Giving Compass' Take:

• RaisedBy.Us is looking to close the experience gap for small to medium sized businesses by offering more opportunities for them to engage in volunteering, charitable giving and community building.

• The article defines corporate social responsibility in various ways. What is your take on the practice? Why are for-profit organizations increasing their philanthropy programs more and more?

• Corporate social responsibility is important for everyone, but not all organizations care about doing it.  Read about how to make everyone think more about CSR at their companies.

Employees are increasingly looking to join employers that align with their values of creating greater social good. This alignment is happening most frequently through employee philanthropy programs — a necessary element of corporate social responsibility.

Specifically, these teams bring philanthropy programs to life through giving campaigns, volunteering and community building. Without these teams, small and medium sized businesses face an “experience gap.” RaisedBy.Us plugs that gap for its partner companies.

A 2012 Harvard Business School working paper breaks corporate social responsibility into three “theatres:” 1) corporate and employee philanthropy; 2) reengineering the value chain for good; and 3) wide-scale change to the business to solve societal ill.

While the authors argue that companies need not address the theatres in order, it is our sense that “theatre one,” or employee philanthropy, is essential for not just a successful CSR program, but corporate culture broadly.

Historically, groups like the United Way and other charity federations offered platforms to run annual campaigns, organize Days of Service, and facilitate payroll deduction. But the lack of choice provided by these programs rendered them insufficient for the modern workforce.

Big companies have led the way in embracing all three “theatres” of CSR. Data from the G&A Institute show that while just 20% of S&P 500 companies published CSR reports in 2011, a whopping 82% published CSR reports in 2016. With their employee philanthropy programs, these large companies have embraced the desires of their changing workforces

An “experience gap” has formed for these sized businesses. It exists between, on the one hand, a desire to run modern employee philanthropy programs and, on the other hand, the giving and volunteering technology available in the marketplace.

Through workplace charitable giving, volunteerism and community building, RaisedBy.Us is bridging this “experience gap".

Read the full article about corporate social responsibility by Matt Amalfitano at Medium