Corporate philanthropy initiatives are implemented in two ways: manually or letting automation take over. Some businesses are doing everything manually. This includes keeping spreadsheets of employee volunteer hours logged, receiving hundreds of emails about different volunteering requests and everything else under the sun that comes along with corporate social responsibility initiatives.
When companies opt to automate corporate philanthropy, the processes involved run a lot more smoothly. Automating various aspects of a business can save a company anywhere between 20% to 50% cost savings. Of course, like most changes, there is a process in shifting over to using automation in your CSR initiatives. Many companies choose to carry out their processes manually because of this, so take a look at these few reasons to encourage automation:
Time Savings
Moving to an automated system allows you and employees to spend a much less amount of time focusing on the details. Spending less time on the details will allow you to carry out more complex and meaningful corporate philanthropy program goals that benefit your company’s brand. When companies used an automated process, 73% of employees reported saving time that is otherwise spent on repetitive tasks.
Data Protection
Implementing an automated corporate giving process provides your company with a few other benefits along the way. The benefit of SaaS and the Cloud are that you do not have to worry about losing your data. That flood of requests and emails you receive? Automation allows these to be tracked and routed to the correct person. Worried about losing valuable data? There is software that integrates with your systems to merge important data.
Before you research different CSR software, take a step back and check your current manual process. Make a list of the things that are working out well and a list of things that are taking up too much time. For example, say you offer a matching gift program that is performing really well, however, there is too much administrative work behind it. From here you would look for a software that incorporates matching gifts into the process.
Swift Reporting
Manual reporting can get messy. Multiple spreadsheets and misplaced data can sure disrupt the reporting function, one of the key aspects of ensuring your initiatives are a success. After all, how are you to make changes to your system if you aren’t able to see what needs fixed in the first place. Automation allows for an easier and more effective reporting process because all of your data is housed in one secure place.
Move Toward Automation
Why fight something that makes your job easier and gives you time to focus on more important tasks? 86% of employees expect to be provided with opportunities to give in the workplace, so if you don’t have any CSR program now, it’s time to invest. As for those of you doing it manually, build a program that supports an online platform that evolves with the changing needs of giving programs. This may seem costly in the beginning, but if you invest in automated software you’ll save time and money.
This article originally featured on the CSRWire Blog.
About Liz Bardetti:
Seasoned advertising and marketing professional with 15+ years experience, including work for Gatorade, Welch’s and most recently, CyberGrants. CyberGrants is the preferred CSR software provider to the best philanthropic corporations around the globe. Our clients represent over 50% of the Fortune 100 and nearly one-third of all corporate giving. In the last twelve months alone, CyberGrants helped 250 customers give $6.5 billion plus more than 50 million volunteer hours to over 400,000 non-profit organizations.
