Pitching a company backed community fund at PE owned company…
I’m curious if anyone here has pitched their employer a separate charitable/community fund tied to the business, especially at a PE-owned company.
I see a lot of value in it for employee engagement, community impact, and brand reputation, but I know the first objections will be around cost and ROI.
One idea I’m exploring is making it nearly self-funded through a “round up for charity” widget on our ecommerce site. I pulled our 2025 transaction data and estimate that even with only a ~5% opt-in rate, it could generate around $25k annually with minimal operational lift.
For those who’ve done something similar:
What structure did you use?
What helped get leadership buy-in?
Did round-up programs actually perform well?
Any lessons learned or pitfalls to avoid?
Would appreciate any advice before I start pushing the idea internally.