Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the idea that businesses have the same responsibilities as any individual person to make the world a better place and promote social good. To fulfill these obligations, businesses leverage software to encourage employee giving, create grant programs, and otherwise make a positive impact in their communities.
Bonterra is proud to help these companies with our software built on former CSR vendor CyberGrants’ platform.
In this brief article, we’ll explain what happened to CyberGrants, how it became part of Bonterra, and what motivated our shift from CSR to strategic philanthropy.
What is CyberGrants?
Founded in 1999, CyberGrants was a leading CSR platform that provided employee giving, grant management, and other philanthropic management tools to businesses, including over half of Fortune 100 companies.
Among its many features, CyberGrants stood out with its FrontDoor marketplace, which was a database of verified nonprofit organizations designed to help companies find nonprofit partners. Nonprofits could apply to be assessed and added to the database, and corporate users could search the database to find nonprofit partners whose purposes align with their philanthropic goals.
At the time of Bonterra’s acquisition, CyberGrants’ network connected approximately 10 million employees with 650,000 nonprofit organizations.
How CyberGrants joined Bonterra
On June 15, 2021, Funds advised by Apax (Apax Funds), a private equity advisory firm, announced it had purchased CyberGrants from Waud Capital Partners. This acquisition marked the first in a series of purchases Apax would make to form Bonterra.
In a public statement, former CEO of CyberGrants and current Bonterra board member Mark Layden, shared his thoughts on the acquisition:
“The market for corporate social responsibility software is rapidly evolving as organizations look for enhanced agility to manage their expanding, and increasingly sophisticated, CSR programs to achieve social impact, and we’re excited to partner with Apax for the next phase of our journey. Their experience and know-how of both enterprise software and charitable giving markets will be of great value as we continue to enhance our platform to better support customers.”
At the time of this initial purchase, Bonterra — simply known as “the Company” before its name announcement — focused on investing in and expanding CyberGrants.
Jason Wright, Partner at Apax, stated: “We are thrilled to partner with CyberGrants and we look forward to supporting them in their mission to help organizations maximize their impact. For over a decade, Apax and the Apax Funds’ portfolio companies have strived to achieve measurable ESG and CSR objectives, and we continue to look for ways to increase our positive impact on society and the environment. These initiatives are made easier with the help of companies like CyberGrants.”
On August 3, 2021, Apax acquired Social Solutions and EveryAction, officially forming the basis of the Company, which would provide businesses with corporate giving tools and nonprofits with fundraising and case management support software. On March 23, 2022, Bonterra would officially unveil its name and planned product offerings.
Where CyberGrants fits in the Bonterra ecosystem
Bonterra offers two software solutions for nonprofits, Fundraising and Engagement and Case Management. Businesses looking to get started with or advance their CSR programs can invest in Bonterra’s third solution, Strategic Philanthropy.
All brands acquired by Bonterra became part of one of these solutions. As a CSR and employee engagement tool for businesses, CyberGrants forms the basis of our Strategic Philanthropy platform.
To assist businesses with employee engagement and grants management, Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy provides the following features:
- Employee donation/company match distribution and tracking
- Grant distribution and tracking
- Reporting and insights
- Employee engagement program management
- Employee giving management
- Volunteer activity management
- Total giving activity dashboards
- Insights data API
- Snowflake data sharing integration
Bonterra offers three options for corporations: Employee Engagement, Grants Management, and Strategic Philanthropy Enterprise. All of these solutions are built on CyberGrant’s platform and should be easy for former CyberGrants customers to use to scale their CSR initiatives.
Businesses looking to log in to CyberGrants can access the portal from our login page.
Shifting from CSR to strategic philanthropy
Along with the change from CyberGrants to Bonterra comes an important shift in the way we’re thinking about the CSR landscape today. Bonterra’s vision in bringing all of these social good solutions together is to holistically increase philanthropic giving by connecting nonprofits, corporations, and public agencies in more ways than ever.
Part of this vision involves taking a new approach to CSR that we call Strategic Philanthropy.
With Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy, your company can prioritize forming long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with nonprofits that align with your values and drive real, measurable impact in the community.
Moving forward with Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy
[H2] Moving forward with Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy
If your business is looking to level up its CSR strategy, software is a must and Bonterra Strategic Philanthropy is the market-leading solution. Launch and manage grant programs, encourage employee giving and volunteering, access a database of verified nonprofits, and oversee your entire corporate social responsibility program with Strategic Philanthropy, built on CyberGrants.
Explore Bonterra’s solutions for CSR to find a plan that fits your business’s unique needs, or request a demo to learn more about how our platforms can support your goals.
