In the eyes of today’s employees, consumers, and shareholders, a successful company is no longer defined by just its profits. Now, you must have a purpose—a commitment to bettering your community, developing a thriving workplace culture, and acting with integrity across your business practices.
As corporate social responsibility (CSR) becomes a rising priority around the world, your company needs to refine its strategies for engaging employees in social impact to stand out.
Fortunately, for modern companies, there are modern solutions. In this guide, we’ll explore how a corporate volunteering platform can streamline your CSR initiatives and share several top options to consider. We’ll cover:
- Corporate Volunteering Platform FAQs
- Essential Features of Corporate Volunteering Platforms
- Top Corporate Volunteering Platforms for Social Good
- How to Choose Corporate Volunteering Software
76% of U.S. employees want to work for a company that positively impacts the world and nearly half would consider resigning from their role if the company’s values didn’t align with their own. By investing in a corporate volunteering platform, you can make it easy for employees to step up in their communities and become a collective force for social good.
Corporate Volunteering Platform FAQs
Whether you already have an established employee volunteer program or you’re looking to launch one, it’s important to understand the basics of corporate volunteering software before you begin searching for the best solution for your company. Let’s go over some frequently asked questions:
What is a corporate volunteering platform?
A corporate volunteering platform equips companies with the tools they need to manage a successful corporate volunteering program, from sharing upcoming volunteer events to tracking hours served.
Using this type of software, you can provide a variety of volunteering opportunities to employees, such as volunteer grants, volunteer time off (VTO), and skills-based volunteering.
What are the benefits of workplace volunteer platforms?
A workplace volunteer platform allows you to maximize involvement in your corporate volunteering program, leading to a host of benefits for your company, employees, and community.
The following statistics illustrate exactly why businesses should use a corporate volunteering platform to improve their programs:
- Over 65% of people around the world want to work for an organization that has a powerful social conscience.
- 96% of companies find that employees who volunteer are more engaged than those who don’t.
- Companies experience 52% less turnover among new employees who participate in their corporate giving programs, like volunteer days.
- 73% of Americans indicate that companies must demonstrate how they’re supporting communities and the environment to win their support.
- Volunteers over the age of 60 report better physical health and lower rates of depression and anxiety.
What do these numbers tell us? A workplace volunteer platform provides the tools to drastically simplify the work needed to tap into these important benefits. Once established, this software will fuel a powerful flywheel of talent acquisition, engagement, retention, and positive brand impacts. Plus, as employees find it easier to take part in team-building volunteer events, they’ll develop a stronger sense of collaboration and trust with their colleagues.
Essential Features of Corporate Volunteering Platforms
As you explore your options for corporate volunteering software, keep an eye out for these essential features:
Event Management
Your corporate volunteering platform should allow your company to both promote nonprofit volunteering opportunities and plan your own in-person, hybrid, or virtual team volunteer activities.
Registration and Scheduling
Make participation and managing volunteer shifts easy by enabling employees to search and sign up for volunteer opportunities directly on your workplace volunteer platform.
Volunteer Profiles
Your employees have differing interests and motivations for volunteering. Most corporate volunteering platforms allow your company to store employees’ details in volunteer profiles so you can provide a personalized experience based on their skills, preferences, and volunteering histories.
Hours Tracking
Employees should be able to log their volunteer hours, whether they’re working toward the minimum requirement for a volunteer grant or tracking their VTO. Your company can also use this information to recognize and reward employees who go above and beyond.
Mobile Engagement
The average person spends more than five hours per day using their phone. Look for corporate volunteering software that offers a mobile app that gives employees convenient check-ins, hours tracking, and communications.
Volunteer Grants
40% of Fortune 500 companies have volunteer grant programs, in which they donate to a nonprofit based on how many hours their employees volunteer with that organization. Some corporate volunteering platforms automatically process volunteer grant requests to streamline these impactful opportunities.
Reporting
VolunteerMatch reports that the top two reasons people share for volunteering are making a difference in their community and contributing to a cause they care about. Keep your employees invested in your workplace volunteer program and improve your brand reputation by adopting a corporate volunteering platform that generates real-time reports on both individual and company-wide impact.
Use these main features as a jumping-off point for your research. If you have other workplace giving initiatives, such as matching donations or payroll deductions, make sure your solution offers a comprehensive set of features for all your CSR activities.
Top Corporate Volunteering Platforms for Social Good
To support your journey in researching corporate volunteering software for your company, we’ve compiled a list of top solutions to consider:
1. Uncommon Giving
Uncommon Giving is a modern, easy-to-use corporate volunteering platform designed to meet all of your company’s CSR needs. Our innovative platform minimizes the time and effort it takes to launch and conduct an impactful workplace giving program, freeing up resources that you can devote to other areas of your company’s success. Complete with intuitive giving, volunteering, and reporting tools, we make it easy for you to inspire generosity and deliver CSR impact.
We serve companies across sectors, like Bloomerang, Regent Bank, and Prime Finance, helping them engage more employees and make a lasting social impact on their communities. According to our customers, Uncommon Giving is “a culture and community MUST HAVE.”
Standout Features
With Uncommon Giving, companies of all sizes can tap into the following game-changing features:
- Giving and volunteering dashboard: Leverage an easy-to-use dashboard that launches in less than 24 hours and integrates with your payroll system to manage all of your corporate giving activities in one secure place.
- Personalized Generosity Feeds: Promote volunteer grant programs, plan team-wide events, and share volunteer opportunities with ease. Allow your employees to log their volunteer hours and follow nonprofit social media posts through personalized Generosity Feeds.
- Easy-to-manage giving programs: Facilitate employee giving by running a matching gift program, offering automatic payroll deductions, and enabling one-time or recurring donations to any 501(c)(3) organization through our platform.
- Charitable wallets for each employee: Donor-advised funds (DAFs) are charitable giving accounts typically reserved for wealthy donors who want to consolidate their future gifts to nonprofit causes in one place. Uncommon Giving makes DAFs accessible to all of your employees by providing them with a charitable wallet for making donations and a database of over 1.2 million vetted nonprofits to explore.
- Full-function mobile app: Empower employees to participate in your workplace giving programs whenever or wherever they’d like with Uncommon Giving’s free mobile app. Employees can sign up for volunteer opportunities, track hours, share photos, and use their charitable giving wallet on any mobile device.
- Real-time reporting: Measure your company’s employee engagement and social impact with configurable dashboards that display real-time program data. Share these reports with key stakeholders and use them to identify ways to improve your results moving forward.
For a more in-depth look at Uncommon Giving’s extensive features, check out our short video overview:
Pricing
With transparent, custom pricing plans starting at $1,999 annually, Uncommon Giving is affordable and cost-effective for companies of all sizes. To get a quote for your business, request a demo and discuss your CSR needs with our team.
2. Benevity
Benevity’s workplace volunteer platform aims to enhance employee engagement and strengthen company culture with tools that automate key processes such as event signups and time-tracking.
Benevity’s solution allows companies to:
- Create or share existing volunteering opportunities within the community.
- Provide personalized dashboards for employees to view their volunteer participation as a whole.
- Run and manage volunteer grants.
- Engage volunteer ambassadors around the world to make a global impact.
- Access real-time reports on volunteer engagement.
Plus, employees can strengthen bonds within the workplace by inviting their colleagues to join opportunities for which they’ve signed up.
Pricing: Benevity offers custom plans based on your business needs. Contact their team for more information.
3. Corporate Connect by Galaxy Digital
Corporate Connect is a volunteer management software solution that supports companies in reaching their volunteer program goals and amplifying their community impact.
Some of Corporate Connect’s key volunteer engagement tools include:
- Automated tools for tracking hours
- Real-time infographic reports on impact
- Mobile app for check-ins and hours tracking
- Personalized volunteer opportunity recommendations for employees
- Custom-branded company dashboard
Galaxy Digital’s Customer Experience Team provides a custom launch process and ongoing support as needed.
Pricing: Galaxy Digital offers personalized pricing options that range from a free interface to enterprise-level solutions.
4. Goodera
Goodera facilitates a variety of corporate volunteering opportunities for employee onboarding, service months, retreats, and more.
Companies using Goodera can:
- Tap into a network of over 50,000 nonprofits to find volunteer opportunities.
- Curate engaging volunteer activities based on their specific requirements.
- Schedule an in-person or virtual volunteer event hosted by a Goodera emcee.
- Access a 24/7 support desk with questions or concerns.
Additionally, Goodera allows you to send out post-event surveys to collect feedback on employee experiences, so you can better adjust your corporate volunteering strategy to their preferences.
Pricing: Goodera has monthly, quote-based pricing that differs based on the size and needs of your business.
5. Selflessly
Selflessly is built for companies that want to develop a socially conscious brand through corporate volunteering.
With this corporate volunteering platform, companies can:
- Plan a variety of team and skills-based volunteering events.
- Find over 60,000 local and national volunteer opportunities across the U.S.
- Identify key insights through purpose-driven reporting.
- Track individual and company-wide volunteer history.
Plus, if your company offers VTO, Selflessly allows employees to easily log and keep track of their hours.
Pricing: Reach out Selflessly to request pricing information. Their custom plans, ranging from SMB teams to enterprise, are based on your number of employees and specific CSR needs.
6. Volunteer from Submittable
Volunteer from Submittable is an employee-first workplace volunteer platform for companies that want to maximize participation with high-quality employee volunteering experiences.
Submittable’s solution allows employees to:
- Create and share their own volunteer events.
- Search through your company’s library of volunteering opportunities and sign up.
- View an individual dashboard that displays their impact and remaining VTO.
Additionally, your company can measure its impact and volunteer time spent on causes using employee dashboards and cross-organization reporting.
Pricing: Submitable offers plans for basic CSR, grant and application management, and enterprise. Book a meeting with the Submittable team for specific pricing details.
7. GivePulse
GivePulse is an all-in-one volunteer management software solution that companies, nonprofits, and higher education institutions can use to manage their volunteer programs.
GivePulse’s main tools allow users to:
- Schedule shifts, check in volunteers, and track hours on any device.
- Store volunteer information and past applications in a single database.
- Create email templates and automated reminders for volunteers.
- Track partnerships and affiliations with other organizations.
Companies can access GivePulse’s dedicated support team, which has an average response time of less than three hours, at any point during their engagement.
Pricing: GivePulse offers three main pricing plans, which range from $20 a month to $170 a month when billed annually. For enterprise solutions, plans start at $1 per employee per month.
8. Bonterra Corporate Social Responsibility
Bonterra Corporate Social Responsibility, formerly known as CyberGrants, allows companies to engage employees with a variety of volunteering opportunities.
The corporate volunteering platform’s key features include:
- Virtual or in-person volunteer event creation
- Dollars for Doers program management
- Volunteer gamification with leaderboards and other social elements
- Reporting on data such as hours volunteered and community impact
Every Bonterra CSR customer receives a dedicated point of contact for support and access to an online help center containing resources on best practices.
Pricing: Choose from Bonterra’s Employee Engagement, Grants Management, and Enterprise plans. Each comes with different features and customized pricing based on the size of your business.
9. isolved Giving & Volunteering
isolved Giving & Volunteering is a workplace giving platform for companies interested in increasing employee engagement, recruiting top talent, and tapping into the tax savings of corporate giving.
isolved Giving & Volunteering allows companies to:
- Automate corporate volunteering processes such as campaign launch and tax reporting.
- Process employee donations with isolved Payroll software integration.
- Spotlight employees and share program milestones.
- Connect to a network of over 2 million nonprofits to find volunteer events.
The top industries that leverage this workplace giving platform are healthcare, financial services, and professional services.
Pricing: Request pricing from isolved to get a customized quote for your business.
10. Chezuba
Chezuba is a CSR platform that supports companies with employee volunteering and workplace giving programs.
By using Chezuba, companies can:
- Curate volunteer opportunities based on employee skills and preferences.
- Access comprehensive real-time impact reports.
- Collect feedback from employees and nonprofits to improve their programs.
- Set up matching gift and volunteer grant programs.
The CSR platform will seamlessly integrate with your existing payroll systems and comes with a 24/7 customer support team.
Pricing: Chezuba doesn’t publish pricing information on its website, but G2 reports that pricing starts at $1/employee/month, with customized software starting at $5,000 per year.
11. Goodup
Goodup is an employee engagement platform for companies interested in amplifying their community impact and creating fulfilling volunteer experiences for employees.
Some of Goodup’s key features include:
- Personalized volunteer opportunity matching based on employee skills, interests, and location.
- Time-tracking, signup, and calendar reminder automation.
- Filtering based on skills, in-person vs. online, and individual vs. team opportunities.
Furthermore, Goodup’s basic plan comes with tools for workplace gamification and an easy-to-use interface for sharing impact stories.
Pricing: Goodup includes basic, professional, and enterprise plans with custom pricing and optional add-on services.
12. Deedmob
Deedmob’s corporate volunteering platform is designed for purpose-driven companies that want to engage more employees in their volunteer programs.
This solution provides companies with:
- A customizable website
- The ability for employees to start and share volunteering opportunities
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) impact tracking
Plus, you can connect the platform to your Corporate Foundation to measure progress toward your specific goals and share the results of your programs.
Pricing: Request a demo to get pricing details and explore your options with Deedmob.
How to Choose Corporate Volunteering Software
Ultimately, the most suitable corporate volunteering platform for your company will depend on your employees, budget, and goals. Follow these steps to narrow your options down to the best fit:
- Assess your corporate volunteer program needs. Do you want to offer VTO or volunteer grants? Are you looking for a corporate giving solution that streamlines other aspects of your workplace giving program beyond volunteering? Use these priorities to inform your search.
- Research popular options and read reviews. Look online for popular corporate volunteering software solutions and reach out to your professional connections to see if they have any recommendations. Read reviews to find out more about other companies’ experiences with the platforms and choose your top picks.
- Schedule demos and look for free trials. Request demos to get a better feel for the software and ask specific questions related to its functionality. See whether there are any free trials available for testing the platform further.
If you need a little more help in deciding on the right fit for your company, consider surveying your employees to learn more about their priorities or putting together a small focus group to try out some of your top options.
Unlock Meaningful Impact with a Workplace Volunteer Platform
With corporate volunteering software on your side, your company will be well on its way to becoming a CSR leader. Your employees will appreciate your engaging volunteer opportunities, while customers recognize the meaningful impact you generate in their communities.
To learn more about employee engagement best practices and tips for furthering your social impact, check out these additional resources.
- Uncommon Giving: Workplace Giving Platform for True Impact. Explore the top corporate volunteering platform in more detail. Read about Uncommon Giving’s features, benefits, case studies, and more.
- Corporate Volunteerism: A Quick-Start Guide to Success. Not sure which programs to offer via your volunteering platform? Check out our guide to all things corporate volunteerism.
- Dollars for Doers Programs: The Complete Guide + Examples. Volunteer grants are one of the most popular corporate volunteering programs you can manage with your platform. Learn more about volunteer grants in this guide.
Andy Howell is the CEO of Uncommon Giving, which provides modern, cost-effective workplace giving and volunteering tools for employers to live their corporate values, improve employee morale, and enhance brand reputation. Andy has years of experience working with SaaS companies serving the nonprofit, HR, and social impact spaces, including Blackbaud, Benevity, Benefitfocus, and Bloomerang. He has served as a featured speaker at the DisruptHR conference, and his company was recognized as one of the best tech startups in South Carolina by the Tech Tribune multiple years running. In his role today, he brings a distinct point of view to the meaningful connection between CSR and employee engagement.
