Illumina's 200% Match Charity Campaign: Client Spotlight

Connecting with the Community

Illumina is a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of life science tools and integrated systems for large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function. With changing workplace environments and operations, Illumina wants to ensure that they stay true to their core value of deepening their impact on human health by serving as a champion for patients, the community, and our planet. Illumina has been with Virgin Pulse for over 4 years with about 8000 eligible employees, over 5000 of which are actively engaged on the platform. With a high enrollment rate on the Virgin Pulse platform, Illumina utilizes the reach Virgin Pulse offers to cross promote programs that increase chances of success and participation. One of these programs being the 200% Match Campaign that Illumina runs annually. The campaign matches charitable donations their employees contribute to organizations around the world.

The Corporate Social Responsibility team at Illumina focuses on giving back and helping the most noble of causes around the world. Instead of having senior leadership elect which organization Illumina will support, the employees are a main factor in driving which organization will be selected. The entire program is designed to support the employee’s community or advocacy interests worldwide, known as the Illumina Foundation Matching Gift Program.

The Illumina Foundation Matching Gift Program allows employees to request matching funds of up to $500 from the Foundation for charities they support with personal monetary contributions. At least once per year, the Foundation doubles up for a specific cause to offer a 200% match for a specified period. The most recent campaign rallied around a cause that represents the core of Illumina, rare disease. The featured charities in this category were VSOP in the Netherlands and CORD in Canada. In a single week of campaigning for these organizations, over $5,500 raised between 40 donors.

Keys to Success

If you are thinking of implementing a campaign similar to Illumina’s 200% Match Campaign, checkout the best practices below to assist with your decision making:

• Collaborate with your Client Success Team to see how best to utilize your wellness program to promote the campaign.
• Allow members to use their earned platform rewards to donate to the selected causes.
• Capitalize on Foundation efforts to tie in with wellness programming (i.e. a Custom Charity Challenge to highlight and raise money for specific charities).
• Use the Virgin Pulse survey tool to collect intel from your employees on which charities categories are meaningful to them and would generate the most participation.