YourCause and Silicon Valley Community Foundation Release Revolutionary Solution to Transform International Grantmaking

In partnership with Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), YourCause is offering a revolutionary approach for making international grantmaking more accessible to all companies and their employees throughout the world. Employees of companies using YourCause’s CSRconnect platform now have the ability to support all verified nonprofits anywhere in the world. The new solution delivers to employee engagement administrators and programs the most affordable, scalable, and verifiable methods for expanding traditional employee programs internationally.

This groundbreaking platform will make philanthropy accessible to companies of any size and encourage increased philanthropy by corporations and their global workforce. Silicon Valley Community Foundation also will support all U.S.-based grantmaking through the CSRconnect platform, which will include U.S. Department of Education qualified schools. With access to both domestic and international options, companies can now approach their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs more holistically, resulting in a more comprehensive, integrated, and inclusive overall effort. YourCause, through the CSRconnect platform is rolling out the enhanced services using a tiered fixed pricing model, factoring in size of company, expected level of engagement, and market interest to simplify the cost structure.

YourCause chose to partner with Silicon Valley Community Foundation because of its deep expertise in international grantmaking and extensive network of global nonprofit organizations. As one of the most active U.S.-based international grantmakers, SVCF already has an extensive list of global nonprofit organizations. This partnership will help grow the total pool of international approved nonprofits eligible to receive a donation as well as put in place a process whereby employees may identify and request additional organizations to be considered. SVCF’s staff of experts will ensure each new international organization is carefully reviewed and qualifies to receive charitable gifts under United States tax law.

“Consolidating the processing channels for a company’s domestic and international transactions will further streamline the user experience and dramatically expand our ongoing capabilities for the CSRconnect platform,” said Matthew Combs, CEO of YourCause. “We remain excited about the ongoing collaboration with Silicon Valley Community Foundation and will seek to be the consummate leader for innovating and introducing additional methods to garner greater change and overall efficiencies within this space.”

Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D., CEO and President of SVCF commented, “As the comprehensive center of philanthropy, SVCF is delighted with the opportunity to make global philanthropy accessible to all and we hope that as a result more people will give generously to the causes they care about the most locally, nationally and around the world.”

About Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Silicon Valley Community Foundation makes all forms of philanthropy more powerful. We serve as a catalyst and leader for innovative solutions to our region’s most challenging problems and give more money to charities than any other community foundation in the United States. SVCF has $3 billion in assets under management and more than 1,650 philanthropic funds. As Silicon Valley’s center of philanthropy, we provide individuals, families, and corporations with simple and effective ways to give locally and around the world. Find out more at http://www.siliconvalleycf.org

YourCause Website Receives a Makeover

After weeks of planning, creativity, and designing we have finally launched our new YourCause website! As we rolled into our fifth year providing CSRconnect Employee Engagement Platform, we thought simplicity, appealing to the user eye, and a clean website would be appropriate to demonstrate our brand and YourCause personality.

When you visit www.csrconnect.me you will be directed to our new site that provides you with our services and how they can help measure and impact your employee engagement programs, meet our growing team of innovators, view our industry insights, latest news, and much more. This website will allow the visitor to quickly access what they are looking for whether it be our solutions, scheduling a demo, or search for the charity contact in a few simple clicks.

This website is meant to serve two purposes. 1. Educate potential clients and partners on our services and 2. Be a repository for the latest insights coming from both YourCause clients and the industry. Here’s a breakdown of a few tools at your disposal:

– YourCause blog: We’ve migrated our blog from WordPress over to the website to provide a seamless experience. This will be the go-to place for YourCause news, industry insights, announcements, and thought leadership discussions. Feel free to leave a comment and start a discussion, or use the tags to find the article that you’re looking for.
– Industry Insights: We’ve created an entire page dedicated to providing you with the best insights and recommended readings. Visit this page to flip through our gallery of infographics, view the latest reports and studies, or browse our CSRinsights collection.
– Connect with us on your favorite social media channel: You’ll find social sharing links all over the website, so let’s connect and continue the conversations!

The best part is – it’s just the beginning. The new CSRconnect.me will serve as the launch pad for numerous other efforts we have in the works around case studies and industry collaboration. So, now that you’ve heard all about our new site go ahead and visit www.csrconnect.me and see for yourself what our bragging is all about!

Note: Our blog posts will now be published only on http://www.csrconnect.me. Stay connected with us and read what’s on our mind on the new website.

-YourCause Team

AMD Combines Volunteer Efforts within Conference Events

AMD has published a white paper titled “Bringing Action into the Agenda: Crowdsourcing Volunteerism at Corporate Events.“ It provides a guidance document and case study to show how integrating a volunteer effort into a conference / event can deliver a win-win set of benefits to several parties.

This is a great read and very beneficial for conference-goers and those who host corporate events. GOOD Magazine highlighted AMD’s white paper in a recent article “One Way to Revolutionize How We Network at Conferences? Service Events“, and received good comments and receptivity from readers.

According to AMD’s white paper, here are five key benefits in integrating volunteerism within conference events:

1. Conference organizers benefit by distinguishing their event from others, providing participants with a unique experience, and adding another sponsorship opportunity.
2. Sponsors / hosts of a volunteer event can show their organization’s commitment to the community and employees while supporting the associated cause.
3. Participants receive an additional and unique networking opportunity in a rewarding volunteer environment that naturally facilitates interaction.
4. Locally-based NGOs benefit from additional volunteers to help support their mission, and often they in-turn can provide volunteer support in the form of equipment and/or expertise.
5. The host community stands to gain from a large volunteer event that delivers valuable services for the public good.

To continue reading or to download the white paper, click here!

-YourCause Team

YourCause Nominated as “Best Places to Work in North Texas”

We are excited to announce we have been nominated as one of the Best Places to Work in North Texas by Dallas Business Journal! We couldn’t be more thrilled for this opportunity and will anxiously wait for the finalists to be announced.

North Texas companies that earn the Best Places to Work designation — by achieving best practice scores — will be featured in a special Dallas Business Journal publication on Sept. 27, and celebrated at a luncheon on Sept. 26. Best Places to Work honorees will be announced in the Dallas Business Journal and online in early July.

Stay tuned – we will announce any updates. Also, if you are a company whos headquarters are in the Dallas/FortWoth metroplex and would like to submit a nomination, click here.

Happy Wednesday,
YourCause Team

Edelman Provides Employee Engagement Examples for National Volunteer Week

We’d like to highlight Edelman’s recent article on how to think about the generational spectrum during this week’s National Volunteer Week. They provide a few examples how companies can engage all types of employees in their volunteer program. Below is a preview of the article and can read the rest here.

A happy National Volunteer Week to you and yours! April 21-27 is our designated springtime week here in the U.S., during which time we inspire each other to re-engage and give of ourselves to our communities.

Here at Edelman, we give a lot of thought year-round to inspiring people to engage. We often work with corporate clients to create “spectrums” of volunteer opportunities for their employees that range from low engagement (e.g. book drives, one-time hands-on volunteer events) to high engagement (e.g. executive nonprofit board service, six month pro bono contracts). But there’s another kind of spectrum that’s important to consider when looking to inspire engagement.

Often professionals of different generations and different stages of their careers are looking for different things from their company’s employee volunteer program. Below are a few examples of how companies can think along the generational spectrum…

Silicon Valley Community Foundation and YourCause Announce Partnership to Create CSR Center

Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) and YourCause, LLC announced a new partnership that will integrate SVCF’s domestic and international grantmaking expertise with the employee engagement solutions currently being delivered by YourCause. Additionally, the partnership has committed to the expansion of its capabilities for the small to medium size business market and will be deploying new solutions in 2013 for companies to further expand their existing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs internationally.

In an effort to deliver a more seamless, interactive, and ‘one-stop-shop’ experience for all current and future clients, the partnership has agreed to provide offices to members of the YourCause team within SVCF’s offices. Between the two organizations, the partnership will now have a presence within five offices throughout the Silicon Valley-San Francisco Bay Area and Dallas, Texas.

SVCF and YourCause, both leaders in Corporate Social Responsibility, recognized a need in for a turnkey customer-focused solution for companies interested in implementing and enhancing their local and global employee giving programs. With this relationship, SVCF’s network of over 100 corporate partners will have access to YourCause’s CSRconnect employee engagement platform. CSRconnect is a private-label application that builds internal online communities to support employee engagement and enhance global good through giving, volunteering, disaster response, and other related features. Current YourCause clients will benefit from SVCF’s expertise in international grantmaking as the third largest international grantmaker in the US by number of grants.

“We have extremely high expectations of this partnership, and are excited to work with the entire team at SVCF. The opportunities to deliver more innovative and effective solutions, to all sizes of business, both domestically and abroad, are massive and ones that we truly look forward to tackling through this partnership” commented Matthew Combs, the Founder and CEO of YourCause.

The partnership will provide leading corporate citizens a simplified, customizable and highly responsive matching gifts program. This integrated solution includes domestic and international matching gifts platform, providing companies with a robust employee engagement tool catered to a global workforce.

“SVCF is happy to have found a partner as committed to helping companies make community impact as we are,” said Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D., CEO and President of the community foundation. “Together, SVCF and YourCause will be able to make all companies’ philanthropy more powerful.”

About Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Silicon Valley Community Foundation makes all forms of philanthropy more powerful. We serve as a catalyst and leader for innovative solutions to our region’s most challenging problems. The community foundation has $2.9 billion in assets under management and more than 1,650 philanthropic funds. As Silicon Valley’s center of philanthropy, we provide individuals, families and corporations with simple and effective ways to give locally and around the world. Find out more at http://www.siliconvalleycf.org

Launch DFW Features YourCause Profile

Shout out to launchDFW for featuring us under their startup profiles. launchDFW is the online home for the Dallas – Fort Worth Startup Community. They provide a site that takes the first step towards bringing the community together and discovering all the cool stuff that’s going on in the Metroplex. The site aims to be THE place for you to find info on the local startup scene, companies, founders, events and more.

To learn more about launchDFW or to view our profile, visit here. In the meantime, we give you a sneak peek of our profile below:

Give us the 30-second elevator pitch on your company

YourCause provides companies with CSRconnect employee engagement platform. A community that allows corporations to engage their employees in giving and volunteering programs.

Tell us about the founders, who they are, backgrounds, and why they are passionate about your company

YourCause was founded by Cornell graduate Matt Combs in 2008. He is a technology entrepreneur that has founded multiple companies and he has a passion for doing good.The perpetual challenge of “doing good”…

YourCause Partners with Versaic to Enhance Delivery of Corporate Grant Management Solutions

Versaic corporate grant tracking solution to be integrated within the CSRconnect platform.

YourCause, LLC announces a partnership with Versaic Inc., enabling companies to more effectively engage with nonprofits through grant administration, sponsorship requests and in-kind donations. The partnership plans to integrate both companies’ respective products and services to offer clients a single solution to seamlessly manage all aspects of their corporate social responsibility programs such as employee engagement, disaster response, dollars-for-doers, and corporate grants.

“Versaic and YourCause share a vision as to how we can leverage technology to improve how enterprises are able to more effectively give back, and our internal cultures are nearly exact copies of one another,” said Matthew Combs, Founder and CEO of YourCause. “For those reasons and many more, we are all very excited about what our organizations can do together.”

YourCause focuses on employee engagement programs while Versaic focuses on external donation and grant requests. Both companies support diverse clients with multiple programs that are often managed by the same corporate teams. The integration delivers value to clients by making it possible to manage employee engagement programs, corporate grants, and consolidate reporting within a single location.

Together, YourCause and Versaic have put forth plans to develop integrated reporting capabilities intended to unify additional elements of each clients’ philanthropic programs. From this, clients will be able to more effectively report and evaluate all corporate grants, matching gifts, employee donations and volunteer hours for charities they are supporting. The partnership further opens the door for clients to select YourCause for the distribution of funds to approved organizations for corporate grants in addition to payroll, matching gifts and volunteer grants payment processing.

“YourCause knows that a company’s greatest asset is its people and has made a name for itself by providing new and compelling ways for clients to engage with their employees,” said Burt Cummings, CEO of Versaic.

“We’re looking forward to teaming with YourCause because our software platforms and high-touch approach to client support are totally aligned,” added Cummings. “As partners, our joint solutions lay the foundation for our clients to “change the game” with the right tools for leadership in corporate responsibility and philanthropy.”

About Versaic, Inc.
Versaic is the leading provider of online Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program management solutions. Versaic combines proven best practices with innovative technology and affordable pricing to simplify processes and improve the ROI/ROO for clients. Whether it’s grants, sponsorship, donations or sustainability programs, Versaic’s best-in-class solutions are easily combined and customized to provide companies of any size a comprehensive solution for managing their CSR programs. Visit http://www.versaic.com to learn more.

BCCCC Film Festival Finalists

After 90,000 plus votes, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship has announced its top ten finalists for this years film festival! We’d like to highlight three of our clients that made it into the top ten AT&T, Dell, and Hilton Worldwide. Videos will be shown during the conference in April where they will announce the winner. For more information on the Film Festival or to watch the finalists videos click here.

Congratulations to all finalists and good luck!

• Aetna Inc.
• Amway
• AT&T
• Dell
• Hilton Worldwide
• Humana Inc.
• Mary Kay Inc.
• Sabre Holdings
• The Dow Chemical Company
• UPS

Happy Wednesday,
The YourCause Team

YourCause Big 5

On Monday, February 25th we celebrated our fifth birthday providing CSRconnect to our clients and users. It was a great day that consisted of surprises for us (the employees) and Matt Combs (the man who created it all). Matt surprised us with five events that occurred throughout the day; first being breakfast tacos! Next, we ate a delicious YourCause cake and surprised Matt with a video we made for him. Sadly, event three didn’t take place due to Texas weather (but we guessed it was putt putt). Event four we drove a few minutes back to the past and ate dinner at the infamous Carmines that we all have grown to love. Lastly, headed back to our old office where YourCause began and reminisced on memories. Don’t worry, we managed to get our work done but definitely took in all the moments of these past successful five years.

With that said, we’d like to toast to the past five and cheers to the next!