Just going off the answers (so you may very well have already cover this).. I wanted to pipe in very quickly:
My husband's company people typically make 6 figure salaries. 2 years they have "asked" for donations for needy families... but they REALLY forgot that some of their employees might BE needy families.
The first year... my husband (and several others, admin, etc.) were only making 40k through the company. 30k of that was going to his tuition, my tuition, and daycare/preschool. Well, in the first place 40k is below the poverty line in our area... and with 2 fulltime students... our food budget for the week was less than what they were "asking" for. Even at 40k, none of the employees at that level were making ends meet. But since most people made signigifcant money they sort of 'forgot' about those that weren't. We didn't EAT FOR A WEEK (well, my husband ate at the work buffet... but my son had oatmeal 3x a day for a week, and I had ramen twice that week) in order to "provide for the NEEDY family". We were far from the only people in that position. I was sobbing with some of the other wives over how much their "paltry minimum" was crippling us, and over the holidays to boot!!! And not all were low income. One of my friends' mother had early onset alzeheimers. 9,000 per MONTH they were paying for her care... because her mom didn't have long term care insurance.
For some people "tight" is fewer presents, or a less expensive (or skipping) vacation. For others... they're in bankruptcy, have kids (or themselves) with medical bills, are trying not to lose their homes, are in the middle of a divorce, have a parent who has become their dependent.... the list goes on.
There is HUGE pressure at work to 'donate' in order to 'look good' / move up the ladder. "The price of business" and "How one gets ahead".
If you start pressuring people... KNOW that that will mean that it WILL HURT some of your employees families.
In my less than humble opinion... when a COMPANY takes on a needy family, they have an obligation to that family. Not their own employees. They don't know their employees personal business, and smart operators don't bring in their money woes (because it limits advancement). The COMPANY needs to step up and pay for what they agreed to.
Pressuring employees means you WILL be ruining some of your coworkers xmas's. Because put under pressure, they WILL donate, even when it starves their own family.