Blackbaud and YourCause Release Comprehensive Global Report on Employee Engagement, Corporate Social Responsibility Trends

CHARLESTON, S.C., April 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- YourCause, a Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) company and a leader in corporate social responsibility software solutions, today announced the release of its seventh Industry Review, a comprehensive analysis of employee engagement and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. YourCause introduced the new report at its CSRworks client conference, an annual gathering of more than 300 clients, CSR and employee engagement professionals being held this week in Austin, Texas.

Corporate citizenship formalizes a company's commitment towards positively impacting the community through workplace giving, employee volunteering, corporate grantmaking and ethical operations. In 2011, only 20% of Fortune 500 companies had a formal CSR program. By 2015, that number had quadrupled to 80% and continues to rise as customers demand it, employees expect it, and businesses thrive because of it.

"We're not only proud of the work behind this report but the work we know this report will inspire," said David Rode, president and general manager, Blackbaud Corporate and Foundation Solutions. "With better data and insights, companies know what they can do to keep their employees engaged, their customers delighted, and their operations connected to a greater role within the world. CSR means being conscious of and reactive to larger social good opportunities, and with this information at hand, companies can refine their operations to drive the most impact while also experiencing the greatest business success." 

The 2019 Industry Review highlights data by industry, compares domestic versus international CSR programs and explores the impact of natural disasters on giving. YourCause reported on data collected between January and December 2018 to derive the observations contained within the 2019 Industry Review. Key findings from the report include:

• Average volunteer hours per employee grew by nearly 43% in very large companies of 100,000 or more employees.
• Companies with fewer than 5,000 employees experience nearly double the employee engagement of larger companies.
• Employees who work in the same state as company headquarters are 2.5 times more likely to give than their counterparts in other states.
• Retirees, on average, contributed almost 4.5 times more dollars and logged nearly eight times as many volunteer hours than full-time employees.
• An additional $800,000 in funds reached the social good community when companies covered credit card fees for their employees.

Additionally, YourCause's 2019 Industry Review found that 90% of companies worldwide acknowledge Sustainable Development Goals, a collection of 17 global goals for 2030 set by the United Nations General Assembly to build a better future for all. While 71% of companies are planning what they can do to address these goals and more than 40% of companies have pledged to embed the goals into their business strategies and operations, only 43% of global Fortune 250 companies that report on CSR link their efforts to the goals.

"This report highlights specific actions that companies can take to play a critical role in the world beyond the specific product or service they provide," said YourCause founder Matthew Combs. "CSR and employee engagement has never received the level of attention that it's getting today. A company's CSR program is now informing—and even driving—key business decisions, which makes the data from our report that much more crucial. We take each of these reports as a fresh, informed call to action in hopes of playing an influential role in delivering a positive impact."

Click here to read the 2019 Industry Review. For further insight, listen to an episode of The sgENGAGE Podcast featuring a conversation between Rachel Hutchisson, Blackbaud's vice president, Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy, and YourCause's Dustin Joost, vice president, Sales and Marketing.

Blackbaud acquired YourCause in January 2019. YourCause customers, a diverse portfolio that includes Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike, benefit from Blackbaud's longstanding connections to the nonprofit community and deep investments in research and development to accelerate innovation. Blackbaud customers benefit from a marked expansion and acceleration of workplace giving and volunteering while building a source of new donors, volunteers and advocates.

Click to Tweet: Comprehensive Industry Review of employee engagement, corporate social responsibility trends now available from @YourCause, a @Blackbaud company. https://blkb.co/2TV4W9z

About YourCause
YourCause (a Blackbaud company) is a Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") provider of the CSRconnect Employee Engagement Platform ("CSRconnect") and the GrantsConnect Corporate and Foundation Grants Management Platform ("GrantsConnect"), as well as integrated, fully hosted solutions for corporations to more effectively deploy and manage their employee giving, volunteering, disaster relief, grant management, fundraising, and overall corporate social responsibility and philanthropy programs. YourCause continues to expand its operations through the ongoing deployment of end-to-end solutions for enterprises, nonprofits, and do-gooders. YourCause's Transparent Giving model allows the company to maximize impact across its Global Good Network benefitting millions of nonprofits around the world.

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world's leading cloud software company powering social good. Serving the entire social good community—nonprofits, foundations, companies, education institutions, healthcare organizations and individual change agents—Blackbaud connects and empowers organizations to increase their impact through cloud software, services, expertise, and data intelligence. The Blackbaud portfolio is tailored to the unique needs of vertical markets, with solutions for fundraising and CRM, marketing, advocacy, peer-to-peer fundraising, corporate social responsibility, school management, ticketing, grantmaking, financial management, payment processing, and analytics. Serving the industry for more than three decades, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com, or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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