Submittable Bright Funds for Microsoft Teams: Giving Without Friction

I remember the first time I met Chris Jarvis from Realized Worth.

I led a small but mighty technology team at the Walmart Foundation, and Chris was doing some consulting there. I don’t recall our exact conversation, but we wound up talking about the friction of participating in employee giving and volunteering programs.

We used that specific word: friction. It was an apt way to describe the typical experience of an employee wanting to make a donation, or sign up for a volunteer event.

And as hard as you might think it would be for people to part with their money, the problem was mostly on the tech side of things.

Making a simple donation meant finding the right email (likely buried in the chaos of your inbox), logging into a portal with a unique user name and password, navigating to the campaign, setting up a payroll or credit card deduction, and finally making the donation. 

It took a lot of time and energy, and many employees would end up not participating. The friction of the process overwhelmed their good intentions.

And while this was over a dozen years ago, the same situation often exists today. In a world where consumer apps have conditioned us to expect simplicity, speed, and personalization, the tools used for corporate giving often feel dated, like they belong to another era. The result: good intentions stall out before they turn into action.

At Submittable, we thought it was high time to change that.

Rethinking the digital experience of CSR

The employee experience of giving should mirror the best digital experiences in their lives: One-click ordering from Amazon. Booking a restaurant reservation from Google Maps.

These experiences are seamless, contextual, and intuitive. Employees shouldn’t have to pause their day, navigate a separate portal, and remember another password just to do what many of us do several times a day: move money. 

The fact that the action here is more meaningful than the average financial transaction impels technology vendors to make it even simpler, not more complex.

The lesson is simple: the more steps you insert between intention and action, the less likely participation becomes. This is especially true for younger employees. Gen Z, in particular, expects every digital touchpoint to be integrated, responsive, and immediate. If generosity requires a detour, it risks being left behind.

CSR leaders who want to unlock higher engagement need to stop asking employees to come to them and start bringing opportunities to where employees already are.

Meeting employees where they are is the ethos that drives our latest innovation, Submittable Bright Funds for Microsoft Teams.

Teams has become the digital home base for millions of employees, a place where they collaborate, connect, and communicate throughout the workday. By embedding Bright Funds directly into Teams, we’ve taken giving and volunteering out of the silo and placed it right in the flow of work.

Bright Funds by Submittable is now available for customers in the Microsoft Teams store.

Several vendors, Submittable included, have had one-way Teams integrations for a long time. But passive, one-way notifications don't do much to solve the friction which is the core of the barrier to participation. 

That's why we're the first, and only, vendor to create a two-way Teams integration. What does that mean?

It means employees can take action right within Teams. 

Interactions are intuitive and contextually timed, transforming the experience from something employees should do when they remember to something they want to do in the moment. All from within Teams, and without all the friction of platform switching.

Submittable is the only CSR vendor that allows employees to donate from within Teams.

From platforms to presence

Traditionally, CSR software has been treated as a destination, a portal employees must remember to visit, navigate, and explore. But employees don’t live in portals. They live in messages, notifications, and the collaboration platforms that power their day-to-day work.

That’s why Bright Funds for Teams is more than a new feature. It represents a paradigm shift. It moves CSR from being a program on the side to being a presence that’s woven into everyday workflow.

This shift matters because expectations are changing. The future of work is being shaped by employees who grew up digital-first. They are accustomed to tools that anticipate their needs, make actions one-click simple, and celebrate their progress along the way.

When corporate giving lags behind those expectations, it sends a subtle but powerful message: this isn’t important enough to modernize.

By contrast, when giving is as seamless as sending a message, it affirms that generosity is part of workplace culture.

Bright Funds for Teams is built with that future in mind. It empowers employees to act in the moment, without delay, without friction, and without leaving the digital spaces where they already feel comfortable and connected.

And when you factor in Submittable’s new digital wallet and Impact Card, the ability to engage donors in the flow of everyday life is amplified even more. 

Employees can donate, check their Impact Wallet balance, and more, from right within Teams.

Looking ahead

My colleague had a chance to show Chris our new Teams functionality a few months back. She reported he was really impressed, and it inspired me to reach out to him. I wondered if he would remember that conversation about friction from years ago.

He did, and regarding our integration he commented: 

“Enabling employees to participate in giving campaigns directly from Teams is a major breakthrough. It's a big step towards removing friction from the process and meeting employees where they are in the flow of their everyday lives.”

This is just the beginning. Bright Funds for Teams is launching with a focused set of high-impact actions—donating, exploring campaigns, checking balances—but the vision is much larger.

In the months ahead, we’ll expand into deeper volunteering functionality, integrate with recognition and rewards programs, and continue to personalize the experience based on real employee feedback.

Because the future of employee giving isn’t about creating more portals, more steps, or more obstacles. It’s about less. Less friction. Less delay. Less distance between good intentions and meaningful action.

And when you remove the barriers, you create the conditions for something powerful: participation at scale. Employees feel empowered. Companies see greater ROI from their CSR investments. And together, we unlock more impact in the communities that need it most.

That’s what the future of employee giving looks like. Frictionless, contextual, real time, and deeply human.

If you'd like to see Bright Funds' new two-way integration with Microsoft Teams, schedule a time to speak with us. We'd love to share it with you.