The start of a new year is the perfect time for your nonprofit to launch (or refresh) your employee engagement offerings. Companies are looking for ways to meaningfully engage their workforce — it helps with recruitment and retention, especially given the large number of hybrid and remote employees, and can even feed into their CSR goals if they partner with charities like yours. Hosting an enticing engagement activity for employees gives you visibility with potential donors and opportunities to partner more closely with companies.

I hear from charities that it’s sometimes difficult to plan employee engagement opportunities for companies, not because there’s a lack of interest or staff buy-in, but the logistics can present a large barrier, especially if you can’t offer in-person activities because you don’t operate in the U.S. This is why it’s critical to take advantage of the hybrid and remote workforce — while it takes time to plan out the details, staffing, and budget for virtual activities, it’s usually much more manageable and affordable than in-person offerings! So here are some recommendations for your organization to consider when planning out employee engagement activities in 2024:

  • Align your mission with the activity. The most successful offerings reinforce a charity’s work with the audience. Directly connecting participants with the kind of work your organization does is powerful storytelling! You’ll see this in the examples below. If your work addresses heavy topics like human trafficking, it’s best to offer cerebral activities like lunch & learns or film screenings.
  • Don’t let a limited budget stop you. Employee engagement activities and volunteer opportunities don’t have to break the bank, especially with the range of free technology. Hosting discussion groups, creating materials for Employee Resource Groups, building out trivia games, or offering experts to present on a topic of interest cost nothing beyond staff time.
  • Yes, it will cost staff time — and it’s worth it. With limited opportunities to get in front of the private sector, these employee engagement offerings are critical visibility opportunities.
  • Can you expand the use of the activity to work with multiple audiences? Young professionals groups, social media or newsletter engagement, major donors, your board, etc., are all audiences that could benefit from the chance to connect more deeply with your organization. (It’s easier to justify costs and staffing with larger usage like this!)
  • Consider co-creation with existing corporate partners. Taking an initial idea to a partner can help ensure that you’re developing something that’s useful for companies and get some support in the planning and execution stages. For example: Rise Against Hunger worked with Cisco on trivia night events that gave employees a fun way to gather during the pandemic, and raised over $23,000!

Now let’s get on to some fun examples of what our charity members shared this year — hopefully these will inspire your future employee engagement activities!

Interactive Storytelling Activity
International Rescue Committee, Inc.
We love this interactive storytelling activity on IRC’s website because it’s easy for companies to use. All they have to do is share the link with employees, and employees can click through and explore on their own. It makes it really easy and straightforward to navigate, especially with remote or hybrid employees.

Honey Harvest
Heifer International
This is such a creative activity that really drives home the work that Heifer International does. Participants get to create their own pollinator gardens or “bee condos” while learning about regenerative agriculture. It gives them something tangible from the activity that can benefit their local environment, but also helps connect them to the work that Heifer does with farmers around the world.

Journeys With Us: Empower your employees as humanitarians
Save the Children
Because Save the Children works in so many places, the Journeys With Us video series is an excellent activity to demonstrate the global scope of their work. The activity takes participants to a country in which Save the Children works and shows them everything from their programming to the food that’s consumed there to cultural norms to the history of the country. Instead of just telling participants what they do, they really immerse them in the experience. Check out the trailer in the video above, then view our recording of a recent session Save the Children led with us in this link.

Spin-A-Thon
ChildFund International
We continue to see strong interest from corporate partners in workplace wellness activities, and connecting with charities for this adds a fun and charitable element. If your charity can offer a 5K run/walk or a bike-a-thon like ChildFund International has done here, it gives employees the chance to get moving, get connected, and learn about the work of your organization all at once.

Film screening: The Rulindo Challenge
Water For People
Film screenings are another great way to educate employees about your organization while helping them connect. Water For People shares some of their work in what they’ve called a mini-documentary, presenting a wonderful opportunity to host a group discussion about the work it takes to bring water to rural communities.

Connect with your Relationship Manager at Global Impact to get some help. We work with our Charity Alliance and our corporate ecosystem on employee engagement opportunities all the time, so we see what works well and can advise on a strategy that will work best for you. We are your partner in workplace giving and we want to help you build better, stronger partnerships with companies in 2024!