The Quick and Easy Way to Launch Your Company’s Employee Giving Campaign, #GivingTuesday Initiative, or Other Cause Campaign This Fall and During the Holiday Season

Your organization has grand plans for launching an employee giving campaign this fall. You know your employees are passionate about giving back to the community, and this year you vowed – VOWED – to empower them to support their favorite causes through a workplace giving campaign. But what happened? September is already halfway over. Where did the time go? Is it too late to do something?

We get it. Juggling your day-to-day workload while simultaneously launching a giving campaign can be challenging, especially if you don’t have staff solely dedicated to executing your charitable giving initiatives. For businesses like yours we have great news – it’s not too late! There is plenty of time to tap into the generous spirit of your employees to make an impact in your community this year.

Designed specifically with you in mind, the America’s Charities Quick Start solution (one of our four online giving technology options) is quick and easy to set-up, similar to some of the crowdfunding sites you’re familiar with – but better. 

6 Reasons Why Quick Start is Better for You and Your Company:

1. Quick Start is Designed for You.

The crowdfunding sites you’re familiar with aren’t designed for employers or their employees; they’re designed for individuals. With Quick Start, the employer gets a secure, branded, mobile-friendly web page with their logo and messaging, along with a unique, private URL which they can share with their employees (and any other stakeholders they want to include). What makes Quick Start really valuable is that after the charitable giving campaign, the employer receives a summary report which includes a list of employees who have participated, what charities employees supported (which gives the company an idea of what causes matter to its employees), and overall funds raised through the campaign. One on one fundraising is great, but this holiday season, your organization can leverage individual giving for collective impact. Click here to read how Carnival used Quick Start for a special employee engagement initiative to launch the expansion of their cruise line.

2. Your Quick Start Page Automatically Comes Pre-Loaded with 130+ Vetted High-Impact Nonprofits.

While the crowdfunding sites you’re familiar with typically only allow you to raise money for one charity per fundraiser, America’s Charities’ Quick Start solution automatically comes loaded with our 130+ vetted, high-impact nonprofit members—some of the biggest and best known brands in the country—who address a range of causes including education, human rights, hunger, poverty, animal services, research, health services, disaster recovery, and support for veterans and law enforcement. That means you don’t have to exhaust yourself to determine one charity that your diverse staff can get behind (though you can still do that if that’s what you want!)

All 130+ of America’s Charities nonprofit members are in good standing with the IRS, have been checked against the IRS OFAC terrorist watch list and revocations list, and we personally audit them annually to gauge their accountability, transparency, governance, leadership, and results, as well as finances, so we are confident that they will use your employees’ donations effectively. Click here to read more about our nonprofit member criteria and click here for a list of our members. 

3. Finding a Charity to Support is Easy Because the Platform is Easy.

Employees can use our cause category and location filters or just type in a keyword to find a charity that matches their passions, and when they find that charity, they simply click on the charity’s name to view a detailed summary about its mission and impact. And if they want to make a donation in honor of someone, they can easily do that during checkout. Employees can either self-register or check out as a guest, which means you don’t need to worry about managing passwords or credentials. And because your platform is built and hosted by us, America’s Charities, you can rest knowing the website and your employee transactions are secure, as we follow the most rigorous security protocols to protect your data. Plus, your page is mobile-friendly, which means your employees can give from their desks or on the go.

4. All Contributions are Tax Deductible.

This may come as a shock to you, but donations on the crowdfunding sites you’re familiar with are NOT always tax deductible – so make sure you read the fine print on those sites before launching a campaign. It’s best to check with your tax advisor first or you could end up with a huge, unexpected tax bill from the IRS like this poor cancer survivor. However, because America’s Charities is a 501(c)3 public nonprofit, all contributions made through any of America’s Charities’ employee giving fundraising platforms are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. All of your employees will receive an emailed tax receipt immediately after completing their donation through your company’s Quick Start employee giving page.

5. Best-in-Class Donor Support and Access to a Library of Client Resources.

Having trouble contacting someone for support through that KickStarter or Facebook fundraiser? With America’s Charities’ Quick Start solution, you get a dedicated campaign coordinator and multi-channel support for your employees. Our donor services team has received an average 95% donor satisfaction rating. Plus, by becoming an America’s Charities client, you automatically get access to our Client Resource Center, which includes:

• Best practices & campaign planning guides
• Full access to all of our white papers, case studies, and Snapshot employee giving research
• Sample employee communications (e.g. email copy templates)
• Charity impact stories
• Interesting charity facts and examples of how different donation amounts can help make a difference
• Library of photos and videos

6. It’s Fast to Set-up, and It’s the Perfect “Starter Package” for Employers Interested in Starting and Growing an Employee Giving and Engagement Program.

We call it Quick Start for a reason. Once you make your decision, together we can get your page up and live within days. Whereas typical crowdfunding pages are meant for one-off, finite campaigns, your Quick Start page can be used year-round or for a limited period of time – you pick. Because of the dedicated team you get with America’s Charities’ Quick Start solution, we make it easy for your team to quickly test out employee giving on a small scale, while making it easy for you to grow your program and transition to a more elaborate employee giving platform with more employee engagement features and giving methods when you are ready.

For nearly 40 years, America's Charities has been on a mission to bring more resources to the nonprofits that are changing our world, and we've done this by inspiring employees and organizations to support causes they care about. We hope your team will join us this fall and holiday season and test out your charitable chops with our new Quick Start employee giving solution. To learn more about Quick Start and get started, click here.