Innovative programs like Community Carts connect the food-delivery company with friends and neighbors in need.
Introduction
Instacart, a pioneer in grocery delivery services, is dedicated to more than just convenience—one part of their mission is to create real change in the communities it serves.
Through strategic partnerships and initiatives, Instacart has positioned itself as a catalyst for social impact. Employees are empowered to donate to causes close to their hearts, ranging from hunger relief to environmental sustainability. Moreover, Instacart facilitates team-based volunteering activities, fostering a culture of giving back among its workforce.
In collaboration with Deed, the leading enterprise social impact technology platform, Instacart has been making uniquely effective interventions in their communities, with surprising results.
How is Instacart reimagining social impact? Let’s look at some of the companies recent innovative approaches to see what has moved the needle.
Why Instacart wants to make a difference
Instacart recently embarked on a transformative journey with the integration of Deed, a dynamic platform revolutionizing its operations. The implementation journey was not just successful but remarkably smooth, attributed to Deed's meticulously crafted documentation, ensuring a seamless transition.
What did that look like? One social impact manager at Instacart said:
Honestly, one of the reasons that we transitioned was just that employees did not find [our old provider] intuitive. They would come to [the manager] and ask, “Can you help me create this volunteer opportunity?” “Can you create this fundraiser for me?” “How do I request a match?”
[The social impact manager] needed a platform where employees could do these things themselves. The transition for us has been super positive. The feedback [they are receiving] from employees is all about how much easier Deed is for them to use.
One of the standout features of Deed is its intuitive interface, empowering the Instacart team to handle most tasks independently. While their self-sufficiency has increased, the Deed partner success team remains a reliable support resource for those occasional hurdles.
Since partnering with Deed, employee engagement in social impact at Instacart has risen to at least 40 percent on average. With streamlined access to toolkits and data, they're saving valuable time and effort, redirecting their focus towards driving meaningful change.
Instacart's launch campaign, a testament to Deed's effectiveness, exceeded participation expectations as well. Utilizing launch credits and closely coordinating with their communications team, they orchestrated a campaign that captured attention and drove results.
For example, on Juneteenth 2023, Instacart ran around 16 concurrent programs all around the world, managing all aspects of giving and volunteering seamlessly on Deed. Instacart’s commitment to innovation pushes the company to constantly revise its policies to ensure the rapidly changing needs of its communities are being met.
Policies that help Instacart make an impact
How has Instacart managed to receive such overwhelmingly positive engagement from its employees? Instacart has made it a priority to partner with a people-centric social impact partner in Deed, so that its 3,300+ employees have the autonomy and freedom to choose how they make a difference. One social impact manager at Instacart noted that Deed’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive knowledge hub has led to a significant and welcome drop in escalations of tech issues compared with their previous provider. Paired with Deed’s partner success team, these people-centric tech resources have made a big difference.
Looking ahead, Instacart is dedicated to scaling its programs and introducing new initiatives, such as work anniversary credits, aimed at further enhancing employee engagement. With nine employee resource groups (ERGs) and counting, Instacart is also focused on fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). The ultimate objective is to foster a culture of enthusiastic service, ensuring scalability and sustainability while empowering employees to navigate the system independently.
Reflecting on the transition from their previous vendor to Deed, the social impact manager also emphasizes the importance of thorough documentation regarding pain points encountered with the former system. By effectively illustrating how the switch would enhance operations, Instacart successfully garnered leadership support for the transition. Instacart finds Deed's innovative approach and rapid development pace highly appealing, coupled with their responsiveness to client feedback and concerns.
Others embarking on a similar transition journey would do well to consider meticulously documenting pain points and actively engage multiple teams to secure buy-in. Through this strategic approach, organizations can navigate transitions smoothly, ensuring seamless adoption and maximizing the benefits of new platforms like Deed.
Key Deed features for Instacart
User Experience
Deed’s design team devotes significant time and energy to making the platform as smooth and enjoyable as possible. From building out personal profiles with nonprofit affiliations and top cause areas, to helpful features like pledging and Nominate a Nonprofit, Deed is meant to make doing good as fun as it is meaningful.
Vast Library of Nonprofits and Opportunities
Employees can browse over two million nonprofit organizations, offering countless opportunities to share their time, money, and talent anywhere. Deed works with industry leaders like Goodera, VolunteerMatch, Idealist, Points of Light, Volunteer.gov, and more to curate tailored feeds and experiences for our partners as well. But we never sacrifice quality for quantity. Our library is backed by our robust payment infrastructure, marked by our premiere partnership PayPal Giving Fund and other trusted names. Together, with daily screening cycles, we deliver the highest payment success rate and the most rigorous vetting process in the industry.
Website and Native Mobile App
Accessible, inclusive technology is a must-have when it comes to building authentic communities within a global team. Aside from our own native app, available online and on iOS/Android, Deed integrates seamlessly with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other communications platforms to make sharing meaningful ideas and experiences a part of everyday life.
Global Reach
At Deed, we pride ourselves on maintaining a global reach but always with a local sensibility. With a presence in over 170 countries, 37 currencies, 12 languages, and with over two million nonprofits available on the platform—and more of everything often available upon request—we help employees around the world make a meaningful impact anywhere and anyway they want to.
Data and Reporting
Deed offers CSR program leads a wide range of self-service capabilities, many of which can be tailored to meet unique business needs. These include intuitive reporting and real-time dashboards, all accessible through one system by using the same login information.
Communities
Deed offers community-building tools to help employees and employee resource groups (ERGs) alike to get onboarded and stay engaged. Communities offers our partners a single platform for all volunteering, fundraising, and social events management that’s as easy to use from the employee perspective as it is insightful for program leaders.
What’s next for social impact at Instacart
From innovative initiatives like Community Carts and even more exciting new ideas, Instacart is excited to continue growing and scaling its social impact.
The upcoming launch of anniversary credits is anticipated to bolster employee engagement and foster a culture of generosity. With a focus on automation and streamlining processes, Instacart continues to seek ways to empower employees and ensure scalability and sustainability.
The partnership with Deed has proven invaluable in this endeavor, allowing Instacart to focus on strategic initiatives while providing employees with user-friendly tools to serve generously. As Instacart looks to the future, the goal remains clear: making it as self-service as possible for employees to contribute meaningfully, further solidifying their impact in the community.
Deed is an enterprise social impact platform that makes it fun and easy for millions of employees to share their time, money, and talent with causes they care about. We started as a viral volunteering app, and today our platform gives the world’s most inspiring brands—from Instacart to Airbnb and lululemon—one exceptionally-designed home for all of their purpose-driven activities.
Corporate grantmaking, employee donations/matching, diversity & inclusion, and employee resource groups (ERGs) are only the beginning. Because over the past three to five years, everyone’s expectations for Fortune 500 corporate social responsibility have radically changed. But with our trusted integration partners like Workday and PayPal, hand-in-hand customer service, and a collaborative product team, Deed’s platform moves at the speed of work.
To learn how Deed can help drive engagement for your organization, visit www.joindeed.com
