Feedonomics Formalizes a “Wildly Successful” Corporate Volunteering Program

Challenge 

Like many technology companies, Feedonomics, fortunately, grew through the pandemic in 2020. By over 50%. And with this growth, there was a palpable sense “to give back to society, especially when we were experiencing growth and profitability at a time when the world was struggling.”

However, their “lean and mean People machine” of two couldn’t do everything. They are responsible for all recruiting, hiring, training, employee engagement, and development for 250+ employees worldwide, so additionally launching a formal corporate philanthropy program was nearly impossible. 

Background

Feedonomics is a best-in-class technology and service platform that lists products everywhere people shop online (i.e. Google Shopping, Amazon, Facebook). And with their mantra being “Technology with a Heart,” giving back has always been important but rarely easy to get right. 

We'd offer one-off volunteer events when time permitted, but we always wanted to formalize a recurring program.

Brett Brawermen, People Empowerment

The desire to formalize an ongoing corporate volunteering program reached its peak in Q4, 2020. The world’s reality was COVID-19, but Feedonomics’ reality was their busiest e-commerce holiday season ever. So they did an informal food drive, run via emails on top of spreadsheets on top of more emails. Brett also put in extra effort, together with CEO Shawn Lipman, to match employee donations during the giving season. 

It was a smash hit, but “there was always a desire to do more.” That’s when Percent Pledge swooped in to save Brett from his despair and help this determined do-gooder to do good sustainably. 

Percent Pledge’s corporate volunteering solution

To begin, Percent Pledge administered its proprietary Employee Passion Assessment. Starting here:

• Makes workplace philanthropy programs employee-driven, which leads to far better engagement and inclusion 
• Provides invaluable insights into how employees give back and what they care about most

We are big on feedback, so the Passion Assessment was huge for us. We knew that it was built for our team and not just another pulse survey.

Brett, People Empowerment

Percent Pledge then created Feedonomics’ Company Passion Report, which “allowed us to build a program that was grassroots and data-driven instead of us speaking for employees.” It revealed:

• 89% of employees felt having ways to give back would improve their employee experience
• 50% of employees were already philanthropically active (donating, volunteering, etc.)

The Company Passion Report also served as a blueprint for the next phase of the partnership – the volunteer program:  

Percent Pledge came to me with three volunteer project options thoughtfully curated for our employees based on the Passion Report. I knew we were having a conversation about Feedonomics, not just another client, and we chose the virtual Map-a-Thon!

Brett, People Empowerment

During the Map-a-Thon, 40 global team members connected with each other and to nonprofit partners, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and Missing Maps. Employees volunteering together, Feedonodmics team members identified and plotted over 1,300 buildings in Tambura, South Sudan to help with COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Percent Pledge planned every detail, and employees appreciated the white-glove approach: 

It was a great experience. It is good to be able to do something from your own home, and thinking about the impact made me feel like I'm making a difference.

Feedonomics Team Member

This first project set the bar high, and Feedonomics will continue with quarterly team employee volunteering projects. 

The Results

The partnership has been wildly successful. If there's any other company that's also trying to get a social impact program off the ground, I 100% recommend the team at Percent Pledge.

Brett, People Empowerment

Percent Pledge became an extension of the Feedonomics team.

I didn't have the time or budget to hire someone full-time, so this partnership became my way of doing that. It’s been a seamless transition of trust, and Percent Pledge has become a true extension of our team, which will manage and measure our impact moving forward.

Brett, People Empowerment

Feedonomics employees are now empowered with choice in how they give back. 

Percent Pledge is one of the few solutions that give people a choice in how they give back. Not everybody wants to give money, but they’d like to be involved and give their time. By partnering with Percent Pledge, it gives them a choice to do one or the other.

Brett, People Empowerment

Plus, the Feedonomics team is already seeing how today’s talent has a desire beyond money. They have noticed how marketing their corporate volunteering program has boosted recruitment. 

We added our social impact program to engineering job descriptions - because they are difficult to hire – and we’ve had candidates saying, ‘That's cool, I've never seen that before.’

Brett, People Empowerment

About 30 new employees have been hired since the partnership with Percent Pledge began. 

Plus, Roughly 20% of the Feedonomics workforce participated in the first volunteer event, mapping over 1,300 buildings in Tambura, South Sudan to help with their COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Percent Pledge gave me an outlet and experts to work alongside to build an engaging social impact program. We did not buy into a service; we found a true partnership.

Feedonomics is very human-focused, and we found that in Percent Pledge too.

And we’ve seen positive results across the board with employees continuing to ask, ‘What are we doing next? How can I get involved?’

Brett, People Empowerment

Percent Pledge continues to provide its easy-to-use technology & social impact experts for Feedonomics' team to make a positive impact every day.