5 ways to innovate your workplace fundraising campaign

Do you feel like the growth of your most recent employee giving campaign has stalled? You're not alone! It's not easy to compete with the demands of a busy workplace.

Most employees would love to contribute to your charitable cause, but are distracted by other interests. If you are thinking about how to re-engage your coworkers and build momentum for a workplace fundraiser, you need to consider embracing new strategies. We've put together some great suggestions to help you!

Here are 5 ways to innovate and grow your workplace giving programs:

Innovate With Your Matching Incentives

We’re seeing many companies go beyond the traditional broad matching experience. For instance, why not try highlighting a new partner charity every month? Each employee who gives to that charity in the given month can have those donations matched dollar for dollar. In December, you might match any donation made on #GivingTuesday. Your company could even tie your match to charities selected to ‘sponsor’ various work events, whether they be "happy hours" or "lunch and learns", and then match donations to that ‘sponsor’ for the following month.

Innovate With Your Matching Allocation

We’re seeing some companies (even FrontStream’s own internal workplace giving campaigns) decide to allocate a match to teams, departments, or divisions, rather than individuals. How does this work? Your marketing team, led by an internal champion, might collectively select a charity or cause near and dear to them. All donations to that charity from anyone in the company are matched. This can be particularly powerful for small and medium-sized businesses with limited matching dollars. As an example, your charity would distribute that match to six charities versus 25. This strategy has the potential to spur team-building, produce great stories, and build memories that will engage your employees and improve their sense of satisfaction at work.

Leverage the Power of Your Employees as Fundraisers

The rise of crowdfunding, online giving challenges, and peer-to-peer campaigns has transformed donors into cause champions who encourage family, friends, and coworkers to give along with them. Your employees already love using social media to solicit their coworkers and connections to give to good causes. Innovate by making those appeals a formal part of your campaign. Did you know that FrontStream has integrated Workplace Campaign Management with our FirstGiving peer-to-peer giving software? It's easy to encourage your employees to create personal fundraising pages for causes and projects they care about. When you move beyond “amount donated” to “amount raised” your company will gain more insight into how your employees' generosity impacts charities in your community.

Know Your Audience

Research shows that women give differently than men and for different reasons. The same is true generationally. Many employees may opt to give by stock if that option is part of your program and made clear to them. Innovate in how you communicate with your coworkers. Move beyond broad communications by offices, country locations, etc. to an approach which takes into account research on how different groups of people give differently. Try segmenting your emails to employees to give different groups a different call-to-action. You could segment by interest too. Try setting up internal meetings by segmented groups to talk specifically about different types of charitable initiatives. Find out if your employees prefer to talk about planned giving, run/walk/rides, or cocktail party fundraisers. Everyone has at least one way that they'd prefer to give back. Diversify the options at work and reach more people!

You’re Never Too Small

This is a big one! Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and employee giving is not just the domain of large companies and their employees. Explore ways you can encourage employees to give even if you are a small or medium-sized enterprise. Workplace giving can be the seeds of fruitful corporate-nonprofit partnerships, can help employees see their company cares about them, and comes with numerous additional HR benefits. A company is never too small to encourage giving, whether it’s part of a structured program or a one-off project. If you are a larger company, investigate if your suppliers and partners are enabling their employees to give! How can you support them in joining your own initiatives? You might consider donating your own time and resources to encourage smaller companies to join your broader campaign.

Want to learn more about how FrontStream helps you innovate?

Read all about FrontStream’s integrated workplace philanthropy platform.