Corporate citizenship refers to how a company positively contributes to society and its communities, along with what standards it uses to measure its social responsibility. Authentic corporate citizenship delivers measurable business results, especially when companies leverage their core competencies to address environmental, social, or governance issues.
The goal of being a strong corporate citizen is to build a strong level of trust with stakeholders—from customers to employees to partners to community leaders—by having a clear social impact plan and goals that align with their purpose and mission.
When organizations strive to be valued corporate citizens, they see better business results. Good corporate citizens receive benefits like increased employee engagement, better business productivity, higher brand awareness, and boosted sales.
In this article, we’ll discuss 6 types of corporate giving companies can use to strengthen their communities, enhance their reputations, outpace the competition, and engage employees and consumers.
- Corporate Donations
- Campaigns
- Grant Management
- Employee Giving Programs
- Volunteer Programs
- Consumer-Facing Philanthropic Experiences
Corporate Donations
Any corporate donation involves allocating a philanthropic budget to donate directly to a charity. Corporate donations can take many forms, including but not limited to:
- Unexpected disasters in their local or global communities
- Charities that align with the beliefs or mission of the organization
- Causes important to their employees or consumers
To reduce, the cost, time commitment, and complexity of giving, companies of all sizes can use corporate philanthropy tools like Givinga’s Philantech® to take on the lift of vetting charities and safely and quickly disbursing donations. By combining financial technology, advanced employee and stakeholder engagement tools, and charitable foundation functionality, it makes corporate giving more proactive, impactful, and measurable.
Learn more in our Charitable Giving Guide for Small Businesses.
Campaigns
Your company can launch a public or private campaign to harness your employees, stakeholders, and community to pool resources for the charities and causes you care about. With your allocated budget for corporate donations, you can match the amount fundraised or even double or triple the donations and impact. Together, you can fund support for disaster relief or raise money as part of a larger cause marketing campaign, which is when a for-profit organization collaborates with a nonprofit around a shared cause. Corporate campaigns can be incredibly impactful and serve a variety of purposes, including creating a culture of giving that engages your employees, consumers, and greater community.
Learn more about Philantech®’s Corporate Giving Campaigns Made Easy.
Grant Management
Some companies will invite charities, scientific research or medical projects (such as carbon offsetting projects), and individuals to apply for grants. With a formal Grant Management process in place to review and approve grants, they’re able to allocate these out to qualifying programs.
For individual grants, many companies choose to provide their employees with Employee Compassion Funds. Employee Compassion Funds are a critical tool to help your employees meet their financial needs during times of hardship, improve their mental well-being, and demonstrate that your company cares for its employees.
Large corporations typically create foundations to provide tax-deductible grants to support their communities or chosen causes. Some will establish private foundations to elevate their brand identity and further their defined philanthropic mission and impact. However, these foundations have a high administrative workload and are subject to heavy financial regulation. Alternatively, companies of all sizes can use technology like Givinga’s Philantech® to create streamlined and customizable charitable giving programs instead, which are more accessible for employees and community members to engage with.
Learn more in our blog “What is Corporate Grant Management?”
Employee Giving Programs
A significant corporate giving type is an employee giving program; the most common being a matching gift program. Typically, once an employee donates to an eligible public charity, the company will donate to the same charity for an equal amount. While not all companies provide a 100% match for donations, many will match up to a certain percentage or dollar amount.
Matching gift programs allow companies to:
- Attract and retain talent by rewarding the charitable donations of their employees
- Encourage team members to engage with their corporate responsibility programs, strengthening company culture
- Increase their profile as a socially responsible organization
- Maximize the impact their employees can have on issues that matter
Use corporate philanthropy tools to provide your employees with corporate giving accounts that make it easy for them to give back to the causes they care about. Givinga’s Philantech® allows companies to give from a Corporate Giving Fund that operates like a foundation while allowing their employees the flexibility to create individual accounts and choose which charities to support. You can also set up pre-funded employee accounts so that your team has even more incentive to donate and not leave money on the table. The Philantech® platform reduces the administrative burden of a matching program to unlock the $4-7 billion that goes unclaimed in corporate matching funds every year.
Volunteer Programs
Volunteer giving initiatives help charities in two ways: by encouraging employees to volunteer their time and by providing financial support. They’re a great way to get employees and consumers involved in your corporate philanthropy efforts.
When employees volunteer for their local communities, they can donate their expertise in the process, such as legal or marketing work. Or they can help charities run donation centers where the public can contribute goods (such as food drives, donating equipment or furniture, etc.).
These volunteering initiatives function as cause marketing. Both companies and charities receive a high return on these initiatives because they can publicize their volunteer programs and donations to increase their status as a charity or socially conscious organization. For example, you can market your campaigns and their success via social media, helping consumers connect your brand with positive social causes.
Companies can support volunteering through corporate donations to the organizations where their employees volunteer. For an even more customizable option, companies can use Philantech®’s Dollars for Doers feature. It allows companies to track and reward volunteer hours by offering monetary compensation that employees can donate to any cause or organization of their choice.
Consumer-Facing Philanthropic Experiences
Beyond employee-facing programs or public campaigns, companies can engage their consumers in philanthropic efforts in other ways.
You can do so by building philanthropy into the heart of your consumer experiences, especially in the retail or eCommerce industries, such as:
- Having a portion of your proceeds donated to charity
- Promoting certain charities or causes through products
- Establishing a Buy One Donate One sales model
- Online and offline Point of Sale donation opportunities
- And more
Technology can also help you find new and innovative ways for your consumers to give. Philantech® provides custom giving experiences with flexible and customizable tech that plugs right into your existing business operations to feel like a seamless extension of your brand. Any brand looking to integrate charitable giving into their consumer-facing experience, regardless of the industry, can leverage Philantech®.
Combine All 6 Corporate Giving Types With Givinga
Companies shouldn’t limit themselves to just one type of corporate giving as they work to strengthen their corporate citizenship. Givinga’s Philantech® can help your company combine and easily execute all 6 types of corporate giving and more.
Whether you’re only interested in donating directly to a charity or having a more extensive program, we will meet you where you are in your giving journey and goals. Our Client Success Managers are experts in corporate giving and can guide your company in building a corporate giving program that feeds into your overarching corporate social responsibility goals.
Harnessing Philantech®, you can create a Corporate Giving Fund that operates like a charitable foundation with either our foundation or yours. You’ll have access to explore and donate to over 2 million global charities, pre-fund employee giving accounts, receive instant tax benefits, and much more.
You’ll have complete ownership of your corporate giving and impact experience with our all-in-one, fully-branded admin platform. Our platform simplifies the implementation and management of corporate campaigns, grant management, employee giving programs, volunteer programs, and philanthropic experiences.
Schedule a demo with us today to transform your business into a valued, socially-responsible corporate citizen!
