With corporate social responsibility (CSR) becoming the norm for businesses across sectors, it’s no surprise that more and more companies need a software solution to manage their philanthropy programs. Whether your company offers matching gifts, grants for nonprofit organizations, or other workplace giving programs, you need a way to streamline workflows and track your programs’ impact.
That’s where corporate giving software comes in. But with so many options available, how do you choose the right platform for your business? This guide will cover common questions, review top solutions, and discuss the latest trends to keep in mind as you make your decision.
Corporate giving software FAQ
Before we dive into our list of the best corporate giving platforms, let’s answer any questions you may have about the basics of corporate giving software.
What is corporate giving software?
Corporate giving platforms are software solutions designed to help corporations manage, track, and engage employees in their corporate social responsibility programs.
These systems provide a centralized hub for employee giving programs like matching gifts, volunteer grants, payroll giving, and more. Most platforms offer features for employers to simplify management and reporting along with features for employees that facilitate participation in CSR.
Why do companies use employee giving software?
Using corporate giving software helps companies get more out of their philanthropy programs while lessening the administrative burdens that typically come with managing them. This means your company can allocate more funds and generate more positive impact in the long run, boosting your reputation as a socially responsible, impactful company.
Along with helping nonprofits do more good in the community, corporate giving software comes with the following benefits:
- Streamline management of corporate giving programs. The most immediate benefit of using corporate giving software is that it saves program managers time by streamlining and automating menial tasks. Instead of manually approving match requests or volunteer opportunities, your system can do it all for you.
- Boost employee participation and engagement. Features like employee portals, eligibility reminders, and social activity feeds engage employees in your programs, making them more likely to participate and stay with your company (since CSR programs can reduce employee turnover by 50%).
- Easily report impact and maintain compliance. Track employee participation, funds donated, hours volunteered, and cause distribution, then report on your company’s impact to stakeholders and the public — all while maintaining compliance with your policies.
- Help employees give more to their favorite nonprofits and causes. 360MatchPro reports that “84% of employees said they’d be more likely to donate if a match is offered,” meaning that corporate giving inspires employees to give more than they normally would. Corporate giving software helps team members use your programs to easily make a greater impact on the causes they’re passionate about.
- Track employee donations, volunteer hours, and personal impact. With intuitive employee giving software, employees can easily see the individual impact they’ve made at a glance, inspiring them to give more over time.
- Connect employees with new, vetted organizations to support. Some corporate giving platforms include directories of vetted nonprofits across cause areas. Employees can explore these directories and discover new organizations that align with their values.
Ultimately, corporate giving software makes it easier for your business to tap into the extensive benefits of corporate philanthropy and improve your programs over time.
What corporate giving software features should you prioritize?
Not all corporate giving platforms are created equal — some focus on a single aspect of CSR while others have features for managing all kinds of corporate philanthropy strategies. We recommend choosing a solution that includes, at a minimum, the following features:
- Advanced reporting dashboards: Your corporate giving platform must have reporting capabilities so you can track, measure, and report on your philanthropic impact.
- Payroll and credit card giving: Employees should be able to easily give via credit card or directly from their regular paychecks to the organizations of their choice.
- Automated donation matching: Your software should make requesting, approving, and granting matching gifts easy by automating these processes based on your requirements.
- Eligibility management: Set guidelines for which employees, donations, volunteer hours, and nonprofits are eligible for your programs so your software can automate approvals.
- Watchlist scanning: To ensure that every organization you support is reputable, your corporate giving software should vet them using international watchlist databases.
- Activity feeds for employees: Personalized social activity feeds or dashboards that show employees how their coworkers give inspires more participation.
Read software reviews, request demos, and ask for recommendations from your peers to ensure that the solution you choose has these key features and otherwise meets your needs. You may also need additional features, such as grant management tools or employee-created volunteer events, depending on the programs you implement.
Top corporate giving platforms to consider
With those features and benefits in mind, explore our top recommendations for corporate giving software solutions.
Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy
Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy is a cohesive, impact-driven employee giving platform built on CyberGrants, one of the leading CSR platforms for the last 20+ years. Our best-in-class corporate giving software combines unified grantmaking tools with employee engagement features to bring you one holistic, robust solution for managing CSR programs.
But it’s more than just a CSR platform. At Bonterra, we believe corporations should move beyond traditional CSR to hone in on a more strategic approach to philanthropy that focuses on nonprofit partnerships and measurable impact — and our software helps you do just that.
Explore just a few of Strategic Philanthropy’s comprehensive features designed to drive real, lasting impact:
- Custom matching gift programs: Set your own guidelines and eligibility criteria for matching gifts that the system will automatically verify each time an employee makes a request.
- International credit card giving: With Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy, employees in over 100 countries can participate in corporate giving to easily support vetted international organizations.
- Database of vetted nonprofits: Explore over 160,000 trusted organizations that employees can easily nominate for your programs, helping you establish long-term partnerships with value-aligned nonprofits.
- Personalized donor portals: Engage employees with personal portals that suggest giving and volunteer opportunities tailored to their preferences. Employees can see their giving history, match requests, upcoming events, and more from one platform.
- Robust impact reporting: Quickly analyze participation trends, overall giving, and the true impact of your corporate giving efforts on various causes. View outcomes data in real time so you can monitor progress and report on your impact any time you need to.
Our corporate giving platform is available at three pricing tiers to meet the unique needs of different companies. Choose our Employee Engagement solution to hone in on giving and volunteering, or opt for Strategic Philanthropy Enterprise to access all employee engagement and grantmaking features.
Excited to learn more? Request a demo to get in touch with our team and see for yourself what Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy can do.
Bright Funds
Bright Funds, now owned by Submittable, is a corporate giving and volunteering solution designed to engage and empower employees. Its standout features include:
- Credit card, payroll, and PayPal giving.
- Ability to give to multiple related nonprofits at once through Funds.
- Credit grants that employees can award to their favorite nonprofits.
- Real-time impact reporting.
This employee giving software also includes an Everyday Actions feature that encourages employees to participate in small, meaningful actions and earn points they can use toward giving credits.
Benevity
Benevity’s platform incorporates volunteering, giving and matching, micro-actions, grants, and customer donations in one solution. Its software includes features like:
- Custom, employee-created giving opportunities.
- Automated donation matching.
- Secure, global disbursement of funds.
- Field, skill-based, and virtual volunteering events.
Keep in mind that some features, like custom reports and grants management tools, are only available as add-ons to the base platform.
Uncommon Giving
Uncommon Giving provides companies with basic employee giving and volunteering management tools. A few of Uncommon Giving’s best features include:
- An intuitive mobile app for employees.
- Social “Generosity Feeds” that provide personalized giving experiences.
- Matching gifts, Dollars for Doers, and payroll deductions.
- Option to provide employees with donor-advised funds (DAFs).
If your company is new to corporate giving and wants a solution that’s quick and easy to use (but you don’t need more advanced functionalities), Uncommon Giving may be a good choice.
America’s Charities
America’s Charities offers corporate giving software to facilitate employee giving, volunteering, and emergency relief funding. This solution comes with features such as:
- Employee assistance and relief funds with confidential applications.
- Unified grantmaking, giving, and volunteering programs.
- Automated matching gift approval process with configurable attributes.
- Disaster and crisis relief campaigns.
As an additional service, America’s Charities can also assess your CSR programs and provide recommendations for ways to improve them.
YourCause
YourCause by Blackbaud is a centralized CSR platform that’s highly flexible and customizable to meet your needs. This corporate giving software includes the following features and more:
- Campaign, year-round, and hybrid giving opportunities
- Virtual employee resources groups (ESGs)
- Volunteer hours tracking and incentives
- Data visualizations and drag-and-drop report builders
Blackbaud typically specializes in working with nonprofits, which gives the provider more insight into nonprofit organizations’ needs and preferences than some other solutions.
Selflessly
Another top employee giving software option is Selflessly, a social impact platform designed to engage employees and promote more corporate responsibility. A few features include:
- Employee donation matching and payroll deductions
- Custom company-wide giving goals
- Simplified reporting dashboard to analyze your impact
- Slack and Teams integrations
Selflessly doesn’t have any add-ons, meaning that you get all of its features without having to choose an enterprise option.
Philantech by Givinga
Philantech by Givinga is a modern corporate giving solution for companies and corporate foundations. Philantech comes with features like:
- Charitable savings accounts for employees
- Customizable dashboards that match your company’s branding
- User-friendly reports to help you monitor your impact
- Corporate giving campaigns you can set up in minutes
You can try this platform’s Essentials plan for free, which gives you access to a branded corporate giving fund and basic insight reporting.
Millie
Millie is a budget-friendly option for companies looking for a simple corporate giving software solution. Millie offers features such as:
- Streamlined, automated donation matching tools.
- Company-wide giving campaigns and drives.
- Volunteer event builder for remote and in-person opportunities.
- “Giving Madness” employee competition that gamifies corporate giving.
This solution also offers integrations with leading providers like Slack, Double the Donation, and SSO providers.
POINT
POINT is mainly a volunteer management solution, but it also offers some features for corporate giving and nonprofit partnerships. This platform includes:
- An intuitive, free mobile app native to iOS and Android.
- Cause-based and virtual employee volunteering opportunities.
- Personal volunteer impact tracking.
- In-kind donation registries that highlight what nonprofits need most.
The POINT corporate giving software also enables you to co-host volunteer events with nonprofits, opening the door to potential long-term partnerships.
GoodUp
As an all-in-one CSR solution for companies, GoodUp prioritizes sustainability, social impact, diversity, and well-being initiatives. This is an employee-driven platform with features like:
- Matching gifts and in-kind donation drives.
- Individual and team-based volunteer opportunities.
- Emergency response campaigns to collect urgent donations.
- Social sharing features to spread the word about corporate giving.
Like other corporate giving platforms, GoodUp also facilitates management of ERGs and specific ESG initiatives.
Deed
Deed is a corporate giving platform designed to inspire employees to do good deeds from an all-in-one solution. It comes with the following features:
- Cause-based fundraising campaigns and giving circles
- Grantmaking and grants management tools
- Personalized employee social feeds and leaderboards
- Advanced feedback collection and reporting dashboards
To connect all of your most important systems, Deed also offers integrations with Slack, PayPal, Venmo, VolunteerMatch, and more.
Choosing the right employee giving software for you
Still not sure which corporate giving platform might align best with your company’s needs? Don’t fret. Choosing, investing in, and implementing new software is an important process that requires careful consideration at every stage. To thoroughly evaluate your options, follow these steps:
- Outline your needs and budget. First, clarify which programs your software will need to support (such as matching gifts, employee volunteering, and grantmaking). Define your goals for using the software, and list specific features that will help you reach those goals. Then, align with leadership on your budget for the platform.
- Research corporate giving software options. Based on your favorites from this list and any other recommendations you receive, choose several solutions to investigate further. Explore their websites, top features, and customer reviews on sites like G2 and Capterra.
- Request demos of your top contenders. Narrow down your options to two or three corporate giving platforms, then schedule a live demo of each one. Use this time to ask questions and speak with the provider about your company’s needs and goals.
- Make your decision with company leaders. From there, approach relevant company leaders and make your decision together. Once you decide, you can reach out to the software provider’s sales team and start the adoption process.
The right software can make all the difference in your corporate social responsibility efforts, so take your time and choose carefully.
Want more insight? Watch our free webinar to learn more about how to choose the corporate giving platform that will help you build an engaged, dedicated workforce.
Latest trends in corporate giving platforms
The technology landscape is always changing, so it’s helpful to keep in mind the latest developments and attitudes as you select software and build out your programs. Explore a few of the corporate giving software trends we’ve been keeping tabs on:
- Accepting payments from digital wallets: More employees want to donate to nonprofits using digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, so corporate giving platforms are prioritizing these payment methods.
- Deeper impact reporting: Shareholders, employees, and customers alike want to see exactly how your company drives impact with its philanthropy. Platforms with deeper, more advanced reporting allow you to analyze and demonstrate that impact effectively.
- Employee-driven grantmaking: Grantmaking has traditionally not been included in the category of employee giving because employees aren’t directly involved. That’s changing now — more companies ask for employee feedback or let them vote directly on the grants they award.
- Developing nonprofit partnerships: Companies and nonprofits can do more good when they work together, in both the short and long term. The best corporate giving platforms realize this and provide tools for developing lasting nonprofit partnerships.
Choose corporate giving software that taps into all of these trends (like Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy), and you’ll put your company in a better position to succeed in its philanthropy efforts long-term.
Maximize philanthropic impact with corporate giving software
The best corporate giving platforms will transform your CSR programs and help your company make a powerful, lasting impact on causes close to your employees’ hearts.
Remember to prioritize your employees’ opinions once you get started with your chosen solution, and leverage its features to implement and improve your programs. After all, software like Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy is here to transform your CSR strategy and power your company’s purpose.
