Billions of dollars of corporate giving revenue are left on the table each year—largely through workplace giving programs such as matching gifts, volunteer grants, and more. In order to aid with closing the funding gap, more and more nonprofits are beginning to proactively target available corporate giving opportunities. And for many, that means equipping their fundraising teams with innovative fundraising (and even corporate giving-specific) solutions.
We’ve already written about the importance of nonprofit matching gift software—and why your team should invest in the right online fundraising platforms and CRM solutions to help double donations. But there’s another essential type of tool that can make a significant difference in the overall results and the ease with which nonprofit fundraisers can collect and maximize corporate funding: corporate giving vendors.
In this guide, we’ll walk through the importance of corporate giving vendors and their unique role in fundraising by answering the following questions:
- What are corporate giving vendors?
- Who uses corporate giving vendors?
- How do nonprofits benefit from corporate giving vendors?
- How do corporate giving vendors relate to matching gift software?
Corporate giving is one of the most popular and impactful ways that for-profit businesses are increasing their social responsibility. By partnering with and supporting nonprofit causes, these businesses are able to elevate their overall positive impact on society. At the same time, companies involved get to see improved employee engagement and brand reputation and more dollars flowing toward their bottom lines.
And what does that mean for nonprofits? Extra fundraising revenue—especially when they’re equipped with the right tools for the job.
1. What are corporate giving vendors?
Corporate giving vendors are a unique type of company that works with other businesses to help run their corporate philanthropy programs. You may also hear this offering referred to as corporate giving software, CSR management platform, matching gift vendor, etc.
Businesses that outsource the facilitation of their corporate philanthropy programs to dedicated vendors are typically provided with an online portal through which they run their workplace giving. Within the portal, employees are encouraged to log in and locate available giving opportunities. From there, they can also request corporate funding through matching gifts or volunteer grants and enter the details required of the company to verify the submission in order to participate.
After the employee has completed their part of the process, the company can review the request. They’ll typically confirm that the employee’s submission meets pre-determined giving criteria and, consequently, approve the disbursement of funding to the specified nonprofit cause.
And thanks to their corporate giving vendor partner, the review and approval processes can be entirely automated. This allows the programs to flow more smoothly from beginning to end and requires less time, effort, and oversight from company management.
Examples of corporate giving software vendors
Some of the most popular corporate giving software providers are Benevity, YourCause, and CyberGrants. Together, these three cover many of the largest matching gift companies—including Coca-Cola, Chevron, Home Depot, and more.
However, a range of additional vendors exists as well, often targeting small and mid-sized businesses looking to invest in corporate giving. These smaller-scale platforms include names such as Selflessly, Millie, Point, and America’s Charities.
2. Who uses corporate giving vendors?
Corporate giving vendors are typically considered to be designed for the companies offering CSR and workplace giving programs. These platforms enable companies to get up and running with matching gifts, volunteer grants, and more, as well as help manage and automate behind-the-scenes operations from start to finish.
Though it’s possible for businesses to manage their corporate giving efforts on their own, working with a dedicated provider of corporate giving management services can go a long way toward streamlining and simplifying the processes involved while also elevating the end results of the program.
Typically, most large corporations will outsource their corporate giving efforts to an appropriate vendor. After all, some of these companies can employ hundreds of thousands of team members each. That can be a lot to handle on your own!
At the same time, more and more smaller businesses are looking into corporate giving management solutions as well—especially knowing that there are an increasing amount of CSR vendors designed with companies like them in mind.
3. How do nonprofits benefit from corporate giving vendors?
Corporate giving software vendors clearly offer unique and impactful benefits to the companies that invest in their services. But the gains don’t end there! As a nonprofit, you don’t want to overlook the advantages that these platforms can offer your team as well.
So what do these philanthropy management companies offer nonprofits? In short, they simplify the processes involved for nonprofits receiving funding through corporate giving programs.
And typically, all you need to do to begin raking in the benefits is to create an online profile for your organization.
Let’s look at a few examples of what can happen if an organization doesn’t register with these corporate giving vendors:
Say a corporate vendor client (in this case—an enterprise-level company with thousands of employees) offers a matching gift program for its staff. An employee of the company then decides to get their donation matched to their favorite nonprofit cause: yours.
The individual logs in to their employer’s corporate giving portal, but when they conduct a quick search of the platform’s nonprofit database, your organization fails to show up in the results.
Defeated, the individual concludes that their donation to your nonprofit may not be eligible for a corporate match and gives up on the request. That’s potential funding your mission may never see simply because your organization wasn’t registered for the platform.
Now, for another scenario:
The same individual looks further into the platform and discovers an option to add a new organization. They decide to follow the provided prompts and supply as much information about your organization as they can in order to register their donation match request.
From there, though, your team receives an email that a donor has requested a matching donation to your organization. You’re then required to create a profile for your nonprofit with the corporate giving vendor company in order for them to verify and approve the match.
In the end, you get your matching gift, but the process is unnecessarily drawn-out, and it takes longer for your organization to receive the matching funds.
In either case, the corporate giving process was made far more complicated than it needed to be. And in one of the scenarios, your organization actually lost out on available revenue—which is certainly not what you want for your cause.
Luckily, each of these roadblocks can be avoided by simply ensuring your organization is making the most of corporate giving software vendors. When you do, donors are simply asked to select your organization from a database of pre-vetted causes and provide basic information about their most recent donation. As a result, your nonprofit receives the funding in no time.
Not to mention, registration is free for nonprofits on nearly all corporate giving platforms. So, in other words, why not utilize these tools to your greatest ability?
4. How do corporate giving vendors relate to matching gift software?
If your organization has a dedicated strategy in place for maximizing matching gifts (which you should, as matching gifts are one of the most popular and impactful forms of corporate giving), you may be familiar with the idea of matching gift software. After learning more about corporate giving platform vendors, you may be asking the question: are corporate giving vendors and matching gift software the same? How do the two ideas relate to one another?
And the answer is that, while they each play a significant role in workplace giving program success (and specifically simplifying involvement for donors), it’s important to differentiate between the two types of tools.
Here are some things you need to know in order to do so effectively:
Matching Gift Software
- Matching gift software typically includes a comprehensive database of thousands of companies’ matching gift program guidelines—including minimum and maximum donation amounts, matching gift ratios, submission deadlines, qualifying nonprofit causes, and more.
- Matching gift software tools are typically purchased by the nonprofits that are looking to streamline their efforts and increase funding through corporate giving, while companies are listed in the database at no cost to the businesses.
- Nonprofit matching gift tools sometimes also provide information on additional corporate giving programs such as volunteer grants.
- Donors are often met with matching gift tools within the website, donation form, or digital communications of the nonprofit causes they support (specifically, by nonprofits that invest in matching gift tools for the very purpose of informing donors about their matching gift eligibility).
- Donors are typically encouraged to enter their employer’s name in a provided search tool, which populates with company-specific matching gift guidelines and instructions for submitting a match.
Corporate Giving Vendors
- Corporate giving vendor tools are typically purchased by the companies that use the program management services, while nonprofits can register for the portals at no cost.
- Corporate giving platforms often offer companies solutions for multiple corporate giving programs, including matching gifts, volunteer grants, corporate volunteerism, and more.
- Donors are often directed to their employers’ corporate giving vendor portals by the nonprofit’s matching gift database tool.
- Once a donor is logged into the portal, they are able to submit their matching gift request to their employer.
- The employing company then either manually reviews match requests or utilizes the platform’s automation function to approve eligible submissions.
Corporate Giving in Broader Nonprofit Philanthropy
Corporate donations can play a vast role in the overall nonprofit philanthropy ecosystem. According to giving statistics, corporations give between $21 and $26 billion in charitable funding to nonprofit causes each year. Over 11% of those cash donations are made through matching gift programs, with additional workplace giving initiatives and other corporate funding comprising the rest.
That said, corporate giving technology should be an essential component of any organization’s fundraising toolkit. For example, there are over one hundred online donation tools designed to aid millions of nonprofits in collecting and processing donor support. Of those 100+ solutions, approximately 75% partner with Double the Donation to provide matching gift technology to nonprofits and their donors.
At the same time, there are thousands of companies offering matching gift programs and other workplace giving initiatives. Some of these choose to manage their philanthropy on their own, while many others opt to outsource program facilitation to a third-party solution. And when these solutions work directly with nonprofits and the technology that powers their engagement, it can significantly streamline the processes involved while elevating impact on all sides.
How They Work Together With Matching Gift Auto-Submission
As you can see, each type of software—including both matching gift tools for nonprofits and corporate giving software for companies—plays a crucial role in effective donation-matching and overall corporate fundraising. You just have to know how best to utilize the tools available to your team in order to maximize revenue and keep the process running smoothly.
And now, for the first time, corporate giving platforms and matching gift software are working together to enable matching gift auto-submission. When a donor works for a company that offers auto-submission functionality through their corporate giving platform and gives to an organization that utilizes Double the Donation’s tools, the matching gift process can be completed with a single click!
All it takes is an individual providing their corporate email address—from there, the nonprofit’s matching gift tool integrates with the businesses’ platform to submit the required information and process the match to completion. It’s easier than ever for employee donors to secure matches on behalf of their favorite charities, meaning more organizations will see matches completed and paid out for the cause.
Next Steps
Make sure your organization is registered with as many of the top corporate giving software platforms as possible! Check out this post from the corporate giving experts at Double the Donation to explore step-by-step instructions on how to sign your nonprofit up for many popular services. Plus, view portal-specific tips to optimize your experience with platforms such as CyberGrants, Benevity, YourCause, Millie, and Point.
Then, you’ll be well on your way to maximizing corporate revenue for your nonprofit and its mission.
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