5 Things You Need to Know About Workplace Giving
One of the biggest questions that potential donors to a charity ask today is, “How do I know my money is getting to those truly in need?” Donors want transparency when it comes to what a charity is doing with their hard-earned money. In fact, according to research compiled by CharityNavigator.com, some charities only put 10 cents of every dollar received toward programs that directly help their intended cause. 
Increasingly, employers are offering their employees a far more direct and effective route for their money. According to Charities.org,“Workplace Giving” is one of the most cost-effective and safe ways to donate to charity.
There is a thorough “vetting” process for charities who participate and they also must meet high annual accountability standards for inclusion. As a result, employees can continually remain confident about their charitable choices.
A few additional reasons that donations made via workplace giving is a good option to consider include:
- Workplace donations can help charities secure a grant because grantors are more likely to fund a stable program.
- When a donation is deducted from a paycheck there are no additional fees and tax deductions are easily managed.
- Companies often offer matching gifts to employee sponsored workplace-giving programs.
- Donations can be made in small amounts throughout the year.
- Workplace giving donations dramatically reduce the administrative cost for charities.
An example of a company that’s considered by many to be the gold-standard in workplace giving is Mumbai, India-based HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company (HDFC Life). The company has a long-established payroll giving program and encourages its employees to contribute a small part of their salary to establish their own charity account.
HDFC Life’s stated vision is to be the most trusted and admired insurance company in India. Additionally, HDFC Life is well-known for its partnering role with organizations that include the SOS Children’s Project, Teach for India and The Financial Literacy Project. Initiatives like these have all served to support the success of the company. However, subsequent rapid growth presented a few technical challenges to HDFC Life.
Company CIO, Thomson Thomas, said that the company needed to increase the productivity of all business processes, as well as monitor and measure their performance. They also needed to completely revamp and integrate their entire IT platform.
After some due diligence, the major insurer turned to SAP and as a result quickly galvanized the performance of its entire software landscape by introducing SAP HANA. The company migrated its existing database to SAP HANA and integrated over 15 business applications to run in the revamped software environment. Now the company incorporates real-time, detailed analysis into all business processes.
CIO Thomas describes SAP HANA as a “platform for innovation.” He added that thanks to greater visibility into software processes, employee satisfaction has soared in 2016.
This is good news for a company renowned for the generosity of those same employees. There are many people who are in need that are depending upon their donations to help them get through rough times.
Fortunately, emerging technology is helping employees of HDFC Life channel their empathy to people in need through workplace giving – while inspiring many others to do the same.