Workplaces

Why host workplace campaigns?

Provide your employees with a new benefit that connects your company and staff to local nonprofit organizations and community needs. Enable your employees to support the charities closest to their hearts while improving workplace morale and understanding about the communities where they live. Add Community Shares of Greater Cincinnati’s total choice campaign to your annual charitable giving options!

Why add Community Shares to your charitable benefits package?

Community Shares is the local federation of charities working to advance social justice, environmental sustainability and animal welfare in the greater Cincinnati-Dayton region. Community Shares is the only charitable federation that allows social justice, environmental sustainability and animal welfare organizations to be members. Collectively, Community Shares’ member organizations directly impact the lives of more than 385,000 residents every year.

We expand charity from the grassroots up

Community Shares serves as an incubator and provides mentoring for small start-up charities with few or no paid staff members. These grassroots, on-the-ground organizations often are doing the hardest work in the community with the smallest amount of resources. They, and our more established members, benefit from the training, networking, and advocacy we provide.

Your employees want us

Today, workplaces are more diverse than ever. Whether it’s LGBTQ issues, women’s equality, fair housing, racial discrimination, environmental justice, compassionate care for pets, or one of the other social issues we champion, some of your employees likely already support our member charities on their own. These staff would certainly appreciate the option of giving through payroll deduction, which spreads out their donation over the course of a year to allow for smaller, more manageable amounts to be taken out of their paychecks, providing a larger overall gift (on average, 40 percent bigger, according to research) to support their favorite causes.

We provide total choice in giving

Many employees – especially younger employees – want more control over how their charitable dollars are handled. Our total choice campaign empowers each employee to choose to make tax-deductible contributions as:

1. an undesignated gift that is shared by all of our member charities,

2. a general donation in support of Community Shares’ overall social justice mission,

3. a designated gift to benefit specific Community Shares member charities,

4. a write-in charitable beneficiary which can be any 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, church, or school within the United States.

We play well with others

Our campaign may be offered consecutively to or concurrent with any existing charitable federation campaigns at your workplace. Research shows that if you already operate another federated giving campaign, addition of a second or even third campaign usually increases giving to your existing ones by breathing new life into the process.

A turnkey offering, for you and your employees

We provide a safe and secure online giving portal for your campaign and can provide printed pledge cards if requested. Additional support materials are available at no cost to the employer, and our staff are happy to come to your locations and educate staff on their giving options. We will work with your appointed contact persons to ensure your campaign is vibrant, inclusive, and successful.

All the cool kids are doing it

Community Shares partners with many workplaces throughout the area of all shapes and sizes, from small staffs like the Contemporary Art Center to medium-sized places of business such as Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio to our region’s single largest employer, the University of Cincinnati system. We participate in the State of Ohio and U.S. federal government campaigns for state and federal employees in our area and have met their rigorous charitable federation vetting processes. We are happy to customize your campaign to your specific workplace needs and practices.

Now, more than ever:

In these times of coronavirus, our workplace campaigns are even more important. Nearly all of our member organizations have had fundraising events cancelled this year due to social distancing requirements, resulting in significant budgetary shortfalls, just when they have more demand for their services. Every penny they collect matters now more than ever.

Give your employees real choice: launch a Community Shares campaign now!