There has been quite a bit of talk regarding the way in which employees and companies alike give to charity. In correlation with technological advancements, the world of charity and philanthropy have both evolved in order to be as conveniently efficient for the giver as possible. Below are some trends in the corporate world that are becoming popular ways that employees are increasing their moral impact for charitable causes around the world.
In recent history, 71% of companies and their staff would essentially donate time, money or resources during a specific season of the year which was usually the fall time. This unfortunately was not the best way to participate in philanthropy and companies found various ways to funnel their efforts to help consistently throughout the year. Only 21% of companies within the U.S. actively engaged in philanthropy the rest of the year, which was a statistic that people felt the need to change.
Since the start of the new year, the release of an important report titled 2015: The New Corporate DNA—Where Employee Engagement and Social Impact Converge, highlights salient trends for both American Charities and companies. This report not only points out ways both functioning bodies can improve, but also takes note of how participation has evolved in the past few years.
Moreover, one important aspect of this report is that it calls out one major misconception that charity giving in the workplace is decreasing, which simply isn’t the case. “Many have said that workplace giving is dead,” the report notes. “The Snapshot reports reveal quite the opposite is true. The traditional model of top down, corporate-directed giving is no longer acceptable. And, workplace giving and employee engagement is alive and evolving at a very rapid pace.”
Furthermore, an interesting trend that become more common in company structure, is the ability of “workplace giving” or providing employees the option of giving money to various charities or philanthropic causes directly from their paychecks. Another unique, efficient way to increase employee engagement is to incentify charitable work by offering financial grants in order for staff members to volunteer at an international organization over a company holiday break. This simultaneously is beneficial by promoting the company in a positive light overseas, while also allowing the employee to acquire a different set of skills. To read more about this, click on this Forbes link.