5 Ways Benevity Can Help Your Business During Uncertain Times

How to turn social impact into business impact

With economic uncertainty looming, your company may be considering recession preparation measures and discussing which investments will deliver enough impact to help solve your business challenges. At the same time, issues around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), workforce retention and employee disengagement continue to be at the forefront of CEOs’ minds (Gartner). This confluence of factors has created the need to double down on your investment in your people and the issues they care about, while looking for new ways to drive efficiency, growth and differentiation.

This is where investments in corporate purpose, employee engagement and environmental, social and governance (ESG) become even more critical. In fact, during the Great Recession, the S&P 500 index declined by more than 35% while the stocks of diverse and inclusive companies increased by 14% (Great Place to Work). Doing the right thing is good for your people and your business.

Read on to learn five ways that Benevity can drive higher revenue, more efficiency and healthier workplaces for your organization — even during challenging economic times.

1. Make your business more efficient

You may be operating with limited resources or budget cuts, yet the expectations are still high in terms of engaging your people and supporting your communities especially during these times. This can place even more strain on a small team juggling multiple demands and priorities.

HOW WE HELP
We want to help you work smarter, not harder. Our technology makes it easy and efficient to manage the administration of your CSR program by automating manual processes and streamlining workflows. With Benevity, you can:

• Reduce the use of spreadsheets and ad hoc tools to manage volunteer sign-ups, match donations or report on your impact.
• Centralize your program so you can manage it efficiently across regions, time zones, currencies and offices.
• Stop cutting manual checks — they can greatly increase errors, time and costs for both your company and nonprofits. Instead, we send over 92% of funds electronically, at one-tenth of the cost of paper checks (Benevity).

75% of clients cited business efficiency as the number one benefit of using Benevity.

“If you are using Excel to track
your volunteer time, you need to stop.
You're going to get just so much more employee engagement and it's going to be easier for nonprofits if you use a program
like Benevity.”

- Experian case study

2. Retain and engage top talent

The percentage of workers voluntarily leaving their jobs has remained steady despite the pressures of an economic downturn. This has made it even more important to keep your top talent engaged, connected and motivated. Doing so helps you build a better place to work — and high employee engagement is a proven driver of greater profitability and productivity (Gallup).

How we can help

Investing in purpose is really an investment in your people. Benevity’s technology is designed to drive engagement by giving your people the power to support their own passions, all while being supported by their company. To engage your employees, you can:

• Help your people act on the issues they care about through giving and volunteering. This has proven to boost engagement and even reduce turnover by 57% (Benevity Engagement Study).
• Show your support by offering to match employee donations and reward them for volunteering. This can be an added benefit of your company’s total rewards program.
• Build connection and corporate culture through volunteering and employee resource groups (ERGs).

And the results? 75% of our clients reported an increase in employee engagement since using Benevity (Benevity Client Survey 2022).

“Our program has had unbelievable advancement — especially its impact on the communities where we live and work around the world. Our employees are really proud of their work and what the company stands for, and they feel empowered to support their passions in their neighborhoods on a whole new level.”

-Case study from a leading tech company

3. Help your business grow by building trust and loyalty

Investing in social impact is no longer a nice-to-have. It is a growing expectation of investors, customers and prospective employees. Without it, you stand to fall behind in the pursuit of top talent, profit and brand loyalty.

People are four times more likely to buy from a purpose-driven brand and 70% of consumers want brands to take a stand on social and political issues (Zeno). Internally, 65% of employees report they would like to work for organizations with a strong social and environmental conscience (Gartner).

How we can help

Benevity helps you turn statements into sustainable and social action that will build trust in your brand and your business. Get the tools to mobilize your employees and customers on the issues they care about and show your commitment to doing the right thing.

• Easily activate your employees and customers by creating giving campaigns in a matter of hours or days to provide aid during social and humanitarian crises.
• Get access to Benevity’s world-leading disbursement platform, ensuring your payments get to nonprofits with nearly 100% reliability, accuracy and efficiency.
• Make impactful corporate grants that build stronger nonprofit relationships, improve brand loyalty, and prove to all stakeholders that you're committed to more than the bottom line.

84% of our clients said Benevity helps them be a force for positive change in the world and 60% said Benevity helps create an attractive employer brand (Benevity Client Survey 2022).

4. Build a diverse & inclusive workplace

During times of economic uncertainty, DEI efforts may be affected. Yet it's more important than ever when you consider that, in 2021, more than half of people who quit their jobs left because they didn't feel a sense of belonging (McKinsey). And diverse groups are disproportionately impacted during economic and social crises (McKinsey).

Supporting your ERGs to help advance your DEI efforts will lead to higher employee engagement and a more inclusive culture.

How we can help

Benevity helps you manage and scale your DEI programs from the bottom up, so you can create a more engaged workforce and foster a culture of diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Our dedicated inclusion product, Benevity Affinity Groups, helps you scale, manage and track your ERGs in a single platform that is filled with interactive content, rich discussions, and tools to deepen engagement and connection.

77% of our clients said Benevity helped them build a stronger, more connected culture (Benevity Client Survey 2022).

5. Take swift action with turnkey resources and support

The world’s unstable social climate and growing polarization has led to fast-changing crises and pressing social issues — and businesses are increasingly expected to take action. But with limited resources and small teams, many leaders struggle to act fast. What can be done?

How we can help

When the next crisis hits, we can ensure you’re prepared to step up and take action. Our team can support you with program design, recommended nonprofit partners, content and plug-and-play campaign kits. That’s why 85% of our clients said we make it easy to respond to climate and humanitarian crises (Benevity Client Survey 2022). Here’s what’s possible:

• Efficiently mobilize support in hours or days with our easy-to-use technology, recommended causes and turnkey content kits.
• Minimize risk with vetted nonprofits (and know they are in good standing, based on local requirements).
• Access 900+ peers in Benevity's client community to share best practices and ideas with top brands.
  

Bonus: Make the most of your CSR program with real-time reporting

Can you easily quantify the impact of your giving, volunteering and granting initiatives? Having access to this data will help you understand your achievements and set benchmarks. Reporting on impact can help you build a case for executives and quantify your investment with tangible metrics. Plus, it provides key insights on recruitment, retention and diversity.

How we can help

Benevity gives you the industry’s most comprehensive reporting to make it easy to track donations, corporate matching budgets and program performance. Make strategic decisions about your program on the fly, and report on your impact to your senior stakeholders. With standardized, real-time reports out of the box, you can:

• Benchmark against other companies, so you can see how your program stacks up and gain insights to inform your program strategy.
• Identify how your employees are giving within the program and determine what key cause areas are most important to your team.
• Access industry-leading research, insights, and content to track trends in the corporate purpose space and inform your program growth.

“It’s not just the information that we now have, we are able to make better decisions around how we are launching our campaigns, how are we engaging with employees. It’s been a huge benefit to the design of our program and how we’re thinking about what we’ll do in the future."

- Allison Robinson, Dolby Laboratories