Who doesn’t love a buy one get one free offer? Whether purchasing a favorite cereal or brand of socks during a two for the price of one sale, it’s hard to not feel like you’re winning.
Employee matching gift programs are the buy one get one free offers of the fundraising world. With the right strategy in place, a nonprofit can double its funds from a donor without doubling its fundraising work. With matching gifts, your nonprofit can fundraise smarter, not harder.
Let’s talk about how by first answering a central question.
What is a Matching Gift Program?
Matching gift programs are corporate giving programs that put corporate giving in the hands of the employee. Generally, companies run these programs by agreeing to match what their employees donate to various eligible nonprofits.
On average, a company will match its employee donation at a 1:1 ratio, or dollar for dollar. Occasionally programs will even triple or quadruple donations. Either way, a nonprofit that takes advantage of these corporate giving opportunities will usually come out the other side with a minimum of double the donation.
Most programs have a minimum and a maximum amount that resets annually. Remember the reset for a great year end matching gift push with donors.
To better understand the matching gift process, we’ll walk through a sample scenario.
Say your nonprofit has a donor named Jane Doe, who just gave $500. Jane works for Johnson and Johnson, a corporation with a matching gift program that matches at a 2:1 ratio. Once her employer is brought into the giving process you’ll have made an extra $1,000 for a total donation amount of $1,500.
Taking this example one step farther, Jane’s father, John, has gotten involved in your cause through his daughter. He is retired, but like Jane, he worked for Johnson and Johnson, which offers matching gifts at a 1:1 ratio for retired employees. If John decides to donate $250, due to the matching gift program your funds from John are now at $500.
In order to take full advantage of situations like the Doe’s, nonprofits need to understand their eligibilities for these programs.
For a 501(c)(3) organization, roughly two-thirds of companies with year-round matching gift programs will match donations. The eligible list for those two-thirds typically consists of:
- Arts and cultural organizations such as museums or theatres
- Community-based social services such as animal shelters or YMCAs
- Educational institutions such as k-12 schools or colleges
- Environmental organizations such as wildlife preserves or public park foundations
- Healthcare organizations such as substance abuse programs or hospitals
The remaining third of year-round matching gift program companies typically place limits on eligibility by matching to one or multiple categories from the above list.
Most commonly excluded from eligibility lists are religious organizations that do not have a major social service component, as well as sports teams and political organizations.
If your organization falls within those eligibility requirements, you’re in a great position to start pushing for matching gifts. To best do so, you’ll need a general sense of the companies with matching gift programs, which brings us to the next question.
What Companies Offer Matching Gifts?
Lucky for nonprofits, corporate giving is very common now. Employee matching gifts programs are no exception.
The list of matching gift programs is extensive. The bad news is the list is so extensive it cannot all be detailed for you here. Generally speaking, companies across industries and geographic locations, big and small and everything in between, offer matching gift programs.
The first corporate matching gift program began in 1954 at General Electric. Since then, the community has grown so much that currently 65% of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs.
Whether a donor is a part-time employee at a major retailer or an executive at a mid-sized company, there’s a good chance that corporate gift matching is possible.
Since we’ve already covered some details of Johnson and Johnson’s matching gift program in the Doe family example, let’s look at a few more companies and how they approach matching gifts.
Gap
The Gap Corporation, including Athleta, Banana Republic, Intermix, Old Navy, and Piperlime provides matching gift opportunities for employees ranging from those who work part-time to Senior Vice Presidents and above.
Gap scales its giving according to employee level, meaning the corporation will match up $1,000 for part-time employees while matching up to $5,000 for their Directors to VPs range.
The program is dollar for dollar and applies to most types of nonprofits.
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil is one the largest corporate donors, giving hundreds of millions of dollars to charity yearly.
ExxonMobil breaks its matching gift program into two channels, one education focused and one culture focused.
For the cultural matching gift program, the corporation offers up to $2,000 in matched gifts to cultural institutions at a dollar for dollar ratio. The educational matching gift program is even more generous with a 3:1 match ratio and a high limit of $7,500.
Microsoft
With a giving program dating back to 1983, Microsoft has donated more than $1 billion since then.
Most institutions and organizations are eligible, and the corporation matches at a dollar for dollar ratio. Microsoft will match from $25 up to $15,000.
Be on the lookout for Microsoft employees during October, as that is their big charitable push month.
These corporations are just three of many that have matching gift programs.
Pro-tip: Think strategically when planning for matching gifts. Consider using wealth screenings to target your fundraising towards new major donors who work for companies with generous matching gift programs as your major gifts could more than double depending on the match eligibility of donors.
The possibilities are vast; it is vital that nonprofits seek out and promote matching gifts as corporate philanthropy increased 13.7% last year. Which leads us to…
How Can You Increase Matching Gifts?
The occasional donor will already be aware of her company’s matching gift program. Nonprofits won’t usually be that lucky.
For most donation cases, it will be up to the organization receiving the funds to let donors know they may be eligible for matching gifts.
There are many ways to market matching gifts, including:
- On a dedicated matching gift page on your website (like the National Kidney Foundation)
- As part of thank you letters
- On your social media platforms
- In your newsletters
The goal here is increased awareness and improved donor retention through a better donor experience. The more your donors hear about matching gifts the more likely they will be to investigate their companies’ policies.
On average, employee participation in matching gift programs is 9%. That’s too low and it represents countless missed opportunities. Ensure that your nonprofit doesn’t miss the chance for easy and inexpensive funding by marketing matching gift programs.
At the end of the day, no matter the size of the nonprofit, matching gifts provide a deep well of funds. By implementing a matching gift strategy, your nonprofit will reap the financial rewards and be primed to serve its mission.
Today’s guest post is from Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. Adam studied finance and economic development at Emory University and abroad at the Singapore Management University before working in the private sector at Comcast and Capital One. Both companies offered generous corporate giving programs, and yet most employees had no idea.
After speaking with a host of nonprofit organizations about the need to access matching gift funds in a cost effective way, Double the Donation was born.
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