Prospect Research + Donation Matching:

The Inside Scoop

Essential Takeaways (TL;DR)

Matching Gifts Multiply Impact. 🎁✖️

Prospect research uncovers high-capacity donors, but matching gift programs double or triple their potential, and tangible mission impact, without asking for larger out-of-pocket gifts.

Employer Data Connects Opportunities. 🏢🔗

Wealth screening reveals approximate financial capacity, but employment data unlocks eligibility for workplace giving through matching gifts, volunteer grants, and payroll deductions.

Data Enrichment Drives Revenue. 🪪💸

Appending up-to-date employer details to their donor and volunteer records allows development teams to segment prospects by program eligibility and automate follow-ups with tailored next steps.

As a nonprofit fundraiser on the lookout for new ways to maximize charitable support, there are a few avenues your team might not be paying enough attention to: prospect research and matching gifts. And the good news is that the two ideas often go hand in hand!

Gathering the right data can have a huge impact on the success of your donor engagement, relationship-building, and solicitation efforts. Meanwhile, matching gifts enable organizations like yours to double the funds they bring in.

When you unlock additional revenue streams, your organization is better able to serve its mission, bankroll important programming, and continue working toward its goals.

Quick Note: This guide focuses specifically on the intersection of prospecting and matching gift strategy. To access our complete A-to-Z playbook for building a complete donor research process, check out our Ultimate Guide to Fundraising Intelligence.

Prospect research + matching gift statistics to know

65%

The percentage of Fortune 500 companies that offer matching gift programs

3% - 65%

Typical matching gift participation rates, depending on specific marketing efforts

51%

The average increase in donation amount an organization sees when it mentions matching gifts in its donation appeals

20%

The average percentage of an individual’s total wealth that is representative of their real estate holdings

32x

The likelihood that donors who have made a $100k+ donation are to give compared to the average person

Sources: Double the Donation’s Workplace Giving Research, The Big-Give Research Initiative

Don’t Let $7 Billion Go Unclaimed.

Are you making the most of the corporate support available to you?

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Prospect research turns raw supporter data into targeted, high-return fundraising strategies.

Tailored Donation Appeals

Customize messaging based on a supporter’s interests, giving history, financial capacity, and employer details. Personalized appeals increase engagement and boost conversion rates.

Uncovered High-Potential Prospects

Analyze public giving data to discover new, unaffiliated donors who have demonstrated a proven affinity for similar causes and the capacity to make significant gifts.

Better-Informed Donor Strategies

Examine historical donation patterns, gift frequency, and workplace-giving eligibility to segment supporters and accurately predict future donor behavior.

Prioritized Outreach to Scale ROI

Identify high-capacity supporters so fundraising staff can focus their limited time and resources on cultivating major gift relationships, ultimately leading to a higher return on investment.

How employment data serves as the missing link

While prospect research provides a holistic view of a donor and wealth screening indicates financial capacity, there’s often a disconnect between identifying a wealthy donor and securing a matching gift.

The solution? Employment information.

Donor employer data is the only reliable way to connect prospecting and screening efforts to workplace giving opportunities. You can know a donor’s real estate value, stock portfolio, and political giving history, but without knowing where they work, you cannot determine their matching gift (or broader corporate giving) eligibility.

Therefore, employment data acts as the bridge between “capacity” and “opportunity.” Wealth screening tells you an individual has the means to give $10,000, and employment data tells you they work for a company that would match the full amount.

Check out these sample supporter profiles to get a feel for the kind of information you should be collecting:

How prospect research & matching gifts work together

Prospect research and matching gifts go hand in hand for effective nonprofit fundraising. While prospect research unveils a world of new prospects, matching gifts allow organizations to maximize those generous gifts.

A key component of a well-rounded prospect research strategy is centered on potential donors’ corporate or business affiliations. This includes employment data, such as where prospective donors and their spouses work⁠, or from which they are retired.

With tens of thousands of businesses (including more than 65% of Fortune 500 companies⁠) currently offering employee matching gift programs, there’s a huge potential to turn gifts of any size into larger, more impactful donations.

Here’s an example: Imagine a prospective donor works for General Electric, which matches employee donations up to $50,000. If the individual has the potential to contribute a sizable gift, which can then be doubled by their employer, they might shoot to the top of your priority list!

From there, you can take a tailored approach to informing the individual about their workplace giving potential throughout the engagement, cultivation, and solicitation processes.

Even many of your smallest-dollar donations can be stretched twice as far (or more) for your organization’s cause, with matching gifts bumping tons of contributions into the next giving tier. Meanwhile, major gifts become even more impactful when a single donation can count twice, thanks to corporate matching.

When you introduce matching gifts into your prospect research efforts (or prospect research into your matching gift efforts!), the results can be very rewarding. Take a look at the following benefits!

A matching gift search tool can help you identify corporate and individual prospects from a list of people who have already made matching gifts to your nonprofit.
Matching gifts can encourage prospects to reach for new levels of giving with your organization through the comfort of their place of work.
Prospect research and matching gifts can assist your nonprofit in growing your corporate engagement efforts on the whole.
Focusing on donors with matching gift potential makes the value of that donor’s potential gift twice as high.

The complete prospect research – matching gifts process

The nonprofit makes a plan.
The nonprofit determines exactly how it will approach the research process by establishing goals, deciding on a screening method, and building an intended timeline.
The nonprofit cleans its data.
The nonprofit ensures its donor data is clean and tidy prior to performing prospect research. Look for duplicate entries, outdated information, and lapsed donors!
The nonprofit conducts the screening and validates the results.
The organization conducts a screening of donor information using a combination of publicly available and privately held data sources. Once the fundraising team has its results, it should check for issues like common names, inaccurate real estate records, or outdated employment information.
The nonprofit analyzes the results.
The organization analyzes the results to identify individuals who are most likely to contribute significant amounts. Then, it makes a plan for developing or deepening those relationships.
The nonprofit solicits donors.
The organization should use the information uncovered by prospect research to craft their donation asks. Asks should be tailored according to ask size, communication channels, matching gift eligibility, and more.
The donor makes their contribution.
The donor supports the organization by contributing an online gift, direct mail donation, legacy gift, gifts of securities, and more.
The nonprofit encourages the donor to submit a match.
The nonprofit sends a reminder regarding the individual’s eligibility for a match along with helpful information and online form links to guide the donor through the request process. This step can be simplified by using a matching gift database tool like Double the Donation!
The donor completes the matching gift request process.
The donor completes the matching gift request process and secures a donation match from their employer on the nonprofit’s behalf.

While most companies require employees to complete a simple online form, others are even enabling Double the Donation’s auto-submission functionality to further streamline the experience for supporters!

Bonus: How prospect research uncovers challenge grant opportunities, too

Prospect research is essential for uncovering major gift and workplace giving opportunities, but it also provides a strategic path to unlocking another kind of match: challenge grants.

When collecting employment data from your supporters during donor enrichment, you gain critical insights. And sometimes, the data reveals mid-level or major donors who work for companies that do not offer standard matching gift programs.

Rather than looking at an ineligible employer as a dead end, reframe your strategy to view these individuals as prime candidates for challenge grants!

Double Other Contributions
The donor’s gift serves as a matching pool, doubling donations made by other supporters during a specific campaign.
Inspire Community Giving
Challenge matches create a sense of urgency, driving higher conversion rates and larger gifts across your donor base.
Multiply Total Impact
Even without a corporate match from their employer, the donor’s personal gift goes twice as far by inspiring matching funds from others to support your organization’s mission.

Here’s a handy template to help you kick off your outreach when you spot the right potential challenge match donor:

Subject: Double your impact and inspire giving to [Nonprofit] this season!

Dear [Donor],

Thank you for your generous support of [Nonprofit]. Your past gifts have made a huge difference in helping us [briefly state mission, e.g., serve families in need].

As we prepare for our upcoming [Campaign], we want to offer you a unique way to expand your impact. We’re looking for a key partner to launch a Challenge Match initiative for our community. Here’s how it would work:

You pledge a gift of $[Minimum Amount] or more to establish a matching pool.

We feature your challenge during our campaign to inspire other supporters.

Every dollar donated by our community will be matched by your pool until we reach the goal.

This approach creates urgency and encourages new donors to step up. Most importantly, it allows your gift to go twice as far by unlocking matching contributions from others.

Would you be open to a quick 10-minute call next week to discuss setting up a challenge match?

Best regards,

[Name]
[Title or Role]
[Nonprofit]

Top tools for prospect research and matching gift fundraising

There are a few ways to complete prospect research, depending on the tools and resources at your team’s disposal. Some organizations might choose to conduct in-house research, while others will engage a third-party screening company. Others still may opt to utilize dedicated software.

Keep in mind that there’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer here; it’s all about finding the right combination for your assets and capabilities, and choosing a solution that helps you track, sort, and evaluate your records effectively.

Let’s explore a few recommended picks:

#1: Double the Donation’s Prospect Research + Workplace Giving Tools

Double the Donation’s innovative fundraising tools are designed to help nonprofits and schools capture missing workplace giving revenue.

While prospect screening tools simply locate donor insights, Double the Donation activates them, turning raw data into revenue.

Here’s how our solution activates your employment information:

Automated Identification: Capture employer details during the donation process to screen supporters instantly for matching gifts and broader workplace giving eligibility.
Seamless Integrations: Connects directly to organizations’ donation forms and CRMs to trigger automated follow-up outreach that drives matches to completion.
Employer Enrichment: Matches supporter records against comprehensive external resources to fill in missing employer details across nonprofit database systems.

Learn more about our Workplace Giving Insights

Prospect research and matching gifts - how employer data can help

#2: NPOInfo’s Prospect Research Tools

A screenshot of NPOInfo’s services page, which lists various appends for boosting your fundraising results.

Like Double the Donation, NPOInfo aims to help organizations bridge the gap between donor data and matching gift revenue by specializing in employer appends. By adding current employer details to your existing donor records, your organization can build the specific data foundation needed to identify and target match-eligible prospects in your fundraising.

NPOInfo works with a variety of organizations, including nonprofits, associations, educational institutions, and healthcare organizations. This makes it a leading choice for securing this most critical data point (employment information) regardless of your mission, structure, or size.

Explore NPOInfo

#3: DonorSearch’s Prospect Research Tools

DonorSearch is a top tool for prospect research and matching gifts.

DonorSearch blends philanthropic and wealth metrics to help your organization make informed decisions about prospects and plan effective outreach. Interested organizations can choose from a few tools:

The complete charitable giving database. DonorSearch’s charitable giving database is comprehensive and constantly growing, housing tons of useful philanthropic and wealth data.
DSGiving search tool. DSGiving is a free, limited prospect research tool that offers no-cost access to a smaller-scale version of DonorSearch’s philanthropic and political contributions data.

Dive Into DonorSearch

Wrapping Up & Further Reading

Prospect research is an essential tool for any organization seeking major gifts, organizing a capital campaign, implementing an annual fund, or otherwise aiming to maximize support for its mission. When prospect research efforts uncover matching gift opportunities, even better!

Just remember: to fully harness the power of these strategies, equipping your team with suitable tools and resources is essential. Investing in a robust prospect research solution (and integrating your matching gift platform) allows you to streamline processes, unleash hidden opportunities, and ultimately propel your fundraising efforts to new heights.