minimize the high costs of employee turnover and more.
Keep reading to learn how your company can use CSR programs to reduce business costs, and boost impact.
How to Use CSR Programs to Reduce Business Costs
Foster brand loyalty
From shareholders and investors to consumers and community members, stakeholders are increasingly prioritizing companies with proven social impact programs and ethical practices. Strong CSR strategies can have an outsized impact on companies’ reputations compared to how much they cost to implement.
CSR is great for brand building and marketing, but be mindful of not prematurely promoting CSR initiatives, overexaggerating your impact or engaging in misleading “greenwashing” practices. Any of these have the potential to backfire and erode hard-earned stakeholder loyalty.
Enhance risk management
Having a strong reputation across a variety of stakeholders can help insulate a company from the consequences of difficult situations like short-term underperformance, global economic uncertainty and pandemics. Those who feel a connection to a brand because of the good it does are more likely to forgive minor shortfalls and missteps.
Moreover, implementing solid CSR practices (social impact, sustainability, corporate governance, etc.) can position companies to prevent internal social and environmental crises, better respond to external ones, and comply with existing and future laws and regulations.
Reduce turnover and increase productivity
Effective CSR programs can significantly increase employee engagement, productivity and retention rates. According to
, turnover dropped by 57% in employee groups most deeply connected to their companies’ giving and volunteering efforts.
Satisfied, proud employees also provide a reputation boost for companies and incentivize valuable professionals to want to work for said companies. Case in point: the 2023
reported that for 69% of employees, having societal impact is a strong expectation or dealbreaker when considering a job. “By a six-to-one margin, on average, respondents want more societal involvement by business on issues such as climate change, economic inequality and workforce reskilling,” said CEO Richard Edelman in a
on the Trust Barometer.
Making sure employees are taken care of can itself be part of your company’s CSR strategy, one that pays dividends in employee engagement and retention. “Implementing new workplace policies shows social responsibility towards your employees by focusing on their needs and rights and making them feel valued and cared for,”
[time off] or providing daycare services for working [parents].”
Go green, save on overhead costs
Sustainability is a component of CSR that can directly reduce costs in the long-run, and notably so. Think: saving on overhead by installing more environmentally friendly smart thermostats and LED lights or investing in renewable resources amidst the rising or unpredictable costs of harmful fossil fuels.
“Environmental performance influences your bottom-line. Improving environmental practices such as reducing pollution and improving waste management can lead to better financial performance through both increased revenues (e.g., enhanced brand equity) and lower costs (e.g., operational efficiencies),” says the
Give nonprofit and community partners what they really need
Don’t make assumptions; ask your social impact partners how your company can best contribute: monetary and/or in-kind donations, grants, sponsorship, networking, volunteering, pro bono consulting or something else.
For grantmaking, we strongly encourage you to consider providing unrestricted grants. This allows your impact partner to direct funds to where they can have the greatest impact, whether that be programming, evaluation, research or essential capacity-building functions like marketing, HR, technology or finance.
Providing unrestricted grants also accelerates your collective impact by getting funds to where they need to be more quickly, without time and energy-consuming proposals, reports, reviews and approval processes. And it’s a meaningful show of faith in your social impact partner that recognizes their expertise, indicates respect and demonstrates true partnership.
Partner with small, local and grassroots community organizations
They know the needs of their communities and causes best. They are nimble, sometimes less encumbered by the bureaucracy that can afflict larger organizations and they oftentimes have innovative, highly effective tactics for delivering on their missions.
Measure, manage and multiply your impact
What gets measured gets managed. Track, analyze and evaluate your CSR programs in order to improve them and increase your impact in the long term. Set specific goals, benchmarks and milestones – and don’t forget to celebrate when you achieve them.
“Good disclosure practices can lead to greater visibility with stakeholders and financial partners,” says the Network for Business Sustainability. “The process of documenting and communicating CSR practices provides benefits to corporations, including the ability to formalize their position on CSR, identify organizational strengths and weaknesses, and manage stakeholder relationships and expectations.”
indicates several ways that CSR impact measurement can further social and business value. “Impact measurement provides evidence-based metrics to optimize CSR programs.
.”
Furthermore, “Impact measurement helps companies validate the results of their corporate citizenship efforts for ESG reporting. Employing a proper CSR impact measurement strategy ensures their ‘S’ metrics follow a methodology that ESG auditing and assurance providers can trust.”
Most importantly, “By regularly assessing and evaluating the impact of their CSR programs, businesses can explore new ways to achieve their goals using actionable insights from evidence-based data.”
Putting CSR Impact and Savings Into Action
Ready to start reducing costs and increasing your company’s impact through world-class CSR programs? Points of Light’s
include everything from self-managed DIY resources to customized CSR strategy support and program management.
Consulting and Strategic Planning: No matter where you are on your corporate citizenship journey, we can help with designing, expanding and supporting your growth. Utilize our expertise and established processes to evaluate, analyze, recommend, implement and prove the impact of your employee engagement programs.
DIY Employee Engagement Equipping: We’ll design a customized playbook for your employees or teams to independently plan and manage projects for a specific cause or range of causes that are important to them.
Direct Employee Engagement: Attain a customized solution to strengthen your corporate employee volunteer and civic engagement program, one that is aligned specifically to your company’s strategic objectives.
Contact Points of Light today to find out how we can work together to boost your CSR program impact.
Global Diversity Awareness Month: 6 Ways to Boost Employee Engagement
, a period dedicated to celebrating and understanding the value of diversity. In the context of the corporate world, it embraces a comprehensive approach to employee engagement programs in line with corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards, championing the role of diversity in fostering a more inclusive and positive work environment.
Let’s delve deep into the intersectionality of employee engagement, CSR and diversity, showcasing real-world success stories alongside strategies and action steps businesses can take.
The Intersection of Employee Engagement, CSR and Diversity
In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the corporate arena towards fostering a symbiotic relationship between employee engagement, CSR and diversity. The understanding that a diversified workforce is an asset — sparking creativity and fostering a sense of belonging — has been fundamental in steering a comprehensive CSR strategy.
Embracing diversity goes beyond morality. It is a critical strategy that can potentially drive business success by fostering inclusivity and recognizing a plethora of perspectives and backgrounds.
Benefits of Integrating Diversity into Employee Engagement Programs
Embedding diversity and inclusion in employee engagement programs brings substantial benefits, including enhanced creativity, improved company reputation and higher employee satisfaction levels. According to a report by
found that boards with multi-dimensional diversity experienced less downside and even revenue growth throughout the pandemic. It’s evident: diversity is absolutely imperative for a business’ bottom line, as well as the wellbeing of its employees.
Real-World Results: Successful Integration of Global Diversity into CSR
Companies worldwide are reaping the benefits of integrating diversity into their employee engagement and CSR programs. For instance, the Lowes Hometowns Project focuses on empowering local communities through diverse and inclusive initiatives. From renovations to communal buildings and outdoor areas in impoverished regions to helping provide safe, clean and comfortable spaces for LGBTQIA+ communities, People of Color and those experiencing homelessness, the Lowes Hometowns Project focuses heavily on serving marginalized or under resourced communities.
But companies can also consider how their internal and external efforts intertwine.
“When you’re looking to level up your social impact program, business integration is key. Invite your HR and DEI colleagues to the table and explore how your goals and roadmaps integrate,” said Katie Stearns, chief global corporate solutions officer at Points of Light. “Perhaps participation as a volunteer champion becomes part of an employee’s performance evaluation, or your company’s DEI commitments can be reflected in your grantmaking process. Weaving CSR, HR, and DEI work together makes it all stronger.”
Ways to Improve Your Employee Engagement Program Through Diversity
Improving your employee engagement through diversity entails adopting various strategies. Here are a few.
Enhanced Training Programs: Equip your employees with the necessary tools to understand and appreciate diversity. Consider developing modules that focus on unconscious bias training, cultural sensitivity and inclusive communication, helping employees to navigate a diverse work environment with empathy and understanding.
Mentorship and Sponsorship: Encourage veteran employees to mentor newcomers, fostering a culture of inclusivity. This can also aid in the smoother transition and integration of newcomers into the company culture, promoting a supportive work ecosystem where every individual can thrive.
Diverse Hiring Practices: Ensure your hiring practices are structured to attract a diverse pool of candidates. By embracing a diversity-first approach in recruitment, companies can not only enrich their talent pool but also foster innovation and drive business growth by bringing in a mix of perspectives and skills.
Inclusive Leadership: Encourage leaders within your organization to actively champion diversity. This could involve training to help them understand different cultures and perspectives better, and developing skills to manage diverse teams effectively. Demonstrating commitment at the highest levels can set a powerful example for the entire organization.
Employee Resource Groups: Establish resource groups for underrepresented employees, offering them platforms to connect, share experiences, and support one another. These groups can also serve as think tanks to foster innovative ideas and perspectives, which can be beneficial for the business.
Feedback Loop: Create a continuous feedback loop where employees can freely express their opinions and concerns regarding the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts. Making use of anonymous surveys or suggestion boxes can help in garnering honest feedback. This approach ensures that your strategies are dynamic and evolve based on real-time input from your team, fostering a culture that respects and values each individual’s opinion.
Measuring and Evaluating Diversity in Employee Engagement
To steer a successful diversity initiative, it is imperative to have an evaluation mechanism in place. Companies must invest in determining
(KPIs) and other metrics to gauge the progress of their diversity initiatives, ensuring their strategies align with the set objectives.
By implementing a comprehensive evaluation mechanism, organizations can not only measure the quantitative impact of their efforts but also gain insights into the qualitative aspects of employee engagement and inclusion. This multifaceted approach ensures that diversity initiatives are not just token gestures, but instead, actively contribute to creating more inclusive employee engagement programs and equitable workplaces overall. It enables companies to adapt and refine their strategies as needed, fostering an environment of continuous improvement and a genuine commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The intersection of employee engagement, CSR and diversity represents a pivotal pathway for businesses to thrive in today’s evolving corporate landscape. Diversity is both a moral imperative and a strategic asset that is fundamental to shaping comprehensive CSR strategies. In other words, it’s essential for businesses to recognize that diversity and inclusion is good for CSR work, beneficial for the bottom line, and most importantly, beneficial to everyone. The benefits of embedding diversity into employee engagement programs are evident, including enhanced creativity, improved reputation and increased employee satisfaction.
A thoughtful and multifaceted approach is essential to success and reflects an honest commitment to creating employee engagement programs that work for employees and the communities where they live and work.
3 Business Trends That Your CSR Strategy Can’t Afford to Ignore
Corporate social responsibility. We hear the term all the time, but what does it really mean, and why is it so important in today’s business landscape?
CSR is the concept that companies can—and should—use their capital, resources and influence to support, benefit and work with the communities in which they operate, to add value that reflects the community itself. It’s rooted in the idea that businesses are about more than making money and answering to shareholders; they have an equal responsibility to the societies of which they are a part.
Subscribing to this concept and actually having strong corporate social responsibility strategies is more important than ever in a world embattled by poverty, political conflicts, economic crises, climate change and intensifying natural and human-made disasters. In fact, our own
shows that more than 80% of respondents around the world expect companies to address the social ills in their countries. CSR can act as a ray of hope amidst societal challenges; businesses have the resources and commitment to take on the most important issues of our day and work to create a better world for us and future generations.
Here, we dive into three critical trends affecting business and show you how to effectively incorporate them into your company’s CSR strategy.
Business Trend 1: Stakeholder Pressure for Strong ESG Practices
Stakeholders don’t want to hear vague statements about companies “doing good.” They want to know the specifics of what companies are doing to address the climate crisis and major social issues of our day, how they are making and carrying out these decisions and the real impact they are creating. This is ESG: environment, social impact and (corporate) governance.
ESG is rapidly becoming a focal point of CSR, even a practical stand-in for the broad term. The stakeholders homing in on ESG include:
Investors, who are increasingly seeking out and prioritizing companies that are committed to creating a net positive by doing good and/or minimizing harmful business practices.
Customers, who more and more commonly choose to buy from companies they see as having a positive impact.
Employees, who are progressively opting to work for companies with stronger CSR policies, sometimes even taking a pay cut to do so.
, 69% of employees agreed that having societal impact is a strong expectation or deal breaker when considering a job. These expectations are even more pronounced among younger generations. Cognizant’s report
found that eight in 10 Millennials and 84% of Gen Z respondents say “responsible and ethical business practices are extremely or very important to them when choosing an employer.”
CSR Strategy Solution: Double Down on ESG—Especially Social Impact
“As investors and consumers continue to prefer businesses with the right environmental and social credentials, companies in 2023 will need to make sure their ESG processes are moved to the center of their strategy,” says the
(ACCP). Savvy companies should take note and double down on their ESG practices, particularly the “S,” social impact.
Within social impact and racial equity are essential areas to focus on. “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) principles promote the equitable treatment and participation of all people with a focus on the underrepresented and those subjected to discrimination due to their racial and ethnic background, gender identity, disability, etc. Organizations are increasingly expected to apply these principles throughout the development of all their activities,” says Jerome Tennille writing for
.
After the murders of George Floyd and countless other Black Americans in and around 2020, many companies spoke up on the brutal consequences of racism and turned inward to establish or enhance their DEI initiatives. For some, that meant analyzing their internal diversity, leadership opportunities for employees from underrepresented backgrounds, hiring practices and more. For others, it was a time of increased diversity pledges, donations and partnerships with organizations led by and/or dedicated to supporting people who have historically been discriminated against.
Since 2020, however, too many companies have
. It may not be the prime news story anymore, but companies still have a responsibility to deliver on their DEI goals and foster more equitable company cultures and communities.
Take this as an opportunity to consider how your company can reinvigorate its DEI efforts through fundraising, grants (unrestricted ones are immensely helpful), volunteering or partnering with organizations that further its racial equity goals.
Business Trend 2: Employees Speaking Out on Work and Purpose
In recent years, changes to the employer-employee dynamic have shifted power to employees in new ways. During the pandemic, overwhelm and burnout fueled the Great Resignation and widespread movement toward freelance work, self-employment and entrepreneurship instead of full-time work for a company. Employees voiced – and continue to voice – their frustration with traditional corporate work culture, though sometimes not with words but actions, like actively disengaging from work or leaving companies altogether.
On the purpose front, some employees have been taking part in a movement to bring their whole self to work. They are increasingly vocal about the causes that are important to them, their need to express these concerns at work and their desire for their companies to show solidarity and take a stand.
CSR Strategy Solution: Employee-Driven CSR Programs and Volunteer Opportunities
Employees are no longer satisfied just knowing about their company’s CSR efforts; they want to be given meaningful opportunities to participate in and shape impact strategies. They value having a voice and seat at the table in deciding what these opportunities are, such as corporate fundraisers, employee donation matching programs and volunteering. Some employees are also passionate about having a say in the company’s CSR strategy itself, from the causes the company dedicates its time and resources toward to which community partners it aligns itself with in order to carry out this work.
Consider taking a bottom-up approach to your company’s CSR strategy that listens to what employees have to say, takes into account their priorities and gives them agency in how they participate. You can learn what issues matter most to employees through (non-mandatory) company-wide meetings, digital polls or surveys, for instance. If your core CSR strategy and issue areas are already set, provide an outlet for employees to do things on their own through volunteer time off and rewards programs like matching gifts and dollars for doers, or create opportunities for employees to voice which specific nonprofit organizations, foundations and community partners they want the company to work with in alignment with those set issue areas and/or their preferred tactics for supporting a cause (e.g. volunteering, mentoring, advocacy, fundraising and donations).
“When you’re looking to level up your social impact program, business integration is key,” advises Points of Light Chief Global Corporate Solutions Officer Katie Stearns. “Invite your HR and DEI colleagues to the table and explore how your goals and roadmaps integrate. Perhaps participation as a volunteer champion becomes part of an employee’s performance evaluation, or your company’s DEI commitments can be reflected in your grantmaking process. Weaving CSR, HR and DEI work together makes it all stronger.”
Employee-led CSR strategies and programs aren’t just about making employees feel good; they have been proven to increase trust in companies, a hard-won and valuable thing in uncertain times like we’ve experienced the past few years. Eighty-five percent of employees and 84% of customers are more likely to trust businesses that involve them in charitable giving decisions, according to Benevity’s
Business Trend 3: Potential Recession-Driven Spending Concerns and Budget Cuts
“2023 will put CSR to the test. During recessions, corporate social impact is even more important, as it has the potential to strengthen your business in the short term and solidify relationships with stakeholders over the long term,” says
. “Customers, investors and employees alike look at corporate purpose when making decisions, and cutting commitments to the community may affect their desire to support your company.”
Whether or not a recession actually occurs, the value-add of a strong CSR strategy remains. It can insulate companies against a number of other precarious situations we’ve already witnessed in this decade like inflation, the Great Resignation, global economy-affecting wars and the pandemic. Doubling down on purpose is a proven way for companies to build resilience against major events like these.
CSR Strategy Solution: Right-Size Your Impact
When it comes to recession-proofing employee engagement programs, social impact professionals can look to
their work to ensure initiatives are effective, efficient and aligned with company goals. Use a recession as a time to hone your measurement practices and work collaboratively with HR and other departments to tell the full story of why its not just good for communities but for employees and the company itself.
In addition to contributing to important causes and making the world a better place, studies have found that volunteering has meaningful benefits for corporate volunteers (employees) themselves and the companies that host corporate volunteer programs. For example, employees who are engaged in corporate social responsibility programs show markedly lower turnover rates, dropping by 57% in employee groups most deeply connected to their companies’ giving and volunteering efforts, according to
found that 91% of employees say their company’s purpose makes them feel like they are in the right place through tumultuous times, like economic instability and the pandemic.
to help community engagement practitioners and purpose-driven professionals unlock their company’s full potential for doing good. Regardless of company size or industry, the playbook’s framework and tactics can serve as a roadmap to drive your business’s social impact more strategically and holistically in your community and organization.
Amplify Your Company’s CSR Strategy with Points of Light
to inspire, equip and mobilize people to take action that changes the world. We are a nonpartisan, global nonprofit organization that connects people to their power to make a meaningful difference by providing access to tools, resources and opportunities to help individuals and organizations use their time, talent, voice and resources to meet the critical needs of our communities.
Points of Light offers a wide variety of
to help level-up your team and increase your impact. Check out our best-in-class tools, frameworks and customized support, including:
Consulting and Strategic Planning: No matter where you are on your corporate citizenship journey, we can help with designing, expanding and supporting your growth. Utilize our expertise and established processes to evaluate, analyze, recommend, implement and prove the impact of your employee engagement programs.
DIY Employee Engagement Equipping: We’ll design a customized playbook for your employees or teams to independently plan and manage projects for a specific cause or range of causes that are important to them.
Direct Employee Engagement: Attain a customized solution to strengthen your corporate employee volunteer and civic engagement program, one that is aligned specifically to your company’s strategic objectives.
Points of Light Engage®—The World’s Largest Digital Volunteer Network: Points of Light pulls volunteer opportunities from sites across the web to provide the most comprehensive database of volunteer opportunities around the world. Individuals can search for volunteer projects, nonprofits can post and manage event sign-ups and visitors are invited to start projects of their own – all in one place.
Don’t just take our word for it. Katharine Jensen, head of corporate responsibility at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and executive director of The Vertex Foundation, has this to say about working with us: “It is more important than ever to build a sense of community among our employees, engage them in giving back and provide them with a wide range of hands on volunteering opportunities in the communities where we live and work. The partnership with Points of Light has enabled growth of our annual Day of Service volunteer initiative, and our most successful year yet with more than 50% of our employees volunteering globally.”
Virtual Volunteering Best Practices: 4 Ways to Support Remote Employee Volunteers
Use the best practices listed below to determine how you might work with a partner on virtual volunteer projects. The Israeli Council for Volunteering has also published a list of guidance to share with virtual volunteers.
Virtual volunteering has likely become a mainstay within your company’s employee community engagement strategy by now. Perhaps you dabbled in it before the pandemic, but now there’s an increased demand to find ways to involve your remote and hybrid coworkers as well as those who can’t easily make it to an in-person project taking place at a location separate from your offices.
As you know, volunteering online is markedly different from participating in volunteering in the traditional sense. For example, there’s usually more flexibility in the use of a volunteer’s time, potentially a greater degree of independence and very little (if any) interaction with various nonprofit staff members or the volunteer’s own colleagues. These nuances might appeal greatly to certain segments of your employee volunteer population.
Before you recruit volunteers to help an organization remotely, discuss the project’s description and associated tasks along with outcome expectations with your nonprofit partner. You’ll also need to review any organizational policies that your company and your nonprofit partner have put in place to avoid risks and handle confidentiality of shared information (if applicable).
Considerations for Virtual Volunteering
Determine your volunteers’ readiness
Do they have regular, ongoing access to the internet?
Will the company allow them to utilize company-issued equipment to complete the volunteer assignments or sign on to the technology platform that your nonprofit partner provides?
Depending on the type of virtual volunteer projects you are developing, are employee volunteers comfortable working on their own, without constant or direct supervision?
Is this the right time for volunteers to take on a virtual project? Make sure you are aware of upcoming milestones or work cycles that might hinder participation, even though it’s virtual. Often volunteers feel great about the timeline to complete a project when they first sign up, but other professional and personal obligations can get in the way of delivering on time. The last thing you want is to leave the nonprofit with unmet needs.
Define a schedule to complete the project
Will you create a set time of day or week when volunteers will work on virtual assignments? Develop a timeline, however approximate, for volunteers to complete the tasks your organization has committed to do. Obviously, if this is an episodic or time-limited project, it will be a lot easier to manage its completion.
Set up a communications routine with your nonprofit partner
Report regularly on the progress employee volunteers are making against the tasks assigned. This is especially true if it’s a skills-based volunteer project that involves a team of volunteers representing different business functions. Review what you’ve accomplished, and what your immediate next activities will be. Ask questions! It doesn’t have to be a large, involved report; just a short, friendly update will do.
Find ways to motivate your virtual volunteers
Should your volunteer project timeline last over the course of several weeks, check in with your employee teams to ensure they’re focused on achieving the outcomes that were agreed upon in conversation with your nonprofit partners. Because these projects are somewhat “out of sight, out of mind,” use varying communication methods and incentives to inspire employee volunteers to follow-through until completion.
Finally, if your employee volunteers happen to be working on a skills-based project on behalf of your NGO partner, make sure you’ve built sustainability into the project’s associated tasks. You want to ensure that your employee volunteers have documented their process or can be reached if troubleshooting is required.
Remind your volunteer teams that nonprofits often work with limited resources and they may need to work within confined budgets and with the staff they have on hand. The most important part of the virtual volunteer project is ensuring that what you leave behind works — and can be sustained by your nonprofit partner.
Empowering Employee Voice: Tools and Strategies for Workplace Engagement
Voice represents an individual’s ability to influence their network and interpersonal connections — including people they don’t even know — to raise awareness, advocate for, promote, protest or advance a cause or social issue.
In recent years, young people have regularly exercised their voices by uplifting issues, convincing peers to vote, calling out for racial justice and spurring social change. In fact, according to Cause and Social Influence’s
, two of the top five actions that young people (aged 18-30) took were signing a petition and posting and sharing content on social issues via social media.
But what happens when personal and professional lives blur?
Every day, younger generations are entering the workforce with heightened social awareness and a passion for action. Millennials and Gen Z alike are demanding that brands take stands and are using their own voices to invite others to join them in supporting causes.
Employee voice manifests in the workplace in several ways:
Internally, employees may object to business practices that go against stated corporate or personal values. We’ve seen several examples of this, from employees walking out in protest of organizations their employer does business with to employees unionizing in order to demonstrate their desire to work for an employer that authentically lives up to its values.
Externally, employees can use their individual and collective voice to demonstrate support for causes they’re personally passionate about and to help raise awareness for the social issues their employer is working to solve. Sometimes an employee’s personal passions may not align with company policy or values, which can be construed as distracting if brought into the work environment. Think of news stories of employees being prevented from wearing apparel with certain slogans to work or being fired after it’s revealed that they participated in protests. In contrast, some employers provide paid time off to march, vote or serve in public office, and some even offer bail funds to employees arrested while peacefully protesting in support of a corporate cause area.
Employee voice in the workplace comes with opportunities and challenges and can highlight a potentially detrimental double standard – when an employer supports employees raising their voice for corporate impact areas yet limits employees from supporting the issues they care about personally.
Companies are so diverse in the composition of their workforce, the causes important to their business, their internal practices and processes and, most importantly, their tolerance for risk.
What role do you play in empowering employee voice while also improving specific social conditions based on your corporate social impact strategy?
To help navigate the timely issue of employee activism, we’ve created a checklist of considerations to guide internal conversations around empowering employee voice and minding that double standard.
Advocacy Education & Training
Now is the time to integrate opportunities for employee education, not just about the issues in our world but also how and when to use voice in the workplace.
Do you have resources available that offer the education and skills employees need to operate as “active bystanders” and engage in inclusive and important conversations? Are you highlighting these educational opportunities and tools as often as possible and sharing them with new recruits? Are there specific teams that need additional training on certain issues like bias and discrimination, whether they deal with fellow employees, customers or your nonprofit partners and beneficiaries? Are you ensuring that they are informed about the company’s actions on any relevant current events? Can these educational opportunities be fully integrated into professional development plans and your company’s learning management system?
Communication & Conversations
There is no question: employees want to hear clearly and unambiguously about the values of their organization and their leaders and be provided with an outlet to share their own.
How often are employees hearing from their supervisors or senior leadership team on issues that affect the business but also affect the communities in which their employer operates? Has your company hosted meetings, town halls or frontline forums when the C-Suite or senior leaders present changes within the organization and invite employees to ask questions and share ideas? Does that include invitations to be included in follow-up conversations, further thinking and implementation? How often has your employer reiterated having an open-door policy to middle management?
If your company or CEO has made a public statement in support of a cause like women’s rights or in reaction to criticized business practices, are you ensuring that these statements are followed up on with status reports and real change rather than performative actions? Have you explored how employees might be encouraged to add their support?
Internal Networks
Building supportive communities for employees to advance social causes that are significant to their employer and important to them personally allows them a place to collectively advocate for change and raise awareness amongst their peers.
Are your affinity networks or employee resource groups given the support they need to be effective in their work? Is your company relying on them to solve problems that need to be solved elsewhere or by others? Are they being considered a “silver bullet” to mitigate a public-facing issue? For example, ERGs have played an outsized role recently related to racial injustice. So be cognizant of their needs, whether that means additional training, time and space to reflect, or minimizing undue burden. For more guidance, re-read Triple Pundit’s interesting take on the cost of asking too much of ERGs here and Sector Executive Media’s recent take on paying ERG leaders here.
Organizational Policies
Policies provide guidance, consistency, accountability, efficiency and clarity on how an organization operates. They should be written without bias to emphasize civility and respect and ensure that all employees feel they belong.
When was the last time your company policy around social media usage was reviewed? If more risk averse, have you provided boilerplate disclaimers that employees can easily insert into their social profiles as they use those platforms?
What about your corporate dress code policy? What does it imply to employees? Have you thought about when and where company-branded or volunteer program-branded shirts can be worn outside of company-organized, in-person volunteering? Can you create a policy or set of approved guidelines that balance the need for personal passions and public expression of what the company supports?
Has the company reviewed Paid Time Off policies and enhanced benefits to include taking time off to vote, volunteer, peacefully march or serve in a public role?
Have you provided tools for employees to voice their opinions on organizational policies and instructions for seeking change?
Technology Tools
For large employers and for those savvy in technology, you might consider using online surveys and regular pulse checks to gauge the internal climate and find out more from your employees.
How often are you using these tools to check in and, just as important, how often are you sharing the results and the actions the company will take based on those results? Ensure these tools are deployed consistently but not so often that they become unnecessary noise or tedious to respond to. While the notion of a “suggestion box” is old school, is there a more modern version that can be deployed through internal communication channels like Slack where employees can see what others are voicing and vote on what needs swift action?
After surveying employees, is the company encouraging managers to hold team sessions to review results, discuss top areas of success and improvements, and build action plans together?
This list of considerations will help you in your quest to empower employees to use their voice and feel supported at their workplace. No matter what tools your company decides to implement to support internal and external employee activism, embrace transparency and authenticity in words, actions and practices. Our greatest chance for success at moving the needle on many of the social issues facing our world is for both corporate voices and individual voices to be amplified and acted on to create positive change.
Voice is just one element of civic engagement that Points of Light explores in our digital magazine, “Civic Life Today.” You can read the edition on Voice
honors the most community-minded companies in the nation that are leading the way across four dimensions: investment of resources, integration across business functions, institutionalization through policies and systems, and impact measurement. The 2023 honorees top the charts on all fronts, and there’s much to learn from them.
4 key CSR insights from The Civic 50 to bring back to your organization:
1. Financial Generosity
In terms of financial and in-kind donations, The Civic 50 honorees have gotten more generous over the years, contributing an average of .55% of revenue in 2023 (up from .34% in 2019). By comparison, data from CECP find that most U.S companies, on average, donate the equivalent of .18% of revenue. Not every organization will have equal capacities for generosity, but you can explore more intricate approaches to philanthropy.
2. Internally Oriented Programming
The Civic 50 have steadily increased the percentage of employees participating in internal company volunteering, such as employee resource groups and green teams, from an average of 33% in 2019 to 54% in 2023. Conversely, lockdown and other factors reduced the average percentage of The Civic 50’s employees involved in external volunteering, such as packing meals at a soup kitchen or serving on a nonprofit board, from 40% to 31% during those same five years.
3. Strategic Integration of Community Efforts
Community engagement has become more central to business management. The percentage of The Civic 50 honorees that discuss community engagement in corporate board meetings has steadily increased from 86% in 2019 to 98% in 2023. Similarly, 2023 is the first year in which a majority of The Civic 50 honorees leveraged community engagement to support each of the 11 major business functions, including purchasing, skill development and marketing. The takeaway: corporate social impact is at its best when it is fully integrated with business operations.
4. Commitment to Social Justice
The percentage of honorees that focused their community involvement on civil/human rights, equality, equity and inclusion increased from 24% pre-pandemic to 52% in 2021. It’s now at 60%, making social justice that number one cause area. Similarly, the percentage of The Civic 50 that formally consider the diversity of board and staff in selecting partner nonprofits increased from 44% in 2021 (the first year this data was available) to 64% this year. If the increased attention to social justice (and disaster response during the pandemic) has reduced focus on other cause areas, it appears to have done so only modestly. Research has shown that both your employees and the general public care more than ever about not only whether but also how your organization takes a stand.
The Civic 50 honorees demonstrate deeper and more sophisticated corporate social impact. Learn more about how to take your company’s strategies to the next level by downloading the full
Dollars for Doers Programs: A Guide to Employee-Driven Contributions for Nonprofits
Imagine a program that transforms every moment of employee volunteerism into an additional catalyst for impactful change. That’s the power of a “Dollars for Doers” initiative, which some companies might call volunteer or community service grants. Not only does it amplify the positive footprint of your company’s corporate social responsibility efforts, but it also ignites a virtuous cycle of employee engagement and community upliftment.
With Dollars for Doers, you’re not just recognizing volunteerism, you’re supercharging it. By converting every hour volunteered into monetary support, your employees are doubling down on turning goodwill into measurable impact.
As CSR leaders, you’ll witness the ripple effect firsthand: increased employee morale, stronger community relationships and a tangible demonstration of your company’s commitment to creating a better world. It’s more than just a program; it’s a dynamic expression of corporate values that has the potential to improve the lives of both employees and recipients. Let’s take a deeper look at this employer-sponsored but employee-driven program.
A “Dollars for Doers” (D4D) program in its simplest form is a corporate philanthropic initiative that encourages employees to engage in volunteerism by providing monetary donations to the nonprofit organizations where they volunteer their time. It’s part reward and part incentive by allowing the employee to donate their time to an organization, while the company acknowledges its employees’ dedication by donating cash to the same cause, therefore allowing the employee to theoretically “give twice.” It’s becoming increasingly popular among companies and
tells us that 59% are offering this as part of their social impact strategy.
Dollars for Doers: What to Know
Advantages
Provides employees with a way to direct company dollars to causes and organizations they support.
Recognizes and reinforces employees’ contributions of time and energy for community organizations.
Provides data for tracking volunteering involvement, which is helpful in developing new programs and communicating the program’s success.
Can be used to support specific company-sponsored activities or partners.
Disadvantages
Requires the development, implementation and monitoring of specific company policies and procedures.
Depending on employer-defined guidelines, it can be difficult for employees to hit thresholds and take advantage of the program. In fact, though widely offered, it’s rumored to be one of the least utilized community engagement offerings due to high thresholds, restrictions, communication challenges and lack of supportive policies to enable its use.
Running the program may be costly and requires a strategy for determining qualifying organizations and activities.
The specifics of a Dollars for Doers program varies from one company to another, including factors like the donation rate, maximum contribution limits, eligible nonprofit organizations, eligible activities, and reporting mechanisms. Some companies tailor their programs to align with their focus areas and strategic partners while others allow Dollars for Doers to support the causes that employees care about personally.
Here’s a general overview of how it often works:
Eligibility Requirements: Consider the types of organizations and activities that you want to make eligible for the program along with any restrictions on employee eligibility. Use this time to also determine the value of a volunteer hour and any miniums or thresholds.
Budget: Determine how much money to set aside to fund the program by analyzing your current volunteer efforts, participation rate and the grant dollars you can allocate. This should also include the use of technology to support administration of the program.
Build Awareness: Provide information on the program in recruitment efforts and in new hire onboarding. Communicate this opportunity to employees throughout the year.
Volunteer Hours Tracking: Employees volunteer their time with eligible nonprofit organizations. They log their volunteer hours through the company’s designated system or online platform.
Submission and Verification: Employees submit their volunteer hours to the company along with relevant documentation or verification from the nonprofit organizations they serve.
Donation Distribution: Once the submitted hours are verified, the company calculates the total donation amount based on the accumulated volunteer hours. This amount is then donated to the respective nonprofit organizations. Turnaround time for the donation varies and could be processed at set times during the year.
Recognition and Reporting: Employees may receive recognition for their volunteer efforts within the company, fostering a culture of service. The company might also report on the impact of the program by sharing the total number of volunteer hours contributed and the corresponding donations made.
A “Dollars for Doers” program serves multiple purposes. It promotes employee engagement, increases corporate social responsibility, strengthens ties between the company, the employee and the community, and provides much-needed support to nonprofit organizations. Additionally, it can enhance your company’s reputation and brand image, showcasing its commitment to social causes beyond its core business activities.
