When you’re brainstorming how to increase employee engagement, corporate giving is probably pretty far down the list. And, to be fair, it may not measure up to other strategies like flexible schedules and good management. But a giving program can help your employees feel better about the company and, in turn, work harder for its success.
Employees prefer to work for companies that have a clear objective other than just making a profit. Corporate giving is one way of showing your staff that your business has one and that you stick by it. This opens up new avenues for employees to become engaged in the work the company does. According to Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP), employee involvement in charitable activities has increased over the past few years.
All signs point to one thing — that employees are anxious to be involved in something good.
To keep reading, click here: How Corporate Giving Can Increase Employee Engagement
Corporate giving can also include organizations matching its employees’ private charitable contribution, up to a specific limit.
“Keep all participation voluntary.” Yes, yes, yes! For the love of chocolate chip cookies, do NOT coerce or guilt people into participating or giving – and I say this as someone who works in the non-profit world and used to work in fundraising. It’s not only bad for employee morale, in the long run it hurts the charities by making people develop a negative association with giving.
I used to work at a retail company that donated food to the local food pantries, both year-round and all major family holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas). I thought it was generous of them until I figured out that there was a profit in it for the company (giving away those free turkeys and the daily giving to the food pantries of the day-old bread and cakes.) On their books, they show for accounting how they were meeting their ‘required” output of product and any unsold product being donated was eliminated from being damaging in cost to the bottom line. Even now, as a customer, when I get the notice on my receipt about the “free” item, I don’t take that “free” turkey unless I can pass to the donation section if there’s no alternate choice.