CALGARY, Alberta – September 15, 2021 – Benevity, Inc., the leading provider of global corporate purpose software, announced that Peer Matching, its newest innovation, is driving significantly greater social and business impact for purpose-driven companies and their people, especially as the future of work becomes more hybrid.
Peer Matching, a first-of-its-kind feature, puts the power to make social impact in the hands of people, enabling employees to create and share grassroots giving opportunities for causes that matter to them personally and amplify the impact by adding a match from their own funds, in addition to any company matching funds that may be available. Their colleagues can then choose to give and have their donation matched or further the overall impact by adding their own funds to the match pool to keep it growing. And if the company already offers a corporate match, the impact triples.
Benevity data shows that the average donation amount to peer-matched giving opportunities is nearly double the amount donated to giving opportunities without Peer Matching (from $280 per donor to $540 per donor). Peer-matched giving opportunities also raise 2.5 times more total donations than those without Peer Matching (from $6,200 per giving opportunity to $15,700 per giving opportunity). As companies head into fall giving season, when 40% of all charitable giving happens, this technology helps them and their people further amplify their collective impact and connect employees in new ways to do good along with their employer (often with associated volunteering or other opportunities). Building connections through purpose at work is becoming increasingly valuable in sustaining a positive workplace culture as companies grapple with delays to return to office, and pushback from employees who wish to continue working from home.
Since launching last fall, more than 80,000 employees from 130 Benevity client companies have either created or participated in peer matches. In less than a year, a total of $55 million has been donated through Peer Matching with 85% of the funds coming from employees and 15% from company matching.
The acceleration in people-powered movements over the past few years, coupled with the fact that people are 50% more likely to give to causes if they are asked by peers and 80% are more likely to give when there is a match offered, is clearly fueling the rapid adoption and impact of Peer Matching in the workplace.
Earlier this year when COVID-19 surged in India, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), a Benevity client with more than 13,000 employees based in India, published its first giving opportunity with Peer Matching enabled. Through its HPE Gives program, the company was able to support UNICEF’s efforts to boost access to oxygen and COVID-19 testing in India. Overall, HPE has been able to donate more than $35 million to causes since the program’s inception.
“As a leader of more than 2,000 employees, with nearly half of those team members in India as COVID ravaged the country, I was deeply and emotionally affected by the dire circumstances they were in,” said Ash Chowdappa, Senior Vice President at Aruba, an HPE company. “Many became sick, some lost loved ones. The stories hit hard. I had already made a personal donation using HPE Gives. However, I logged back on and saw HPE’s support of UNICEF’s efforts in India.”
This was the first time I’d seen a company initiative that offered Peer Matching. I understood the urgency, so I felt compelled to donate there as well.
Ash’s donation into the Peer Matching pool helped to encourage more than 1,300 of his colleagues to band together and raise nearly $350,000 to support COVID relief in India.
“HPE’s collaborative contribution for COVID-19 relief in India helped supply healthcare workers and patients with things like surgical masks, oxygen tanks, and tests, which are crucial for recovery, both then and now,” said Justine Feighery, Director of Corporate Partnerships at UNICEF USA, describing the impact of the Peer Matching employee campaign at HPE.
In a time when traditional power structures and systems are being challenged and people are igniting grassroots movements, they don’t just want to support a cause; they also want to support each other.
“Businesses are now thinking more democratically, more creatively and more inclusively,” said Steven Woods, Chief Technology Officer at Benevity. “In a time when traditional power structures and systems are being challenged and people are igniting grassroots movements, they don’t just want to support a cause; they also want to support each other. With Benevity’s latest innovation, Peer Matching, employees can have a much greater impact on the world, and at the same time build a sense of collective action and connection with their co-workers, supported by their company.”
Peer Matching can be added to any giving initiative through Benevity’s employee engagement solution, Spark. To learn more about Peer Matching, visit benevity.com.
About Benevity
Benevity, a certified B Corporation, is a leading provider of global corporate purpose software, providing the only integrated suite of community investment and employee, customer and nonprofit engagement solutions. A finalist in Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards, many iconic brands rely on Benevity’s cloud solutions to power their purpose in ways that better attract, retain and engage today’s diverse workforce, embed social action into their customer experiences and positively impact their communities. With software that is available in 20 languages, Benevity has processed more than 7 billion dollars in donations and 38 million hours of volunteering time, 340,000 positive actions and awarded one million grants to 303,000 nonprofits worldwide.
About Spark
Spark by Benevity empowers companies and their people to become a force for good and gain a sense of impact through user-centric technology, available on desktop and mobile app, that connects them to the causes that they care about most. With flexible volunteering, impactful giving and gamified positive actions, Spark engages employees, customers and communities in activities that deliver both business and social outcomes.
Contact:
Robyn Douglass - Archetype │ 212-871-4082 │ robyn.douglass@archetype.co
Andrea Davis - Benevity │ 1.403.966.5622 │ press@benevity.com