13 top charitable giving platforms to amplify your corporation’s social impact

In today's world, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is no longer a nicety — it's a necessity. Consumers are increasingly gravitating toward brands that align with their values and make a positive impact. In fact, 70% of employees say they wouldn’t work for a company without a strong purpose. That’s where charitable giving platforms come in. 

Finding the right organizations, ensuring donations reach recipients, and measuring the impact of contributions can be time-consuming and cumbersome. Charitable giving tools alleviate these pain points by streamlining the process.

Let’s look at the top charitable giving software platforms and which features to consider to help amplify your impact. 

What are charitable giving platforms?

Charity fundraising platforms are software solutions that allow corporations to donate to charitable organizations. Essentially, charitable giving platforms aim to make it easier, more efficient, and more impactful for organizations to support the causes they care about.

A charitable giving platform allows you to:

• Discover and research charities: Explore a wide range of charitable organizations based on their mission, cause areas, and impact.
• Make online donations: Easily donate to chosen charities with online payment processing.
• Track donations: Monitor donation history and generate reports for tax purposes and internal tracking.
• Expand employee engagement: Find and sign up for volunteer opportunities with supported charities.
• Unify giving and grant making: Bring giving and grant making together for a simpler, more connected experience.

         

13 best charitable giving platforms

Choosing the right platform to support your charitable giving initiatives is crucial. Let’s look at the 13 best donation platforms to consider to expand your CSR goals. 

Platform	Best for	Standout feature	Pricing
Bonterra	Unifying employee engagement and grantmaking	Comprehensive data tracking & reporting	Custom pricing
Benevity	Employee engagement	Volunteer time tracking	Custom pricing
Deed	Volunteer opportunities	Matching employee skills with opportunities	Custom pricing
Fluxx	Impact measurement	Online forms	Custom pricing
GoodUp	Employee-led initiatives	Employee-led project creation	Basic, Professional, and Enterprise plans
Groundswell	Community-led grant making	Community review portals	Starting at $4,500 annually
Kadince	Financial institutions	Budget tracking and reporting	Custom pricing
Millie	Charitable giving initiatives	Digital gift cards for employees	Starting at $3,540 annually
Selflessly	Employee giving	User-friendly interface	Custom pricing
SmartSimple	Complex grant making	Custom workflows	Monthly subscription fees
Submittable	Evolving program requirements	Event scheduling	Starter, Pro, and Enterprise plans
Uncommon Giving	Workplace giving	Portable giving wallet	Starting at $1,999 annually
YourCause	Integrating with Blackbaud products	Employee portal	Custom pricing

1. Bonterra

Best for: CSR teams needing an agile, unified platform for both employee engagement and grantmaking

Bonterra's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) platform is a comprehensive solution designed to help businesses streamline and maximize their charitable giving initiatives. By offering a suite of features — including employee engagement, grant management, and strategic philanthropy — corporations can implement robust donation matching programs, incentivizing employee giving and amplifying their impact.

Bonterra’s agile approach to CSR generates incredible results — including helping over 50 of the Fortune 100 companies achieve their CSR goals, engaging 8% of all US employees in giving programs, and delivering more than $8 billion in annual funding to non-profit organizations.

Bonterra's CSR platform empowers businesses to build a culture of giving, engage employees in meaningful ways, and strategically direct their philanthropic efforts toward achieving measurable social impact.

Price: Customized pricing based on your needs

Features:

• Employee giving: Seamless payroll deductions, matching gift automation, and employee giving campaigns.
• Volunteer management: Track volunteer hours, manage volunteer programs, and connect employees with impactful volunteer opportunities.
• Grant making management: Streamline grant applications, track grant disbursements, and measure grant impact.
• Impact reporting: Generate comprehensive reports on your CSR activities and demonstrate your social impact to stakeholders.
• Integration with other systems: Seamlessly integrate with your HR and payroll systems for efficient data management.

2. Benevity 

Best for: Employee engagement 

Benevity is a CSR platform designed to empower companies to engage their employees in giving, volunteering, and positive actions. It offers a robust suite of tools that facilitate employee giving programs, volunteer time tracking, grant management, and community investment initiatives.

Price: Customized pricing based on your needs

Features:

• Mission marketplace: Provides access to a vast network of vetted charities worldwide, enabling employees to discover and donate.
• Volunteer time tracking & rewards: Allows employees to log volunteer hours, track their impact, and even earn grants.
• Grant management with impact measurement: Streamlines the grant making process with tools for application review.
• Positive actions & challenges: Encourages employees to participate in everyday actions that benefit the environment and community.

3. Deed

Best for: Skills-based volunteer opportunities

This platform is designed to simplify and enhance employee volunteering programs. It provides tools for companies to organize and promote volunteer opportunities, track employee participation, and measure the impact of their volunteer efforts. Deed emphasizes skills-based volunteering, connecting employee expertise with relevant community needs.

Price: Customized pricing based on your needs

Features:

• Volunteer event management: Provides tools for creating, promoting, and managing volunteer events, including scheduling, registration, and communication with volunteers.
• Skills-based volunteering: Facilitates matching employee skills with relevant volunteer opportunities, maximizing the impact of volunteer efforts.
• Volunteer hour tracking: Enables employees to easily log their volunteer hours and track their contributions.
• Integrated giving options: Offers seamless integration with donation processing, allowing employees to donate to organizations they are volunteering with.

4. Fluxx

Best for: Impact measurement

Fluxx offers a cloud-based platform specifically designed for grant management. It provides tools to streamline the entire grant lifecycle, from application intake and review to fund disbursement, reporting, and impact assessment. Fluxx aims to improve efficiency, transparency, and data-driven decision-making within grant making processes. 

While it can be used by corporate CSR teams, it's particularly well-suited for foundations that primarily focus on grant making.

Price: Customized pricing based on your needs

Features:

• Grant application management: Streamlines the application process with online forms, automated workflows, and reviewer collaboration tools.
• Grant portfolio management: Provides tools for tracking grant budgets, timelines, and reporting requirements.
• Impact measurement and reporting: Offers robust reporting and analytics capabilities to track key metrics and demonstrate grant impact.
• Collaboration and communication tools: Facilitates communication and collaboration among grantmakers, grantees, and other stakeholders.

5. GoodUp

Best for: Employee-led initiatives

Similarly to Uncommon Giving, GoodUp offers a platform designed to foster employee engagement by focusing on bottom-up initiatives. It’s designed to empower employees to propose, organize, and participate in projects that align with their company's values and contribute to positive social and environmental impact.

Price: Basic, Professional, and Enterprise plans

Features:

• Employee-led project creation: Enables employees to propose and manage their own social impact projects.
• Collaboration and team building: Facilitates team formation, communication, and collaboration among employees working on projects.
• Volunteering and giving integration: Offers features for organizing volunteer events and facilitating charitable giving.
• Impact tracking and reporting: Provides tools for tracking project progress, measuring impact, and reporting on results.

6. Groundswell

Best for: Simple employee giving features

Groundswell offers a platform designed to facilitate participatory grant making, a model of philanthropy that centers community voices in funding decisions. It provides tools for organizations to engage community members directly in the grant making process, allowing them to review proposals, provide feedback, and ultimately decide which projects receive funding.

Price: Starting at $4,500 annually

Features:

• Community review portals: Provides online spaces for community members to access grant applications, engage in discussions, and provide feedback.
• Participatory voting tools: Enables community members to vote on which projects should receive funding, facilitating democratic decision-making.
• Grant management workflow: Supports the grant making process with tools for application submission, review, and reporting.
• Community engagement: Offers features for communication and collaboration among community members and grant applicants.

7. Kadince

Best for: Financial institutions

Kadince offers a platform specifically designed for financial institutions to manage their community involvement programs. It provides tools to streamline collecting, approving, and tracking donations, sponsorships, and volunteer activities. Kadince emphasizes compliance with relevant regulations and reporting requirements, which is particularly important for financial institutions operating under regulatory scrutiny.

Price: Customized pricing based on your needs

Features:

• Donation and sponsorship management: Streamlines collecting, reviewing, and approving donation and sponsorship requests.
• Budget tracking and reporting: Provides tools for managing budgets related to community involvement activities and generating reports for internal and external stakeholders.
• Volunteer hour tracking: Enables employees to log their volunteer hours and allows institutions to track their overall community impact.
• Compliance and reporting features: Offers features to help financial institutions comply with relevant regulations and reporting requirements related to community involvement.

8. Millie

Best for: Charitable giving initiatives

Millie Giving focuses on empowering employees to donate to the charities of their choice through a straightforward and engaging platform. It offers a unique approach to corporate giving by providing charitable gift cards that employees can redeem for donations to over 1.7 million nonprofit organizations. 

This approach allows for personalized giving experiences and gives employees the autonomy to support causes they are passionate about.

Price: Starting at $3,540 annually

Features:

• Charitable gift cards: Provides digital gift cards that employees can redeem for donations to a wide range of nonprofits.
• Global giving capabilities: Supports multiple currencies and languages to facilitate international charitable giving.
• Campaign management tools: Offers tools for creating and managing giving campaigns, including setting donation goals and tracking progress.
• Reporting and analytics: Provides data and reporting on employee giving activity, allowing companies to measure their social impact.

9. Selflessly

Best for: Managing small-scale employee giving and volunteering

Selflessly is designed to simplify corporate social responsibility initiatives for smaller organizations. It provides tools for managing employee volunteering, facilitating charitable giving, and administering matching gift programs. Selflessly aims to provide a user-friendly and cost-effective solution for businesses that may not require the extensive features or complex configurations of enterprise-level platforms.

Price: Customized pricing based on your needs

Features:

• Volunteer opportunity discovery: Enables employees to find and sign up for volunteer events and provides tools for managing volunteer schedules and tracking hours.
• Integrated charitable giving: Facilitates employee donations to charities through integrated payment processing and donation tracking.
• Automated matching gifts: Automates the administration of matching gift programs, simplifying the process for both employees and administrators.
• Simplified program administration: Offers a user-friendly interface and streamlined workflows to simplify the management of CSR programs.

10. SmartSimple

Best for: Complex grant making

SmartSimple offers a highly configurable cloud-based platform designed to manage complex processes related to grant making, corporate social responsibility, and other impact-focused programs. 

SmartSimple emphasizes customization, allowing organizations to tailor the platform to their specific workflows, data requirements, and reporting needs. This makes it suitable for organizations with intricate processes.

Price: One-time implementation & monthly subscription fees

Features:

• Configurable workflows: Allows organizations to design custom workflows for managing various processes, such as grant applications, reviews, and approvals.
• Data management and reporting: Provides robust data management capabilities, including custom fields, data validation, and reporting tools.
• Integration capabilities: Offers APIs and integration tools to connect with other systems, such as CRM, accounting, and HR platforms.
• Collaboration and communication tools: Facilitates communication and collaboration among team members, applicants, and other stakeholders.

11. Submittable

Best for: Corporations that need a basic granting tool

Submittable’s platform is designed to support a range of CSR activities. It offers tools for managing workplace giving programs, coordinating volunteer programs, and streamlining grant making processes. Additionally, Submittable provides tools for managing grant applications, including online submission forms, review workflows, and notification systems.

Price: Starter, Pro, and Enterprise plans

Features:

• Employee giving management: Offers tools for creating and managing employee giving campaigns, including donation options and tracking capabilities.
• Volunteer program coordination: Provides features for managing volunteer activities, such as event scheduling, participant registration, and hour tracking.
• Grant management workflow: Supports the grant making process with tools for application submission, review, and notification management.
• Centralized CSR platform: Offers a centralized system for managing various CSR activities, including giving, volunteering, and grant making.

12. Uncommon Giving

Best for: Employee-centric workplace giving

Uncommon Giving offers a workplace giving platform designed to simplify employee giving and foster a culture of generosity within organizations. Their approach centers around providing each employee with a “wallet” that they can use to donate to the nonprofits of their choice. 

It’s crucial to note that Uncommon Giving is not a full-fledged CSR platform. Rather, it focuses solely on employee giving. 

Price: Starting at $1,999 annually

Features:

• Portable giving wallet: Provides each employee with a dedicated fund they can use to donate to any vetted nonprofit.
• Easy-to-use mobile app: Offers a mobile interface for employees to manage their giving and discover nonprofits.
• Streamlined donation processing: Simplifies the donation process for both employees and administrators.
• Reporting tools: Provides reporting capabilities to track employee giving and overall program impact.

13. YourCause by Blackbaud

Best for: Integrating with other Blackbaud products 

YourCause by Blackbaud offers a suite of tools designed to manage and maximize the impact of corporate social responsibility programs. It provides a centralized platform for employee giving, volunteer management, and corporate grant making.

Price: Customized pricing based on your needs

Features:

• Employee portal: Provides a personalized experience for employees to discover giving opportunities.  
• Volunteer management with skills matching: Facilitates volunteer event management, tracks volunteer hours, and offers skills-based volunteering opportunities.
• Corporate grant making & matching gifts: Streamlines the grant making process, including application management, review workflows, and fund disbursement.
• Reporting with data visualization: Offers reporting dashboards with customizable reports and data visualization tools.

Top benefits of using a charitable giving platform

Charitable giving platforms offer numerous benefits for both donors and charities. For donors, these platforms simplify the process of making charitable donations online, providing a convenient and secure way to support their chosen causes.

• Boosts employee participation: The right charitable giving platform will offer user-friendly interfaces for employees to explore causes, donate directly from their paychecks, and track their impact. This fosters employee engagement and a sense of ownership.
• Encourages partnerships: Charitable giving platforms can connect companies with vetted charities that align with their mission and values, enabling them to maximize their social impact.
• Streamlines data: Charitable giving platforms automate many administrative tasks, such as processing donations, generating reports, and managing grant applications. This frees up valuable time and resources for both companies and charities, allowing them to focus on their core missions and maximize their impact.
• Unifies giving and grant making: A centralized platform streamlines the entire charitable giving process, from employee donations to corporate grant making. This allows companies to track all their giving activities in one place, gain valuable insights into their impact, and demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility to stakeholders.

         

Tips for choosing the right charity fundraising software

It’s clear the benefits of implementing a charitable giving platform, but how do you choose the right solution for your needs? Here are the top tips and questions to ask when evaluating CSR software

• Define your needs and budget: Clearly outline your organization's specific fundraising goals, the features you require, and the budget you've allocated for the software to help narrow down your options.
• Research and compare platforms: Once you understand your needs, look for reviews and case studies, then compare features, pricing, and user experience. 
• Consider data integrations: Ensure the chosen software integrates with your existing CRM, accounting software, and other relevant systems. This will prevent data silos and manual data entry.
• Ensure data privacy: Verify that the software provider complies with relevant data protection regulations and has robust security measures in place to protect your data.

Boost your CSR strategy with charitable giving software

By implementing a robust charitable giving platform, you can streamline your fundraising efforts, cultivate stronger donor relationships, and ultimately maximize your social impact. 

Ultimately, the right software will help you boost your CSR strategies to build employee engagement and help you make a bigger impact. Ready to learn more about how a charitable giving platform can transform your CSR program?

Charitable giving platforms FAQ

What is charitable giving?

Charitable giving encompasses the act of donating money, goods, services, or time to a nonprofit organization or cause for a philanthropic purpose. It's a way for corporations to give back to the community. 

Is charitable giving tax deductible?

Yes, in most cases, charitable giving is tax-deductible. This means that donors can often deduct the value of their contributions from their taxable income, potentially reducing their tax liability. However, there are limitations and specific rules that apply.   

What is the best charity donation platform? 

The "best" charity donation platform depends entirely on your specific needs and preferences as a donor or a nonprofit organization. Bonterra’s Corporate Social Responsibility Software is among the best options as it offers a suite of features for employee engagement, grant management, and strategic philanthropy. 

How do you donate to charities online?

First, check with your employer to see if they offer an employee-giving platform to help you find nonprofits to support. If your company doesn’t offer a giving program, many charities allow you to donate directly to their cause online.