The platform subscription is the visible cost of a CSR program. Your HR team's time is the invisible one.
For most mid-market HR teams on Benevity or YourCause, that burden is significant. It's chronic. And it never appears on the invoice.
Here's what it actually looks like.
What the Platform Expects Your Team to Do
Legacy CSR platforms sell you software. The expectation baked into the product is that your team runs the program using that software as a tool.
That means campaign management, matching gift processing, employee support tickets, program communications, volunteer event coordination, participation reporting, and platform configuration as your workforce changes. All of it. Every cycle.
At a company with a full-time CSR director, this is manageable. At most mid-market companies, it's one person. Or part of one person. Managing all of it alongside recruiting, performance reviews, and everything else HR owns.
When CSR is at third or fourth priority, it gets third or fourth attention. Which is why most programs on legacy platforms generate activity during annual campaign season and go quiet the rest of the year.
What the Platform Doesn't Provide
Benevity gives you a help desk. YourCause gives you a customer success manager who checks in quarterly. Both charge extra for premium support tiers that get closer to what you actually need.
Neither provides someone who actively runs your program. Not at base price. Not at any price.
The difference matters. Support means someone answers your questions. Program management means someone owns the outcomes. Those are different jobs.
When HR owns program management on top of platform admin, the real cost isn't just time. It's the capacity that isn't going to recruiting, retention, or the work the team was actually hired to do.
How to Quantify It
Most teams don't track CSR admin hours granularly. But you can estimate.
Ask the person on your team who manages the CSR platform: how many hours per month do you spend on communications, event coordination, employee questions, report preparation, and matching processing?
Take that number. Multiply by 12. Apply the fully-loaded hourly cost of that person's salary.
That's the admin burden cost, in real dollars, that doesn't appear on your Benevity invoice.
Then consider: what would that person do with that time if it were free?
What the Alternative Looks Like
Every Percent Pledge customer gets a dedicated Social Impact Manager. At every price point. Not as a premium tier. Not billed separately. It's the base model.
The SIM builds the program calendar and runs the campaigns. They coordinate volunteer events, write all employee communications, and monitor participation week over week. They prepare your impact report. The HR team reviews. The SIM executes.
Edelman Financial Engines hit 50%+ participation in under three months. Progress Software logged more volunteer hours in six months than the prior three years. These results require someone actively running the program. The SIM is that person.
The Comparison That Actually Matters
When you evaluate CSR platforms, you're probably comparing platform fees. That's the wrong comparison. The right one: platform fee plus your team's admin time versus platform fee plus a SIM included.
On a legacy platform, your team's admin time is a cost that doesn't appear in the contract. On Percent Pledge, the SIM handles that work as part of the contract.
That participation gap isn't mysterious. Percent Pledge customers hit 50-100%. Legacy platform customers average 15-20%. It's what happens when someone is actively running the program.
To see what it looks like in practice, book a demo.
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