A buyer’s guide to corporate granting software

Corporate giving has evolved dramatically. Today’s stakeholders — employees, customers, and communities — don’t just want companies to donate. They want to be involved. According to a Gartner study, 65% of employees say they’d prefer to work for organizations with a strong social and environmental conscience. A Benevity-Wakefield study found that 84% of consumers and 86% of employees want a say in where their company’s philanthropic dollars go.

That shift — from corporate philanthropy as a top-down exercise to a participatory, stakeholder-driven program — is reshaping how community investment leaders approach grants management. And for many organizations, the manual tools they’ve relied on simply aren’t built for what programs need to do today.

This guide outlines what to look for when evaluating corporate granting software, including the five key benefits the right platform delivers.

What winning stakeholder philanthropy programs have in common

Organizations leading the way in corporate giving share a common approach. Their programs are:

1. Inspired — grounded in a clear purpose that resonates with stakeholders
2. Equity-focused — designed to reach communities that need support most
3. Enterprising — built to scale and evolve as the organization grows
4. Engagement-driven — actively inviting employees and customers to participate
5. Trust-based — transparent about how funds are allocated and where they go
6. Collaborative — working alongside nonprofits as true partners
7. Data-enabled — using impact data to guide decisions and demonstrate value

Reaching this standard requires more than good intentions. It requires the right infrastructure — and for most organizations, that means purpose-built granting software.

Common challenges with corporate granting programs

Many community investment teams manage grants through a patchwork of spreadsheets, email threads, and manual workflows. While this works at small scale, it creates significant friction as programs grow:

• Decentralized granting — applications and approvals spread across teams and systems, with no unified view
• Inefficient processing — manual payment processing slows disbursements and increases error risk
• Difficult nonprofit relationship management — no centralized record of partnerships, eligibility, or history
• Limited impact reporting — difficult to aggregate data and communicate program ROI to leadership
• Low program awareness — stakeholders don’t know about giving opportunities, leading to underutilization

According to the Technology Association of Grantmakers’ 2020 State of Philanthropy Tech Survey, these operational challenges are widespread — and they’re holding programs back from achieving their full potential.

1. Centralizes your community investment program

A corporate granting platform brings your entire program into a single system of record. Instead of managing grant cycles across disconnected tools, your team can track applications, approvals, disbursements, and reporting in one place.

Centralization also creates consistency. Grant criteria, eligibility requirements, and approval workflows are standardized — reducing the risk of errors and ensuring your program operates equitably at scale. When leadership asks how your program is performing, you have the data to answer clearly.

2. Automates and streamlines administrative work

Manual grant processing is time-consuming. Collecting applications, verifying nonprofit eligibility, routing approvals, issuing payments, and following up on reporting requirements can consume hundreds of hours per grant cycle.

The right software automates these workflows. Eligibility checks happen automatically, payments are processed without manual intervention, and reporting reminders go out on schedule. Your team can focus on strategy and relationships instead of paperwork.

3. Offers cause choice to employees and stakeholders

Today’s giving programs aren’t just run by a central team — they’re shaped by employees, customers, and communities. Granting software that enables employee-nominated grants, workplace giving, and cause choice gives stakeholders a meaningful voice in how philanthropic dollars are directed.

This participatory approach drives engagement. When employees feel connected to the causes their company supports, they’re more likely to participate — and more likely to stay. Cause choice isn’t just a feel-good feature; it’s a retention and engagement strategy.

4. Builds better nonprofit relationships

Nonprofits are your program’s delivery partners. The quality of your relationships with them directly affects the impact your grants achieve. Yet many organizations struggle to maintain clear, consistent communication with their nonprofit partners — especially when managing dozens or hundreds of grants at once.

A purpose-built platform gives nonprofits a streamlined experience: easy application submission, clear status updates, and reliable, timely payments. A 99.5% payment success rate means nonprofits can count on your organization — and that trust builds stronger, longer-lasting partnerships.

5. Reports on social impact

Impact measurement is one of the most common pain points for community investment teams. Without the right tools, aggregating data across grants, geographies, and programs is a manual, time-consuming exercise — often resulting in incomplete or delayed reports.

Corporate granting software consolidates impact data automatically. You can see which causes are receiving support, how much has been disbursed, and what outcomes nonprofits are reporting — all in one dashboard. That data makes it possible to communicate program value to leadership, board members, and external stakeholders with confidence.

How Benevity supports corporate granting at scale

Benevity’s community investment platform is built for organizations running sophisticated, multi-stakeholder giving programs. With tools for grants management, employee giving, volunteering, and impact reporting, it provides the infrastructure your team needs to run a program that meets today’s stakeholder expectations.

Organizations using Benevity’s platform have managed programs worth $40 million or more, with employees directing $2.6 million in grants in a single year — powered by cause choice and peer recommendations. Across the platform, Benevity maintains a 99.5% payment success rate, so nonprofits receive funds reliably and on time.

If your current tools are limiting what your community investment program can achieve, corporate granting software may be the missing piece. Book a demo to see how Benevity can help you centralize, automate, and amplify your impact.