Case Study: Zuora - Employee Engagement in Grant Making [Video]

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Question

How do we encourage our employees to submit nonprofits for us to support via grant-making? Also, when our employees do come to us with nonprofits to support, how do we evaluate opportunities?

Answer

Pledge 1% member and Builder Rory Ihlamur, the Director of Social Impact at Zuora,  shared how her company Zuora involves employees in the grant-making process. You can watch the full video below, but here are some takeaways. 

Context

Zuora, a billing software for subscription models, has 1,200+ employees and runs a social impact arm called Zuora for Good. This program distributes smaller Community Impact Grants from a donor-advised fund (DAF), and also pursue larger partnerships with nonprofit partnerships. 

Takeaways

Here are some strategies that you could use to involve and excite employees within your company.

• Identify and Empower Internal Champions:  Zuora for Good identifies employees interested in giving back and  names them "ZEOs."  These ZEOs help promote philanthropy in their geographical regions by starting Z-Philanthropy chapters. These chapters and champions can identify local causes that they would like to support, then nominate nonprofits for Community Impact Grants of $10K-50K.
  
  
• Create an Evaluating Committee:  Applications for Community Impact Grants are reviewed by a ZEO Advising Committee of internal experts that have experience in nonprofit giving. This step ensures that the company is giving responsibly. 
  
  
• Pursue Short-Term and Long-Term Partnerships: Zuora pursues both smaller, local, one-off donations and strategic, longer-term partnerships with nonprofits. These different types of relationships allow for multiple donation types for employees to engage in.

Watch the full video

Ihlamur, the Director of Social Impact at Zuora, explains how the Zuora.org grant-making arm engages employees as of April 23, 2020.

Additional Resources

• See more thought leadership videos on our Events page
• Explore more ideas around profit donations and grants in our Profit Donation Playbook [Coming Soon!]
• Find more case studies by clicking on our "Thought Leadership" label

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Tell us about you

How do you involve your team in social impact activities? Got any tips for members who use grant-making to donate profits? Let us know in the comments below!

About the COVID Coalition

The global pandemic and its economic implications impacted businesses, employees, customers, families, and communities all over the world. The Pledge 1% community and companies came together to form a Coalition to support three incredible grant-making institutions: The United Nations Foundation, the CDC Foundation, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. As a global movement for social impact, we knew we were in a unique position to convene, aggregate resources, and amplify opportunities to make a difference.