5 things you should look for in a corporate giving tool

If you are considering a corporate giving tool for your employee or workplace campaigns, it can be difficult to cut through the various technologies out there and determine which solution is best for your organization. The first step is to think through the outcomes you’re driving for in your campaign. Are you looking for long-term employee engagement or a finite campaign? Are you aligning your campaign to one cause or several? Are you measuring a company match? What about volunteer hours?

Determining the outcomes will help you determine the requirements that best match your needs.

Here are some key components to think through as you evaluate tools. 

Data Analytics

Employee giving campaigns have shown to improve the employee experience and can be a contributor to retaining the right type of employee for your organization. If you’re able to tie your giving campaigns to broader talent and culture initiatives, you can increase their impact not only in the organizations they serve, but your entire company.  Here are some areas you may need your tool to measure:

• Donations through payroll or credit cards
• Volunteer time
• Corporate match
• Tax compliance
• Social impact

A platform that provides you the ability to access data can not only help you measure success with one campaign, but with your long-term employee giving efforts as a whole. You can’t get there without the right analytics.

Social Integration

The most successful corporate giving campaigns are the ones that create a sense of purpose and friendly competition among employees.  Many campaigns use the company’s social media manager or internal communications team to spread the word about the campaign. However, if you empower other participants to promote the initiative through social, you build awareness not only for your campaign but for the broader impact your company has on the community. Also, imagine the possibilities if you used social to spark some competitiveness among different teams.

Volunteer Hours

If you’re one of the many companies that incorporate volunteer hours into their employee giving campaigns, you should have an integrated platform that measures time donated along with money. Time is often just as important to get the full picture of your campaign’s impact. Using a platform that automatically tracks your employees' volunteer hours can give you an accurate picture of how and where your employees are getting involved, effectively measuring the overall impact of your philanthropic efforts.

4. Corporate Match Platforms

It’s hard to motivate employees if it’s not easy for them to secure a match. If you’re offering a company match, think through how you can support that process through technology. Will there be a choice for employees? Is it integrated with the other facets of the campaign (e.g., volunteer hours, company fundraisers)? Also, how are you ensuring the proper tax documentation is in place?  Too often, organizations select a tool to “manage the match”, but it doesn’t integrate the other facets of the campaign. Disparate systems create disparate data, which makes it tough to show an impact. Don’t get fooled by bells and whistles. Make sure your technology effectively matches up with the needs of your campaign.

5. Initiative Support

As with any technology, a corporate giving tool can only do so much for your campaign. How will you ensure team members use the tool?  How will you draft the tool into your other campaign plans (e.g., communication, data, payment processing)?

Making any technology spend demands that you have an internal resource ready to manage it, so ensure your tool has a team of people ready to support your investment in it. Signing on with a partner who can help you strategically execute your entire campaign, rather than simply processing one component, can help you drive results in the metrics that matter most to your company.