Charitable contributions directed by employees who already donate time to nominated causes

A lot of companies make charitable contributions to worthwhile organizations nominated by their employees. But RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, actually requires employees to have already donated at least 12 hours of their volunteer time to the organizations they nominate. It’s an approach that has earned RTI International first place in the “Stakeholder/Employee Engagement” category of PR Daily’s 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards

The rationale: Employees who are well acquainted and engaged with the organizations will be able to provide useful insights into how they help people and their communities. 

The annual nomination process goes beyond the usual email announcement: A dedicated site on the intranet plays an important part, along with the use of digital signage that reaches staff members who may otherwise not hear about the program. The most recent campaign led to over a quarter of a million dollars in donations to 73 charitable efforts. 

The final decision (along with management of the campaign) rests with RTI’s Community Partnerships Program (CPP), whose board is made up of RTI researchers and staff. Beyond the annual campaign, the CPP sponsors volunteer events in the organization’s headquarters city and, for the first time this year, in its Washington D.C. location. It also sponsors staff participation in charity walks and races across its office locations.

In the most recent year, RTI International’s employees donated 5,200 hours to the 556,000-plus community members who benefited from the program. 

For their outstanding work, congratulations to Kami Spangenberg, Jennifer Greer, Beth Brill, Myra Schwartz, Michelle Conner, Margaret Davide-Smith, Marjorie Hinsdale-Shouse, Nicole Ifill, Sandra Talbird, Anna Wetterberg and Allyson Wharton.