At a Glance
Employee engagement in corporate philanthropy grows when staff can support causes they care about. From offering broad charity choices, surveys, donation matching, and volunteering, to cause-focused campaigns and impact reporting, KindLink is a platform that empowers employees. Our CSR platform makes giving simple, measurable, and inspiring while building purpose-driven workplaces.
Why Employee Cause Choice Matters
Most organisations design corporate philanthropy strategies that span meaningful causes and purpose. However, only a few give enough emphasis to engage and encourage employees to get involved.
This brings us to two important questions that many organisations face: how to get employees to volunteer and how to help them find volunteer work?
An effective solution is to provide your teams with the freedom and opportunity to support the causes they care about. By allowing your employees to take the lead, decide, and choose their own non-profits or charities to support, your company cultivates a strong sense of ownership as well as forges a connection between personal values and workplace culture.
When today’s employees are looking for opportunities to give back, how do you design a programme that supports this need? In this guide, we explore six approaches to guide and support your employees in connecting to the cause they care about.
6 Strategies for Employees to Choose Charitable Causes
The following approaches can guide your employees and encourage them to choose causes they care about.
1. Offer A Wide Range of Options
Your employees may be passionate about a variety of things, from local community initiatives to climate change and sustainability. Instead of limiting their interest and contributions to one or two causes, you can offer them easy access to a large database of charities in the UK.
Using our opportunities marketplace, your employees can respond to requests posted by vetted charities and non-profits. They’ll post a request with all the activities they need help with, and your employees can pick and pledge their support.
Connect with the team at KindLink to learn how this works.
2. Use Surveys to Understand Interests
Understanding your employees’ interests helps you identify the causes they care about and want to support. One simple way of doing this is by running a survey to learn which issues matter most to them.
When your employees share their preferences, it offers them an opportunity to express their interests as well as help your CSR and HR teams shape giving programmes that reflect their interests and values.
3. Offer Donation Matching & Payroll Giving
Donating once is good, but corporate donation matching amplifies both the contribution and its impact. Your business can offer to match one-time or regular monthly employee donations (payroll giving), regardless of the chosen cause.
This thoughtful strategy not only shows that your company cares and values every employee’s passion equally but also amplifies the overall impact for the cause.
Partnering with KindLink as your corporate philanthropy platform allows you to offer both donation matching and payroll giving. Plus, 100% of your raised and matched donations go directly to charity, with us charging only a nominal bank fee.
4. Empower Employees Through Volunteering
Not all employees want to make monetary contributions, and that’s okay. Instead of giving financially, you can encourage them to offer their time and talent through volunteering for a cause close to their hearts.
You can make this happen by integrating corporate volunteer days or skill-based initiatives in your workplace volunteer programmes or employee volunteering policies. They can work for a cause they’re already attached to or choose one by searching KindLink’s opportunities marketplace. Our platform easily answers the pertinent question, “How to find volunteer work?”
5. Create Cause-Focused Campaigns
Back your CSR and corporate philanthropy strategies with campaigns built around causes. You can organise campaigns with various themes, from sustainability to mental health, and invite your employees to nominate charities in each category.
This approach is likely to get your employees keen on how to find volunteer work and further support the cause.
6. Share Stories and Impact Reports
Your teams may feel more inspired and encouraged to participate when they actually see the impact their contributions have made. KindLink’s platform can make this happen for your workforce by allowing you to share updates, stories, and impact updates from the non-profits your organisation supports.
It works as a clear sign of validation and reassurance that all effort leads to measurable results. Use our impact tracking and reporting tool to share your stories and campaigns on a wide range of platforms, from social media apps like X and Facebook to business communication platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Drive Employee Cause Choice and Engagement with KindLink
Implementing these six strategies can guide your employees to take up a cause and contribute to it. But it's more than just offering opportunities; it’s about creating the right balance of purpose, connection, and impact. In the long term, a participative and engaged workforce leads to creating a more harmonious workplace environment.
If you’re looking to make your corporate giving programmes more diverse, inclusive, and impactful, you can do so with KindLink as your corporate philanthropy and CSR digital partner.
Get your employees excited about your employee volunteering and giving policies by making contributing easy on our all-in-one CSR platform.
Learn more and sign up your business today.
