The holidays present a low-lift, high-impact opportunity to engage employees. Why? This time of year is when employees are [1] most philanthropic but [2] most checked out; holiday giving programs activate [1] while simultaneously counteracting [2]. How? Keep reading. Here are 8 great holiday giving program ideas.

HealthTech employees are highly altruistic, and many have previously worked at non-profits (similar to EdTech). Also, HealthTech is a young industry that is recruiting a lot of millennial talent. It's a perfect storm for employee bases eager for opportunities to give back.

"Once you’ve identified your combined business and socials missions, you need to ensure that both your customers and your employees fully understand it. Our missions are published to our company website, and every employee and contractor is equally aware of both missions and the importance we place on them."

Benjamin Franklin famously said that there were only two "sure things" in life: death and taxes. While he was - for better or worse - correct about those two inevitable certainties, Percent Pledge may have a third "sure thing" to add to Mr. Franklin's list. 

In case you were checked out during that class (and didn't watch Even Stevens), the Transitive Property goes like this: If A = B and B = C, then A = C. This property is helpful to understand the business value of the neural link between giving and happiness.

It works like this: if Giving = Happier Employees and Happier Employees = Happier Customers, then Giving = Happier Customers (and many other improved business results).

At Percent Pledge we (obviously) believe that doing good is good for business, so we love reading about leaders who share (and practice) that same belief. Our latest favorites are all from Forbes, written by founders and entrepreneurs who have seen firsthand how giving back can accelerate business growth. We know you're busy but might want these important learnings, so we’ve shared our SparkNotes of each below. This way you can spend more leveraging their suggestions to accelerate your business and culture!

"Percent Pledge has been a win-win that satisfies employee desire to give back and makes giving a part of company culture." Ayo Jimoh, CTO @ Visibly.

“Launching Percent Pledge required minimal effort while delivering immediate tangible results: our team is empowered by the ability to impact the causes that resonate with them most as individuals, and the Pledge Reports deliver transparency and deep insights into our giving. Not to mention we feel like we're making a difference!”   -Adam Siegel, CEO

"One of the core foundations that Aclaimant was built on was helping people,'' said David Wald, CEO and Co-founder of Aclaimant. “Percent Pledge helps us extend that philosophy by allowing our employees to easily interact and support the charities and non-profits that are important to them and important to our company!"

The topic of volunteering has come up a lot lately with new clients, and rightfully so. Volunteering has become the "water cooler" or "softball league" culture activity that's more effective with today's talent, while simultaneously better for your reputation and community. However, managing volunteering programs is difficult, especially for companies with geographically diverse teams. This blog will make it easy for you to introduce, and manage, engaging volunteer programs - with a focus on connecting your geo-diverse teams through volunteering.