Revamp Your University’s Matching Gift Strategy: Tips from IUF

University advancement teams are always looking for ways to increase donor impact and build stronger relationships with alumni and supporters. One of the most effective—but often underused—tools is matching gifts. If you’re looking for ways to revamp your university’s matching gift strategy, you’ve come to the right place.

In a recent webinar, we sat down with Abe Morris, Segmentation Analyst at the Indiana University Foundation (or IUF), to discuss the various ways in which their team optimized its approach to matching gifts⁠—streamlining processes, improving donor engagement, and maximizing revenue. As he spoke, we learned that one of the first items Abe was tasked with, upon beginning his new role at IUF in 2022, was to take a look at their matching gift program and see what he could do to improve it. They started with a single, quarterly piece of direct mail promoting matching gifts, so outreach was infrequent and single-channel⁠, with a lot of room to grow. And grow they did!

Interested in viewing the full presentation? Check out the replay here. Otherwise, let’s walk through an overview of the steps the team took to revamp their university’s matching gift strategy.

Conducting an ROI analysis

The first step in refining the matching gift strategy was a thorough return on investment (ROI) analysis—a critical move to better understand the current state of matching gift participation and identify areas for growth. This analysis involved digging into existing donor data to evaluate key metrics such as:

• The total amount of individual giving
• How much of that giving was being matched by employers
• The completeness and accuracy of employer information in the database
• The match eligibility rate among known donors

Two important insights emerged from this deep dive. First, employer data was often incomplete or missing, making it difficult to identify match-eligible donors. Second, even among donors whose employers were confirmed to offer matching gift programs, many were not submitting match requests. This revealed a significant gap between potential and actual matching gift revenue.

In short, the analysis confirmed that there was untapped potential sitting in the donor base—dollars left on the table simply due to lack of awareness, missing data, or process gaps. By identifying these inefficiencies early on, the team could begin targeting specific opportunities to improve data quality, educate donors, and drive more match requests, ultimately maximizing revenue from matching gifts.

As Sydney Faye from Double the Donation adds, “For a university advancement team, the first step is always to measure what’s missing. The ROI analysis is critical because it reveals the ‘ghost revenue’—the massive amount of matched funds left unclaimed due to missing employer data or donor unawareness. Identifying this gap transforms matching gifts from a passive administrative task into a top-tier revenue driver for the institution.”

Setting goals

To tap into their full matching gift potential, the Indiana University Foundation knew they needed more than just good intentions. What they needed was a clear roadmap. That began with setting three focused, strategic goals designed to guide their efforts and measure success over time.

1. Increase donor awareness of matching gift programs.

IUF recognized that many eligible donors simply weren’t taking advantage of their employer’s matching gift offerings, often because they didn’t know the programs existed.

“One of our primary goals became boosting awareness through targeted outreach, donor education, and timely follow-ups.” – Abe Morris, Segmentation Analyst at the Indiana University Foundation (or IUF)

By embedding matching gift messaging throughout the giving journey—from donation forms to thank-you emails—they aimed to keep the opportunity front and center.

2. Improve the quality and quantity of employment data.

Incomplete or outdated employer information was another major barrier to unlocking matching gifts. Without knowing where donors worked, it was nearly impossible to identify eligible matches.

So IUF set a second goal: to collect and maintain more accurate employment information through methods like donation form fields, email outreach, and more. The more complete their records, the better they could personalize matching gift outreach and follow up effectively.

3. Increase total matching gift revenue.

Ultimately, all efforts were tied to a larger goal: growing matching gift revenue in a sustainable and scalable way. By raising awareness and improving data, IUF positioned itself to capture more matches—and to track the financial impact over time. This goal served as both a measure of success and a motivating benchmark for the entire advancement team.

Together, these three goals created a solid foundation for revamping IUF’s matching gift strategy—turning what was once a passive revenue stream into an active driver of philanthropic growth.

Understanding the matching gift process

Before the Indiana University Foundation could fully execute their matching gift strategy, they needed to deeply understand how the process worked from start to finish. That meant mapping out the actual donor journey and identifying where opportunities were being missed or delayed.

“To do this, we collaborated closely with the revenue operations team, digging into the mechanics of how matching gifts flowed into the organization.” – Abe Morris, Segmentation Analyst at the Indiana University Foundation (or IUF)

This step was critical—not just for optimizing internal workflows, but also for identifying pain points that were impacting both donors and the university’s ability to secure matching funds.

Here’s what they uncovered:

When a donor makes a gift, several things can happen. Sometimes, the donor is already aware of their employer’s matching gift program and initiates a request on their own. In other cases, however, the donor learns about the opportunity through post-donation outreach—like emails, website prompts, or follow-up reminders from the university. At the time, though, the main way the Foundation was communicating was via direct mail, and it would take up to three months for donors to hear about matching gifts.

Once the donor decides to pursue the match, they typically complete an online form through their employer’s portal. This form is then reviewed by their employer, who contacts the institution (in this case, IUF) to verify that the original donation was made and that it meets the company’s matching criteria.

After this verification step, either the employer or a third-party vendor—such as a corporate social responsibility (or CSR) platform—processes the matching payment. The funds are sent to the university and recorded in the advancement system as a matched gift.

This process may sound straightforward, but it involves multiple stakeholders, timing dependencies, and data handoffs. What stood out most in this analysis was the importance of coordination—from clear communication with donors to timely responses to employers, every step plays a role in securing the match. From this, it became clear that they needed faster follow-ups, integrated systems, and more to better guide donors through the matching process.

Becoming familiar with common challenges

With a clear understanding of the matching gift process in hand, the next critical step for the Indiana University Foundation was to confront the realities of implementation—specifically, the common challenges that can hinder matching gift success. Anticipating these hurdles allowed the team to build a more resilient and responsive strategy.

“Some of the biggest challenges include the irregularity of matching gift disbursements, limited visibility into matching gift fulfillment, and company-specific restrictions on match eligibility.” – Abe Morris, Segmentation Analyst at the Indiana University Foundation (or IUF)

Luckily, by proactively identifying these common challenges, IUF was able to manage expectations, educate donors more effectively, and fine-tune internal systems to catch and respond to issues before they became roadblocks. In other words, understanding the obstacles up front laid the groundwork for a more strategic and sustainable matching gift program moving forward.

Making the most of employer data

Once the IUF had a clearer picture of the challenges surrounding matching gifts, the next step was to optimize the data they already had—specifically, employer information. This required a close partnership with the advancement data team to figure out how to better collect, manage, and activate that data in ways that would directly support matching gift efforts.

The first major improvement was integrating Double the Donation’s matching gift tool into the university’s website and donation forms.