Originally published on Goodtoday.medium.com
Businesses now more than ever understand the deep benefits of social responsibility. It’s been well documented that positive social impact leads to better employee retention, happiness and meaning in the workplace. We’ve seen studies with powerful data, showing that companies with giving programs have 2.3X the employee retention rate.
While the benefits of corporate giving is clear, the details and implementation of a meaningful program are much more murky.
One program that addresses this is Pledge 1% , a global movement that inspires, educates, and empowers every entrepreneur, company, and employee to be a force for good. Over 10,000 members in 100 countries have used Pledge 1%’s flexible framework to ignite half a billion dollars in new philanthropy.
The legacy CSR playbook has a host of ways for corporations to give back; a company backed matching program, one-off volunteer initiatives, or bulk grants allocated and decided upon by company leadership. All of these are impactful programs that lay the groundwork for a culture of giving.
Bringing employee engagement into your CSR program
GoodToday was founded on the principle that generosity is a muscle, and when exercised often, transforms one into a giver. We started off with a daily newsletter that highlights a timely cause and two related organizations. Initially, individual subscribers would sign up to donate 25¢/day to one of featured charities, all with one click, and then track our collective impact in real-time. It wasn’t long before socially conscious companies asked if they could also receive the newsletter and sponsor daily giving for their employees.
We launched GoodToday for Teams, with a mission to make giving charity a daily habit, build a muscle of generosity and humility. Through our new Slack/Email app, teams can now cultivate and implement a habit of giving for their employees. Companies sponsor their employees for 25¢/day and we send a daily message featuring one timely problem in the world and two charities tackling the issue in a different way.
Donating Via GoodToday’s Slack App
It’s been humbling to see teams rally together in the midst of the many issues we are currently facing, to make giving a habit. Employees seem to truly cherish the opportunity to give back daily remotely, and it has shown with 30–50% of the 12,000+ employees engaging daily.
It’s no wonder we’ve found that some of the first companies to adopt our employee centric workplace giving platform have been Pledge 1% companies. MediaMath, Jefferies, Jebbit, Litify and other Pledge 1% members are all onboard GoodToday and use it to power daily discovery and giving for their employee base.
MediaMath is a leader in CSR, having built a .org initiative that threads through every aspect of their business. Since adopting GoodToday’s slack app on their team last year, the team has engaged over 40% EVERY SINGLE DAY, using it as a tool for their team to educate themselves on timely causes and take action in the same morning moment.
Michael Quinn, Director of MediaMath.org said, “GoodToday provides a daily dose of perspective on issues around the world and a habit-forming act that will hopefully help us all become more kind and giving individuals at work, at home, in our communities, and the broader world at large.”
So, what’s next? We’re continuing to work with people-first companies that are providing actionable ways for their employees to build positive habits. If you’re an HR Leader, Founder, or anyone else who wants to make giving a foundational part of your company culture, check us out!
By joining GoodToday you’ll instantly boost the overall impact of our community while transforming the daily habits of your entire team. Check back here as we share more on how over 30 companies and 10,000 employees use GoodToday to build daily positive habits all while making an impact.
To learn more about Pledge 1% and to take the pledge visit pledge1percent.org.
To learn more about GoodToday and to sign up your team, visit goodtoday.org or email cynthia@goodtoday.org
