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The Best CSR Skills-Based Volunteering Software for Employee Engagement & Social Impact

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Technology plays a crucial role in making skills-based volunteering programs seamless, scalable, and impactful. The right platform can help match employees at scale with meaningful opportunities, track impact, and ensure alignment with business goals.

In an era where CSR programs are under increased pressure to appeal to employees while also being under intense scrutiny to provide business value, the right software is key to achieving both (see our CSR trends for 2025). However, most software still represents outdated volunteering models.

Key Features of an Effective Corporate Skills-Based Volunteering Platform

When evaluating corporate volunteering software, companies should prioritize platforms that offer:

  • Global Accessibility & Scalability: Can employees from different regions participate easily?
  • High-Impact Matching: Does the platform connect employees with skills-based opportunities that align with their expertise?
  • Employee Engagement & Professional Development: Does it help employees apply and develop their skills through volunteering?
  • Organization Engagement and Support: Is it easy and rewarding for social impact organizations to participate?
  • Guided Matching and Accountability: Does it encourage employees to stay engaged in their volunteering commitments?
  • Integration with CSR and Business Goals: Can it link with leadership development, learning, and sustainability initiatives?
  • Real Impact Measurement & Reporting: Does it track engagement, business impact, and social outcomes?
  • Customer Service Support Beyond Software: Does it provide program management, education, and storytelling tools?
  • Community and Inspiration: Does it foster a culture of purpose and make volunteering a fulfilling experience?

How to Choose the Best Corporate Volunteering Platform for Your Company

Before evaluating platforms, companies should clearly define their goals and needs. We recommend taking these three steps:

Step 1: Build a decision committee and set a strategy

Bring together a trusted group of company stakeholders, and go through all the questions above. Decide what is important, and what is not. Then, decide the criteria you need the right software to have. Do this BEFORE analyzing the software. Creating a rubric based on the key features above will help determine the best fit. By starting with internal priorities, CSR leaders can ensure they select a platform that truly aligns with their objectives rather than being swayed by generic solutions.

Step 2: Compare options

With your list of criteria, analyze the software providers below to see who has the right solution for you. In sales calls, be clear that you want the provider to clearly demonstrate how their software meets YOUR criteria. You should run this show, and be wary if a provider tries to steer you away from your strategy.

Step 3: Make a choice

Keep in mind that you may need multiple providers. As an example, many companies will use a platform like Benevity or YourCause for global volunteer tracking and donation management, and then a specialized platform like MovingWorlds to scale skills-based volunteering. 

(Need help growing your CSR budget? Here are tips.)

Top Software Platforms for Corporate Skills-Based Volunteering: Pros & Cons

1. Benevity

✅ Pros:

  • Robust corporate philanthropy and grant management features
  • Easy-to-use employee giving and volunteering portal
  • Integrates with HR and payroll systems 

❌ Cons:

  • Primarily focused on general volunteering, not skills-based programs
  • Limited professional development features

2. Blackbaud from YourCause

✅ Pros:

  • Strong in donation matching and nonprofit grantmaking
  • Customizable dashboards for impact tracking 

❌ Cons:

  • More focused on fundraising than skills-based volunteering
  • Complex implementation process

3. Goodera

✅ Pros:

  • Offers both virtual and in-person volunteering opportunities
  • Large database of causes and nonprofits 

❌ Cons:

  • Primarily event-driven, not long-term skills-based projects
  • Not focused on skills-based
  • Requires additional effort to engage employees consistently

4. A Home-Built Custom Solution

✅ Pros:

  • Fully customized to company needs
  • Direct integration with internal corporate systems 

❌ Cons:

  • Expensive and resource-intensive to develop and maintain
  • Limited network of volunteering opportunities

5. Catchafire

✅ Pros:

  • Strong database of nonprofits seeking skilled volunteers
  • Focuses on meaningful, skills-based projects 

❌ Cons:

  • No built-in corporate program management features
  • Limited global accessibility

6. Taproot+

✅ Pros:

  • Free to use for individuals and companies
  • Flexible skills-based volunteering options 

❌ Cons:

  • No dedicated corporate account management
  • Limited impact tracking features

7. MovingWorlds

✅ Pros:

  • Global accessibility with skills-based projects in over 100 countries
  • Integrated learning and leadership development programming and education
  • Comprehensive program support including matching, coaching, management, and reporting 

❌ Cons:

  • Primarily focused on skills-based volunteering, which may not suit companies looking for one-time events
  • Limited in-person opportunities

Conclusion: Making Volunteering a Catalyst for Corporate & Social Change

The best corporate volunteering platforms go beyond simple project matching—they ensure meaningful experiences and measurable impact. Selecting the right platform can transform corporate volunteering from an occasional initiative into a powerful driver of innovation, engagement, and social good.

Ready to take the next step? Choose a platform that aligns with your goals and start building a high-impact volunteering program today. And if you’re interested in MovingWorlds, learn more and schedule a demo here.

AI disclaimer: Following our AI Ethics policy, we disclose when we use AI. This post was written with the help of an AI chatbot that we trained with our research, brand voice, and other rules. The content strategy was first written by MovingWorlds, inputted into AI with instructions to match our brand voice and readability, and then the post was proof-read by a real human.

What CSR Leaders Are Doing to Maintain — and Grow — Their Programs and Budgets in 2025

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In an era of political and economic uncertainty, corporate social responsibility (CSR) leaders face heightened scrutiny to justify their budgets while demonstrating impact. The silver lining? This is also an opportunity to innovate, align more deeply with business goals, and position your program as a critical driver of long-term value.

Here are the strategies top CSR leaders are using to not only maintain but also grow their programs and budgets in 2025.

1. Pause and Re-Align Your CSR Strategy with Business Strategy

In recent years, corporate CSR and ESG efforts have become more diversified and confusing than ever. 2025 is the year to bring focus and clarity to this strategy.

Before diving into tactics, take a moment to assess your program’s alignment with your company’s overarching business strategy. The following prompts can help you align on new opportunities:

  1. What is your company’s primary business objective in the coming 3 years?
  2. What are the burning priorities of your executive team?
  3. How is your company recruiting and engaging employees in this pursuit?
  4. What external partnerships are needed to achieve these goals?
  5. How can your team help support the business, company leaders, employees, and strategic partners?

One of our tech clients, for example, has decided to focus its CSR efforts towards supporting innovative and environmentally-driven startups. Why? Because supporting these startups advances core business objectives — by building future customers, creating partnerships in new markets, and providing valuable insights to improve the company’s own core technology. By grounding your program in your company’s priorities, you position it as indispensable, even during budget discussions or when executives retire.

2. Audit Your Assets: What Can Your Company Uniquely Contribute?

CSR initiatives disconnected from your company’s core competencies are more vulnerable to cuts. Too often, companies have languishing programs because they did not answer the question: “How are we uniquely positioned to support social good?” A good way to arrive at an answer – and generate alignment in the process – is to to the following:

  1. Conduct an audit to understand how your company’s products/services, resources, and people can uniquely contribute to sustainability and equity that is in-line with the strategy discussed above.
  2. Have a series of conversations with key influencers across your company to brainstorm ways that your company can create impact in ways that no other company can.
  3. Find potential champions amongst leadership, and ask them for helping building a business case for programs that operate at the intersection of business strategy and your company’s assets.

Consider this example: A professional consulting firm specializing in B2B tech once supported military veterans—an admirable cause, but it didn’t align with the company’s strategy or expertise. The company also tried to “check off the basics” with earth day campaigns and fundraising initiatives for every disaster. This left them with no time to build anything truly unique. When the company’s business leadership had to shift funding during hard times, it’s mix of CSR initiatives previously catered to a CEO’s pet project were cut, and the CSR team was downsized. 

3. Propose Programs That Align with Business Imperatives

If your company has a sound strategy for the coming years, it has likely launched strategic business initiatives to achieve its aspirations. These initiatives could be things like opening new offices in new geographies to support sales, investing in more technology to fuel AI-driven innovation, managing huge-upskilling initiatives for staff, or other priorities that have CEO-level visibility and focus.

Your CSR initiatives will get more visibility – and funding – if they are seen as supportive of the company’s long-term strategy AND these short-term initiatives. 

As an example, in EY’s 2024 CSR report, you can see that talent recruitment and upskilling is a major priority to support EY’s growth and impact ambitions. CSR initiatives put funding, programs, and employee volunteers in support of developing youth in ways that are directly in-line with both societal needs and its own hiring goals.

4. Develop a Business Case Using the Right Data

Data is your secret weapon in justifying—and growing—your budget. CSR programs are proven to build bottom-line benefits in at least 5 categories that executives care about:

  1. Business model innovation
  2. Recruiting and engaging top talent
  3. Improving regulatory and governmental relations
  4. Strengthening strategic partnerships
  5. Opening up new markets

Once you have the proposal for the right programs that align with long-term strategy and short-term initiatives, you’ll need to strengthen your case. There is a plethora of data out there, so find the data points that will appeal to your executives and help tell the story of how your programs are good for society AND the business.

Tip: AI can help you uncover compelling data points from your industry and amongst competitors. For example, studies show that skills-based volunteering boosts employee mental health, engagement, leadership development, and even sales. You can use this prompt in a tool like perplexity.ai to find actual data points (not AI hallucinations): “My company specializes in [core assets]. Our long-term strategy is _______. Our highest priority initiatives this year are related to _______. I am looking to build a business case for our executive team to grow a couple specific CSR Programs, including _________. My executives will care the most about _______. Can you help find data points that will demonstrate the business value in investing in these specific CSR initiatives this year?” 

5. Partner Across Business Units for Greater Impact

Collaboration across departments not only strengthens your programs but also garners additional resources and advocates. Look for shared goals: as an example, if your program supports sales, partner with your Chief Revenue Officer or marketing team. Or, if your initiatives drive innovation, collaborate with product or business development teams.

These partnerships not only amplify your impact but also help secure buy-in from influential stakeholders. As an example, the CSR leader at one of our corporate partners has internal partnerships with HR, Sales, Leadership Development, and Tech units who expose their employees to skills-based volunteering programs because they see how it helps their employees remain customer centric and become more innovative.

6. Be Bold: Don’t Hide During Uncertain Times

Fear of backlash can lead to paralysis—but inaction is the greatest risk of all. As Desmond Tutu said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” It can feel daunting to put yourself out there during a time where it seems like many initiatives are being pulled back. But take a look at our CSR Trends for 2025 – the initiatives getting cut are mainly the greenwashing and impact-light programs of yesteryear. Employees, consumers, governments, and investors are rewarding strategically aligned impact programs, so don’t let the media fool you into thinking CSR and ESG is dead. Now is the time to act – your executives do not know how to communicate social impact during this era, and you are the key to a very real pain point.

One consumer beverage company pulled back from all CSR initiatives in the U.S. due to fear of cultural backlash. The result? Programs stagnated, and the team became expendable. Great employees left, and previous beneficiaries were abandoned. On the flip side, companies that take bold, values-driven action are earning loyalty and driving meaningful impact.

7. Stay Human-Centric

At the heart of every successful CSR initiative are the people it serves. Take time to engage your employees: interview them, observe grassroots efforts, and identify what truly excites them. Programs that employees love and that align with business goals will make your team indispensable.

A Path Forward for CSR Leaders

The road ahead isn’t without challenges, but it’s also filled with opportunities. By aligning with business strategy, leveraging your unique assets, and building cross-functional partnerships, you can position your CSR program as an engine of impact and innovation. As we explained in our 2025 CSR Trends article, the most successful CSR leaders will be those who step forward with bold ideas, strategic alignment, and a commitment to meaningful change. The question isn’t whether you can grow your program—it’s how you’ll lead the charge.

A Manager’s Guide to CSR: Managing Your Team’s Desire to Contribute to Social Good

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Historically, business sustainability and employee equity and inclusion have been the purview of executives, not managers. However, like so many other things, 2020 has changed that. 

Over the last few years, the relationship between business and society has shifted: against the backdrop of Blackrock’s call for businesses to serve social as well as financial purposes, revisions to the corporate purpose roundtable, and social justice and anti-racism movements gaining momentum around the world, managers must now be able to speak intelligently about their company’s social good contributions while enabling their employees and teams to engage in social good causes. What’s the urgency? If managers can’t do this, their employees will soon find other teams and businesses that can.

It’s More Than Good Management

Customers and employees are increasingly demanding more sustainable products and business practices, and to remain competitive, corporations are investing more than ever in improving the sustainability, equity, and transparency of their supply chains. According to a report from JUST Capital, “almost nine in 10 Americans agree that this [COVID-19] is an opportunity for large companies to hit “reset” and focus on doing right by their stakeholders.” Investors are driving this shift as well: ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance)-mandated investing grew 16% last year, and could make up half of the investable assets by 2025. 

While it is the C-Suite that is involved in directing capital and making decisions about an organization’s next steps, it’s ultimately managers who will execute these decisions. In addition, whether managers are ready or not, COVID has placed increasing economic and social pressure on employees who then bring them to their managers. The role of manager has changed from employer to entrepreneur, prioritizing the personal and professional development of their teams and recognizing future-facing opportunities by making the right decisions now.

Four Points of Tension for Managers

In theory, most managers believe in supporting social good, and likely contribute to social good in some way on their own. However, managers walk a difficult line within companies, tasked with both achieving business goals and supporting employees’ goals. There are four main points of tension where this dichotomy comes into play:

I. The company

Companies will be rolling out more social good initiatives, such as more training on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), flexible time-off policies, donation matching programs, and more. For example, one of our clients, Avanade, is offering its employees unlimited volunteer hours during COVID. Because Avanade is a professional services firm, this is a potentially costly investment and challenges the ability of managers to successfully deliver to paying clients. This creates tension for managers because ensuring profits and keeping employees happy can be potentially competing objectives.

This trend will only continue to grow: in an internal report we conducted in partnership with GSK last year, we found that, of the best companies to work for, 96% offer at least one giving and/or volunteering benefit or program like paid volunteer time off or donation matching. Further, 50% of these companies had at least 4 incentives for people to give (like dollars for doers, employee grants, incentive programs, etc.), and this is growing year over year. Beyond these “for good” initiatives, companies are also under increasing pressure to “do less harm,” and environmental and social governance (ESG) factors are now mandated reporting in some sectors. Managers must learn how to balance these two related, but potentially divergent, business goals.

II. The business unit

Business units within companies will often have different short-term pressures, and social good initiatives need to be adapted to align within the business unit. A sales team under pressure to meet quarter-end quotas will find it challenging to respond to a giving campaign or a demonstration for equality. Product teams marching towards a deadline will be frustrated if a new initiative impacts their ability to focus. Managers need to be aware that each business unit should respond to employee needs differently, and take steps to adapt corporate social good requirements for its specific rhythm of business. A sustainability leader at one of our corporate partners gave a good example of this tension: Sustainability teams and employees are asking for long-term changes, like green supply chains. Managers are supportive of this idea, yet they are measured on month-over-month pressure to reduce costs.

III. The team

Managers are typically best positioned to recognize tension in their own teams. Teammates who like the idea of working on a social impact project together might be upset if their individual cause is not chosen by the entire team. While some people like to turn off their professional brains and give with their hearts, others will want to work on more impactful skills-based projects. The same can be said about giving campaigns. Individuals on teams might be frustrated that an emergency response fund is created for one natural disaster affecting one part of the world, but an equal fund is not created for another disaster affecting another. Because of a manager’s working relationship with their team, they’ll have insight into managing and solving problems that more centralized staff at headquarters will not.

IV. The individual employees 

Employees find purpose in many ways. Google employees walked out so that its technology would not aid in drone strikes. Amazon employees activated around sustainability. Many employees give generously, but not necessarily with or through their company. Some don’t believe in philanthropy and invest in other ways to create healthier communities. Managers must find ways to support employees eager to activate at work and protect those that seek purpose outside of work. In today’s political climate, giving and volunteering are becoming potentially contentious as many nonprofits are also at the center of political debates. In one technology company we advise in the U.S., leaders were eager to support the Democratic party, but not the Republicans. Doing so would have alienated part of its employee base. Employees, especially those especially passionate, can inadvertently discriminate against others when trying to end discrimination on other issues, and it’s usually up to the manager to resolve the fallout that can come from these challenges.

A Different Mindset for Managers 

In our work supporting companies to build networks of internal social impact “Champions”, we’ve found that businesses and employees typically care more about inputs (i.e. the number of volunteer hours contributed) than outputs (i.e. the ultimate impact of those hours) when it comes to social good. This stands in stark contrast to how businesses normally function, where profit is the most important output. However, we do see this starting to change with some companies; for example one client, Tableau, uses compelling data and anecdotes to ensure efforts create a long term impact, rather than reporting on “vanity” input metrics like number of hours volunteered. Our MySkills initiative with Microsoft, for example, now traces the long-term impact of its engagements to see if cost savings and job creation can be attributed to its efforts.

As the de facto leader of team initiatives, managers are almost always under-informed when it comes to the best way to mobilize their teams to support social good. By focusing on empowering employees, rather than arbitrary input metrics, managers can balance business and personal needs more effectively. 

Seven Steps to Manage Your Team’s Social Good Contributions

With the GROW model in mind, managers should take the following steps to prepare to support their company and its goals for more equity and sustainability, while creating the opportunities that employees are demanding.

#1. Ground efforts in corporate strategy

Managers should research and find documentation related to the company’s stated goals, commitments, and/or previous reporting on:

  1. Sustainability
  2. Support of the Sustainable Development Goals
  3. Justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion
  4. Volunteering policy
  5. Advocacy policies
  6. Employee activism policies
  7. Donation policies
  8. Ethics policies

If data and policies can’t be discovered, managers are uniquely positioned to request these documents from the company’s HR, PR, Legal, and leadership teams. Bonding these policies together, managers can build the case for their needs, and make sure they are developed and distributed to all those in management roles.

#2. Customize options for the business unit and proactively provide guidance

Managers, in developing their monthly, quarterly, and annual goals, should look at the unique rhythm of their business, and proactively identify and consider how corporate social impact goals can be supported by their efforts. This addresses two of the tensions above, ensuring that business goals are prioritized and achievable while giving team members the best chance to participate in social good activities.

#3. Check-in on the interest of the team

Managers should proactively host conversations within their teams and create their own agreements and principles related to social good. These should cover topics that are likely to come up in the future:

  • What is our position on soliciting donations from team members?
  • What is our position on promoting causes and asking for material supplies or voluntary time from each other? Our business unit? Our team?
  • What are our rules for political advocacy?
  • What are we doing to support diversity, equity, and inclusion on our team?
  • What can our team and business unit innovate on to help our company reach sustainability targets and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals?

Once your team has an approved agreement and/or set of principles, share it with your fellow managers and executives. Get feedback and create a template for other teams – social good is a shared success within companies and teams should be building on each other’s progress.

#4. Empower the individual

Amperity, one of LinkedIn’s Top Startups, has an employee policy of empowering people to achieve their personal, professional, and civic potential. This invites employees to stand up for social good and talk to people within the company about how to achieve it. Even if a company-wide statement is not made, managers should take time in a special one-on-one session to understand the desires of each individual they manage as they relate to social good initiatives, within the company and at a personal level. Astute managers will realize that empowering their team members to engage in social good initiatives provides an unparalleled learning and growth opportunity, as we previously wrote about in HBR. This also provides necessary feedback to enlighten the decision makers at the executive level as to what employees are seeking in a company’s social good initiatives. 

We consistently find that managers can act as peer coaches here. A well proven tool that managers can use to do this is the GROW model:

  • Understand the Goals of employees by asking questions
  • Ensure a common understanding of the Reality of the opportunity and limitations by sharing company policies and listening to the needs of the employee
  • Ask for input to generate Options and let the individuals self-select and self-organize on initiatives
  • Use facilitation and analytical thinking to help teams decide on their own Way forward.

#5. Create more meaningful connections on your team

Proactively strengthen team connections so that team members are prepared to work together on addressing new issues, and working through challenges if emotions escalate. Imperative offers a powerful Peer Coaching platform to support this.

#6. Prepare for the unexpected

Even the most robust plans can be easily sidelined by unexpected events. One only needs to look back at early 2020 for a reminder of how quickly things can change. Managers can’t plan for all events, but should put in place policies that allow for flexibility in the face of the unknown. Knowing your team, and also the business unit and managers you report to, allows you to create an “In-case of crisis” plan that works best for the personalities and processes involved.

We recommend that managers, on at least a yearly-basis, host conversations and document preferences related to the following prompts:

  • What will this team do if the company does something that the team does not feel aligns with their values?
  • How will we respond to natural disasters?
  • How will we respond to adverse political events?
  • How can we support those that stand up for social causes?
  • What should we do proactively to make our business better prepared to deal with these same challenges?

#7. Support activism and intrapreneurship

To not actively address issues facing society and the environment is a decision to support the crises and inequalities that presently exist. If a member of your team wants to make a change, the act if not supporting your employee is an act to support the status quo. While it is going to be challenging to find the time and maybe costly to you, as Anand Giridharadas shares in his best-selling book Winners Take All, to really make things better, those with power and means will need to lose something. Perhaps you will lose some political capital. However, time and time again we see that these are only short-term losses. In the long-term, the real leaders of tomorrow are willing to stand for something today, and empower their employees to do the same, too. We’ve published suggestions on generative ways to support employees as activists here, and we also have a free 5-step guide to intrapreneurship.

In Summary:

Managers are expected to shoulder much of a company’s work, and social good shouldn’t be seen as an added burden. Embraced correctly, social impact initiatives started at the team level have the potential to be a driving force at the company level. Understanding the tensions at play and invoking the above strategies will ensure you’re successfully advocating for all of your company’s initiatives, rather than playing catch-up. Want to help your team reach its social and civic potential? Join the MovingWorlds Institute to grow as a world-positive leader. Looking for a training or speaker for your team? Review our direct support programs for corporations.