Can strengthening CSR practices actually be fun?

July 29, 2024

When doing good feels really good.

By Kimberley Hanson

We all know that being a good corporate citizen is table stakes for a successful
business nowadays. No one would question that corporate social responsibility is
important, or that lowering your corporate carbon footprint might feel satisfying in
the way that eating your vegetables or decluttering your garage does. But would it
surprise you to know that it can also be quite a lot of fun?

My organization, HealthPartners, brings workplaces, health charities and the
patients and families they support together with a single, shared purpose – to
improve the health of people across Canada through workplace donations. We do
that by running easy and engaging workplace campaigns, and we’re proud that
fundraising campaigns with HealthPartners have become part of the culture of
many corporations across Canada. Over our 35-year history, we’ve empowered over
600,000 employees who have supported with more than $220 million dollars in
donations.

Even though we run workplace fundraising campaigns as our core business, as a
new CEO of HealthPartners, I wasn’t really sure what it would be like to conduct one
ourselves. I worried that our employees might feel too busy to spend the time, or
too pressured to make a donation. I worried that attendance at campaign events
might be lacklustre, or that the campaign champions might not feel appreciated for
the effort they put in.

But all my worries were wasted energy. Our HealthPartners workplace campaign
was a great success and, perhaps more importantly, so much fun! Over the course
of a two-week campaign in the month of June, our employees participated in five
events, including a rousing match of bingo, a game of guess who and a highly
competitive round of Family Feud. Employees bought tickets to these events and
made donations via payroll deduction that averaged more than $1,000 per
employee!

It was heartwarming to see how much everyone enjoyed coming together for a
good cause. Our organization is entirely virtual, so opportunities to just be social are
few and far between. And the good feelings everyone got from our campaign
translated into positive morale and culture – our weekly employee opinion “pulse”
showed that folks were WAY happier during and after our campaign than before.
So if you, like any other senior leader, are looking to strengthen your organization’s
reputation for CSR and the engagement of your employees, give some thought to
holding a free and turnkey workplace fundraising campaign with HealthPartners.
You might be pleasantly surprised at how much fun YOU have!