The Future of Workplace Giving

A group of volunteers holding arms around one another in an open field.

United Way has long been the authority on workplace giving through its established relationships with companies and annual workplace campaigns.

They have been known as the organization that comes in once per year and asks employees to give. But workplace giving is changing along with the workplace itself, and so United Way is evolving.

From the United Way global network, the organization has learned:

– 78 percent of all employees said that it is important for them to work for a company that gives back to the community.
– 88 percent of millennials say their job is more fulfilling when they are provided opportunities to make a positive impact. 64 percent of millenials won’t take a job if a company doesn’t have strong corporate social responsibility values.
– 87 percent of millennials will buy from companies based on their corporate values.

Source: 2017 United Way National Brand Tracker, United Way Research

These statistics paint a clear picture: people care that companies care about the community. However, corporate philanthropy is about more than giving; it is about employee engagement, corporate social responsibility and building brand reputation.

United Way of the Piedmont, the local member organization of United Way’s global network, works with local businesses in Spartanburg, Cherokee, and Union counties to provide opportunities that connect, engage, and inspire people to transform their community. These opportunities can look very different depending on the company.

Throughout the year, United Way of the Piedmont offers a variety of volunteer opportunities and projects based on community needs. Some of these projects occur annually, such as Overflow Thanksgiving that is conducted in partnership with First Baptist Spartanburg to provide Thanksgiving meal supplies to families in need. Another annual project is the Stuff the Bus school supply drive that collects school supplies for all seven Spartanburg School Districts.

As a leader in the nonprofit community, United Way is often a resource that is able to fill a gap or meet a unique community need. And so, too, businesses can be uniquely positioned to help in seemingly small ways that can have tremendous impact. For example, through United Way’s Born Learning Resource Centers in Spartanburg Housing Authority neighborhoods, we saw that children in low-income communities were often unable to participate in celebrations or holidays like Halloween because the cost of a costume was too great for a family struggling to make ends meet. So United Way connected BMW to this need and BMW employees donated new and gently used costumes and set up a costume “shop” where children in the neighborhood could come and pick out a costume. BMW employees were on hand at the shop to volunteer and see the impact of their participation on the smiling children’s faces.

Volunteerism can help employees feel connected to their community and also serve to provide great team-building opportunities. Many companies like American Credit Acceptance and Milliken & Company allow employees to use paid work hours for community volunteering. Still other companies make a corporate donation to organizations where their employees volunteer for a particular number of hours. Corporate donations are an easy win for many small businesses who may not have the employee base to support a traditional United Way workplace campaign.

Another unique way companies have found to give back to the community is through donation of event proceeds. Willy Taco in Spartanburg has been committed to community involvement since opening in 2013. This year, United Way of the Piedmont was one of the nonprofit beneficiaries of a portion of the proceeds from the restaurant’s annual Willy de Mayo event. Owner Kenneth Cribb, also offered space at the community-wide event for United Way to provide information and gain brand awareness, another hugely effective opportunity for a nonprofit.

United Way of the Piedmont is always looking for opportunities to engage new small businesses in this work. One such initiative, launched in February 2018, was Mission on Main that brought local small businesses together around the issue of homelessness. Participants included the Crepe Factory, Downtown Deli & Donuts, The Local Hiker, and Willy Taco. The businesses made an initial donation and provided the opportunity for their patrons to donate throughout the month of February. Proceeds were designated to go to United Way’s homeless outreach team who actively case manage homeless members of the community. All of the businesses had seen first hand the faces of homelessness, particularly visible in downtown Spartanburg where the majority of the businesses were located, and were excited for the opportunity to do something about it. We hope to grow this initiative and add more businesses in the coming year.

With the rise of social media, online giving is another area of innovation and opportunity for nonprofits. United Way of the Piedmont launched a platform for easy online giving through our website and social media channels. The platform can also be used for workplace campaigns to make giving by credit card easier and more accessible for employees. Through the platform, United Way of the Piedmont has received over $34,000 in donations since its launch in February 2018.

Workplace campaigns remain the bread and butter of United Way’s annual fundraising efforts, and companies continue to work with United Way to find innovative ways to engage their employees. Denny’s and AFL both saw significant growth in their workplace campaigns in the 2017-18 fiscal year through both increased participation and increased per capita giving. The success of these campaigns can be attributed to active participation by the companies and their employees in United Way events and projects. AFL sent a team of employees to compete in United Way Young Leader’s annual kickball competition. A group from Denny’s helped refresh and maintain United Way’s Born Learning Trails, where children and their parents can walk and participate in learning activities along the trail.

In addition, companies such as AFL, Milliken & Company, Publix, and Timken, provide a corporate matching donation to employees’ donations.

This match strategy is often very successful in workplace campaigns, because employees see how their dollars can go further and have greater impact with the support of their employer.

Corporate donations or matches, volunteer opportunities, supply drives, online giving… all of these are designed to make employee engagement, corporate social responsibility and brand reputation an easy win for local small businesses and companies. And this is not even to speak of the incredible economic impact that their participation has in the community through United Way. For the 2017-18 campaign year, through funds leveraged, volunteers engaged, and product distributed, United Way of the Piedmont generated over $39.4 million in local impact, turning every dollar donated into $7.90.

Workplace giving is changing, and so is United Way as it works to meet the needs of companies, their employees and the community.

Prepared by Alex Moore, United Way.

Article featured in BusinessView, created by the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with community partners, is your informative resource guide to learning about the economic vitality and lifestyle environment of Spartanburg County.