Employer Charitable Endeavors Can Boost Efforts to Attract and Retain Top Employees

By Caryn Freeman  

Employees want more giving and volunteering opportunities, and companies are responding with more and varied philanthropic endeavors.

According to a new report from America’s Charities, over two-thirds (68 percent) of employers report that their employees expect them to support volunteerism and half (50 percent) of employers are moving to year-round engagement with their workplace giving programs.

Sixty percent of surveyed companies are incorporating contests and events as a way to add fun to workplace giving programs and keep them vibrant.

America’s Charities, which helps facilitate charitable giving by employers, released “Snapshot 2014: A Rising Tide of Expectations–Corporate Giving, Employee Engagement and Social Impact” April 24 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The report, which featured responses from 100 employers and 240 charitable organizations, found that companies are looking to connect employee charitable opportunities to overall engagement strategies.

Employees Expect Altruism

According to the report, employee expectations regarding philanthropic programs include having an effective, contemporary workplace giving program, getting to use work time to volunteer, having opportunities to engage in skills-based volunteer activities and having the employer match charitable contributions.

“Employees, particularly the next generation of managers and leaders, view this as an expectation they have of their employer that actually impacts their positive or negative feelings toward the employer or prospective employer,” Stephen Delfin, president& CEO of America’s Charities, told Bloomberg BNA following the survey-release event.

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