New to Employee Engagement by Submittable

Discover the latest product updates, big and small

Whether it’s a minor tweak or a major feature release, here is your go-to destination for all things employee engagement product-related. Stay informed about the latest enhancements, improvements, and exciting features we’re rolling out to improve your giving and volunteering experiences.

Expanding Our Global Nonprofit Network

January 2025 | Shared by Madi

The most comprehensive nonprofit database

Bright Funds supports over 9.6 million nonprofit organizations worldwide—the largest network in the CSR software space. We believe employee choice drives engagement, which is why we've invested heavily in building the most extensive, trusted nonprofit database available.

We’ve built a rigorous, multilayered verification process using real-time databases like the IRS, OFAC, and others, plus dual checkpoints before any donation is disbursed. This ensures 100% IRS compliance and global due diligence.

So far in 2025, we have added:

• Turkey

• Switzerland

• Bermuda

• Colombia

• Costa Rica

• Sweden

Strengthening Employee Communities with ERGs

January 2025 | Shared by Madi

You can now manage employee resource groups (ERGs) on Bright Funds, streamlining the process of driving engagement and creating comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs all in one place.

Employee resource groups play a vital role in building inclusive workplaces, driving employee engagement, and building company culture. Using ERGs:

• Administrators can create unlimited customizable ERGs with flexible privacy settings

• ERG leaders get comprehensive tools to manage membership, schedule meetings, share resources, and track engagement.

• Employees can easily discover relevant groups, participate in discussions, and connect with volunteering and giving opportunities.

Everyday Actions: A New Tool for Unlocking Employee Engagement

October 2024 | Shared by Madi

Everyday Actions turns daily activities into real impact. It works by providing administrators with a simple tool to create accessible, relevant activities that align with employees’ daily lives and interests, that translate into real impact. Employees can engage in Everyday Actions challenges by taking part in activities that resonate with them, fostering a more personalized connection to company programs.

Simple setup, continuous engagement

Everyday Actions integrates seamlessly into existing Bright Funds programs, allowing employees to turn daily activities into meaningful contributions beyond traditional donating and volunteering. The intuitive setup process lets administrators create customizable action categories and challenges that align with company values, while curated templates make launching new programs quick and easy.

Building community while simplifying reporting

This feature drives continuous engagement by offering flexible participation options that appeal to employees who may not have participated before. Built-in leaderboards and social features foster friendly competition and community building, while integrated reporting eliminates manual tracking and provides comprehensive engagement data for easy ROI demonstration to leadership.

Empowering you to promote your NPO partners

June 2024 | Shared by Madi

Highlight your NPO partners. Showcasing your non-profit organization (NPO) partners is essential to building awareness and encouraging employee engagement. By featuring NPO partners directly on the dashboard, you can simplify the process for employees to engage more actively with these key partners.

Make donating simple with easy-to-use payment methods

March 2024 | Shared by Madi

Track all donations in one place. Whether your employees are donating to local charities in their communities or participating in company-led fundraising campaigns, capture all donations through the platform, regardless of payment type.

Easy, flexible giving. Offer employees various donation options to accommodate their preferences and provide convenient, accessible, and faster payment choices through credit cards.

Track all donations in one place

March 2024 | Shared by Madi

Users can donate across the platform without worrying about losing receipts. Submittable ensures all donors receive an annual donation summary detailing the total amount donated and every contribution allocated to individual nonprofit organizations (NPOs).

Make a bigger impact locally

March 2024 | Shared by Madi

Give employees more meaningful opportunities to give with the ability to search for nonprofits that are close to them and aligned with causes they care about.

• Employees can easily search for charities near them via zip code and mile radius, making it simple to find npos that impact their local communities.

• Additionally, Employees can search for NPOs based on causes across the globe. Supporting causes that matter to employees helps increase engagement and participation.

Spread good across the globe

January 2024 | Shared by Madi

With multinational giving, you can expand your philanthropic efforts overseas and foster a broader and more inclusive giving experience for your employees.

Offer employees more choice. Employees with more choices are more likely to participate in giving programs. Your employees have the option to donate to nonprofits worldwide.

Open the door to more employees participating by creating giving programs for your global employees. They can donate to nonprofits at home or abroad.

Maximize employee engagement with Dollars for Doers

January 2024 | Shared by Madi

Incentive programs are designed to encourage participation in opportunities such as employee giving and volunteering. With Dollars for Doers, you can reward colleagues for volunteering with funds that can be donated to NPOs and causes that matter to them. With just a few clicks, set an hourly rate, enable events that qualify, and watch the increased impact your team can make together.

With Submittable’s flexible technology, you can set Dollars for Doers up to meet your unique needs. Easily:

• Decide which events qualify for Dollars for Doers

• Set a maximum amount per volunteer hour

• Set a maximum amount each employee may earn

Boost Engagement with Improved ERG Functionality

January 2024 | Shared by Madi

ERGs are pivotal in enhancing employee value and fostering increased participation in engagement opportunities. Several updates were released in Q1 to improve the ERG functionality.

• Location Functionality:

  • Admin and ERG leaders can now specify the location of ERGs, which is particularly useful when companies have a main ERG with chapters across different locations.

• Leader Information:

  • The capability to assign leaders to an ERG has been enhanced. Admins can now identify the leader’s role (President, VP, etc.) and their term in that particular leadership role.

• Membership:

  • ERG pages now feature membership lists within the platform.

  • Members can be added when creating or editing an ERG.

  • Employees can also join an ERG when visiting the respective ERG page.

Find More Meaningful Events with Advanced Filtering

December 2023 | Shared by Madi

Finding events that employees actually want to participate in matters and helps increase participation for your programs. Now, employees have the capability to filter company-hosted events based on Hosting ERG, Cause, and Nonprofit Partner.

**Boost Event Participation with Additional Fields

December 2023 | Shared by Madi

Increase participation by providing thorough information and context when creating events. The more information provided, the better prepared your coworkers are for success.

• Create Unique Shift Names: Provide clarity and context between multiple shifts at one event.

Easy Match Requests Increase Individual and Company Impact

July 2023 | Shared by Madi

Match Request enables employees to donate to nonprofits outside the Give platform – whether in person/on the go, contributing directly on an NPO website, or using a credit card – and still receive their company’s match.

Employees simply

• Add the date donated

• Add the amount donated

• Select the NPO

• Upload an image of the receipt, and that’s it!

Using Match Request as an employer, you have complete visibility into and can report on all donations employees are making. You have the ability to confirm receipt matches the entered information and can approve or deny requests per your company policy.

Build Employee Experience Across Languages

July 2023 | Shared by Madi

Enable employees across the country and around the world to participate in volunteer programs. Whether you have offices in multiple countries or want to offer employees access in their native language, SUbmittable has you covered. Submittable offers account Localization, which instantly translates eligible static text within the platform, across all products (Volunteer, Give, Grants Management)

Easy event scheduling with Calendar Integrations

May 2023 | Shared by Madi

Never miss a volunteer event again! We added Calendar Integrations for volunteer events, enabling employees to add the events that they register for to their preferred calendars.

Here’s how it works:

• After you’ve registered, you will see the “Add to Calendar” button

• This will prompt you to download a calendar invite (ICS file) that can then be added to your calendar of choice

An even more modern and intuitive UI

May 2023 | Shared by Madi

We’ve updated the look and feel of the Employee Engagement Products (Volunteer and Give); the functionality hasn’t changed.

What looks different?

• The Menu/Navigation

  • Moved from the top of the product to the left-hand side

  • Collapsable – this means the menu can be closed while in the product

  • Icons have been added to indicate the different pages (in addition to the names)

  • The Admin tab is included in the menu migration

• Overall look/feel

  • The color of the product has changed* We’ve moved from grays to a white/black product color scheme

• White-labeling

  • Companies can add their logo to the top of the product. Talk to your Customer Success Manager about adding your logo today!

Make your donations go further with company Matching

March 2023 | Shared by Madi

Set up matching for all donations within the Give platform and watch your impact grow. 84% of employees say they are more likely to donate if that donation is matched.

• Matching is available on Giving Campaign donations, and one-time and monthly donations to specific nonprofits.

• Matching is automatically selected (once your organization has enabled it). This means every donation an employee makes will be matched; Employees need to take action to opt out if they do not want a donation matched.

On average, $4-7 billion of company matching dollars go unclaimed annually because people forget or don’t know that they can request a company match. With matching automatically selected in Give by Submittable, employees are far less likely to miss out on matching dollars!