Now, more than ever, your community needs you and your employees

You can make a big impact in the lives of your employees and in their communities whether your are a one-man-band or a massive corporation. TASC is here to share our many years of collected domain expertise on the many ways you can empower your employees to do more and give back as Everyday Philanthropists!

Time to Volunteer! Let's make an impact because we are stronger together

Many employees wish they had more time to volunteer or that they could participate in volunteering events that take place during work hours.

Some employees are getting creative with how to give back, meet Alie.

Paid Volunteer Time Off

Paid Time Off (PTO) is considered to be an essential employee benefit during normal days and is especially important now during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Paid Volunteer Time Off (VTO), like PTO, can be a very compelling reason to choose one job or company over another, especially during times of crisis when our communities, families, friends, and neighbors need our help in unique ways. Normally these paid VTO hours are confined to volunteering with registered 501(c)(3) organizations, but chaotic times like these are an exceptional time to extend the use of those hours to help ordinary people.

tax deductible longer-term paid volunteer off

Similar to hours of paid Volunteer Time Off for volunteer work done during the normal work day, the wages and benefits for employees deployed into the community to work in support of 501(c)(3) organizations is tax deductible as an ordinary and necessary business expense according to the US Internal Revenue Code. The length of time for which this practice would be considered a normal business operating expense is a slightly more fuzzy area of the tax law because most companies would not normally pay their employees to work somewhere else indefinitely and eventually that expense would not be considered an ordinary or necessary operating expense for your business. 

Dollars for Doers Program

Dollars for Doers is the name of a program we implemented at TASC that allows employees who volunteer after normal work hours to take advantage of financial donations made by the employer to the employee’s favorite 501(c)(3) charity organization based on how many volunteer hours that employee logs after hours.

What else can we do to help our employees give back?

Employers everywhere want to do more to empower employees to share their time, treasure, and talents with those who desperately need our help. What other programs do you host at your company that other business owners could apply in order to help folks in need during these challenging times? 

We can also make a big impact with donations to those in need and those who can help

There are many ways companies and individuals can be philanthropic to help in times of great need. Here are a few ways employers can empower their employees to become Everyday Philanthropists!

Employee Crisis Fund Account

What if we could pull together the power of our entire company to help a few employees in the most need? Employee Crisis Fund Accounts can do just that by leveraging the caring power of your coworker community. You are creating a platform for employees to help each other as they can, without forcing  giving or calling unwanted attention to employees who are struggling. 

Community Disaster Relief Accounts

Employers can also contribute to and facilitate employee donations to a Community Disaster Relief Account. This account could then be deployed to the community in disasters like these when neighbors are the most in need. Many coworkers feel that programs like this one are incredibly impactful because it is literally the financial impact of their combined financial donations at work in their communities! 

Individual Giving Accounts

Another way you can empower your employees to help their communities during this chaotic time is to facilitate company wide employee Individual Giving Accounts. These accounts allow employees to be Everyday Philanthropists by making donations to non-profit organizations of their choice through payroll deductions. You can find more information about the Give Back Accounts here:

Donor Advised Funds (DAF)

Donor Advised Funds can be a complicated and tricky subject because they seem complicated and there are so many stereotypes attached to DAFs. Individuals and corporations can use DAFs to do a lot of good in their communities. DAFs are especially useful to allow philanthropists help in times of crisis like the current COVID-19 outbreaks. Read more on how DAFs here: 

Give back While Recognizing Employee Contributions

The Dan and Patti Rashke (TASC) Family Foundation committed a six-figure grant to be distributed to United Way. With 70% of their workforce working in areas other than Madison, WI, they wanted to ensure employees knew this applied to many communities. So the Foundation directed the United Way to distribute the grant to areas where there are concentrated numbers of TASC employees who participated in the 2019 United Way campaign. This gift is to be designated to provide basic needs those financially impacted by the COVID-19 situation.