The global community engagement program at FedEx, called FedEx Cares, gathered 200 of its employees in 2022 to assemble more than 19,000 care packages for American service members.
This is just one of example of a company hosting a volunteer day tied to an event: the holiday season. Organizing a giving activity (i.e., a volunteer day, fundraiser, or donation matching campaign) around a special day or season increases employee participation while spreading awareness around lesser-known international holidays.
Whether you are thinking of organizing your first-ever giving activity or are interested in making some of your future social good activities revolve around a specific event, we roundup 5 event-based giving ideas:
1) Holiday Season: Toy drive
December 1st marks the beginning of the holiday season. With the holidays around the corner come opportunities to give back to children in need:
- Choose a distribution date- A distribution date is when you will give the toys to your nonprofit or charity partner. Therefore, organizing your toy drive a few days before the distribution date ensures all toys are collected, and any last-minute additions are accounted for.
- Spread awareness- Once your charity or nonprofit is selected and dates are determined, share the event details with your employees to encourage them to purchase gifts (at a certain dollar limit) for the toy drive. *Create a volunteer page, on a social impact platform like Kambeo, to track how many employees “apply” to give a gift.
- Add holiday cheer to your event- As the holidays are one of the most joyful times of the year, your company’s toy drive should follow suit. Spend a short amount of time planning table decorations, outfits, and music to make the toy drive truly festive.
2) Veterans Day: Complimentary lunch
What better way to honour veterans of the US Armed Forces with a complimentary lunch? A way for your employees to pay their respects and interact face-to-face with honourable veterans.
- Get the word out- After informing your employees about the lunch, create a simple social media post and encourage your staff to share this with their personal networks through LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. This should be done at least one month before.
- *Tip: Add an email to the social media post where veterans can inform your organization if they are able to attend. Knowing rough numbers beforehand will help when ordering food.
- Assign employees a role- Create a volunteer event on Kambeo and add a variety of roles that employees can sign up for. Roles can include: event set up, food server, and event tear down.
- Select menu items- Two weeks before the lunch, choose and order menu items from a local restaurant or catering company.
3) Giving Tuesday: Donation matching campaign
Giving Tuesday marks a global day of giving. Therefore, on this year’s Giving Tuesday, set up a donation matching campaign to demonstrate your commitment to giving back: both to your employees and the receiving causes.
- Choose a date- As Giving Tuesday falls right after Thanksgiving (US), make this campaign the full month of November, providing employees flexibility on when they can make a donation.
- Set up a donation matching campaign– Select a start & end date, minimum & maximum match amount, eligible cause(s), and a donation matching ratio (i.e., 1:1 or 2:1).
- Inform employees- Frequently remind your employees that the donation matching campaign exists and send them a direct link to the campaign page.
- Verify donations- Once the donation matching campaign is over, a monthly report will be sent to you letting you know who donated and how much.
- *There is no need to manually check this during the campaign, a report will be drawn from you upon campaign completion (ensuring the maximum limit isn’t reached).
4) Cancer Awareness Day: Third-party fundraiser
In 2023, a little over 1.9 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in the US. However, with this distressing disease comes an opportunity to support cancer-related causes that work every day to minimize cancer.
- Select a cause- Choose a charity with a mission that works to improve cancer research, treatment, and prevention.
- Create a fundraising page- Set up a centralized page that will provide potential donors with information on the cause, campaign duration, and fundraiser goal.
- Share the page- Let your employees know that the fundraising page exists, encouraging them to make a donation but also share the link with their personal network to amplify its impact.
- Track progress- Throughout the month-long fundraiser, don’t forget to frequently check the page to see how close you are to reaching your fundraising goal.
5) World Autism Day: Cards for a Cause
World Autism Day raises awareness surrounding autistic individuals, a disability some individuals might not be thoroughly educated on. Therefore, setting up a volunteer event around this special day will spur education and conversation around the topic.
- Inform employees- Three weeks before World Autism Day, create an event page on Kambeo to let employees know the ‘what’ and ‘why’ behind the volunteer day. On the event page, create a Signup button so that employees can inform you ahead of time of their availability.
- Gather materials- Once you have a rough idea of attendees, gather all the supplies you will need to make the cards. This will likely include crayons, markers, and coloured construction paper.
- Colour and talk- Aside from having the necessary materials for employees to draw and write cards, print out a few icebreaker questions about autism. This will get employees talking more in-depth about the subject on the actual volunteer day, sharing personal stories or facts they may know.
- Distribute cards- Once the cards are all finished, hand deliver these cards to a local autism treatment center in your community.
Make the act of giving back tied to a specific holiday or awareness day. Looking for a place to get started? Kambeo’s social impact platform can assist your company in setting up a successful volunteer day, fundraiser, or donation matching campaign.
