The 5 Best Companies for Employee Giving

Employee giving is great. Employees get to give back to causes that they care about, and companies get to reward employee giving and volunteering.

Corporate philanthropy is immensely important for a number of reasons, and employee-giving programs are just one of the many ways that companies express their cultures of corporate social responsibility.

There are many different ways for a company to craft its employee-giving program, but there are some amazing programs out there that see a high employee-participation rate that companies should take notes from and nonprofits should be aware of.

Here are the top five companies with stellar employee-giving programs:

1. Bank of America
Bank of America’s Charitable Foundation Matching Gifts program allows employees to double their cash or securities contributions to eligible charities and nonprofits with a $5,000 cap each calendar year. The minimum donation that can be matched is $25, although Bank of America lowers the minimum during times of national and global disasters.

Each year, Bank of America matches more than $25 million in employee donations.

Employees must submit their applications by March 31 after the year in which the donation was made. And although gifts made during Bank of America’s annual giving campaign are not match-eligible, full-time and part-time employees, as well as active board members, can have their donations doubled by the company.

The company also offers a generous volunteer grant program that encourages full-time and part-time employees, as well as retirees and active board members, to give their time to nonprofits. After a 50-hour threshold has been crossed in a calendar year, Bank of America will donate $250 to the charity. After 100 hours, the company contributes $500.

2. Intel
Intel’s Involved Matching Grant Program rewards employee volunteering after the employees have given at least 20 hours of their time to eligible nonprofits. For each hour after the initial 20, Intel will donate $10 to the nonprofit, with a cap of $15,000 for schools and $10,000 for other nonprofits.

Intel also offers its retirees and full-time and part-time employees a generous matching-gift program. Like Bank of America, the minimum donation amount is $25, but the maximum is $10,000. Intel has a 50 percent match rate. Employees have one year from the date of the donation to submit a request.

Employees can donate to a multitude of educational institutions, such as:

• Four-year colleges and universities
• Community colleges
• School or university foundations with a 501(c)(3) status
• K-12 schools

3. Microsoft
Microsoft has some of the most successful employee-giving and volunteer programs in the corporate world. Nearly 40,000 Microsoft employees—two-thirds of the company's total workforce—participate in the giving program.

And no wonder! Microsoft matches employees’ donations to nonprofits at up to $15,000 per year, per employee. The minimum match is only $1, and matches are made at a 1-to-1 ratio. Although retirees are not eligible, part-time and full-time employees are.

Additionally, Microsoft employees who volunteer at a nonprofit for at least four hours per calendar year can receive $25 for every hour they volunteer.

4. Verizon
Verizon offers an education-centered matching-gift program to its employees. Donations made to higher-education institutions are matched at a 1-to-1 ratio, and are capped at $5,000 per year, per employee. Donations made to other types of nonprofits are capped at $1,000.

A minimum of $25 will be matched, and requests must be submitted online by the end of January of the following year.

Additionally, Verizon offers a Team Champions program that rewards 10 or more Verizon employees who raise money for a nonprofit or school. The company will match up to $10,000 of the money raised per team and event.

And just in case that wasn’t enough corporate giving for you, Verizon also gives $750 grants to up to two organizations after an employee has volunteered for at least 50 hours at each separate nonprofit. This volunteer program, however, only is available to current employees.

5. Medtronic
Since nine out of 10 Medtronic employees donate money to a nonprofit each year and 75 percent of employees volunteer, it makes sense that the company would have a robust employee-giving program. It matches employee donations of up to $50,000 per employee, per year, with a minimum of $25.

Additionally, Medtronic donates $500 after an individual employee volunteers for 25 hours at a nonprofit. Employees have achieved high participation rates in past years, with Medtronic donating more than $540,000 in volunteer grants alone.

What can these five companies tell you?

As you can see, there are many different types of ways to incorporate employee giving at a company. It’s best to give employees multiple ways to give and volunteer. Not only does it increase employee engagement, but nonprofits potentially can receive twice as many donations from donors and their employers.

As a nonprofit professional, your job is to help promote these types of programs to your new and existing donors and volunteers. When they know that their employers will reward their philanthropic efforts, they will be more likely to give their time and money. Check out these five ways to incorporate matching gifts across your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts.