Driving Employee Engagement with Heartfelt Connection

When employees are engaged at work, businesses are more productive, more profitable, and cut their turnover rates in half. Partnering with DonorsChoose empowers organizations to design and implement custom employee engagement campaigns that prioritize authentic, meaningful impact in both their workforce and their communities. When your organization and DonorsChoose combine forces, everyone wins.

We're always looking for ways to support our partners in hitting their business impact goals. In 2024, we launched Classroom Connections, a digital, micro-volunteering activity that connects employees to students through the simple act of letter writing. Through our accessible, scalable, and experiential employee engagement program, organizations create a path from heartfelt connection to increased engagement.

How it works

Classroom Connections begins with companies supporting students by funding classroom projects. After receiving funding, teachers are encouraged to work with their class to write pen-pal letters to donors — and employees, in return, can engage by responding to those letters, either on their own time within a submission window or during structured employee events.

This simple program targets four key values:

• Accessible to all employees — Classroom Connections engages every employee, including frontline and hourly staff, in a meaningful volunteer experience that boosts inclusivity, participation, and CSR progress.
• Scalable and flexible — Small and tight-knit or large and distributed: our program  can be deployed across any workforce, all while minimizing overhead and maximizing engagement.
• Turnkey and low-lift for HR — Classroom Connections is a fully designed experience with minimal lift, delivering high-impact programming without costing HR extra time or effort.
• Heartfelt connection to drive engagement — Employees hear directly from students and make an immediate impact. This direct person-to-person program creates memorable experiences that drive participation, satisfaction, and company pride.

DonorsChoose partners Optimum and Power Home Remodeling joined us to pilot Classroom Connections

Optimum needed to engage a diverse, dispersed workforce at scale, so together we customized our approach to fit their needs. Ten thousand employees received an email inviting them to respond to letters from the students supported by Optimum. Employee resource group leaders joined a virtual letter-writing session, and every employee was given the flexibility to participate in any way that worked for their daily workflow. Together, we engaged employees at 84 field and corporate offices, and even succeeded in achieving senior leadership participation.

Power Home Remodeling aimed to build employee connection and culture through a virtual gathering. Power hosted a Giving Tuesday call with around 200 employees. As a group, employees read student letters and wrote responses, coming together virtually from near and far to engage and make an impact.

These two adaptations prove that Classroom Connections is adaptable, scalable, and accessible, and empowers an organization of any size to engage their employees and achieve impact goals.

Educators share the value that Classroom Connections brings to their classroom

“My students were excited to write real letters to professionals, which gave their writing a meaningful purpose. Instead of simply completing an assignment for a grade, they were communicating with real people in the workforce.… And seeing their letters acknowledged and answered made a lasting impact. It validated their efforts and showed them that their words matter.”

— Ms. Cheatham, Ezra Nolan Middle School 40

“Many of our students’ parents haven’t graduated high school, so having this opportunity to be noticed by and connect with business professionals is huge for opening the doors of possibilities for my students.”

— Ms. Gallin, Edna M Rollins Elementary School

“It allowed for a research project about what Optimum does for their community. Many of my students found it interesting that there are jobs outside of coding. When they think of technology based jobs they always think of coding. Now they are considering jobs in technology fields.”

— Mr. Goldberg, Freehold Intermediate School

Ready to make connections and inspire engagement?

Contact our team through our Partner Center to discuss how your company can engage employees through our classroom letter writing program!