Most CSR platform evaluations start with the wrong questions. Feature checklists. Integration lists. Pricing tiers. These are necessary but they don’t tell you what a platform will actually deliver for your employees, your HR team, or your program outcomes.
The questions that do are rarely in the standard RFP template. Here are 12 of them. They’re the ones most buyers don’t think to ask until after they’ve signed.
On Outcomes
1. What is your average customer participation rate? Not a portfolio total, not a retention rate — the average percentage of employees who actively give or volunteer on your platform. The industry average on legacy platforms is 15–20%. Percent Pledge’s answer is 50–100%. Ask every platform on your shortlist for this specific number. If they won’t give it, that’s information.
2. Can you name three customers our size with a specific participation rate outcome? Scale claims are easy. Named customers with specific numbers are harder. Ask for three companies in your size range with a verifiable result. Then verify them.
3. What does participation look like in year three vs. year one? Some platforms spike at launch and regress as novelty fades. A durable program compounds. Ask how participation trends over the full customer lifecycle, not just at launch.
On Implementation
4. How long does implementation take, specifically? Legacy platforms quote 6–12 months. Modern platforms: weeks. If you have a campaign season, a board commitment, or an open enrollment window to hit, the difference is the program. Get a specific number, not a range.
5. Who specifically owns our implementation? Is there a dedicated project manager assigned to your migration, or a shared implementation team working across dozens of customers simultaneously? The answer tells you a lot about timeline reliability and implementation quality.
6. What happens to our employees’ historical data when we switch? Giving history, matching balances, volunteer hours. Where does it go? The best platforms handle this completely — employees log into the new platform and see exactly where they left off. Ask for a specific answer, not a general reassurance about data portability.
On Support
7. Is dedicated program support included at base price, or billed separately? This is the question that reveals the most about a platform’s actual support model. Benevity charges extra for premium support. YourCause customers consistently report support access as a pain point. Goodstack is self-serve by design. Percent Pledge includes a dedicated Social Impact Manager at every tier — as part of the base price. Get the specific answer: what’s included and what isn’t.
8. Who will run our program? Not “support” the program — run it. The answer determines how much of your HR team’s capacity goes to CSR operations. If the honest answer is “your team, with our software as the tool,” budget the HR hours before you sign. If the answer is “a dedicated SIM who owns your program calendar, events, and outcomes,” that’s a different product.
9. What does your involvement look like at month 18? Most vendors over-invest in implementation and underinvest in ongoing program management. Ask what dedicated attention looks like after the launch honeymoon — who is accountable for your participation rate in year two?
On Cost
10. What are your donation transaction fees? Separate from the platform fee. Benevity charges 2–3% per donation transaction on top of annual licensing. On $500,000 in annual employee giving, that’s $10,000–$15,000 per year that never reaches the charities your employees chose. Ask every platform for their specific transaction fee structure before you compare any other number. The hidden costs of legacy platforms add up faster than the invoice suggests.
11. What does the total 3-year cost look like, including implementation, escalation clauses, and transaction fees? Year-one platform fee comparisons are almost always misleading. Annual escalation clauses of 3–5% are standard in legacy enterprise contracts. Implementation is a real cost. Transaction fees compound with giving volume. Ask for the 3-year all-in number and build your comparison from that.
On Switching
12. How many customers have you migrated from Benevity, YourCause, or CyberGrants — and how long did each take? Not general migration capability — specifically, companies that switched from one of the three major legacy platforms. How many? What were the actual timelines? Ask for company names and weeks. Percent Pledge’s answer: Hunter Industries (3 weeks), Progress Software (3 weeks), Edelman Financial Engines (4 weeks). All from legacy platforms. All with complete data migration. If a vendor can’t give you names and timelines, ask why.
How to Use This List
Run these 12 questions with every platform on your shortlist. Score each vendor on specificity: a named customer with a number beats a general claim every time. A direct answer about transaction fees beats a redirect to the pricing page.
The platforms that answer specifically are the ones with outcomes worth claiming. The ones that answer vaguely are telling you something with that vagueness.
The direct Benevity comparison is a starting point for one of those platforms. The ROI framework helps you structure the business case once you’ve narrowed your shortlist.
If you want to run through all 12 with Percent Pledge, book a demo. We have specific answers to every one, including the questions most platforms avoid.
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