How Optimizely Empowers Global Employees and Proves CSR ROI

Optimizely is a global digital experience and agent orchestration platform provider with 1,600 employees across 18 offices worldwide. As a company heavily focused on AI and data-driven solutions, tracking and measuring impact is an important part of all their processes, including their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

Nina Barden, VP of HR at Optimizely, turned to Bright Funds by Submittable to engage a global workforce, empower local leaders, and prove ROI across their worldwide CSR initiatives.

While Optimizely employees were passionate about giving back and participating in volunteer opportunities, Nina and her teammate—a two-person admin team—struggled to track and manage activities happening across cultures, time zones, and continents. They knew employees were engaged, but much of the impact was going unmeasured.

For three years now, Optimizely has used Bright Funds to transform their approach to CSR, managing both their "month of service" volunteer program and their corporate matching initiative.

The challenge: Scaling global impact with limited resources

Managing CSR programs for 1,600 employees across 18 global offices is a big task, especially when it’s not Nina’s full-time job and her support staff is small. Nina and her teammate, Hoang Anh, faced the challenge of creating engaging programs that would work across cultures, time zones, and varying local regulations—all while maintaining their other HR responsibilities.

Without centralized software to track engagement, reporting, and program management, scaling these initiatives wasn’t possible in the data-driven way that Nina and Optimizely wanted. 

No global visibility

Optimizely lacked global visibility across multiple parts of their program. As an administrator, Nina wasn’t able to see what employees were doing in different offices around the world. 

She shares, “What we lacked was the global visibility of what they are doing in Vietnam versus what we're doing in New Hampshire or what they are doing in Sweden.” This limited her ability to help increase engagement in local events and provide support to the employees in those locations. 

Additionally, Nina shares, "The stats [and program management] were just done in Excel, and it wasn't as visible to everyone as to what was available." 

This lack of transparency created silos where employee captains and local groups couldn't see what other offices were doing, missing crucial opportunities to share ideas and collaborate on initiatives. Without visibility into global activities, successful programs remained isolated instead of becoming company-wide programs and best practices.

Supporting local opportunities wasn’t easy

As the VP of HR, Nina works hard to ensure all employees feel connected to causes that matter to them personally. Participation rates increase when those employees understand the impact they are having and want to make a difference. But being based in the US meant she didn't always understand what matters or is important to employees in other regions.

This disconnect led to scattered and inconsistent programs across different countries. Some employees were giving cash to local Girl Scouts, while other countries had limited volunteer opportunities due to cultural differences and government regulations. "In our Eastern countries of operation, a ‘pass the basket’ approach is common, though it involves coins and manual processes. However, this method presents significant challenges around compliance oversight and financial visibility," Nina says.

These informal, untracked activities created potential compliance risks for a global company due to regulations like GDPR. Without proper documentation and processes, Optimizely couldn't ensure they were meeting regulations or maintaining financial accountability standards. The scattered approach also meant employees in some regions felt disconnected from the broader company mission.

No way to track and show ROI

For a data-driven company like Optimizely, the inability to measure CSR program effectiveness was particularly frustrating. Nina and her team had no centralized tracking system, which made it difficult to demonstrate ROI, measure engagement trends, or prove program value to secure additional funding and leadership buy-in.

This tracking gap had real business consequences. Leadership couldn't easily see the connection between CSR investments and employee engagement, retention, or company culture metrics. And when asked on RFPs by customers, the data was too scattered to easily communicate the impact Nina knew they were having.

The lack of a reporting and tracking system also prevented Optimizely from offering corporate matching—a proven engagement driver. 

According to Double the Donation, 84% of donors are more likely to give when matching is offered. But without a system to manage funds, track donations, and maintain the accounting records required for financial audits, matching wasn't feasible.

"Pre-Bright Funds, we did not have a corporate matching system at all because we did not have a way to manage it and be able to historically look back for accounting purposes," Nina explains. The company would make donations on behalf of Optimizely, but employees couldn't participate directly—missing a major opportunity to increase engagement and multiply impact.

Solution: A platform that offers global scale at a local level

Nina realized she needed software that would allow her to scale programs globally while empowering employees in each country to create locally relevant experiences. Once all activities could be centralized in one system, proving ROI became straightforward.

Software that works across borders 

Creating a CSR program that works seamlessly across 18 countries with different currencies, tax laws, and nonprofit landscapes is a big task. With Bright Funds, it became straightforward for Nina. 

The platform's nearly 10 million vetted nonprofits span the globe, and tax receipts are available in multiple countries, giving employees worldwide the ability to support causes in their local communities.

For Optimizely, GDPR compliance was non-negotiable, and Bright Funds' secure banking integrations met their strict security requirements. This global infrastructure meant Nina could scale programs without worrying about local regulations or currency complications.

The platform immediately solved the ad hoc activities problem that had concerned Nina. Now, even when employees collect cash and coins locally for causes like disaster relief, everything flows through proper channels. 

These informal collections can be tied to pre-set campaigns with approved nonprofits, creating clear audit trails from employees to company to nonprofits through Bright Funds.

Most importantly, the global visibility transformed how offices collaborated. "Sweden was doing a card-making session. Our New York team was able to see this event in Bright Funds and decided to do the same event at the same time, joining virtually, so that the two offices would do a volunteer event together," Nina shares. This kind of cross-continental collaboration was impossible before.

For the first time, Optimizely could also launch a truly global corporate matching program, allowing all 1,600 employees worldwide to have their donations matched regardless of location.

Optimizely employees volunteering during Optimizely Give Back.

Empowering employee-led opportunities

Nina needed a way to scale program management without expanding her team. The solution was empowering local Event Captains with direct access to Bright Funds, allowing them to create events, track participants, and engage employees in their regions. This distributed approach reduced administrative burden while ensuring programs remained relevant to local communities.

"Event Captains have direct access to the platform to create events, track participants, and engage employees," Nina explains. This autonomy is crucial—local leaders understand their communities' needs and can respond quickly to opportunities or crises that matter to their teams.

Event Captains were especially valuable during Optimizely's annual month of service, when Event Captains coordinate both local office events and remote-based opportunities. "Once a year, for one month, we have all the Optimizers come together... You get eight hours of paid time to step away from work and to go volunteer. We really try to drive team effort and team collaboration."

Program Spotlight: May 2025 Month of Service

During their most recent month of service, Optimizely engaged 738 volunteers across the Americas, APAC, EMEA, and Remote teams—with roughly even participation across all four regions, proving that local relevance drives engagement. Working with 40+ Event Captains, they organized 30+ events, resulting in 2,600+ volunteer hours and over $11,000 in donations raised.

The platform has also given employee ownership in giving. "We have had employees go in and start campaigns or fundraisers all on their own... without even asking us. They just do it," Nina says. "Because we always say as long as the organization, the nonprofit is in Bright Funds, then we support it." This employee-driven approach means programs stay relevant and responsive to current events and community needs.

Optimizely employees volunteering during Optimizely Give Back.

Proving ROI

The transformation from Excel spreadsheets to comprehensive analytics has given Nina concrete data to demonstrate CSR program value across the entire organization. She now pulls detailed reports on employee giving and volunteering patterns to share with Optimizely's ESG department, which uses this data for multiple critical business functions:

• Internal engagement: Quarterly reports to employees showcase collective impact and inspire continued participation.

• Investor relations: Reporting to Insight Partners as part of their portfolio ESG requirements, helping Optimizely meet investor expectations for responsible business practices.

• Compliance and audits: Environmental audits through companies like MEL now have concrete data points rather than estimates.

• Sales enablement: Customer RFPs, especially in Europe, frequently include CSR questions—Nina's data directly supports new business opportunities.

• Executive communications: When leadership needs to cite volunteer hours in PR releases or presentations, they have verified numbers.

Beyond the ROI that is measured in reports, Nina says, "we find the greatest ROI just internally with our own employees sharing what each other are doing for volunteers within the different regions." 

When employees can see global impact and share regional initiatives, it creates positive peer engagement and inspiration that drives organic program growth. This visibility transforms CSR from just an HR initiative into a core part of the company culture that employees champion themselves.

Optimizely employees volunteering during Optimizely Give Back.

Make it easy to participate, and employees will

Throughout her time using Bright Funds, Nina’s goal has been to make it as easy as possible for Optimizely’s global workforce of Optimizers to participate. With an intuitive software that centers on employee-led experiences, Nina is able to manage a successful program across 18 offices worldwide. If you’d like to see how, schedule a demo today.