How the ACLU Wins Big From Corporate-Employee Drives

There’s no shortage of donations from corporations and their employees making their way to disaster relief, human rights, and other social causes, according to a new study, but the real key to success for the top-performing groups is their ability to court a company’s employees regardless of what’s making headlines.

The report, which ranks the causes that attract the most money from corporate workers, including employer matching contributions, shows that the American Civil Liberties Union jumped from 86th place in 2015 to second place this year, outranked only by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Rounding out the top 10 were familiar names like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The report is from Benevity, which provides software for managing employee giving and matching-gift drives. The results are from Benevity’s clients.

“The last few years have seen bigger changes in the corporate-giving landscape than in the last decade — mostly because of the U.S. election cycle and the associated sociopolitical tides,” said Sona Khosla, vice president for marketing at Benevity. “Now, more than in the last decade, we are seeing more causes related to human rights and crisis relief holding the top 10 spots — this year it was half. We saw this shift take root back in 2016, and we are seeing it continue into 2018.”

Khosla said this type of giving from engaged employees, which includes money that was matched or added to by their companies, used to be considered a blip but is now seen as “the new normal.” Still, there are formidable organizations on the list that are not tied to civil rights or disaster relief, like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which placed third and 10th respectively.

ACLU as a Case Study

It’s true that the ACLU has grown in popularity during the current administration, in part due to its association with progressive causes, says Danielle Silber, director of strategic partnerships for the ACLU. But, she says, the real success story has been the ACLU’s ability to engage donors even when its causes aren’t the top stories.

The group received a lot of attention for its opposition to the Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban, she says, and the seizure of children from migrant families. But even when the immigrant story slowed as new controversies and the upcoming midterms began to dominate the headlines, the ACLU maintained its fundraising streak with corporate employees.

“After the Muslim ban, it became immediately clear that companies, from a bottom-line perspective and in terms of how they work with other countries overseas and how they attract talent from overseas, would be interested in taking a stance on immigrants’ rights,” she said, adding that companies are more inclined to give money when they see themselves as stakeholders who may also lose out if immigration is curtailed.

The ACLU made fundraising an even larger priority by promoting match and double-match campaigns — in which companies match their employees’ gifts 2:1.

Another tactic the ACLU employed, Silber said, was using email marketing campaigns to publicize causes that might make larger headlines months later. She described this kind of messaging as a news resource.

“With family separation, we weren’t sure the news cycle was going to pick up this crisis. We filed this case back in March, and it took a long time to generate more attention. So the fact that we had a great relationship with a lot of the bigger companies, I would argue, bolstered the bigger outcry,” she said.

“It’s hard to say, but I don’t know if we would’ve had the groundswell of employee support in June of this past year if we hadn’t had the opportunity to do proactive outreach.”

Half the battle, of course, is getting people who lead corporate social-responsibility groups and impact teams to read the ACLU’s emails. Luckily, Silber said, the ACLU has made progress on that front.

“Our current average open rate for corporate-donor emails is 43 percent. Since the donor-communications program officially started in January, we have quadrupled in size and have retained an open rate over 40 percent,” she said, adding that a recent campaign about voting rights and voter turnout had a 74 percent open rate.

Top Causes Supported by Companies and Employees