Tips to engage your employees in fundraising efforts

Whatever sector your business is in, one common objective at the heart of your operations alongside profit is employees engagement. An asset to any firm, when your employees are feeling valued and appreciated, they will in turn have a stronger work ethic and be more productive.

Team building can come in many forms, from scheduled training and team building exercises through to arranged events on the social calendar. But another avenue to consider to bring your team together and also do some good is to look into fundraising activities. In this article, we explore how to get your employees on board.

Getting started

In an effort to really involve your team, if you haven’t got a committee together, it might be a good idea to arrange a group of people within your organisation and allocate a team to lead fundraising activities. Dedicated to sourcing events and ideas throughout the year, these efforts will not go unnoticed by the rest of your workforce. A newsletter could also be sent out detailing upcoming events and in most cases with none or even a small budget in place by management fundraising events will be a huge success.

Seasonal fundraising

With a committee on board there should soon be many fundraising ideas for various charities. It might be that fundraising objectives are kept in line with your area of work or upon working closely with employees might take a more personal approach and help to fundraise with a cause close to home. Over the course of the year such as Christmas, there will be lots of seasonal avenues to consider. In order to attain as much interest and involvement as possible, put together a list of possibilities which the option for a staff vote to help select chosen charities.

Volunteering during working hours

This will most likely take a lot of planning, making arrangements to attend and also provisions for staff out of work but there are lots of fun possibilities to get out and put your allocated time volunteering to good use! Look into what’s around in your area, whether there might be community gardens, hospitals or local charities that are planning some improvements or events that you might be able to get on board with. This will really motivate staff to get them outdoors and doing something hands on and positive as well as developing a sense of community within your business.

In house activities

There are many opportunities where employees can be involved in in-house fundraising. From office bake sales, games in the cafeteria or sponsored head shave, it doesn’t need to be many staff to still be a huge success. As manager/business owner, it is important to show your involvement and provide support in bringing these activities to life as well as encouraging other employees to join in by giving them the time to join in.

Corporate fundraising with charities

With many well known charities running fundraising events throughout the year such as Comic Relief there are already an abundance of ideas and tools to make your efforts a success! This will more likely have a big uptake with staff who will also have families at home partaking in similar activities. As well as employee engagement, this also leads to good publicity through social media and televised events, which will help spread the word about the good work your company is doing.

Registering your event with charities such as Just Giving outlays the purpose and target for fundraising. With the rise in social media usage, this also provides a bigger platform for your fundraising efforts to be seen, enabling employees to share the good work from themselves and their company.

Overall, fundraising is a great way to support good causes, whilst also promoting a positive work culture, boosting employee morale and allowing employees to showcase their skills in ways which may not always be evident in their day to day tasks. Younger employees are particularly motivated by working within organisations where they can make a real difference, and fundraising is a great way to combine this desire with the everyday requirements of the role.