Your best ambassadors and most loyal donors often can be found among those who know your nonprofit’s mission best – your own employees and team members. A successful employee giving program can put the organization in a good position when it comes to qualifying for other funding opportunities.
And, limitations on in-person events during the pandemic prompted the changed approach, which has proved so successful that it’s now become a mainstay of how Banner Health in Phoenix conducts its employee giving campaign.
Harnessing the giving opportunity your employees represent is often best done not by patronizing them with trinkets, tchotchkes, prizes and cheerleading but deftly appealing to them on the basis of mission, the same way you engage any other group of donors.
Meagan Hawk, fund development manager for annual giving at Banner Health Foundation in Phoenix, said during a recent presentation at the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy conference, that reorienting her organization’s employee giving campaign away from fundraising activities and events toward a greater focus on intrinsic reasons for giving has paid unforeseen dividends. It also has saved time and expenses that formerly went into planning the events around which employee giving campaigns had been organized in the past.
“COVID completely flipped on its head the way we had been doing our campaign, but it also forced us to spotlight more clearly for our employees the impact of their dollars and why their giving matters. So, it’s become a new normal for us,” Hawk said.
Here are a few tips from her presentation on how you, too, can get the most out of your employee giving program:
* Evaluate how you engage your employees. Rewards and recognition are fine, but do your team members understand the “why” of giving and the impact their dollars have? If not, “bribing” them like children for a job well done on a school project or homework assignment will go only so far.
“People want to know how their gift is making a difference. Focusing on the ‘why’ part makes their giving feel less transactional and more meaningful,” said Hawk.
* Show; don’t just tell. Stories and testimonials from those who’ve been directly impacted by your nonprofit can go a long way toward making the impact feel tangible and personal. At Banner Health, the concept has been elevated through a series of employee town halls where team members heard directly from colleagues involved in a homebuilding project to provide lodging for cancer patients needing a place to stay when traveling for treatment. Another Banner Health cafeteria worker shared how he used a foundation scholarship to enroll in nursing school.
* Leverage your own resources and environment. This will vary by organization. However, to the extent you do offer thank-you gifts or rewards, consider leveraging the resources already at your disposal rather than incurring expenses on T-shirts, mugs, or other prizes your employees might not even want. Banner Health leaders applied the concept by offering massages and free meal and beverage vouchers in the hospital cafeteria to employees who donated. An educational nonprofit might offer free or discounted enrollment in an online course, a sports nonprofit might offer free use of athletic equipment, and so on.
* Realign to the bottom line. Engagement and enthusiasm are all well and good but are only a means to an end. The bottom line of your campaign is measured in dollars raised. “Engagement isn’t the bottom line of our campaign. Raising funds is,” Hawk said.
* Create a culture of philanthropy. Educating team members about the impact of their giving shouldn’t be viewed as a one-off annual event but as part of an ongoing conversation throughout the year. Remember that those who can’t give this year might be better positioned to give next year and probably have friends, family, and neighbors they talk to in the meantime who might be inspired to give as well. “We want our team members not just to give but to be advocates for what we do,” Hawk said.
