9 Charity At Work Ideas For Organizational Success
Giving back to society is a collective responsibility, not just an individual one. Doing charity at work is unlikely to be at the top of any company's priority list, but in this article, you'll learn why it's a good idea to get started as soon as possible.
Charity at work may appear to be an impossible dream, but your organization can create a CSR program that will benefit you greatly with compassion, respect, and careful planning. It is time to give back, and do not do this alone, make sure you get your employees involved equally.
When every employee is involved in corporate social responsibilities, they remain happy and content.
However, always remember that the foundation of every charity activity should be rooted in diversity and inclusion. It is an amazing opportunity for people to understand differences related to culture, gender, race, ethnicity, minority, and more.
So, if you are a leader looking for ways to do more charity at work, this is the place to start. First of all:
What is Charity at Work?
Charity at work means that your company supports specific causes and communities through community service, fundraising, or generous donations. When corporates start donating and helping charities, they ultimately give back to society. You can do this as a CSR activity and invite your coworkers to join you in this noble cause.
Charities are groups of people or a banner dedicated to working towards the betterment of society. Most charities are devoted to a certain cause, such as reducing poverty, supporting LGBTQ and gender minorities, providing shelter, and so on.
10 Benefits of Charity at Work
You'll surely reap its benefits when you intend to do something good for society by raising money. Businesses can flourish when they take up social responsibilities and work towards the betterment of the people and their employees. So, here are the benefits of doing charity at work.
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It helps retain and attract top talent from all sections of society and helps diversify your team.
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When you start giving openly as an employer to garner employee commitment, it drives a sense of connection to their work.
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When you do charity at work, it showcases your company’s inclusivity and caring nature and improves its reputation and brand awareness.
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If you provide paid time off to employees for charity work, it helps improve employee productivity and gives them a purpose in their life and work.
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It helps improve employee engagement levels as teams will work together for a similar cause.
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Builds a sense of pride amongst employers and employees both.
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Also, try offering charity work to benefit employees for reduced sick leaves and absenteeism, as employees like to work for employers who give back to the community.
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Allow employees to choose charity work as it instills employee empowerment and workplace equity which welcomes higher commitment at work.
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Involving your workers to do charity at work results in strong team communications, connections, leadership skills, and confidence.
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Charity at work gives you engaging content for the website and social media, bringing further opportunities to get featured by the press.
9 Ways to do Charity at Work and Fundraising Ideas
One of the simplest ways to start doing more charity at work is to host an office fundraiser. You have to provide some fun activities for your team, raise money, and then donate the proceeds to a good cause. If you're not sure where to begin, look at the list of activities we've compiled below.
1. Promise Auction
Ask your workers to write a promise, something they always wanted to do for those in need, maybe like baking a cake, donating money or clothes, washing a car for somebody, giving away books to the oppressed, and so on. Later, you can auction these promises to the highest bidder and donate the money to the cause your workers wanted to.
2. Organize a Sweepstake
Sweepstakes are run or race contests where the winners get the entire money that has been put at stake by bidders and viewers. But you can create your way of sweepstakes for office fundraising.
This is a fun way to do charity work with peers and colleagues. A sweepstake could be for almost anything, be it a sports event or guessing a child's age from a baby photo. Make sure you charge an entry fee for all the participants.
However, you must be transparent in communicating how the entry fee will be split between whoever wins a prize and the charity amount donated by raising the money. Also, if you’re doing this in the office all the participants must be based out of the same location. It could be fun and engaging if you pick a theme for this fundraising idea.
3. Replicate an Iconic Challenge
We all have fancied and done iconic challenges in the past, like the ice bucket challenge. So, why not replicate such challenges as fundraisers for charity at work.
You can select from a wide range of challenges or create your own. Getting started with doing charity can be a lot of fun, and who knows, it might even go viral!
4. Organize a Cooking Event
It is time for those aspiring and budding chefs to shine amongst their colleagues and let out their cooking chops to raise the most money. Cooking is therapeutic, engaging, and fun, and food makes everyone happy.
The competition winner can cook their winning dish for the charitable organization and donate the money received.
5. Scavenger Hunt
You can organize a scavenger hunt event if you’re working from the office. It is a great way to get people out of their desks and cubicles and present an opportunity for colleagues to have a friendly competition.
Make it a point that everyone donates to participate in the event and then hand over the clues. This is a great event because it helps boost teamwork and also helps to raise money for a good cause.
6. Flea Market
Everyone loves shopping. Hence, you can organize a community event sponsored by your company. Invite vendors and ask employees to set up stalls of clothes, artifacts, food, and more.
Publicize the flea market so that people know you’re doing it for charity, and all the money collected goes to donations. Employees will have some time to relax, dance, shop, and get away from their boring screens and destress.
7. Dress-Up Day
It is time to persuade your employees to dress up for a day at work. Ask your workers to donate at least 2$ from the prize earned for the best fancy dress. This great initiative brings together regular and remote workers to connect and work towards a common goal. Imagine yourselves in fun, quirky and freaky costumes and working towards a noble cause.
After all, who would not want to see their bosses in decked-up costumes!
8. Visit Charity Homes
Visiting charity homes and spending the day with orphaned children, underprivileged people, or homeless people is an impactful CRS activity. It instills a sense of care, compassion, and empathy amongst employees.
Make sure you do not just do it just for the sake of it, but be a part of it with full participation. It helps garner employee trust and loyalty towards your company and enhances your workplace culture at the same time.
9. Celebrate Pride Month and other Events
Whether it is Black History Month, Pride Month, or Mother’s day, make it a point to donate to these causes and celebrate such events at work. You can organize various events like quizzes, treasure hunts, and flea markets to raise money for such donations. It is a great diversity and inclusion initiative, and it helps elevate your workplace culture as inclusive and equitable.
When you do charity work for minority communities, it sends a positive message to the employees belonging to such minorities. This is a great way to respect and recognize employees of different sexualities, races, gender, caste, etc.
Also, June is International Pride Month, and it has already begun, so why not start right away!
Find Out: 25 Virtual Pride Month Ideas To Celebrate LGBTQIA+ Rights
Conclusion
You just had a look at the nine ways to o charity at work along with its benefits that helps companies grow and create an equitable workplace culture. It is time for you to start donating and helping the underprivileged with an impeccable CSR program. Whether it is a big or small donation, it doesn’t matter, but you must begin somewhere.
This article is written by Gautam Gayan. He works as a Content Marketer at Vantage Circle. Apart from being a passionate content creator for HR services and employee engagement, Gautam is a Podcast Host at Vantage Influencers Podcast, a theatre enthusiast, an avid reader and an aspiring poet. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com
