10 Signs You're Stuck on a Legacy CSR Management Software (& What to Do About It)

Being an established player in the corporate responsibility software (CSR) market has its advantages. Legacy platform providers like YourCause, Blackbaud, CyberGrants, Volunteer Match, and Benevity have strong name recognition. In this newer era of employee-centric CSR programs and initiatives, though, many of their clients are starting to want something different.

Just because your company has been using the same software for years does not necessarily mean it is the best option right now. If you’re curious about your CSR management software options, stick around for some insights on whether your legacy platform might be keeping your team from reaching its potential. 

Table of Contents:

• From Humble Origins to Enterprise CSR Management: Where Legacy Platforms Started
• 10 Signs You’re Stuck on a Legacy CSR Management Software
• Groundswell: All-In-One CSR Management Software for Teams of Any Size
• Say Goodbye to the CSR Management Tools of the Past

From Humble Origins to Enterprise CSR Management: Where Legacy Platforms Started

The earliest CSR management software programs largely focused on grants, corporate donations, donation matching, and maintaining compliance in those contexts. Many legacy software companies initially catered to CSR administrators, accountants, and C-suite executives rather than employees. Volunteer Match, which launched in 1998, was one of the first platforms focused on helping companies track employee volunteer hours with nonprofits.

The common thread among legacy providers’ early days was a focus on one or two CSR initiatives—donations, grants, or volunteering. These areas aligned with the world’s earliest notions of CSR, which usually consisted of donations from large corporations. It was rare for CSR platforms, even into the mid and late 2010s, to prioritize employee engagement and offer management of multiple programs.

10 Signs You’re Stuck on a Legacy CSR Management Software

Many CSR professionals at companies might not even realize that their current software isn’t optimal. Workers can become inured to inefficient systems over time, after all. 

If you recognize any of these signs within your company’s current CSR processes, a change in software provider might be advantageous.

1. The hidden fees keep adding up.

The subscription costs of legacy CSR software are often just starting points. Providers routinely charge clients fees for adding capabilities to their platforms, for instance.

Almost as often, though, legacy providers tack on charges for seemingly routine tasks—onboarding new teams, resolving support tickets, or distributing funds to nonprofits, to name three. To make matters worse, clients may not find out about these fees until after they purchase a subscription.

2. Your questions go unanswered.

What’s worse: getting charged every time your CSR software provider answers a support question, or not even having your questions answered?

It might seem cruel to make you choose, but online reviewers have dinged multiple legacy providers for unresponsive customer service and support queues that seem to go on forever. Companies that are more concerned with their bottom lines than with client satisfaction tend to de-prioritize customer support capabilities and focus on "AI tools" and chatbots to help take over customer support.

3. Mobile apps are difficult to use.

Software companies that predate smartphones created their products with desktop computers in mind. Many have been slow to develop mobile-responsive sites or intuitive mobile apps that actually provide users with all the capabilities they might need. Others have not, as of this publication, launched apps optimized for mobile users. 

As more companies embrace remote and hybrid work schedules, the importance of comprehensive CSR mobile apps has only increased.

4. You must download separate platforms for different programs.

Nowadays, many companies are comfortable engaging in multiple kinds of CSR programs, including:

• Employee donations (credit, debit, payroll, stock, and other forms)
• Donation matching
• Corporate grants
• Volunteering
• Employee assistance funds (EAFs)
• Donor-advised funds (DAFs)

Over the years, legacy providers have attempted to add multiple capabilities to their software to supplement their original services. Sometimes, though, clients must download third-party apps to access every service. That means extra fees, multiple logins, and clunky platforms.

5. Reporting capabilities are lacking.

As CSR becomes widely adopted across the corporate world, stakeholders increasingly want glimpses into companies’ CSR programs and their impacts. Just as investors want evidence of robust social responsibility initiatives, employees want to know that their individual efforts are making a difference.

Unfortunately, many legacy CSR software providers are stuck in the old ways of information silos and limited impact reporting. Your team deserves a platform with customizable data dashboards and real-time data.

6. The software takes forever to disburse donations.

One of the most pressing problems with legacy CSR software is the issue of aggregate donations. 

In short, legacy providers often collect employee donations during each month or pay period and wait until the end to actually send the money to recipients. A company’s CSR administrator must then reconcile the donations in the budget, which may take up to two weeks. Meanwhile, nonprofits—which, for instance, might need urgent funds after natural disasters—languish for weeks or months without critical donations. 

7. Administrative burdens make your life difficult.

Speaking of aggregate batching, CSR administrators might receive even more work if legacy platforms don’t automatically track eligibility and match employee donations. That simply means more invoices and budget reconciliations for you and further delays for nonprofits waiting on funds.

8. The platform imposes minimum donation thresholds.

Just when you thought legacy software couldn’t muck up the process even more, in comes minimum donation thresholds. These come into play when software providers want to save on distribution fees and, as a result, wait until donations reach a predetermined minimum before giving them to recipients. 

In fact, some legacy CSR platforms won’t even send employee donations until they reach a threshold. If that threshold is never met, the donations may go to a fallback charity and the employee will have no idea their donation didn't make it to its intended recipient. As a result, employees can become less motivated to donate over time.

9. Employees don’t want to use the software.

We know that getting employees to engage in extracurricular-type programs at work can feel like pulling teeth. The unavoidable truth, though, is that complicated, hard-to-use CSR software is a hindrance to maximum employee engagement. The less friction your CSR platform creates for users, the fewer hurdles you need to overcome to get workers to volunteer and donate.

10. The software feels catered exclusively to enterprises.

One of the oldest and most prominent criticisms of CSR programs is that only larger companies have the resources (mainly capital) to execute them effectively. That issue has trickled down to many legacy CSR software providers, who largely marketed their products to enterprise organizations in the early days.

Groundswell: All-In-One CSR Management Software for Teams of Any Size

Over the past few years, the CSR software ecosystem has seen a significant shakeup. The select few legacy providers we previously mentioned no longer exert outsized control over the market. 

Groundswell is one of those major newcomers. We feel strongly about CSR being accessible to companies of all sizes, industries, and capabilities and have worked hard to provide a customizable product.

In response to recurring complaints about legacy providers, we have:

• Built a comprehensive, all-in-one software with quick access to any CSR program you need.
• Completely pulled back the curtain on pricing so you know exactly how much your company will be spending.
• Created a system that INSTANTLY matches employee donations and sends funds to nonprofits within 24 hours.
• Implemented real-time reporting and data logging capabilities so you can skip the mountains of clerical work you’re used to. (And withouth that 30 day delay in distribution, the data really is in real time.)
• Prioritized responsive customer support from real humans so your questions get answered promptly and definitively.

Say Goodbye to the CSR Management Tools of the Past

The best CSR management software is one that makes your life easier, increases employee engagement, and enables your company to maximize its societal impact. Groundswell never loses sight of those primary considerations.

If you need CSR volunteer management software, digital donation tools, grant management capabilities, intuitive EAFs or DAFs, or a combination of these, we think our products can get you where you want to go.

Contact our team to schedule a quick, informative demo today!

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