2015-09-02

Companies whose employees regularly contribute to nonprofit organizations can show that they also care about the causes that their workers are passionate about. By implementing corporate giving programs and keeping employees in the loop about those programs, companies can donate money and time to worthy charities that their workers feel strongly about.

Two common ways that companies donate to nonprofits are through:

Matching gift programs. Employees submit forms to their employers requesting that their donation to a nonprofit be matched by the company.

Volunteer grant programs. When employees donate their time to a nonprofit, they submit applications for their employer to donate money to the organization.

While there is a multitude of companies who donate money through matching gifts and volunteer grants, we’ve compiled a top-ten list of the companies who seem to have corporate philanthropy down pat.

1. Apple

After taking charge as Apple’s CEO in 2011, Tim Cook introduced the company’s new corporate giving initiative that included a matching gift program. Apple matches gifts up to $10,000 a year made by full time employees. With over 80,000 employees, Apple has the potential to match a huge amount of charitable donations through their matching gift program.

In fact, only a month after implementing the program, Apple announced that they had matched over $1.3 million worth of donations that went to museums, zoos, schools, and other community organizations. Three years after their U.S.-based matching gift program was successfully put into action, Apple decided to extend matching gift donations to other countries where they have a presence.

To date, Apple has contributed $78 million to charities through its matching gift program.

Find out more about Apple’s matching gift program.

In addition to its matching gift program, Apple launched its Global Volunteer Program which is available for both retail and corporate employees. The program gives employees the tools to effectively organize volunteer events in their local communities. The Apple Global Volunteer Program incorporates elements of Apple’s matching gift program as well, with the company matching donations through the program.

2. Google

Google has become the world’s go-to search engine for everything. “Googling” is now a verb, and the company’s philanthropic reach is almost as widespread and diverse as the search results it produces on a daily basis.

Google offers full-time employees, spouses of employees, board members, and part-time employees the benefits of a matching gift program. They match a minimum of $50 and max out at $12,000 per person.

Google matches gifts to:

Schools and other educational institutions

Health and human services

Arts and cultural nonprofits

Community organizations

Environmental and sustainability programs

The search-engine giant has contributed over $21 million to 9,000 organizations around the world through its matching gift program.

Find out more about Google’s gift matching program.

Google also provides free advertising to nonprofit organizations through their Google Grants program.

Learn more about Google’s corporate giving initiatives

Additionally, Google donates money and other resources to worthy causes such as:

Helping individuals with disabilities through their Google Impact Challenge

Seed funding

Regional Google Impact Challenges, a program that helps nonprofits turn their ideas into realities

Bay Area Giving, a program that battles homelessness

Disaster relief

Google’s Community Grants program offers funding and support to local nonprofits such as:

Code for America, which develops civic technology solutions in areas like safety, health and human services, and economic development.

Roberta, an initiative that allows children to have fun developing robots.

Blethchley Park, a historic site in computing history; Google donated money to renovate the park.

Trinity College, Dublin, a university in Ireland lacking in computer science and technological learning.

Check out what else Google is doing around the world through their corporate philanthropy programs.

3. Microsoft

Microsoft’s corporate giving program began in 1983 when 200 Microsoft employees raised $17,000 for nonprofit organizations. Today, 200 has turned into 39,000 individuals, two thirds of Microsoft’s U.S. workforce.

Microsoft’s matching gift program matches employee donations to nonprofits up to $15,000 per person. Employees’ donations coupled with Microsoft’s matching gifts have led to more than $1 billion donated since 1983.

Learn more about Microsoft’s matching gift programs.

Microsoft also instituted a volunteer match program in 2005 which has resulted in 2.5 million hours of volunteer time from employees.

For more information about Microsoft’s employee giving programs, check out this article.

Microsoft has also implemented a series of corporate philanthropy programs including:

YouthSpark Grants, providing cash grants to organizations that support youth development

Microsoft Software Donation programs, which give over $900 million of software donations across the globe

The Microsoft Disaster Response program that seeks to improve disaster preparedness and response with the use of technology

Learn more about Microsoft’s corporate philanthropy programs.

4. PepsiCo

PepsiCo’s corporate philanthropy covers a lot of areas. Some of the causes they champion include:

Encouraging healthy lifestyles

Improving the accessibility of cost-effective nutrition

Broadening the availability of clean water

Enabling job readiness

Empowering women and girls

Pepsi matches employee donation up to $10,000 per year at a ratio of 2:1 if the employee volunteers for 50 hours or more with a single organization. Otherwise, Pepsi matches donations at a 1:1 ratio.

Learn more about Pepsi’s matching gift program.

The PepsiCo Foundation has donated more than $800 million in cash and products to nonprofits since 2005  through its various programs:

Diplomas Now, a program that helps students in the toughest middle and high schools across America get ready to graduate

Los Angeles Plaza de la Cultura y Artes, a program that seeks to teach Mexican and Mexican-American children about the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables

The Earth Institute’s Columbia Water Center, which brings water to underserved communities

Pepsi also encourages its employees to engage in community service and volunteering opportunities through different programs:

PepsiCorps, a volunteer program that addresses societal issues across the globe

Mother Water Cellar Project, an initiative that resulted in a water purification tower in southwest China

Food for Good, a program created in 2009 that seeks to make healthy food more accessible in urban communities

Find out more about Pepsi’s corporate philanthropy programs.

5. Shell

The Shell Foundation, through its corporate philanthropy programs, places emphasis on:

Providing access to energy

Promoting sustainable mobility

Creating sustainable jobs

Forming sustainable supply chains

Shell also matches its employees’ charitable donations up to $5,500 per year. Through these donations, Shell has helped to create 35,000 jobs and raise $5 billion for nonprofit organizations worldwide.

Check out more information about Shell’s matching gift program.

Shell is also partnered with the University of Texas at Austin and has donated nearly $25 million for research purposes and student programs.

Learn more about the Shell Foundation and its corporate philanthropy programs.

6. Walmart

Walmart and its foundation strive to impact their local and global communities in five core areas:

Hunger relief and nutritional eating

Sustainability

Women’s economic empowerment

Career opportunity

Other special interests including creating opportunities for veterans and providing assistance during natural disasters

Walmart also offers a grant program that reaches from the national level all the way down to the community level:

The National Giving Program awards grants starting at $250,000 to national nonprofits.

The State Giving Program gives grants starting at $25,000 that can be maxed out at $250,000. Nonprofits who request money from the State Giving Program must fall within the state giving guidelines and be focused on the Walmart Foundation’s five core areas.

The Community Giving Program awards grants ranging from $250 to $2,500. Local nonprofit organizations can receive a grant if they work within the community giving guidelines and focus on one of the Walmart Foundation’s five values.

In 2014, Walmart and its Foundation donated $1.4 billion in cash and in-kind contributions globally.

Learn more about Walmart’s corporate philanthropy programs.

Although Walmart does not offer a matching gift program for its employees, it does provide a volunteer grant program. Employees who volunteer for at least 25 hours at a nonprofit organization can apply for a volunteer grant through Walmart’s Volunteerism Always Pays (VAP) program, which awards grants up to $250 to the organization.

Additionally, groups of Walmart employees who volunteer together or take part in fundraising walks or runs can apply for a VAP grant ranging from $500 to $5,000.

Check out more information about Walmart’s volunteer grant programs.

7. General Electric

General Electric is the great grandfather of corporate matching gift programs. In 1954, GE started the Corporate Alumni Program to help employees match donations to higher-education institutions.

While their early philanthropic efforts focused primarily on education, the 1970s saw a shift for the company. GE began to focus on supporting minorities who were interested in going into engineering.

Since then, the GE Foundation has launched its signature programs:

Developing Health Globally (DHG) works in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia to enhance healthcare delivery.

Developing Futures in Education strives to support student achievement and professional development for educators. Since 2005, the program has donated over $225 million to K-12 schools.

Developing Health works to provide affordable healthcare to more people in the United States.

The GE Foundation’s philanthropic outreach focuses on five major areas:

Health

Education

Skills and Entrepreneurship

Public Policy

Giving Programs

Learn more about the GE foundation and the causes they support.

Since its inception, the GE matching gift program has matched over $1 billion in donations. GE will match donations made by employees and retirees at a 1:1 ratio from $25 to $50,000.

Even though GE does not offer a volunteer grant program, they are partnered with United Way and donate time and money during annual giving campaigns.

Find out more about GE’s matching gift program.

8. ExxonMobil

In 1955, the Esso Education Foundation, as it was then called, was formed. After the 2000 merger of Exxon Corporation and Mobil Corporation, the name was changed to the ExxonMobil Foundation.

Today, the Foundation focuses on three core areas:

Malaria prevention and treatment

Match and science education

Women’s economic opportunity

In 2013, the Foundation donated $269 million, nearly half of which went toward educational initiatives.

Learn more about the ExxonMobil Foundation and its global giving programs.

ExxonMobil offers its employees the opportunity to have their donations to higher education organizations matched at up to a 3:1 ratio for the first $7,500 contributed. The corporation will match gifts to other nonprofit organizations at a 1:1 ratio, up to $2,000.

ExxonMobil also offers a volunteer grant program that gives a $500 grant after an employee volunteers for 20 hours at a nonprofit organization. Employees can apply for up to four volunteer grants per year.

Learn more about ExxonMobil’s matching gift and volunteer grant programs.

9. Johnson and Johnson

Johnson and Johnson’s philanthropic impact extends to over 50 countries and has helped tens of millions of individuals around the world. They have donated over $960 million in cash and products to almost 600 different nonprofit programs. Their non-cash contributions have topped $835 million, nearly three fourths of which went to providing prescriptions to half a million Americans.

Johnson and Johnson’s charitable giving goes toward:

Bettering women and children’s lives

Preventing disease

Strengthening the health workforce

Additionally, Johnson and Johnson’s 250 operating companies participate in philanthropic initiatives that support:

Local health groups

Arts associations

Civic organizations

Other types of nonprofit organizations

Find out more about Johnson and Johnson’s corporate giving initiatives.

Although Johnson and Johnson does not offer volunteer grant programs, they do give their employees the chance to have their donations matched. Johnson and Johnson will donate $2 for every $1 for current employees’ donations and $1 for every $1 donated by retired employees.

Johnson and Johnson matches donations made to:

Higher educational institutions

Health and human service organizations

Arts and cultural programs

Environmental organizations

Other nonprofits

Learn more about Johnson and Johnson’s matching gift program.

10. SalesForce

SalesForce is a customer relationship management (CRM) company based in San Francisco, California. SalesForce conducts their charitable operations under the 1-1-1 model.

Donations to nonprofits are given based on:

1% of employees’ time

1% of the company’s product

1% of the company’s financial resources

Since SalesForce introduced this model, they have given nearly $100 million in grant money, over 1 million hours of community service, and countless product donations to over 26,000 nonprofits.

Through their Power of Us program, SalesForce has donated products and services to higher educational institutions and nonprofit organizations.

Check out more information about SalesForce’s corporate giving programs.

In addition to its 1-1-1 model, SalesForce matches employee donations to nonprofits up to $5,000 per year. They also offer a $1,000 “Champion Grant” to employees who volunteer for at least 48 hours within one fiscal year.

Additionally, employees who pass their 3, 5, 10, and 15 year milestones choose a nonprofit for SalesForce to donate $50, $100, $200, and $200 respectively.

Learn more about SalesForce’s matching gift and volunteer grant programs.

Takeaway:

U.S.-based donations to nonprofits reached nearly $360 billion recently, and corporate giving has topped $17 billion. In order for companies to maximize the impact of their charitable donations, they should take a few pointers from the top corporate givers.

These ten companies don’t have the single perfect solution to corporate philanthropy, but by using matching gift programs, volunteer grant programs, and other corporate giving programs, they come pretty close.



The post 10 Companies Doing Corporate Philanthropy Right appeared first on Double the Donation.

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