Fidelity Philanthropic Consulting
Employee giving committees have surged as a creative way for companies to create a positive impact in the community while empowering employees to use their voice. Typically, these committees are structured as formal groups of employees that come together to inform the company’s philanthropic activities and direct charitable giving outcomes, aligned with the larger corporate and workplace philanthropic strategy.
Whether you’ve been on the fence about advocating to create an employee giving committee at your company or tested one out but see opportunities for improvement, I would encourage you to consider the benefits, potential use cases, and my five essentials for success to help you build an effective program.
A win-win for you and your employees
First, let’s recognize the benefits of a giving committee when it’s working well. While the breadth and scope can vary widely due to company size, industry, and focus area, there are core benefits that apply across the board, including:
- Having your employees bring issues facing local communities to the forefront. Particularly for local giving programs, your employees can share perspectives on local needs, opportunities, and organizations that someone in your home office might not otherwise be able to obtain. In this regard, they can make your giving more effective.
- Offering employees a chance to develop skills outside of their day jobs. The committee can afford its members an opportunity to grow their skills in new areas such as conflict management, critical thinking, influencing, and project management. This unique professional development opportunity for employees can pay dividends for your business.
- Building deeper connections between the employee and the employer. The ability to “walk the talk” of corporate values can enhance an employee’s commitment to the organization and result in these employees serving as ambassadors for your company.
Consider the possibilities
Next, if you haven’t started a giving committee already, consider the many use cases where it can make an impact:
- Decision-making on discretionary giving at local sites, offices, or plant locations
- Identifying and vetting nonprofits aligned with your employee resource groups or other diversity and inclusion initiatives
- Driving giving and volunteering events associated with milestone celebrations such as an anniversary celebration
- Developing corporate giving strategies and identifying nonprofit partners if your company does not have enough (or any) dedicated staff
5 essentials for success
While employee giving committees have the potential to deliver many benefits, if not set up properly, they can lead to some challenges. For instance, the lack of a clear remit or outline of roles and responsibilities can lead to frustration amongst committee members. Similarly, without diverse perspectives or training, the committee may make uninformed decisions.
Here are five essentials to avoid these common pitfalls and set your committee up for success:
- Clarify goals and authority. Consider developing a charter so that employees and leaders are aligned on the committee’s purpose.
- Discuss governance and roles. Will someone be the leader? Will there be other roles tied to a specific focus area? How much time should employees expect to dedicate to this work? Will this be counted as part of their day job? Consider creating job descriptions. Determine if you will be inviting all employees to apply to join the committee or if employees will be invited selectively. Keep in mind that it’s a best practice to compose a committee with a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens.
- Outline the budget for the committee. What is its annual grantmaking budget, and what is the highest grant amount it can recommend?
- Identify internal stakeholders that need to be involved—for instance, finance, HR, or government relations. Seek feedback and alignment on your plans early on.
- Create a toolbox of resources to best prepare your committee. Foundational templates bring ease and objectivity to the process, such as grant applications and review rubrics. Additionally, training support in the following areas can be extremely useful:
- Understanding how to review a grant proposal Education around nonprofit finances and related key indicators to consider
- The roles of the leadership and the nonprofit board and how to assess the board composition
- How to evaluate a grant budget
Having worked with companies of all forms to design and execute these important initiatives, I’ve seen firsthand how they can play an important role in corporate giving. The most effective companies have invested time upfront to identify goals and resources and establish a structure. Whether this is one of your first employee engagement programs or you’re looking to complement your existing initiatives, I’d love to connect with you. You can email me at maeve.miccio@fmr.com.
About Fidelity Philanthropic Consulting
We help individuals, families, and institutions make a meaningful difference through philanthropy. We can help develop or refresh your giving strategy, assess nonprofit organizations, and evaluate the impact of the charitable work you’re doing using our extensive experience working in the philanthropic sector. Learn more here.
Fidelity Philanthropic Consulting is a division of National Charitable Services, LLC, a Fidelity Investments company. The Fidelity Investments name and logo are registered service marks of FMR, LLC. 1166208.1.0
