Corporations large and small have embraced the reality that their business, their community, and society at large are interconnected—all thrive together. Through CSR programs, companies and their employees invest resources in ways that contribute to a world that aligns with their shared values. This includes community investment programs, employee volunteerism, and direct donations to nonprofit organizations.
Together, these pillars of comprehensive CSR strategies poise large and small businesses to not only make a positive, wide-reaching difference, but also to reap established benefits of effective CSR programs, including improved retention, recruitment, and morale, as well as brand loyalty and reputation.
Today, Submittable is thrilled to announce Submittable Give, our new corporate giving platform to support employee donations. With the addition of Give to our product suite, Submittable is now the software provider of choice that can fulfill all of your CSR program needs.
Learn more about CSR on Submittable
Submittable is your partner in community investment and corporate volunteering and giving programs.
Corporate giving’s unrealized potential
Like corporate volunteering, corporate giving programs today are a sadly underutilized resource. According to Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, 78% of companies offer year-round donation opportunities to employees. An America’s Charities report further shows that 71% of employees say it is important to them. Yet according to a study by Deloitte, only 37% of employees participate.
This is money that not only is not making a difference in communities, it’s also not helping you reap the business benefits of your CSR offerings.
Purpose-built to maximize your giving program’s ROI
Submittable Give was thoughtfully designed to solve the biggest barriers to employee participation in giving programs.
A simpler way to give
A top barrier to participating in an employee giving program is making it too difficult. Filling out a form or spreadsheet, entering credit card information, or (gasp) being forced to write a paper check can all decrease participation. According to one study, nearly half of employees identified an easy-to-use, online technology platform as a top motivating factor to donate.
Submittable‘s clean, modern interface eliminates process barriers, whether you’re using tech that’s clunky or you’re not using tech at all. Plus, by integrating with your accounting software and making deductions directly from employee paychecks, it’s the easiest payment method for everyone. Even better, it’s flexible and easy for employees to decide how much they want to give, and when—whether it’s a small amount with every paycheck, or a larger one-time donation to do their part to respond to an unfolding crisis.
Finally, employees can easily access all of their receipts at any time—no need to track their charitable donations on their own, or make wild estimates at tax time.
Providing employees with choice
Everyone is more motivated to be generous about causes that they truly care about. So it should come as no surprise that one of the top reasons identified for not participating in a corporate giving program is lack of choice.
When employees are unable to choose the nonprofits they can give to, participation drops drastically. Submittable equips employees with a searchable database of vetted nonprofits. Nonprofits can also be filtered according to the causes closest to the individual employee’s heart, whether that’s food security, poverty eradication, or early childhood development, creating a fast track to finding the best fit.
Nonprofits employees can trust
A major detractor from engagement in a corporate giving campaign is lack of trust in the recipient organizations. Employees need to trust that the beneficiary is going to be a good steward of their hard-earned dollars before opening their wallets.
Submittable partners with Global Giving to vet all nonprofit organizations, so employees can rest easy knowing that their money is going to organizations that they can trust.
Leveraging social dynamics
Like so much in life, giving is more fun when you do it together.
With Submittable, your employees band together to reach your shared donation goals. You can create campaigns to support a specific nonprofit or cause, or to respond with help to an emergency. Employees can see the collective impact that they have when they give alongside their coworkers.
Another benefit? You control who can create giving campaigns. This means you can leverage the passion for causes and relationships with nonprofits that already exists among your employees. Give employee resource group (ERG) leaders permissions to create campaigns, or extend it to other leaders among your employee base, like team leads or those on your corporate giving committee. When giving is fueled by genuine passion among peers, it can spread like wildfire.
Beyond giving
The best part of Submittable Give is that it doesn’t stand alone. Joining Submittable’s corporate volunteering and community investment software, Submittable is now the single vendor businesses large and small can rely upon for all of their CSR programs, including:
- Corporate volunteering
- Community grants
- Scholarships or fellowships
- In-kind donations
- Award programs
- Crisis relief
- Event sponsorships
Together, the Submittable product suite supports your company’s full relationship with your partner nonprofits, tracking, for instance:
- Grants awarded
- Volunteer hours committed
- Funds raised by employees
In this way, across your stakeholders, you’ll be able to realize and appreciate the full impact of your CSR investments.
Learn more about Submittable
Ready to learn more? We’d love to show you how Submittable can be a single vendor solution for your CSR programs. Contact our team for a demo personalized for your needs.
Natalya is the director of product marketing at Submittable and is focused on helping organizations get a ton of value out of the platform. She is a bookworm, adventure enthusiast and card-carrying cat lady as well as a writer and yogi.