It’s Giving Season, the time of year when people are uniquely energized to give, volunteer, connect and create meaningful change in their communities and beyond. Every year is a little bit different. New corporate giving trends emerge each year; global and local issues evolve and the giving landscape changes. So you’re probably wondering, what is actually going to move the needle this year?
This is a high-pressure time for CSR practitioners. Budgets are being scrutinized, employees and executives are busy trying to get things done before the end of the year and participation goals for corporate impact programs keep increasing. When it comes to getting your people involved in your program, Giving Season is not the time to experiment — you want engagement strategies that are going to work.
Here are some of the top giving trends of 2025, and how you can use them to motivate your people’s generosity and create a Giving Season to remember.
Giving Season works
The top corporate giving trends of 2025
Trend 1: Drive urgency and action with matching challenges
Matching is a common and powerful component of successful corporate impact programs. It incentivizes giving by amplifying the impact of every dollar donated and every hour volunteered through “dollars for doers” programs, and demonstrates a commitment from companies that they support the difference their employees make in the world.
During Giving Season, you can inspire your employees by amplifying matching even further with a few additions to your program.
- Time-bound matching: Create exclusive time windows where matching is multiplied, like 2x matching for the next 48 hours. Or you can create themed matching days, where for a certain period of time donations to a set of causes triggers additional matching.
- Team competitions with leaderboards: Get your team’s competitive juices flowing by dividing employees into teams or letting them compete as individuals, and offer rewards and recognition for those that achieve the most giving in a specific timeframe. Use motivational tactics like leaderboards and weekly updates to keep people engaged and drive more engagement.
- Tiered match pools: Create benchmarks for your giving program, where new matching incentives are unlocked as donation totals rise. Throughout the giving period, share progress reports with your team to keep them motivated to unlock new tiers and even more impact.
Pick the right strategic moment for elevated matching to see the impact grow, use countdown timers and live tracking to drive urgency and even set clear caps to make goals feel real and achievable.
Why matching challenges work:
- Creates a fear of missing out (FOMO) and immediate action
- Turns individual giving into a team-oriented, collective goal
- Makes time-sensitive impact, so employees can see the difference in real time
Trend 2: Employee choice is expected — not a nice to have
It is not uncommon for corporate giving campaigns to center around a small number of pre-selected nonprofits. These lists often come from the favorite causes of executives, legacy campaigns or other sources that employees may not have insight into. The most successful corporate impact programs expand beyond that by encouraging employees to give to and volunteer with the nonprofit of their choosing on a giving platform that makes search and discovery easy.
According to Fidelity Charitable, 40% of employees want higher corporate matching and 39% prefer their employers to offer a wider variety of programs.
- Open giving to any vetted nonprofit: In your corporate impact program, include the nonprofits that your employees want to give to, without risk. The Benevity Enterprise Impact Platform includes proven due diligence to mitigate legal, financial and reputational risk, with over 2 million vetted nonprofits available on the platform.
- Allow employee-nominated causes: Go beyond employee choice and allow your impact program to be employee driven. Give employees the opportunity to nominate causes they feel passionate about and drive giving campaigns and volunteer opportunities around those causes.
- Inspire ERG-led giving: In data from the Benevity Impact Labs 2025 State of Corporate Purpose Report, we showed that ERGs are seen as trusted groups within organizations. Allowing them to lead giving campaigns, be involved in granting decisions and more can be a powerful lever for impact programs.
Why employee choice works:
- Creates a personal connection to causes that drives giving and volunteering
- Builds trust and autonomy with employees that their opinions and the issues they care about matter to their employer
- Generates peer influence organically
Trend 3: Leverage impact storytelling over asking for donations
Regularly proving the success of your giving program will inspire more people to participate. While being forward-looking and reacting to current trends and needs is always a good thing, it is useful to demonstrate the impact of past efforts to inspire future giving.
- Share tangible outcomes from the past: Create annual reviews and/or quarterly reports with stats beyond dollars given and hours spent volunteering, showing real impact, like the number of meals delivered or medical procedures performed as a result of giving.
- Include nonprofit partners: In the William Blair 2024 report Corporate Giving: Key Trends and Insights, they note that nonprofits are often first introduced to companies through their volunteers. Leverage those hands-on relationships to share real stories from nonprofit partners about how giving and volunteering makes an impact.
- Run real-time updates: Show the immediate impact of your program by providing your team with live updates and milestones as the campaign progresses. Quick results can drive even more giving when your people see their money doing good right away.
Why impact storytelling works:
- Provides proof to employees that giving and volunteering makes an immediate impact
- Creates clear examples of concrete outcomes rather than abstract asks of employees to donate
- Builds trust with employees that giving programs are transparent and outcomes are accessible
Trend 4: Multi-channel campaigns meet your employees where they are
We all know the world works differently these days. People are working from their homes, coworking spaces and beyond. Cross-functional teams may rarely be in the same rooms together while still effectively collaborating. Corporate impact programs need to adapt similar to everyday workflow processes to account for this.
- Design mobile-first experiences: Allow your people to donate and sign up for volunteer opportunities on their devices in as frictionless a way as possible. The process should take 60 seconds or less.
- Integrate it into your work tools: Whether it’s Slack, Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, use the technology that’s already at your team’s fingertips to engage them in your giving program.
- Create manager toolkits and messaging: Give your leaders a playbook to read from with consistent messaging and the tools they need to succeed.
While integrating your campaigns into all of your tech tools, don’t forget about the power of a personal touch. Kick off campaigns in person when you can, and send video updates to your team to maintain a sense of personal connection.
Why multi-channel campaigns work:
- Builds consistent reminders across multiple channels
- Reaches people who respond to different connection points
- Inspires in-the-moment giving with easy access
Trend 5: Year-round engagement sets up Giving Season success
There is always an upswing in giving and volunteering during the Giving Season, but good habits form with consistent action. Running programs and campaigns year-round will get employees used to being regular contributors, and will be a source of constant reinforcement that their participation makes an impact.
- Create quarterly themes: Launch regular campaigns throughout the year. Keep your people engaged by embracing employee- and ERG-led giving, and create a giving cycle that builds trust and engagement across your team.
- Give regular updates: Along with regular campaigns, keep your people in the loop with status updates, nonprofit stories and data that shows your giving program success.
- Design volunteer opportunities: Coordinated volunteer opportunities throughout the year can be a great way to keep your team involved in your program and develop relationships directly with nonprofits in the process. Dollars for doers matching programs can also amplify your team’s impact.
Don’t forget to leverage your employees that are already actively engaged to inspire and motivate other members of your team. Nominate them as program leaders and give them the tools to bring more people in.
Why year-round engagement works:
- Increases likelihood of participation — those who participate year-round are 2-3x more likely to participate in giving season
- Builds good habits and familiarity with your programs and platform
- Creates a culture of giving rather than a seasonal obligation
Quick action plan: What to do in the next 30 days
Here’s a quick checklist of things you can do to boost your program this season.
- Audit your current program against these trends and identify where your potential gaps are.
- Check if your platform is set up for employee choice, matching challenges and mobile giving.
- Create 2-3 impact stories from last year to share with your team.
- Map out your multi-channel communications plan.
- Set goals, track them and share them with your team.
Make 2025 the best Giving Season yet
The companies seeing the most success this giving season are the ones making it easy, meaningful and social.
- Use matching to drive urgency
- Embrace employee choice
- Tell impactful stories with past successes
- Leverage multiple communications channels
- Promote year-round engagement
Ready to go? Explore the Benevity Giving Season 2025 Activation Kit.
