So you want to start an employee giving or volunteerism program at your company. That is great! Unless you are the owner, CEO, or president of the firm, you will probably need to do some legwork to get leadership on board with your idea.

Depending on your team structure, you will need the executive leadership, human resources director, and (if you have one) your corporate social responsibility director to support your idea. This can be more complicated than it seems. Even if leadership likes the idea in general, they will need to allocate time and resources toward it. That is when many leaders may have questions or concerns.

It can sound daunting to make the case for workplace giving to leadership, but it does not have to be. The key is understanding how your bosses think, and developing a message that resonates with their style. This article has a few examples of how you can make the case.

If your managers care about maintaining the company’s edge over the competition, they may be interested in hearing some of the compelling statistics Bright Funds has compiled on how workplace giving affects performance. For example:

  • Companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147%.
  • The number of employees who were considered highly engaged increased from 40% to 60% when their organization acted on today’s social issues.

In the midst of the Great Resignation, a well-designed workplace giving program could help the company retain talent, lure disengaged employees from other firms, and beat competitors in the marketplace.

Some leaders are all about the finances. They may be concerned that your new program will be expensive or that it will not have any financial benefits to the company. If this is the case, crunch the numbers ahead of time:

  • Calculate the costs of not giving. Disengaged employees are more likely to be absent or quit. Calculate how much employee absenteeism and turnover is currently costing your company, and how much they could save if they reduced it by varying degrees. Your HR team may be able to help you in calculating this information.
  • Show how affordable giving can be. At the same time, provide your boss with information on how affordable workplace giving programs can be. You can use the Bright Funds calculator if you need help getting started.

Read the full article about workplace giving programs at Bright Funds.