Corporate Giving Software: How to Choose the Best Solution

This article will review what corporate giving software is and how to choose the best solution for your company.

Corporate giving benefits everyone involved. Not only do nonprofits get more funds for their cause, but also employees get to contribute more to their favorite causes, and businesses get to engage in meaningful partnerships with charitable organizations.

With 94% of major U.S. corporations planning to maintain or even expand their charitable giving efforts over the next couple of years, it’s clear that corporate giving is not a trend. It’s a standard practice in the business world, and if companies can’t manage their corporate giving programs effectively, they’ll fall behind in the corporate philanthropy realm.

The best way to manage your corporate giving program is by using the appropriate software. Corporate giving software makes it easy to organize each element of your program so you can get employees involved and give back to worthy causes.

In this guide, we’ll answer the top questions businesses have about corporate giving software, including:

By answering these questions, we’ll review everything your company needs to know before selecting corporate giving software. Let’s get started!Connect with us to learn how to increase corporate giving engagement through auto-submission.

What Is Corporate Giving?

Corporate giving is a form of corporate philanthropy. When companies contribute to nonprofits, that’s considered corporate giving.

There are several different types of corporate giving that your business can leverage, including:

This image shows the different types of corporate giving software, as outlined in the text below.

  • Matching gifts
  • Volunteer grants
  • Fundraising matches
  • Community grants
  • Annual giving campaigns
  • Automatic payroll deductions
  • Annual grant stipends
  • Internal employee fundraising
  • Scholarships
  • Sponsorships

These contributions have clear benefits for nonprofits, including more money for their causes, more volunteers as a result of volunteer grant programs, and the ability to make a larger impact on their communities. What about the benefits for companies, though?

When businesses participate in corporate giving, they see higher employee engagement. Since the most popular forms of corporate giving—matching gifts and volunteer grants—involve contributing to organizations their employees care about, companies can help their employees feel more involved in the workplace. Plus, advertising their nonprofit partnerships can bring businesses good publicity and bolster their reputations.

What Is Corporate Giving Software?

If your corporate giving program has a lot of moving parts, it can be hard to keep up with each one on your own. For example, your company may offer matching gifts, volunteer grants, fundraising matches, and automatic payroll deductions as part of its corporate giving program. Relying on email, physical forms, and spreadsheets to manage these tasks can be time-consuming and lead to errors.

That’s why you need a dedicated solution to manage your corporate giving program. Corporate giving software is meant to streamline and optimize your corporate giving program, making it easier for employees to participate, your company to give back, and nonprofits to prosper.

With the right solution, you can keep track of:

Just as you likely use a customer relationship management system (CRM) to organize customer data, it’s important to use corporate giving software to store all information pertinent to your corporate giving program in one place.

What Are Some Features to Look for in a Corporate Giving Platform?

With so many corporate giving software options out there, it can be difficult to decide which one your business should use. Review this list of must-have features to guide your search.This image shows the top corporate giving platform features, as outlined in the text below.

Small and mid-sized business capabilities

When you think of corporate giving, your mind might automatically go to corporations. In the past, many corporate giving platforms were designed with Fortune 500 and other large companies in mind, but that’s no longer the case.

Many corporate giving technology providers are now creating tools that are accessible to small and mid-sized businesses. Whether that means lowering their prices or removing limits on how many employees are needed to sign up for a platform, these providers make it easy for companies of all sizes to participate in corporate giving.

If you’re part of a small or mid-sized business, look for a platform that specifically caters to non-corporations. Compare pricing options to find the solution that best fits your budget.

Integrations with auto-submission tools

An overwhelming 97% of donors want flexibility in where and how they give back to their favorite causes. Your company can enable this flexibility by using corporate giving software that integrates with matching gift auto-submission tools.

Previously, donors had to manually fill out matching gift request forms and send them to their employers. This process could be lengthy, especially if donors had to research their employers’ matching gift programs, locate matching gift request forms, and determine who to send them to.

Now, the best nonprofit matching gift software providers offer auto-submission. When a donor contributes to a nonprofit that uses software with auto-submission capabilities, all they have to do is enter their corporate email address, and the platform will automatically send a matching gift request to their employer.

So what can companies do to facilitate this process? Businesses that want to make the matching gift process easier for their employees should look for a corporate giving platform that integrates with nonprofit matching gift auto-submission tools. For example, 360MatchPro offers auto-submission, so your company could check to make sure your platform of choice integrates with 360MatchPro to reap the benefits of auto-submission. Check out the video below to see how it works:

While auto-submission is a new feature for many platforms, it’s projected to yield an 80% increase in matching gift revenue. This number not only represents more money going back to nonprofits but also the increased program participation and employee engagement companies receive from this type of tool.

User-friendliness

Like any tool your business leverages, you’ll want your corporate giving software to be as user-friendly as possible. That way, it will be easier to implement the platform and get employees involved.

When assessing a platform’s user-friendliness, look for the following elements:

  • Navigation. Choose a platform with a simple design and plenty of navigation options that make it easy to find what you’re looking for. Easy-to-use navigation makes it easier for companies to manage the software and respond to any employee requests submitted through the platform.
  • Accessibility. Look for a solution that caters to all employees and offers them ease of use. For example, if there are videos explaining how to use the platform, make sure they have closed captions so people who are hearing impaired can still glean the important information.
  • Customer service. Questions are bound to arise when adopting new software. Choosing a platform with quick and attentive customer service will help you resolve issues and keep your software running smoothly.

Engage in product demos ahead of making your decision to see which solution works best. You can also have a select number of employees participate in the demos to ensure that they find the program easy to use as well.

Global reach

While it’s important to help out your local community, many companies are expanding their corporate giving programs on a global scale. To do so, you’ll need a corporate giving platform with the ability to support giving to international organizations.

Additionally, invest in a program that accepts multiple currencies, can be translated into different languages, and allows employees in different time zones to access information at the same time. That way, every member of your company can contribute to their favorite causes, no matter where they are.

Opportunity to partner with nonprofits

Giving is always more meaningful when you contribute to a cause you truly care about. Some corporate giving platforms offer databases filled with nonprofits your employees and company can support.

As a result, you can find an organization to support that aligns with your values. Additionally, this feature opens up the potential for future partnerships. Companies can reach out to nonprofits they find on the platform and propose future sponsorship or collaboration ideas.

Security measures

When dealing with employee donations, it’s important to make sure their personal and payment information is protected to establish donor trust and highlight your nonprofit’s credibility. Look for a platform that guarantees data encryption and is transparent about its security measures.

For example, if a provider claims their software is SOC 2 Type 2 certified, then you can trust that they’re prioritizing cybersecurity and will protect all sensitive information.

Metrics and goal tracking

Picture this: The end of the year is fast approaching, and your company has contributed to so many worthy causes and organizations. You want to highlight your work in your upcoming annual report, but you can’t seem to find a way to organize the information and glean helpful insights you can share with your customers.

In this case, you’d want to look for a corporate giving platform with robust metrics and goal-tracking capabilities. That way, you can keep track of how much you’ve contributed to various causes, how many employees you’ve engaged, and which nonprofits you’ve helped the most.

These statistics are not only helpful for external reporting, but they’re also useful internally for determining which causes your employees are most passionate about and areas where you may want to adjust your corporate giving approach.

How Do You Decide On a Corporate Giving Software Provider?

Now that you know which features to look for in a corporate giving platform, you may be wondering how to ultimately decide on which option to choose. We recommend following these steps before making your decision:This image shows the steps needed to decide on a corporate giving software provider, as outlined in the text below.

  1. Create a list of desired features. Think about the elements of your corporate giving program. For example, if you offer matching gifts, you’ll want a program that automates the matching gift request process. Continue going through your program and adding relevant features to your list of must-haves.
  2. Set a budget. While some software providers charge per user, others have a flat fee. Determine how much your company is willing to spend on a platform before moving forward.
  3. Do your research. There are so many resources out there that can help you find the right corporate giving software. Check out blog posts, provider websites, and reviews to investigate your options. You can also talk to representatives from other companies currently using a corporate giving platform to see if they’d recommend it.
  4. Get a demo. As mentioned before, demos are the best way to see if a corporate giving platform will work for your organization. Once you’ve narrowed down your list of providers to a couple of options, reach out to try the software firsthand and play around with different features.
  5. Pick your solution. Lastly, it’s time to make your decision. If the decision still isn’t clear, consider surveying your employees to see which platform they’d prefer. After all, they will be the main users of the software. Then, go with the platform that most employees choose for the best employee engagement results.

Once you’ve implemented your corporate giving software, set up a meeting to introduce it to your team. That way, you can answer any questions employees may have and encourage them to get started with the platform.

Additional Resources

Corporate giving software is the ultimate solution for organizing your corporate giving program and increasing employee engagement. When you store corporate giving forms, requests, and data all in one place, you can easily manage your corporate giving program and get everyone involved.

Want to learn more about corporate giving? Check out these resources:

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