Many health care philanthropy teams have traditionally invested significant time and resources on employee giving, but the average employee giving program only raises 6% of overall funds and garners 15% participation. Employees often feel that they give already through their work or do not understand the impact of philanthropy.

This report reveals five specific ways to maximize employee giving efforts, sourced from three organizations who have improved the performance of their employee giving campaigns. Read on for details on how communicating philanthropy’s impact, judiciously deploying staff and allies, making participation convenient for employees, stewarding employees’ gifts, and setting specific goals contribute to a successful employee giving campaign.

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Demonstrate impact before asking employees to give

Many employees do not understand philanthropy, yet they are still expected to give. Educating employees on the impact of donated dollars will increase the likelihood of their participation.

Tactic 1: Explain where donated dollars go and why they matter (p. 5)

• Related resources:
• • Life of a Dollar graphic: See Gundersen’s presentation on the lifecycle of a donated dollar for ideas on raising philanthropic impact awareness.
  • Raising Leadership Awareness Slides: Explore Gundersen’s presentation to hospital leadership for pointers on explaining philanthropy’s role in and value to the hospital.
  • Employee Giving Materials: Review UPH’s emails, posters, and fliers to employees, highlighting the impact of gifts and how to donate.
  • Curating Donor-Ready Campaign Priorities: Identify and communicate effectively about strategic needs to donors.

Tactic 2: Support end users of philanthropy with regular touchpoints (p. 6)

Operate at top of license

Operating at “top of license” in employee giving means deploying staff and allies in ways that maximizes their contributions across fundraising activities, based on their unique strengths. This approach can deepen staff engagement and free up development capacity for other high-return fundraising activities.

Tactic 3: Deploy staff at top of license (p. 7)

Tactic 4: Deploy influencers to cascade campaign messaging (p. 8)

• Related resources:
• • Past Donor Emails: Read Samaritan’s database administrators’ emails to past donors, recapping past giving and current funding opportunities.
  • Power of Philanthropy CEO Video: Watch Gundersen’s CEO spread and lend credibility to campaign messaging in a video by vouching for philanthropy.
  • CEO Email: Read Samaritan’s CEO email, vouching for philanthropy by explaining its impact and why he gives.
  • The Biggest Income Opportunity You're Probably Missing: Inspire hospital executives to be your development team’s “influencers” with our research on philanthropy’s institutional value.

Provide choices for how to give and what to fund

Employee donors have unique giving capacities, communication preferences, and motivations for giving. Development teams should strive to make giving as convenient as possible for them. Providing multiple ways for employees to give and respond to development appeals reduces barriers to participation.

Tactic 5: Expand and promote options for giving, response, and designation (p. 9)

Tactic 6: Keep employee attention during the campaign (p. 10)

• Related resources:
  • iGive Campaign Marketing Materials: See Gundersen’s branded employee giving campaign materials, helping keep employee attention throughout the campaign.

Invest in stewardship to sustain momentum

Successful employee giving programs rely on stewardship to avoid starting from scratch every year on employee awareness of and interest in philanthropy. Deliberate re-engagement of employee donors requires outreach throughout the year but can build a recurring cycle of giving.

Tactic 7: Communicate impact throughout the year to bolster annual appeal effectiveness (p. 11)

• Related resources:
  • Fulfilling the Donor Investor Mandate: Learn how to effectively steward the modern, investor-minded donor.

Focus on specific, tangible outcomes

Few organizations rigorously track their performance on key employee giving metrics like participation rates and funds raised. Setting specific and tangible goals for employee giving campaigns can guide the specific investments and resources necessary to improve participation and performance.

Tactic 8: Set clear goals and track performance against them (p. 12)

• Related resources:
• • Philanthropy-Physician Partnership Toolkit: Further involve employees as philanthropy allies by building physician champions.
  • Turning the Tide on Nurse-Philanthropy Partnerships: Engage often overlooked recipients of patient gratitude by creating nurse partnerships.

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