Optimy, the company supporting 50+ businesses in the US and Canada with social impact solutions, announced the launch of its new Employee Donations tool, debuting at The Partnership Conference in Toronto today. The new platform will help large enterprises across the globe to increase employee participation rates in volunteering and donations programs, and to bypass the hidden costs of corporate social donations, including costly transaction fees.
The new platform, called ‘Donations’, guides businesses to help their employees find causes they care about and easily donate towards projects they believe in. It also marks Optimy’s completion of its all-in-one positive impact solution, which helps organizations to enhance every aspect of their impact programs, such as grantmaking, sponsorships, volunteering, scholarships, and other support initiatives, all while keeping data secure.
Over 350 organizations use Optimy to manage more than 1.5M CSR projects in 22 languages across 25 countries, including companies and foundations such as BNP Paribas, Airbus, Ford, Grameen Foundation, Boralex Inc., Capital Power, Viterra Canada Inc., Epcor Utilities Inc. and many more.
Optimy is committed to helping organizations become a force for good. With no transaction fees (above standard payment processing fees) for donations, Optimy is helping businesses to maximize donations, in order to support non-for-profit organizations across the globe. On top of this, Optimy will not increase customer charges based on the number of volunteers, as well as covering their cost to support increased participation, aiding customers in promoting their volunteering and philanthropic efforts to maximize their social impact.
Kenneth Bérard, Founder and CEO at Optimy, commented: “Nowadays, many companies are launching employee engagement programs within their organizations as part of their CSR policy. Although these programs are well received, there are still some barriers to their success, given that average participation rates tend to be low. This reduces the positive impact such initiatives could have on all stakeholders. Ultimately, companies invest in volunteering or donations programs because they help them retain top employees while also having a positive impact on society. But the figures speak for themselves: employee participation rates remain fairly low to date and something needs to change.
We’re proud to be launching the final phase of our social impact solution and we’re confident that the Donations tool will help to bring greater transparency to the industry, unlocking an array of benefits to our international customers. We don’t believe in making a profit from donations that are supposed to help important causes. Therefore, we will not charge a transaction fee above standard payment processing fees for donations made through Optimy. We want as much money as possible to contribute to making a positive difference on a global scale. We look forward to seeing this unfold with the help of our technology.”
Employee Donations will strengthen Optimy’s Employee Engagement offering, adding a strong feature set including matching gifts, where organizations make a donation to match their employees’ charitable efforts to its existing set of engagement or activation capabilities.
Robyn Schomme, Senior Advisor of Community Investment at EPCOR added: “We would refer Optimy to anyone who is looking for a great way to organize and streamline their community investment activities. Our team now has a much easier time managing corporate giving activities with Optimy’s system and customer service support.”
Paige Gignac, Community Investment Specialist at K+S Potash Canada also added: “K+S Potash Canada (K+S) is committed to being a good neighbour. Through community investment, we seek to positively impact the lives of young people, build relationships that align with our company values, encourage volunteerism, and create a company culture of giving back. The Optimy platform allows us to engage with community partners through the online application process seamlessly embedded right into our website. We use Optimy to manage all aspects of our community investment partnership journey including tools such as budget tracking, messaging and document storage that help track the history of our partnerships year over year. The platform’s automation features also allow us to build capacity among our small team, allowing us to focus more on building relationships rather than administrative tasks. The customization of the platform also allows us to facilitate our Volunteer Plus program, which allows our employees to volunteer their time and then apply for a donation on behalf of K+S to that organization.”
She continued, “We are pleased with the ongoing customer support we receive from the team at Optimy, they listen to our needs and look for solutions that will make our partnership journey better. The platform is easy to use and there are many learning tools that we utilize to further our own understanding of the platform to ensure we are using it to the greatest capacity. I would recommend the platform to organizations looking for tools to manage their CSR or community relations work.”
