There has never been a more relevant time to discuss how organizations and corporations can sustainably take care of their people. As the news and reality of the global pandemic set in, organizations were suddenly forced to address the idea that there may be a lot of need in the upcoming weeks and months within their own internal communities. A Benevolence Fund is an excellent way to bolster the support available to your employees, can be a way to drive employee engagement, but more importantly mobilize to support community when there are immediate and long-term needs.
What is a Benevolence Fund?
Quite simply, a Benevolence Fund is an organized gathering of funds set aside to be available and mobilized to respond to need quickly. While there are many different ways to structure this, (and a best practice is to always consult with your CPA), one way to bolster your Benevolence Fund quickly is to crowdsource from your company to pool resources that can then be redistributed and mobilized quickly in times of need.
The Magic Is In the Implementation
In times of crisis, a leader who can create clarity and structure for their people will garner buy-in and trust in the systems they set in place to help. If you decide to implement a Benevolence Fund, what is the structure? How do you plan to gather and mobilize your people? Who is the fund intended to be used for? Who will steward the distribution and allocation of resources? How will you organize your funds in a way that is transparent and simple? Setting aside time to think through these questions and to create structure before you need it will serve your organization well in the long run and create the best chance of highest impact per dollar disbursed to your team. Consider possibly integrating this into your payroll system to make it as automated as possible (we can’t resist a shameless plug, as this happens to be our specialty), or rolling out an internal campaign to incentivize giving with a corporate match program. However you choose to garner engagement and structure your Benevolence Fund, staying centered on your mission, vision, and values as a company will give you clarity and purpose.
A Case Study: Insperity
We had the opportunity this week to hop on a call with a corporation who isn’t new to the concept of integrating a Benevolence Fund into the core operations of their company. In chatting this week with Matt Butler, a Certified Business Performance Advisor, we learned about Insperity: a full service HR Solutions company, started 34 years ago with two founders who wanted to outsource the parts of business operations that create barriers and delays to growth and focus on what they do best. What has set Insperity apart from the very beginning is that they chose to integrate corporate social responsibility into their business. Now in 70+ locations, Insperity has deeply ingrained employee engagement and community impact in their day-to-day operations. In 2018 alone, almost $200,000 was donated into their Benevolence Fund, which was used to help 30 Insperity families in need. This was alongside other CSR initiatives that generated over $4.5 million dollars given in monetary and in-kind donations. As one small part of their Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, their Benevolence Fund is an inspiring example of how a corporation can leverage care, compassion, and employee engagement in times of need to care for their people.
The Corporate Responsibility to Care
The idea of corporate social responsibility is not new, but in the upcoming days it will become more and more relevant. A benevolence fund may be a quickly implemented opportunity for your organization to respond to these chaotic times.
If you would like to discuss Benevolence Funds and their relevance to your organization, we would love to provide more resources and implementation tactics to consider.
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