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Nonprofit work, especially in 2026, isn't easy. But the good news is you do not have to figure it out all alone. You're invited to join me and hundreds of other change makers at Bloomerang's annual conference, GiveCon, coming up May 17th through 20th. And trust me, this is the place to be if you want to sharpen your fundraising and communication skills. I'll be there leading a session called From Passive Posts to To Powerful Campaigns Social Media that Drives Donations. If you've been wanting to turn your content into real conversion, you're going to love this one. But here's the part you don't want to miss. Givecon's lowest registration rate is available right now. For the next few weeks, this is the perfect moment to grab your ticket and save your organization some budget. Join me and an incredible community of nonprofits at Givecon. Learn more and register@givecon.com that's G-I V E C O N.com now on to the episode. Hello and welcome to Nonprofit Nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell, and I'm going to sit down with non profit industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the Non Profit Nation PODC podcast to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently find your voice, definitively grow your audience, and effectively build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie or an experienced professional who's looking to get more visibility, reach more people, and create even more impact, then you're in the right place. Let's get started. Hi everyone. Welcome or welcome back to Nonprofit Profit Nation with your host, Julia Campbell. Thrilled that you are tuning in. Today we're going to talk about workplace giving, one of the most underutilized tools in a fundraiser's toolkit. And my guest is Matt Nash, executive director of the Blackbot Giving Fund, which has dispersed more than $1.6 billion to over 195,000 nonprofits around the world. And he's also a former senior leader at Fidelity Charitable and brings decades of insight into donor behavior, corporate philanthropy, and what's next for fundraising. So, Matt, it's been a while. Welcome back to Nonprofit Nation.
B
Well, thank you very much, Julia. I really appreciate the invite.
A
We are going to talk about workplace giving today. That's going to be our focus. Can you give us a quick overview of sort of the landscape of workplace giving today? Like, how widespread is it and what kind of impact are you seeing on.
B
The sector you know, as you said, it is an underutilized tool, I think, and yet at the same time, it's very active. There is over 27 million people in America that are employees of corporations that have access to a workplace giving program. They're really all about trying to get the employees engaged with, you know, the social sector and the nonprofits and. And helping them understand more about how they can give back. And it really matches what many employees want from a corporate experiences or a corporation that they work for to have a social good component of what they do. It doesn't have to be their core thing, because some companies just do things that aren't necessarily directly related to a social purpose, but you can still give back to the community. And a lot of employees would like to be able to participate that with that and participate as a group, as a community, which is really what drives the employee engagement component of it. The corporations, number one objective of these things is to create employee engagement.
A
Exactly. I think that the statistics, like you just said, are so interesting. Like you just said, 26 million U.S. employees have access to workplace giving programs, and in 2024, they donated an estimated $3 billion to nonprofits. And another statistic that you had sent over is with corporate matches included, the average employee gift totaled $1,744. That seems like such a major opportunity that we're not utilizing. So why do you think workplace giving is still so kind? It's still really unknown and underutilized. Why don't smaller organizations adopt it? Like, what's getting in the way?
B
It's a couple of things. One is, I don't think the nonprofits have the time and energy to be able to focus on it because they're dealing with so many things and so many headwinds that they're facing now in terms of raising funds. I think they tend to stick to what they know and try to really reach out to the donors that they know support them, which is, I think, a very logical thing to do. In addition to that, I think in the workplace, people are busy. You know, what's your average employee in a company? They're typically. They got a young family, they've got all kinds of things going on outside of work. Work is very busy, demanding on people. And so it's an attention thing, I think, is really one of the key elements to it. And that's why workplace corporations that really focus on this, they do a good job of incorporating it into the life of the employee during their workday. So they offer different campaigns that help People get together and they'll create the volunteer days where they bring people together to go do things and experience things outside the corporate four walls. You find that it's a very uplifting experience if you're an employee doing that. Particularly those of us who have lived through the whole Covid years and now we're not as connected to people in the workplace on site all the time and people really look forward to that. It's just getting the time and the focus I think is the key impediment.
A
No, I agree. I think that we know we should be doing it, but it might just be something else on our plate. But it could be low hanging fruit. It could be something that could be, you know, really lucrative and bring in a lot of revenue for us. So now we're going to talk maybe a little bit about the how. So if you could outline the five key engagement tactics that you talk about that nonprofits can use to build and nurture relationships with donors like who have access to corporate match programs.
B
Sure, sure.
A
And thank you for being generous to share the tactics.
B
Well, our job is to try to get as many people interested in this as possible because I agree, you know, the mission of the giving fund is to grow the amount of funds that we can give back to the nonprofit sector. And so that's, that's really what we're all about. So I always like to start with who do you have today? So start with your current donors. Similar to what I've talked about donor advised fund donors in the past. Find the ones that you already got and reach out to them. And that's the same thing true for the employees. So if you have employees working for a company that have given you money and have volunteered with you already, because there's just millions of them out there that are doing it and they can be your biggest fans. And so if an employee is active with you when they're involved with what's happening in the company in terms of the next campaigns are coming on, they often will bring you forward to say, hey, I work with this group that's really terrific. I've done volunteering for them and why don't we just, why reach out? I'll talk to them and see if they've got something we could do and we could be one of the groups that go out and, and do it. Now you've gone from one donor to 20 donors that have experienced you. So start with who you got. The second one would be to create events that engage the employees in your mission and educate them about what you do. And I think this is a part that's often difficult to achieve for nonprofits because you're thinking about what you have. But this is a flip side thing. What you're really doing is you're creating a selling program for them. You're trying to convince these people that are coming to your place that you are somebody that is worth supporting. And the best way to do that is to help them see the great work you're doing. And so the volunteer efforts, I think, need to be designed to help them engage with you, help them understand what you do. And even if there's some things that are just kind of rote sort of things, start with a whole program about who you are and what you do and what the impact you have. So you're building in an education component, component to the experience so that they get it, they understand who you are, and they begin to get hooked. That's really what happens. People just get hooked and they get excited about it.
A
Like a case statement.
B
Yes, right. Right. Exactly right. And I know you're going to bring up, but then to bring up a case study that we wrote a little bit later, and I think that's a perfect example. And I'll talk about that. And then there's, there's a few things I think that you can do to start the process that is important and yet not really. It's almost like the prelim part of it. Right. So present yourself to these workplace giving platforms. All of us who do this work have a platform that we use because we have to present something to the donors for getting access to, you know, what are the charities I want to give to or signing up for the volunteer program. And there's a, so there's a database in there with all these nonprofits in it. And everybody has an opportunity for you to say, tell us more about your story. We pull in the basic information from the IRS business master file, the stuff that's all public, but you get a chance to tell us more about your vision, your mission, some of the programs you have, what impact you're going to have. And those things can help because the people signing looking for it, they're searching by their region, the cause, the type of charity, all those kinds of things. And those platforms do the sorting, but they only do the sorting by the information that's in there. And a lot of the information that's in there has to come from the nonprofits, so you can tell your own story on these platforms.
A
Wait, so which, what kinds of platforms?
B
Well, so let's I'll just tell you about ours. So we have something called the Blackbaud Verified Network. It's something that a nonprofit simply signs up for. You can find it on our website called blackbaudgivingfund.com or.org I'm sorry, blackbodgivingfund.org and when you do, you basically say, I'm the person at the charity who is the registered user of this, this platform.
A
Okay.
B
And then in there, the platform then shows you who's given, how much they've given, what company they're tied to, if they're, what their email address is. And so it's a way to understand who are giving to you from these companies. And a lot of these systems are set up where you can then just convert that data right into your CRM tool within the, the non profit. So that you're tying now in this new information coming in from these donations that you're getting from people like the Black Body Giving Fund. And it allows you to know more about who those donors are and how much they're giving to you and to what degree they're interacting with you.
A
Okay, so we are, what are we on number two?
B
We're on number. That was number three.
A
Okay.
B
Number three, Number four is research. The company is that you're going to reach out to and what the idea is to match the alignment between your cause and their social purpose. Because if you don't then and you're reaching out to these companies, it's basically a blast email that nobody's going to pay attention to.
A
Right. It's a waste of everybody's time, it's.
B
A waste of your time and it's a waste of their time. Right. But if you can understand what their purpose is from a social standpoint and it aligns with what you are, you can begin to tell a story and that will at least get them to read the email. And it can be the first step to getting more of an interaction between you and them to see whether you fit. And one thing that you should know about is that the people at the corporations that manage these things, they're very understaffed. It's not unusual to have a corporation that might have 100,000 people with operations all over the world that will have two people in this department that's doing this and they have to design the entire program for all 100,000 people in all these different locations. And if it's volunteer day, they're responsible for creating volunteer days across the world. Right. So the more that you can tie into what they're all about. They're going to say, can you help us? Because they're looking to leverage themselves and create ways to create these opportunities in a way that doesn't absolutely crush them. So it's a little bit of a misconception, I think that many nonprofits think that these corporations are super well staffed and things that. That's not, that's not the truth at all.
A
Exactly. Like their social impact program is very understandable. That's my experience as well.
B
Right. So they tend to use the employees as volunteers a lot to help them do that. Which is good for nonprofits because if you have an employee that's really tied to you and this gets involved with the program on a volunteer basis, they're bringing you in. And then if you do get a meeting, this will be the fifth one. Do your homework. Right. Make sure you know as much about them as you can because it's really all about them. You're wanting to know what's their program, what are they trying to achieve and ask questions. It's not a pitch, it's a here's our mission, here's what we're doing. We'd love to hear more about what you're trying to do. Can we create something that might help you?
A
I love that. So it's really being mutually beneficial because they have goals that they want to achieve and they really want to engage their employees. And you have goals that you want to achieve and you want to give them the information that they can use to make the best decision and to connect with you. So I love framing it as it's mutually beneficial. It's not just sort of a one way street.
B
Absolutely. Because that's when it all works the best. Whenever you go to a conference and they talk about this great partnership, what do they start with? This has helped both of us.
A
Exactly. So let's talk about how younger donors are shaping the future of workplace giving. What should nonprofits know about how millennials and Gen Z are sort of engaging with these programs?
B
Well, I think the first thing is that they are the workforce of America. The average age of an American worker is 39. So that's why right in the middle of the millennials and then the Gen Zs are right behind it. So that if you look at the curve, vast majority of people currently working, particularly working in the non executive area, are going to be millennials and Gen Z's. And the statistics show that these two generations all want to work for a company that has some sort of social Purpose. They want to feel like there's some good that happens in the world as a part of what the workplace offers. And so that's a great opportunity for these people to become involved with volunteer efforts, give back efforts and those kinds of things. And they want to be involved as part of a community because many of them have been working for a long time and working, remote or not, with others. And we're all creatures of community. We need people to thrive. Right. It's part of what we are as a species. And so the degree that volunteer efforts can be created is really, I think, an important component of this. I believe that most workplace giving starts with the volunteer and then moves toward the person that supports you financially.
A
Absolutely. I think volunteering is just such a great way for people to get to know the organization and to sort of dip their toe in a little bit. Because yeah, we're not really talking about necessarily like inviting all of the employees of a specific company to immediately make a donation. We're more talking about how we can insert ourselves into the culture, you know, workplace culture of giving or philanthropy or volunteers and whatever it might be, and to find the right people that are then going to become hopefully maybe our long term donors.
B
Right, right. You know, remember the mutual benefit their employees are getting and doing it because they want to be engaged. So that's the first step. Right. Is get them engaged. If they get engaged with you and they begin really getting excited about the, the journey that you're on, they're going to want to join you in that journey, which then starts moving them into being a giver. And you named, what did you say? I think it was seventeen hundred dollars on average. You know, that's, I don't know, I'd call that pretty close to a mid sized giver. Right. And then as you get them really tied to you and as they become more successful in their career, then they move up the chain to go from that to a sustaining giver to a major gift giver and they end up becoming a core of who your future is. So I think that this, this area is a great place to tap into who your future big donors are going to be.
A
So let's talk about the case study. Note in the pocket. I love the story of this organization. Tell me about this organization. And you know, what does this example teach us about, you know, how we can really tap into the power of sustained engagement?
B
Yeah, I love the note in the pocket story. And it's a great name for an organization. It's a case study that's written up on our website so anybody who's listening here can go in and read it. But I first met them back and I think it was 2015 when I was a Fidelity Charitable and we had our own give back program going on. It was a contest with all. Each of us could come out, bring forward our favorite charity and we went all voting multi stage voting process to see who would be the winner that would get a fairly large corporate gift from the Fidelity Charitable. And the year that we did it, note in the pocket one. And they were just a fascinating organization. They have a mission that's to provide clothing security for kids who are attending schools. And when the president came in and talked to us about it, she gave us a story about how in many situations kids come to school with really rags. They're just you know, handed down clothes over the years and they don't have any self esteem and then they walk in and people, the other kids will mock them and things. And so it becomes a very self confidence problem. And yet if they walk in with new clothes suddenly their confidence level goes up, their self esteem goes up and they end up becoming more successful at school from such a simple thing. And we thought well what a great concept. And so over the years what they've been doing is they've been really I think being a perfect example of some of the things that we just talked about. They start out, they tell their story, they make it very clear why kids benefit so much from having brand new clothes. Because most people think well a lot of hand me downs can be donated to kids and this, this group doesn't do that. It's all brand new things that they, they create meaningful experiences for volunteers. In fact their entire workforce that does the work of organizing these, these clothes and get dispersing them out to, to these children is all volunteers. They have over 7,000 volunteers and when we first met them I think they had 300 volunteers. So they've been building this mechanism. But what it's built around is the volunteer. It's focusing on the volunteer and helping them understand what it is that they do. And that begets more volunteers which then gets you into the corporate program where they begin to get sponsored by large corporations in the Raleigh Durham area because that's where they're located. They create meaningful experiences for these volunteers which then you know, expands the whole aura of who they are and spreads the message of who they are. And they tell their story. They tell their story and they tell their story. It's a core component of what they're doing. And so what they'll tell you when you go there and visit them, they'll say, look, we can start with the corporation because we're trying to get a number of employees to help us out. But where really the rubber really meets the road is at the individual. So you start with the corporation, try to get a volunteer program going with them, try to get a partnership going with them, but then they focus on the individuals, because the individuals are the ones that make it work. And so these employees come in, they're stewarded, they're taught about what it's all about. They're followed up on in terms of what kind of meaningful outcomes that they achieved, what their project actually helped the. The nonprofit accomplish. And it's just been an amazing success story for a nonprofit that started on a shoestring. Literally a shoestring.
A
Like an actual shoestring. Wow. No, that is so powerful because I. Yeah, there are so many organizations that do amazing work in terms of sharing gently used clothing or, you know, secondhand clothing that's in really good condition, but the pride of a kid having, like a brand new jacket or shirt or pair of sneakers that's never been used. I mean, that I just can see the smile on the child's face. Like the stories that they can tell must be so powerful. I do have a question because as you were telling that story, I'm thinking immediately of my audience, and I think there's going to be some. A little bit of pushback, especially from organizations that might not have volunteer opportunities. I'm just thinking, like, I remember I worked in a domestic violence program and we had, you know, we had. We trained people to be working on the hotline. We certainly had a couple of opportunities every year, maybe to do some painting, you know, or maintenance on the shelter or something like that. But how can an organization that might not have, like, a big volunteer opportunity for a corporation, how could they. What should they be thinking about? And how can they get involved in this?
B
Yeah, right. It's not everybody has a note in the pocket, you know, model where there's a lot of physical activity that has to occur. Right. Or there's skill sets that are required that you just can't bring a volunteer in to do. They have to be trained experts in what they do. To me, the thing there is that the workplace has two components. If we just stay on the workplace side. Right. So there's a giving component and there's a volunteer component. The giving components almost always including a company match. Sometimes a corporation will narrow down the types of causes that they'll support with a match. But most of them are very, very broad. And so to me, what did note in the pocket do? They told their story. They told their story. They told their story. Their story was about engagement and bringing in people. But if you're not one of those that creates the volunteer opportunities really easy, you can still tell your story. Creating a sense in the employee about, wow, this is a place that's really interesting and does great work and, and look at the results that they've got or look at the problem that they're trying to solve, which is that you can make very clear. That's very valuable too, because you're just trying to create an emotional response from the employee, which is, hey, I want to give. My company's encourage me to give. I've got this thing called a match, so I can amplify what I'm doing. Where would I like to spend my, you know, my money on doing this? And again, to me, the story is the key.
A
Yeah. There's really two prongs to making workplace giving work. Finding the right corporate partner and then also educating donors that this is something that they can do and they can get a match and they can tell their company about this organization and maybe do a drive where they don't have to physically come into the organization, but they could do, you know, a clothing drive or. I'm thinking actually about the domestic violence shelter. Shelter. We worked with a local bank. Every year they would do like a toiletries drive. So people would bring in brand new toiletries, travel size toiletries, and we would make these little, you know, they'd make these little travel bags. But they never actually like came to the shelter. You know, they never interacted with the clients.
B
Right.
A
So now that I think I'm answering my own question thinking about it this way. Yeah. I think nonprofits can get creative in volunteer opportunities. Even if it's not like come to the shelter and hang out with a dog or come to our after school program and play basketball with the kids, even if it is off site. There's so many ways that employees at a workplace can get together and make a difference.
B
Right. And even if it's just organizing the donations that are coming in in a way that can, that the nonprofit can stop by and pick it up, or that you're organizing and somebody's got a truck that drives the stuff over to the nonprofit, that's still engagement because they're all gathering in the big conference rooms or the cafeteria and all the pieces are There and they have to assemble the kits and get them to the charity are all ways that you can get involvement from the employees.
A
Yeah, I'm just thinking about just right now as we're filming this or as we're recording this, I'm thinking of all the toy drives that are happening at local workplaces and the fire station and the police, you know, having those toy drives and they'll, you know, just getting gifts and coordinating, like you were saying, coordinating the giving and coordinating the distribution. I mean, I think there's just so many ways to do it and people really want to be a part of an organization that gives back, that makes them happy, that makes them feel like they're doing some good. So I think having your company, if you're listening to this from the company angle, taking some time to listen to your employees about what matters to them and thinking about some creative ways that you can help give back to the community is only going to really benefit the corporation as well. So you've mentioned that workplace giving is evolving. What trends or shifts do you see on the horizon as we head into 2026?
B
Yeah, well, I think for me, from my perspective, a significant event occurred in July of this year with the passing of the new tax bill.
A
Right.
B
And part of it has been really positive and part of it, I think is a little bit unknown for us at this point. So let me start with the positive. So the positive is that non itemizers will now have a deduction that's $1,000 for an individual and $2,000 if you're filing jointly. That's the majority of American employees. And corporations are really non itemized or tax filers. So Today, starting on January 1st, a donation going through a workplace giving program is deductible up to $1,000 for an individual. And that's a significant component because as an employee, you can amplify your giving substantially by having that as an opportunity for you. So that's, that's all really good news. The one that's a little more unsettling is that in addition to that, they passed a law that said that for corporations where all donations were deductible in the past, starting in January 1st, they're only deductible after 1% of income, 1.1% of revenue. That doesn't sound like a lot. But when you look at what corporations do, the average Corporation donates about 0.9% of their revenue to charity. So that would be below the threshold. So it now becomes an expense. It's just not an Expense, that's a deductible expense for the corporation. So that gets corporations a little bit into their tax strategies in terms of what they're going to do with their charitable giving. Good news. Part of it is that charitable giving in terms of a deduction is one of the lessons important ones for a corporation. Because of this, they got a thing called carry forward. So if you're going to take a loss for a deduction, you can carry that loss forward for five years. But if you take a loss for an operating expense or an investment expense, you can carry that forward for 20 years. So from a tax strategy standpoint, charitable giving is lower in its priority, which in this case is a good thing, because then you gotta ask the question, well, why do you companies do charitable giving? And the reason is primarily brand image and marketing. And, you know, their, their perspective of their reception in the communities that they operate, which that fundamentally hasn't changed. And when you talk to tax people and corporations, they'll always tell you that, you know, by the time I get involved with the corporate giving, the numbers already been set by the board or senior management. They're just asking me to figure out how to, how to handle it. So. Yeah, but it might create some changes in thinking. It might create a change, you know, a focus on, well, if we're not getting a deduction for it, then what is the investment return we're getting in this money? And that'll always be around the brand image, the marketing pull that this effort has, you know, the reputation in the, in the community. And those things might come a little bit more forward in their planning. I wonder if that might start narrowing the focus of some of these corporations. So if a corporation in the past was doing very broad giving with sort of a core central focus, they might narrow that down to more of the core central focus, which could get you in a situation. As a nonprofit, if I'm on the margins, you know, if I'm on a nonprofit that has a partnership with a corporation, I'm not really part of the core focus that might cause a problem in the future for me. So I look at it as being, this is a good time for nonprofits to evaluate, okay, how close to these corporations are we really, how well is our vision and mission aligned with the purpose, social purpose that the corporation has? And if it's tight, it's time to double down and really go hard with it. Because if there's going to be a concentration, it'll go in that area. If it's not close, then you might Have a conversation with them and say, where are you going? Are you using this moment to think about your strategy? Because it's much better to know where they're going so you can, you know, if you have to, you know, exit and go do something else, you're at least got a little bit of a warning before all of a sudden you get the call and saying, hey, we're going to be cutting back this year, year, because we've done a reevaluation. I think it's better if you know that they're going to be reevaluating and where you stand so you can make the right kind of decisions for yourself so that I don't know if that's going to happen. But, you know, you kind of look to the logical conclusion of when a change comes upon a corporation, they will evaluate and then they'll make a decision how to move forward. We have not seen a strong cutback yet in the corporations we work with. But, you know, it's possible that they might be rearranging, you know, things on the, you know, rearranging the chairs on the deck. And if you're a nonprofit, you just want to make sure you're working with the right corporation where you stay in the. In the focus area.
A
So much uncertainty. But I hopefully will. I think that's great advice for navigating this uncertainty. So if a nonprofit leader is listening to this episode and they're getting inspired, but maybe they're feeling a little bit overwhelmed about where to start, what is the one step after hearing our conversation that you hope they take?
B
Well, I would think that ask the question of, do we have an actual approach for corporate giving, or is it just happenstance? And if we do have one, I would step back and evaluate and say, okay, what's working? What's not working? Let's spend some strategic time thinking about how we want to go to the next step. If you don't have one, or if it's more haphazard, which can often be the case, Then again, it would be a question of, well, do we want to get into this? Should we spend the time and then consciously say, let's take this portion of our fundraising and our strategy time and our fundraising dollars and put it towards this in a more thoughtful manner. And I think this is a good time to do that. If corporations are rethinking themselves, it's a chance where you could maybe find your way into a place who's looking for the right opportunities in a strategic manner, and that's a good time to have conversations when people are asking questions themselves. That's a great time to have conversations because they're not just focused on I'm good. We know what we're doing and we're moving forward. They're in evaluative mode already, and I think this is a good time to begin asking those questions for the nonprofit, too.
A
Well, thank you so much. This has been wonderful. Where can people find you online and learn more about the Blackbaud Giving Fund?
B
Yeah, sure. So we're on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and it's the Blackbaud Giving Fund and Baud is B, a U D. That's often something that people, people don't understand. And then we also have a website where we have a number of blog articles. We're publishing more case studies, the note in the pocket case studies on the website. And that's blackbaudgivingfund.org okay.
A
Blackbaudgivingfund.org thank you so much for being here.
B
It's my pleasure, Julia. This is a lot of fun. Foreign.
A
I wanted to say thank you for tuning into my show and for listening all the way to the end. If you really enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app and you'll get new episodes downloaded as soon as they come out. I would love if you left me a rating or a review because this tells other people people that my podcast is worth listening to and then me and my guests can reach even more earbuds and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a brand new episode, but until then you can find me on Instagram @JuliaCampbell77. Keep changing the world you non profit unicorn. Sa.
Podcast: Nonprofit Nation with Julia Campbell
Episode: How to Make the Most of Workplace Giving with Matt Nash
Release Date: February 11, 2026
Host: Julia Campbell
Guest: Matt Nash, Executive Director, Blackbaud Giving Fund
In this insightful episode, Julia Campbell sits down with Matt Nash, a seasoned expert in corporate philanthropy and workplace giving, to demystify one of the most underutilized fundraising strategies for nonprofits: workplace giving. They discuss the current landscape, why this funding stream is often overlooked, practical tactics for increasing engagement with corporate donors, the growing role of millennials and Gen Z, nonprofit case studies, and the effects of recent tax changes on workplace giving.
“There is over 27 million people in America that are employees of corporations that have access to a workplace giving program... The corporations’ number one objective of these things is to create employee engagement.”
— Matt Nash (02:57)
“It’s an attention thing... that’s why corporations that do a good job of this really incorporate it into the employee’s workday.”
— Matt Nash (04:43)
Leverage existing donors
“Start with who you got... If an employee is active with you, they often will bring you forward in their company.”
— Matt Nash (06:51)
Create volunteer events to engage and educate
“You’re creating a selling program for them... help them see the great work you’re doing.”
— Matt Nash (08:00)
Present your organization on workplace giving platforms
“There's a database in there with all these nonprofits... and you can tell your own story on these platforms.”
— Matt Nash (09:14)
Research company values to align missions
“If you can understand what their purpose is from a social standpoint and it aligns with what you are, you can begin to tell a story...”
— Matt Nash (12:10)
Prep thoroughly for corporate partnerships
“It’s not a pitch… Can we create something that might help you?”
— Matt Nash (13:29)
Millennials and Gen Z now dominate the workforce (average worker age: 39).
They prioritize social good and community experiences at work.
Most giving engagement begins with volunteering.
“They want to feel like there’s some good that happens in the world as a part of what the workplace offers… most workplace giving starts with the volunteer.”
— Matt Nash (14:53)
Growth from 300 to over 7,000 volunteers by focusing on meaningful volunteer experiences and strong storytelling.
Their approach: Start with the corporate relationship, but focus deeply on individual engagement.
“Their entire workforce… is all volunteers. They have over 7,000 volunteers… But what it’s built around is the volunteer.”
— Matt Nash (19:45)
“They tell their story. They tell their story and they tell their story. It’s a core component of what they’re doing.”
— Matt Nash (21:07)
Focus on storytelling to spark emotional connection and encourage giving.
Encourage creative off-site engagement (e.g., supply drives, kit assemblies).
Employees can still be engaged without on-site volunteering.
“If you’re not one of those that creates volunteer opportunities really easily, you can still tell your story… you’re just trying to create an emotional response.”
— Matt Nash (23:16)
“There’s really two prongs… Finding the right corporate partner and educating donors that this is something they can do.”
— Julia Campbell (24:49)
2025 Tax Changes: Non-itemizers can now deduct $1,000 ($2,000 joint) for workplace giving, benefiting most American employees (27:48).
For corporations: Charitable deductions now kick in only after giving exceeds 1.1% of revenue (average giving is 0.9%).
Impact: Companies may become more focused on donations closely tied to their brand and social purpose.
“Non-itemizers will now have a deduction... the majority of American employees. That’s all really good news.”
— Matt Nash (27:49)
“I look at it as being, this is a good time for nonprofits to evaluate: how close to these corporations are we really?”
— Matt Nash (32:22)
Evaluate your approach to workplace giving.
If you’re not actively pursuing it, allocate time to develop a thoughtful strategy, especially as companies reevaluate their own giving due to changing laws.
“Do we have an actual approach for corporate giving, or is it just happenstance? ...Let’s take this portion of our fundraising... and put it towards this in a more thoughtful manner.”
— Matt Nash (33:13)
On the power of volunteers:
“You start with the corporation… but where the rubber meets the road is the individual.”
— Matt Nash (21:15)
On the evolving workplace:
“We’re all creatures of community. We need people to thrive. The degree that volunteer efforts can be created is really, I think, an important component of this.”
— Matt Nash (15:28)
On aligning with companies:
“If it’s tight, it’s time to double down and really go hard with it. If it’s not close, then… have a conversation with them and say, where are you going?”
— Matt Nash (32:05)
In Julia’s words:
“If you’re a nonprofit newbie or an experienced professional who’s looking to get more visibility, reach more people, and create even more impact, then you’re in the right place.” (01:53)
Summary prepared for those seeking actionable advice on maximizing workplace giving as a powerful, often overlooked source of sustainable nonprofit funding.