[GUEST POST] Matching Gifts + Year-End Fundraising: A Nonprofit Guide
Matching gifts are often referred to as a “2 for 1” sale on charitable revenue, as they allow nonprofits to collect bonus gifts in addition to initial donations made by generous supporters.
When you make the most of matching gift fundraising efforts, you can better engage with your donors, maximize funding, and leverage corporate philanthropy initiatives for your mission. These powerful benefits are of utmost importance, especially during the year-end fundraising season.
As a nonprofit fundraising professional, you’re undoubtedly looking to collect every dollar you can. That’s why we suggest incorporating corporate gift-matching into your end-of-year fundraising this giving season. Here’s how you can do it most effectively:
- Promoting Matching Gifts in Year-End Appeals
- Integrating Matching Gifts within the Donation Process
- Following Up with Match-Eligible Donors
In this guide, we’ll share our tried-and-true tips and best practices that have helped all sorts of organizations elevate their year-end fundraising success through matching gifts. Ready to find out how? Let’s dive in with our first suggested step.
1. Promoting Matching Gifts in Year-End Appeals
Did you know that although companies with matching gift programs employ more than 18 million individuals, the vast majority of this group is unaware of these opportunities? Matching gift research illustrates a significant knowledge gap that causes billions of dollars in corporate giving revenue to remain unclaimed each year.
Luckily, effective matching gift marketing practices can help increase awareness among donors about the widespread availability and impact of these workplace giving opportunities—and the end of the fundraising year is a great time to do it.
When you include matching gift information in the year-end fundraising appeals you already plan to send, you can increase your campaign return on investment (ROI) and raise more going into the new year. This is true regardless of the channels you plan on using to solicit donations, such as email, phone fundraising, social media, and more.
2. Integrating Matching Gifts within the Donation Process
Once you’ve grabbed your audience’s attention and directed them to your end-of-year fundraising online donation form, you have another opportunity to promote matching gifts.
If you’re interested in incorporating matching gifts directly within the donation process, an embeddable company search tool is the way to go. All you have to do is insert this widget in your online form, and donors will be prompted to enter their employer’s name while completing their gift. Then, on the confirmation page, they’ll be provided with company-specific guidelines and next steps pulled from an extensive matching gift program database.
Plus, you can simplify the process of incorporating matching gifts in your donation forms by looking for gift-matching software that integrates with your existing fundraising tools.
3. Following Up with Match-Eligible Donors
Unfortunately, many match-eligible donors will leave your donation page without having submitted a match request to their employer. They might intend to come back to the process later, but they might not.
When you send out personalized reminders a few days after receiving the initial gift, you can encourage these individuals to take the next step to secure a company match, effectively making their own gift go even further for your cause.
For each donor who is likely eligible to receive a match from their employer, be sure to provide the following information in your follow-up:
- Minimum and maximum donations that the company will match
- The ratio at which the company will match the initial gift
- Types of employees qualifying to request a corporate match
- Types of nonprofits eligible to receive a corporate match
- Deadlines by which match requests must be submitted
- Instructions for requesting a match with any online links or forms
However, the year-end fundraising season can be a busy time for any nonprofit, and you might worry that following up with individual donors to drive match requests will be too much of a hassle. That’s where matching gift automation comes in.
By employing an automation tool, you can ensure every match-eligible donor receives tailored outreach without having to manage every communication manually.
Matching gifts can quite literally double donations made to your cause, which results in increased impact and improved donor relations. When you highlight these impactful opportunities for support before, during, and after the giving process, you can drive additional corporate donations and maximize donor participation.
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by Adam Weinger, President, Double the Donation
Adam Weinger is the President of Double the Donation, the leading provider of matching gift tools to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Adam created Double the Donation in order to help nonprofits increase their annual revenue through corporate matching gift and volunteer grant programs.
