For modern companies, employee engagement has become more of a priority than ever. Gallup’s research reveals that less than one-third of U.S. employees are currently engaged in their roles.
While there are many contributing factors to consider, it’s important to note that competitive pay and benefits are no longer enough to satisfy many of today’s employees. What they’re looking for is a company with purpose—one that’s committed to making an impact on its community.
Corporate giving software is the key to unlocking this social impact. In this guide, we’ll cover all you need to know about these platforms, including:
- FAQs About Corporate Giving Software
- Top Corporate Giving Platforms for Social Impact
- How to Implement Corporate Giving Software
- Recent Trends Related to Workplace Giving Platforms
Corporate giving software facilitates every aspect of your company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices so you can run seamless programs for your employees. Equipped with the right tools for the job, you’ll be well on your way to improving employee engagement, enhancing your brand reputation, and changing the world for the better.
FAQs About Corporate Giving Software
Before you jump into researching potential corporate giving platforms for your company, explore these frequently asked questions to build a solid foundation for your team’s efforts:
What is corporate giving software?
Corporate giving software refers to any platforms that companies use to streamline and manage their corporate giving initiatives, such as matching gifts or employee volunteering events.
Also known as employee giving software or a workplace giving platform, corporate giving software makes it easy for employees to get involved in your corporate philanthropy activities and for you to track their engagement. With 94% of major U.S. corporations planning to maintain or heighten their charitable giving in the next few years, investing in these tools allows your company to take its place as a CSR leader in the eyes of employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
What are the benefits of workplace giving platforms?
By adopting a workplace giving platform and using it to launch high-impact programs that resonate with your employees, your company can:
- Boost employee engagement. According to the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, of the 51% of companies that measure the connection, 91% find that employees who volunteer are more engaged than those who don’t. When employees participate in your company’s social impact, they’ll feel much closer to your corporate culture and driven to play a role in your ongoing success.
- Appeal to younger generations of talent. 35% of Millennial and Gen Z employees report that giving programs are a factor in deciding whether to stay at their current job, compared to only 16% of Baby Boomers and 22% of Gen X. By embracing corporate giving software, your company can demonstrate to younger generations of job applicants that you’re committed to supporting their career interests and priorities.
- Increase employee satisfaction and well-being. Recent psychology research reveals that prosocial spending, or using financial resources to help others, leads to higher happiness and well-being. A corporate giving platform allows you to create opportunities for employees to feel purposeful in their roles and give back to their communities.
- Build customer trust and loyalty. 84% of consumers believe that customers, employees, and investors should have the chance to be involved in a company’s corporate giving initiatives. Collecting stakeholder feedback and using your employee giving software to report on your social impact is an effective way to demonstrate transparency and bring in more socially conscious customers.
More than 55% of U.S. employees indicate that it’s very important or imperative to have an easy-to-find platform for registering for events, participating in giving, and tracking hours online. Corporate giving software empowers your company to maximize the benefits of workplace giving while minimizing the time and effort it takes to run these programs.
What are the essential features of employee giving software?
Whether you’ve never used corporate giving software before or you’re interested in upgrading to a solution that better fits your needs, these are some of the key features that you should look for:
- Company and employee giving. Your company and its employees should be able to easily make and manage donations to nonprofits. Look for a workplace giving platform that allows you to present a variety of giving options, such as payroll deductions, to increase participation.
- Matching gifts. Companies with a matching gift program typically match their employees’ contributions to eligible nonprofits at a 1:1 ratio. Your social impact technology solution should handle donation tracking and automatically process matching gift requests based on your program criteria.
- Volunteer management. With comprehensive corporate giving software, your company should be able to plan its own volunteer events and broadcast upcoming nonprofit volunteering opportunities. Then, employees can search for opportunities they’re interested in and sign up directly on your platform.
- Volunteer grants. Similar to matching gifts, companies that offer volunteer grants make donations to nonprofits after their employees volunteer a certain number of hours with them. Your workplace giving platform should facilitate the process by tracking volunteer hours and managing volunteer grant requests.
- Mobile app. Pay special attention to corporate giving software that has a mobile app to provide added convenience to employees and encourage their involvement.
- Reporting. According to Porter Novelli’s survey of 7,000 U.S. adults, 70% agree that companies should talk about how they address social and environmental issues continuously throughout the year, rather than occasionally. You should be able to use your corporate giving platform to generate real-time reports on your impact, so you can communicate it to stakeholders and improve your efforts moving forward.
While high-quality corporate giving software should include a host of features that streamline your programs and employee engagement, this doesn’t mean that it needs to be complicated to use. Opt for a modern, user-friendly solution that provides less hassle, not more.
Top Corporate Giving Platforms for Social Impact
Ready to discover the perfect fit for your company’s corporate giving goals? Check out our top recommended solutions to jumpstart your research:
1. Uncommon Giving
Uncommon Giving is a feature-rich, intuitive corporate giving platform that is tailor-made for companies looking to infuse generosity and social impact into their corporate culture. Our software deploys in less than 24 hours so you can start engaging employees, boosting your brand reputation, and making a difference in your community as soon as possible.
Purpose-driven organizations such as Bloomerang, Chick-fil-A, and Regent Bank leverage Uncommon Giving’s tools to run impactful corporate giving programs that resonate with their employees, customers, and investors.
Uncommon Giving empowers companies of all sizes to develop successful corporate giving programs with these features:
- Corporate giving. Manage all of your company’s corporate giving activities on one easy-to-use dashboard that integrates with your payroll system.
- Employee giving and matching. Set up a matching gift program that allows employees to double or triple the impact of their donations to causes they care about. Appeal to varying giving preferences by offering options such as automatic payroll deductions or recurring gifts to 501(c)(3) nonprofits.
- Volunteering. Encourage more employees to get involved in your CSR efforts by planning community service events, promoting volunteer opportunities, and processing volunteer grants. Employees can log their volunteer hours and upload photos to share their experiences with peers.
- Charitable wallet. Donor-advised funds (DAFs) are charitable giving accounts that allow donors to deposit funds they plan on contributing to nonprofits at a later time. Uncommon Giving provides each of your employees with their own DAF and a database of over 1.2 million verified nonprofits for finding new causes to support.
- Mobile app. Make it easy and convenient to participate in your corporate philanthropy with Uncommon Giving’s full-function mobile app. Employees can sign up to volunteer, track their hours, share photos, and make donations using their DAFs all on their smartphones.
- Self-service reporting. Keep an eye on your corporate giving performance with real-time dashboards and reports that allow you to share your impact with internal and external stakeholders.
To get a better idea of how Uncommon Giving can play a role in your company’s corporate giving initiatives, take a look at our brief platform overview:
As the video demonstrates, Uncommon Giving eliminates the administrative burden associated with conducting corporate giving programs for your employees. With our corporate giving software solution on your side, you’ll be able to unite and engage your employees through purposeful generosity.
2. Benevity
Benevity’s Corporate Purpose Solution streamlines employee engagement, community investment, and customer engagement for companies of varying sizes and industries.
With Benevity’s corporate giving software, companies can:
- Make donations to local and international nonprofits.
- Automate matching gifts.
- Facilitate volunteer grants and in-kind donations.
- Allow employees to create their own volunteer events.
You can even engage your customers in corporate giving by adding donation widgets to your website pages or creating a branded public giving site.
3. Selflessly
Selflessly is a workplace giving platform that can manage all of a company’s social impact initiatives in one place.
Selflessly’s extensive features allow companies to:
- Enable payroll deductions and recurring gifts
- Create and share volunteer activities with employees.
- Automate a matching gift program.
- Access real-time impact metrics and reporting.
This software solution is designed with employee needs in mind and will even provide employees with the information they need to prepare for tax season.
4. Bonterra
Bonterra Corporate Social Responsibility, previously known as CyberGrants, handles a variety of CSR initiatives such as grantmaking and volunteering.
Bonterra’s corporate giving software provides companies with the ability to:
- Automate aspects of the grantmaking process.
- Offer multiple giving methods to employees, such as credit card giving and recurring payroll deductions.
- Create leaderboards to gamify volunteering and encourage participation.
- Measure impact with at-a-glance dashboards.
For companies that would like to take their corporate giving even further, Bonterra has optional add-ons such as a DAF and advanced support consulting.
5. isolved Giving & Volunteering
isolved Giving & Volunteering is part of the company’s HCM (human capital management) software for HR professionals who want to improve the employee experience.
With isolved’s features, businesses can:
- Process employee gifts with isolved Payroll software integration.
- Create employee spotlights and competitions to inspire giving.
- Automate donation and volunteer hour tracking.
- Promote company-sponsored nonprofits and causes to employees.
This employee giving software is especially suited for companies in the healthcare, finance, or professional services industries.
6. Chezuba
Chezuba empowers companies to make a difference in their communities with their all-in-one solution for corporate giving, volunteering, and grantmaking.
Specifically, companies can use Chezuba to:
- Promote employee giving through a matching gift program.
- Curate volunteer opportunities personalized to each employee.
- Gamify employee volunteering and donating.
- Access comprehensive real-time reports on employee engagement.
Chezuba offers custom CSR portals to match your brand and colors, so all of your users can have a cohesive experience that reinforces their connection with your company.
7. GoodUp
GoodUp’s corporate giving platform focuses on building a CSR culture in the workplace by engaging employees in a variety of social impact activities.
Using this software, companies can:
- Match employees with volunteer opportunities based on their skills and interests.
- Allow employees to create their own fundraising and emergency response campaigns.
- Organize item donation drives for employees to engage in.
- Automatically generate reports to measure employee participation.
GoodUp’s reporting and storytelling features use frameworks such as Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) so you can ensure that your CSR initiatives align with global standards.
8. Givinga
Philantech® is Givinga’s workplace giving platform that streamlines corporate giving for companies of all sizes.
The platform offers modern features that allow companies to:
- Integrate the software with their existing benefit systems.
- Use a customizable dashboard to manage all charitable activities.
- Download real-time reports and insights to refine their corporate giving strategy.
- Offer a secure donation process to employees with company-branded receipts.
Givinga assigns each of its customers a dedicated client success manager, or Philanthropic Advocate, to provide the necessary expertise and resources to meet their philanthropic goals.
9. POINT
POINT offers a mobile-first workplace giving platform for employees and a web admin platform for CSR program managers.
Through POINT, employees can:
- Find local or virtual volunteer opportunities.
- Track individual giving and volunteering impact.
- Use a Venmo-like donation tool to support verified nonprofits.
- Access an in-kind registry for contributing goods and services.
Plus, POINT integrates with Double the Donation’s matching gift software, which means that employees using this platform can tap into the latest auto-submission functionality. When they make a match-eligible donation, all they need to do is submit their company email address and the technology automatically handles the matching gift request on their behalf.
10. SmartSimple Cloud for Corporate Social Responsibility
SmartSimple’s corporate giving software is configured to facilitate each company’s specific CSR programs and processes.
SmartSimple Cloud for Corporate Social Responsibility simplifies many corporate giving activities, including:
- Automating repeated tasks associated with grantmaking.
- Setting up a matching gift program, volunteer grants, and scholarships.
- Managing sponsored nonprofit events.
- Building custom reports based on unique goals.
Using SmartSimple’s corporate giving platform, you can even support your employees during times of hardship by distributing employee assistance funds (EAFs).
11. America’s Charities Engage
America’s Charities Engage Solution is an all-in-one corporate giving platform that is designed to adapt to users’ shifting needs and grow alongside companies.
With its comprehensive features, Engage allows companies to:
- Build branded grant applications and assign submitted applications for review.
- Streamline in-kind donations and matching gifts.
- Offer employees paid time off to volunteer.
- Track and report on impact using frameworks like the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Engage prides itself on being a comprehensive and flexible solution for companies looking to expand their social impact and maximize employee participation.
How to Implement Corporate Giving Software
Now that you have the top options laid out in front of you, how do you go about choosing and implementing one of these solutions? Follow these essential steps to set your nonprofit up for success:
- Identify your needs and goals. Start by assessing your existing corporate giving programs and initiatives. For instance, do you have a volunteer grant program that you’d like more employees to participate in? Use these priorities to determine which features you need most in a corporate giving platform and which metrics you’ll want to be able to track.
- Conduct thorough research. Compile a list of potential options by exploring product pages and reading online reviews. Additionally, consider reaching out to other peers in your industry to see if they have any recommendations or advice based on their experience with implementing corporate giving software for their company.
- Request demos. Based on your research, narrow your list down to your most promising choices and request demos to get a clearer picture of how the software works. Evaluate each platform’s ease of use, data security, integration capabilities, and customer support before making your decision.
- Provide training. Create an implementation and training plan to smoothly incorporate your new workplace giving platform into your company’s operations. Hold training sessions and share educational resources that walk employees and administrators through how to use the software effectively.
- Promote giving programs. Once you have your corporate giving software in place, promote involvement opportunities to employees by mentioning them in your employee training materials, in email newsletters, and on your website. 34% of employees wish their companies would provide more information about their matching gift programs and how to get involved. Maximize their participation by making these details easy to access.
Ensure that your administrators and employees are having a rewarding experience with your corporate giving platform by sending out regular surveys to collect their feedback. Then, reinforce engagement by recognizing employees who participate in your philanthropic initiatives by spotlighting them on social media or presenting them with awards.
Recent Trends Related to Workplace Giving Platforms
Corporate giving software providers are constantly innovating to produce new features that better meet the needs of social impact companies. As of late, most of their attention surrounds these general trends:
- CSR is rising among small and mid-sized companies. Many workplace giving platforms, such as Uncommon Giving, have emerged to make philanthropy more accessible to companies of all sizes. This means that more small and mid-sized companies can leverage technology to run CSR programs, engage employees, and make an impact on their communities.
- Companies are developing more meaningful partnerships with nonprofits. According to Giving USA’s Annual Report on Philanthropy, giving by corporations has demonstrated the strongest growth rate compared to giving by individuals, foundations, or bequests. More companies and nonprofits are beginning to understand how partnerships can build credibility and expand the reach of both parties.
- Many companies are using philanthropy to address global events and crises. The World Economic Forum has identified multiple global risks that the world is currently facing, from extreme weather to the cost-of-living crisis. More companies are responding to emergencies and other immediate needs through philanthropy, with disaster/international aid nonprofits receiving the highest increase in revenue last year.
Stay tapped into these trends and other shifts in the corporate giving landscape to identify how you can best use your workplace giving platform to run CSR programs that resonate with your employees and make a meaningful impact.
Amplifying Generosity with Corporate Giving Software
After all of your corporate giving programs are up and running, remember to review metrics such as employee engagement to track their performance over time. Adopt an improvement mindset and survey your employees to find out what opportunities they’re most interested in participating in.
As you continue to make adjustments, you’ll be able to make the most of your corporate giving platform, create fulfilling experiences for your employees, and solidify your reputation as a leading CSR company.
If you’d like to learn more about how your company can better engage its employees in corporate giving, check out these additional resources:
- 12 Top Corporate Volunteering Platforms for Making an Impact. Explore cutting-edge corporate volunteering software solutions that will make it easy for you to engage employees in volunteering.
- Creating a Company Culture using the Power of Purpose. Discover how you can attract and retain employees by creating a company culture that revolves around social purpose.
- Engage your employees with the benefits of year-end charitable giving. Read more about the benefits of engaging employees in year-end giving and learn how to get started in this guide.
