How National Gas boosts engagement with Benevity

The challenge

When National Gas separated from National Grid, it marked a fresh start — but also meant they had to rebuild their social impact programme from scratch and right-size their programme for their new business — with less budget and minimal resources. The team faced multiple challenges: fewer resources, limited budget, reduced workforce and the need to re-establish their purpose as a newly independent company.

The success of the programme now depended on a single environmental, social and governance (ESG) analyst, Kiera Pullen. Her mission? Relaunch their giving, volunteering and grantmaking programme in a way that would resonate with employees and be feasible to run with limited internal support in a self-sufficient, employee-focussed way.

The solution

Choosing the right internal and external partners

• Engage early and broadly: Kiera brought in stakeholders from IT, Finance, Legal and Human Resources early in the process and leaned heavily on Benevity’s Implementation Team.
• Secure executive sponsorship: By engaging the Chief People Officer as a sponsor, the programme gained visibility and prioritisation at the leadership level.

Maximize resources

• Know your partners: Knowing many of their community partners were small, grassroots organizations, they deliberately chose to make the application process simple, inclusive and non-intimidating.
• Make it easy: With Benevity, they built a programme that’s easy to use and fair — enabling a single-form application, collaborative feedback and equitable access for charities of all sizes.

Make it simple

• Rescope and simplify: With fewer resources, the team redesigned a social impact programme that was manageable and scalable, starting with Benevity’s giving and volunteering tools.
• Launch with a bang: A £5 seed donation was offered to each employee during a Valentine’s Day-themed launch. Any unused funds were donated to their corporate charity partner, Barnardo’s, encouraging passive participation.

The result

National Gas used the grants programme to position itself as a “good neighbour” and a business that cares — reinforcing its identity as a newly independent entity with strong community values. National Gas achieved impressive results within their first year after launching with Benevity:

• 50%+ of employees engaged with the programme by logging into the platform
• 90% of engaged employees donated to a cause
• 57% of frontline (non-office) workers donated, thanks to mobile-friendly access and cause relevance
• Streamlined grantmaking process made funding accessible to small, rural charities
• Employee giving was gamified by department, boosting friendly competition and engagement
• Their LinkedIn posts about social impact received 3x the engagement of their average corporate content

“We knew we wanted a granting process that was as streamlined and easy as possible… to establish ourselves as a good neighbour, a business that cares.” — Kiera Pullen, ESG Analyst, National Gas