Rethink Employee Giving, We Are For Good Podcast

This episode is Part 2 of a four part series on employee giving. Listen to Part 1 here.

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Overview

ReThink Employee Giving: A 4-Week Series. This week we're diving into building a campaign framework whose heartbeat is its people, projects and process. Don't worry. It's way more interesting than it sounds. Because when impact is the core of your plan, it's easy for everything to flow from it. We've got tips, heartfelt stories and plenty of structure to get you started on your own campaign. Thanks for joining us again for our favorite discussion topic: employee giving!🤝

“Passion allows campaigns to become cultural.”

— Jonathan McCoy CFRE, Founder and CEO, We are for Good

Episode Overview

Part one discussed mindsets and beliefs to build a movement. Today, we are diving into the infrastructure (2:00)
How to structure your campaign (2:30)
People, Projects and Process: The 3 P’s of the Campaign (3:00)
FREE Worksheet: a checklist to help you implement this! (7:00)
Coming soon: a full blown Employee Giving Campaign Masterclass (32:00)
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Episode Transcript

Download Full Episode Transcript Here

Powerful quotes

“The greatest movements start from within.” -Jon

“What is that passion? How can you activate it for good?” -Becky

“Look through the lenses of the people, the projects, and the processes that you have in place. How could you refine and tighten your areas to transform your movement?” -Jon

“It’s about activating people at every level of your organization.” -Jon

“You will build pride among your donors will you build a project-based strategy.” -Becky

“We can talk all day long about the infrastructure, but where and how can you build passion for this campaign?” -Jon

“Passion allows campaigns to become cultural.” -Jon

“The passion piece.. if you do it right.. the dollars will follow.” -Becky

“Why are you passionate about your organization? Start there.” -Becky

People: The heartbeat of connection.

Get the people part right. People have to be at the core of a movement, it doesn’t work any other way. As you consider who is involved, do you have the right people involved in your campaign? Actively cultivate and recruit people to become ambassadors for your campaign. When you look at your volunteer footprint, does it match the size and scope of your organization?

👉 Questions to ask yourself as you are recruiting campaign leadership:

Are they philanthropic?
Are they passionate?
Do they want to make a difference?
Are they willing to share their story?
Do they have enthusiasm?
Are they respected by their peers?

Do you have the right training and coaching in place? Find the right fit for every person who wants to be a part of your campaign. See your volunteers for who they are. Some are high extroverts, some want to be in the background. There is a space for every person inside your campaign.

Projects: Your case for support.

The philanthropic projects (case for support) and the potential impact your donor could make with their gifts is the heart of the story. We believe that you are not just get donors, you’re trying to get believers. Allow individuals to experience the tangible impacts of philanthropy. When people are walking through the halls of your organization, and you can tie their gift directly to impact, something happens within them.

Have a concrete project to wrap around each of your passion areas. There is power in specificity.

Hint: put a logo and brand on each project/item! We want an employee to recognize that this was brought to be only with their help.

👉 Questions to ask yourself when evaluating projects:

Does it have philanthropic appeal?
Is this something we can talk about and truly will help people?
Is there a story to make it more relatable?
Are people excited about this project?

Process: this is paramount to your success. Are you positioned to scale and follow through?

Is your campaign positioned to scale? Anybody can put something together to get through. If you are thinking about building a movement, you must think about how you can systemize, scale and grow. As we think about the different processes, these things are the glue:

Gift processing: it has to start with this. The most powerful giving option is payroll deduction. This is built around a recurring revenue model. Don’t miss Paid Time Off. Build a friendship with your HR team and talk through these opportunities.
Be flexible. Make giving as accessible and frictionless as possible.
Look at data. If you’re going to scale, you have to look really closely at your data. Leverage the connectivity to HR. Just by doing something as syncing an employee ID number with the giving record could make your data much more effective.
Systemize your stewardship. Customize and make it special, but make sure it is systemized. What are the triggers? What happens at the end of the campaign? When the item is purchased how do you notify donors? This will help with retention and engagement. (Make it fun!)

*Pro tip: find an organization chart. This will help you map out the core people to get in on your plan early on.

👇 FREE RESOURCE: 👇

3P Checklist Worksheet

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The We are for good community

This is a safe place for deeper conversations. While we love this podcast, it is a very one-sided dialogue. It is great for starting conversations, but not continuing them. You can find friends, colleagues, and others to champion alongside. We believe community is everything and we wanted to create a place where people could learn and thrive and grow together (and also have a whole lot of fun).