Benevity Labs Report

GoodnessEngagement
Study
Establishing the positive relationship between participationin corporate Goodness programs and employee retention

Background
Since the 1950s, companies across different industries havesupported their communities through workplace giving andemployee volunteering programs. These corporate giving
programs were aimed at creating social impact and building
goodwill with communities through employee donations ofmoney and volunteered time, often supported by corporate
matching dollars. Since their inception, fundraising and givingback to the local community have been the primary focus ofthese programs, which tended to manifest themselves in oncea-year campaigns in support of a small handful of companyselected causes, like the United Way. The result was often low
participation, with most employees experiencing the programs
as a top-down annual arm-twisting exercise instead of anengaging opportunity to make a meaningful difference.
As the world has moved online and a new generation hasentered the workforce, many progressive companies acrossdifferent industries have begun to re-think this approach,shifting the emphasis of their corporate “Goodness” programsfrom fundraising to employee engagement. With this goalin mind, they started opening up their workplace giving andvolunteering programs to empower individuals to support
causes that resonate with them personally, in a way that suits
their personal passions and lifestyles. Now, hundreds, if not
thousands, of companies are reaping the benefits of thisapproach as they see greater participation in their workplacegiving, volunteering and even corporate grantmaking programs.

Benevity Labs: Goodness Engagement Study

Did You Know?
As the world has moved online and a newgeneration has entered the workforce,
many progressive companies acrossdifferent industries have begun to re-think
this approach, shifting the emphasis of
their corporate “Goodness” programs fromfundraising to employee engagement.

Not only are these companies moving the dial on their people’s
collective social impact, they’re also fostering a corporate cultureof purpose that helps to attract, engage and retain top talent.
It’s no wonder this employee-centric orientation has become
the new norm.
Over the past decade, the Benevity client community has grown
to include hundreds of the world’s most iconic global brands.
And as their giving, matching and volunteering programs havematured and developed along with our technology, we’ve gained
access to a robust data set that has enabled this study into thebusiness benefits of their corporate “Goodness” programs.

2

Testing the fundamental
assumptions about
the business impactof employee‑focused“Goodness” programs
Hypothesis

The Benevity Engagement Study tests one of the fundamental
assumptions about the business impact of employee-focused“Goodness” programs: that participation in workplace giving
and volunteering programs helps promote employee retention
and reduce turnover.

The value of retention
Companies focus on reducing employee turnover because skilled
talent is a fundamental resource constraint for companies acrossall industries. A measurable increase in retention can lead totremendous cost savings. Studies show that the total cost oflosing an employee can be as high as 1.5‑2 times their annual
salary, which for U.S. companies totals more than $160 billion
a year.1 Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employeescost the U.S. up to $600 billion every year in lost productivity.2
Reducing these costs by retaining more talent is a key focus at
the executive level across industries. By arming CSR leaders

Benevity Labs: Goodness Engagement Studywith quantitative proof that investing in workplace giving andvolunteering programs is associated with measurable savings
through reduced employee turnover, we hope to provide themwith a powerful new metric to make the case for the value of
their programs.

Methodology
The Benevity Engagement Study looks at a dataset of 2,093,593
users worldwide from 118 enterprise companies who arerunning both employee giving and volunteering programson the Benevity platform. To qualify for inclusion, employees
required at least 1 year + 60 days of data, which allowed us
to eliminate new user trial or testing behavior during the first
60 days of an employee’s program eligibility that may not bereflective of actual self-motivated activity, while still retaining
a full year for behavioral segmentation. Once qualified,segmentation into a cohort is based on employee activity inthe preceding 365 days up to either removal from the Benevity
platform or still being active as of the date of data extraction /analysis end point on April 11, 2018.
The approach taken in this analysis was to understand andcompare the rate of all-time departures of employees reachingback as far as possible in the Benevity data record for our clientsand users who qualified to be included. As such, the percentage
rates shown in the graphic are not ‘annual churn rates’ or‘annual departure rates’ but rather reflect the rates of departureamong individuals based on their personal last year of activity.
That last year is user specific and could have started or ended
in any year beginning in 2011 through to the date of analysis(April 11, 2018).

Upon discovery of a positive link between participation incorporate Goodness programs and employee retention,
additional analysis was conducted to examine further relation
based on intensity of participation and segmentation byindustry vertical.
To examine the intensity of participation, all users in the study
were scored for Intensity based on their individual donationand volunteering activity in the prior full year. Those with NoActivity received a score of 0 on that specific behaviour. Those
individuals in the lowest, middle and upper third (by dollarsor hours) were given scores of 1, 2 and 3 respectively on thatbehaviour. The Intensity Level was then calculated using thesum of the two scores, so the possible range of intensity is from0 to 6. Users were then classified with 1-2 being Low Intensity,
3-4 were Moderate and 5-6 were High Intensity.

1 Josh Bersin, “Employee Retention Now a Big Issue: Why the Tide has Turned,” August 16, 2013
2 Gallup, “State of the American Workplace,” February 20173

Definitions
Donation activity Any recorded donation of a user’s own
money to a charity or nonprofit through the Benevity platform.
This includes one-time and reoccurring credit card, Paypal,
Apple Pay and/or payroll donations made through the Benevity
platform, as well as donations made outside of the platform
which are submitted through Benevity for employer matching
purposes. This does not include donating “reward dollars”
which are issued by a company to an employee for things likevolunteer time.
Volunteering activity Any recorded user-entered volunteer
time (hours or minutes) that have been approved by a company
administrator as eligible to be counted under the terms of theirprogram. This includes entering time for corporate volunteering
activities, as well as requesting employer rewards for volunteer
activities undertaken outside of the work environment.
Intensity of participation The volume of volunteer hours anddonation dollars recorded by each user over the study timeperiod. The intensity of employee participation is segmented
into tiers (low, moderate, high) that indicate the volume ofparticipant activity based on their behavior in the preceding
365 days up to either removal from the Benevity platform or
still being active as of the date of data extraction.
Industry verticals Markets in which vendors offer goods andservices specific to an industry, trade, profession, or other groupof customers with specialized needs. Companies that qualified
for the Benevity Engagement Study were segmented into thefollowing verticals: Agriculture and Forestry, Energy and Mining,
Finance and Insurance, Health Care, Manufacturing, Professional
Services and Consulting, Retail, Technology and Software,Transportation and Warehousing.

Benevity Labs: Goodness Engagement Study

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Findings
Turnover is reduced by 57%
amongst employees who engage
in both forms of Goodness activities

The Benevity Engagement Study validates the long-held experienceof CSR leaders — that employees who give, volunteer, or do both,show far greater retention than those who do not participate inGoodness-related activities.
Employees who only donated money or only volunteered time
had lower turnover rates than those who did neither; however,
the greatest reduction in turnover was observed by the groupof employees who both donated money and volunteered time.
•Employees who neither donated nor volunteered:
28% turnover•Employees who only donated money: 18% turnover•Employees who only volunteered time: 17% turnover•

Employees who both donated money and volunteered
time: 12% turnover

28%

57%
Turnover reduced byfor employees actively
engaged in Goodness

Employee Turnover Rate

1

An analysis of the link between engagement in corporate giving
and volunteering programs and employee retention

An analysis of the link between engagement in corporate giving and volunteering programs and employee retention

18%

17%
12%

Employees who neither
donated or volunteered

Employees who only
donated money

Employees who only
volunteered time

Employees who both
donated money andvolunteeered timen = 2,093,593

Benevity Labs: Goodness Engagement Study

5

Findings
The business benefits of Goodness
hold true across industries

Next, when the 118 companies are broken down by industry, thestudy found that while the turnover reduction varies by industry,
the relationship between engaging in Goodness activities andlonger employee retention holds up across the spectrum.
For industry comparison the study looks at the turnover
reduction among fully-engaged individuals, meaning those
who both give and volunteer. In some industries that reduction
was as high as 66%.
•

Finance and Insurance had the highest reduction at -66%•

Technology and Software was the largest segment
and had the third highest reduction at -63%•

The reduction in turnover ranged from -20%
(Energy and Mining) to -66% (Finance and Insurance)

All Industries

Finance &Insurance

RetailTechnology &Software

Employee Turnover Rate Reduction

2An analysis of the link between engagement in corporate giving

Top 5 industries that saw the greatest reduction in turnover between employees
and volunteering programs and employee retention
who donated and volunteered and those who did neither

-57%
-66%

-64%

-63%

Healthcare

Agriculture &Forestry

-47%

-47%
Average turnover
reduced by57%
across all industriesn = 2,093,593

Benevity Labs: Goodness Engagement Study6•Employees who gave or volunteered in the lowest
third of activity: 18% turnover•Employees who gave or volunteered in the middle
third of activity: 15% turnover•Employees who gave or volunteered in the highest
third of activity: 12% turnover•Coincidentally, the turnover reduction for top tieractivity matches that for fully-engaged participants
overall in the studys+s
hr

9.

5

9.
–

5$80 – $350
$350 +

28%
18%

NoActivity

Benevity Labs: Goodness Engagement Studyhrhr
up to $80

Employee turnover

55
Intensity of volunteer activity

to3.
$0

3.

s
hr
0
Intensity of donation activity

Employee Turover %Finally, the study shows that the amount of employee
participation in giving and volunteering programs also had aninverse relationship with employee departures from a company.
Turnover continued to decrease as participation increased,reaching a low of 12% amongst the most active donors
and volunteers.

sAs “intensity” of Goodness
participation increases,
so too does retention
Employee Participation

3

An analysis of the link between engagement in corporate giving
and volunteering programs and employee retention

Employee turnover decreases as intensity of participation in Goodness programs increases

up

Findings

Low
Intensity

15%

Moderate
Intensity

12%
High
Intensity7Here are a few actionable ways companies
can increase engagement in their corporate
Goodness programs 3Conclusion
The quantitative evidence in the Benevity Engagement Studyshows that corporate Goodness programs have a measurable
relationship with reduced employee turnover. These findings
should be a game-changer for CSR leaders looking to demonstrate
the ROI for their giving and volunteering programs, and make thecase at the executive level for their companies to increase theirinvestments in Goodness.

Putting the study into action
How can companies increase engagementin their giving and volunteering programs?
The study shows a clear relationship between increasing
participation in Goodness programs and talent retention. It alsosuggests that one way for companies to reduce turnover is toenourage more of their employees to get involved in giving andvolunteering. Amongst the individuals included in the study,
78% did not participate in either giving or volunteering at all. By
getting more of these employees involved — and increasing theamount that employees give and volunteer — companies canpotentially realize significant cost-savings related to employeeturnover, not to mention the incredible gains in engagement
and social impact that could be generated by this large cohort.

Benevity Labs: Goodness Engagement Study

Get your people involved from the get-go. Introduce new
employees to your Goodness program by seeding their accounts
with donation currency, or scheduling a volunteering activity
within their first month with the company, or both!
Allow for open choice. Employees in open choice programs
who are able to donate to their preferred causes are five times
more likely to participate than when the company restrictsdonations to a single charity or short list of organizations.
Offer payroll giving. Companies that offer payroll giving as
a payment mechanism see four times the rate of participation
than programs that don’t. Perhaps more importantly, they
engage people who are more oriented towards micro-giving or
smaller donation amounts, which helps many companies reachpeople in lower salary bands.
Turn your granting budget into matching budget. Employees
are twice as likely to donate when their companies offer adonation matching program. So, rather than granting $100,000
to charity, why not double or triple the impact by simply offering
it as an employee match?
Raise your match cap. Programs with higher individual match
caps generate higher average donations — every $1 increasein Match Cap yields another $0.25 in additional donations.
Use volunteering as the gateway to Goodness.
70% of employees who volunteer also donate money throughtheir workplace giving programs — and when they do they give
2 times as much as non-volunteers.

3 Benevity, “Today’s Guide to Workplace Giving Success,” 20178Benevity, Inc., a certified B Corporation, is the global leader in corporate social responsibility and employee
engagement software, including online giving, matching, volunteering, community investment and purpose‑driven
actions. Many of the world’s most iconic brands rely on Benevity’s award-winning cloud solutions to power
corporate “Goodness” programs that attract, retain and engage today’s diverse workforce by connecting
people to the causes that matter to them. With software that is available in 20 languages, to a client communityof 18 million people around the world, Benevity has processed more than $5 billion in donations and 32 million
hours of volunteering time and awarded over one million grants to 251,000 nonprofits worldwide.
benevity.com | goodness@benevity.com | 1.855.237.7875