Originally written by Julie Wynn and posted at YourCause.com

I have attended CSRworks for 5 years. Each year I look forward to connecting with peers and new friends to learn and brainstorm on how we can collectively improve. Not only are you provided the opportunity to network at this conference, but you are also encouraged to play a significant role in strategic discussions surrounding the direction of the employee engagement industry. I always find it valuable to besurrounded by fellow and future YourCause clients who are open to discussing their programs and how they partner with YourCause to make them successful.

This year I took away several ideas and insights that I can’t wait to implement. A few of my favorites were:

YourCause and Nonprofits

It was helpful to hear how YourCause manages relationships with nonprofits through their NPO portal. Their tools to support the nonprofit community in areas such as accessing donation history, verifying match request, sharing volunteer opportunities and much more will make it easier for the nonprofits to engage. It will also help to reduce the number of questions I get from nonprofits around how to do so.

Commitment to Vetting Nonprofits

My company, just like yours, wants to encourage our employees to donate to valid nonprofits. YourCause understands this and is diligent in vetting all the nonprofits within their system. YourCause has put the vetting process in writing so I can communicate it to my employees and they can share in the responsibility of getting their preferred charitable organizations vetted if they are not currently in YourCause’s system.

Data, Data, Data

Because every program has different ways to measure success, YourCause provides its clients the reporting tool called Tableau that allows them to view their program’s performance exactly how they need to. The robust tool allows me to create and manipulate graphs with a few clicks. I look forward to further exploring this tool to uncover more of its capabilities.

It’s All About Us

The biggest takeaway for me was the collective strength of our network. The institutional memory, knowledge, and expertise among our community was apparent from the dozen of peers who presented and shared their best practices, in the Innovation Challenge and brainstorming sessions. We made connections and we have each other’s contact info; now I hope we stay in touch to move forward together.