Benevity Enables Businesses to Make Optional User-Directed Charitable Giving a Seamless and Simple Part of Any Online Transaction

 

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) CALGARY, Alberta, Canada, March 15, 2010 – Benevity Social Ventures, Inc., (www.benevity.org), today announced an innovative new technology that allows businesses of all types and sizes to embed optional charitable giving into virtually any business transaction.   Benevity’s web services software enables retailers, financial services providers, corporate employers, loyalty programs and other businesses to incorporate a microdonation platform seamlessly into their existing online operations making it easy for users to add a small donation to a cause of their choosing as an integrated part of whatever transaction they are conducting. The Benevity platform can be used to create a wide array of charitable giving opportunities and corporate matching programs as part of existing business transactions, such as online purchases, account and online banking interfaces, loyalty programs, gift cards, social media applications and employee giving.   Benevity hopes that by providing the general public with numerous opportunities to make small, tax-deductible “microdonations”, all without leaving the sites they already know and trust, it will be able to stimulate a significant increase in philanthropic behavior. By embedding this capability into customer and employee-facing activities, Benevity also enables companies to deliver tangible, impactful and measurable cause marketing and social responsibility programs that align with business goals.   “Our social mission is to change the philanthropic landscape from one that relies heavily on a relatively small number of people and businesses making a few big donations to one that also includes a large number of people making a lot of small donations,” said Bryan de Lottinville, CEO and co-founder of Benevity. “The end result is a big increase in overall giving. The concept also empowers people from all walks of life to make a meaningful difference to the communities and causes that matter most to them.”   The company has partnered with the Canadian Online Giving Foundation as well as the American Endowment Foundation. Through these two donor advised funds, the Benevity platform can distribute donations to more than 750,000 registered causes throughout North America.   Companies and organizations wishing to add the Benevity platform to their online environment gain access to highly customizable functionality which enables, among other things, aggregation of donations, selection or creation of customized portfolios of charities, centralized donation administration, real-time matching donations from corporate sponsors, visibility and organization for record-keeping and tax receipts, and aggregation of statistics with friends, co-workers or other groups.   Benevity’s first customer, www.thruyou.com, a credit card provider with a “consuming for good” loyalty program, went live in 2009. The company has also announced a program with iStockphoto.com that will go live this Spring, and has a number of other high profile integrations in its pipeline.   A New Era of Corporate Responsibility Today, there is growing evidence companies do well by doing good. Customers increasingly make purchase decisions based on their perceptions of the social profile of companies and their ability to support meaningful causes. Employees also factor corporate responsibility into decisions to join, stay or leave an organization. The Benevity platform provides companies with an opportunity to engage customers, employees and other stakeholders in the corporate giving process in an empowered, authentic way. In addition, it is easy for companies to offer matching donations made via the platform, so businesses, employees and customers can work together for common goals.   “With Pepsi cancelling its 23-year stint of Super Bowl advertising to instead invest $20 million in a philanthropic social media project, it is safe to say that social responsibility and cause marketing have gone mainstream,” said de Lottinville. “All else being more or less equal, customers and employees will choose the company that gives back over the one that doesn’t. By embedding social responsibility meaningfully into their existing business interactions and culture, Benevity helps companies make giving back a part of their profile in a simple, easily personalized way, resulting in greater long-term loyalty”.   About Benevity Benevity’s microdonation software provides a platform for socially responsible businesses to engage their customers, employees and corporate partners in optional charitable giving. Benevity lets companies embed user-directed, tax receiptable donations and corporate matching programs into their existing transaction environments, using their own brands and systems. Benevity’s platform helps companies build authentic and impactful cause marketing, workplace giving and other social responsibility initiatives that increase engagement, brand differentiation and return on social and community investment. To find out more or to request a demo, visit us at www.benevity.org or view our short video at www.benevity.org/Goodness3.0.   Benevity PR Contact: Bryan de Lottinville Chief Executive Officer bryan@benevity.org 403.237.7875 x201