Imagine this: Your museum must temporarily close its doors while making intensive repairs to the building’s entrance. Or, a decrease in animal adoptions causes a lull in your shelter’s main source of revenue. How do you continue funding your mission?
45% of nonprofits have no emergency fund at all. Of those with cash reserves, more than half of them have less than enough to cover 3 months of their operating expenses for the year. This means that most nonprofits depend on continual fundraising efforts to operate and otherwise have little to no backup plan.
If you’re a nonprofit leader looking to prepare for the unexpected and establish financial fortitude for your organization, this guide is for you! Let’s take a closer look at how you can prepare for times of need with nonprofit operating reserves.
What are nonprofit operating reserves?
Nonprofit operating reserves are funds set aside to sustain an organization through economic uncertainty. These funds serve as a nonprofit’s financial cushion, stabilizing its finances on a “rainy day.”
Financial hardship can crop up almost instantly, such as a roof replacement needed after damage from a storm. These situations can also last for a long time, like the COVID-19 pandemic’s enduring effects years after social distancing mandates were lifted. To prepare for unanticipated costs, your nonprofit must have access to a healthy amount of emergency funding.
How much does your nonprofit need in reserves?
All nonprofits are different, especially when it comes to their funding and operating expenses. Using the examples from earlier, a museum must pay for utilities, but an animal shelter has the added costs of feeding and providing medical services for the animals in its care.
For this reason, no single standard for nonprofit operating reserves applies to all organizations. The key is to have adequate cash resources available to cover time-sensitive expenses, such as payroll, and to account for unforeseen costs or increases.
Some general guidelines include saving three to six months’ worth of expenses, but no more than two years’ worth. At a minimum, nonprofits should be able to cover one full payroll, including taxes.
Where do nonprofit operating reserves come from?
Just like building a savings account for personal finances, nonprofits can develop their operating reserves over time by generating a surplus and designating the excess to be part of a reserve fund. Some organizations include contributions to their operating reserves as a line item in their budget to ensure they’re regularly growing this fund.
Sometimes, nonprofits also receive grants or donations specifically meant to build their operating reserves. This is especially helpful when nonprofits have no surplus and need an extra boost to get started.
What is an operating reserves policy?
Beyond merely growing your operating reserve funds, your nonprofit needs a designated policy to ensure these funds are used properly. An operating reserves policy defines the guidelines and goals of a nonprofit’s operating reserves, including important details such as:
Rules for building the reserves
Authorization for using the funds
Requirements for reporting spending
While these guidelines protect funds from being spent unnecessarily, your policy must be flexible to allow for ease of access in times of need.
How to build your nonprofit operating reserves
Nonprofit operating reserves should be a top priority in every organization’s budget, but how should you begin building this fund? Let’s take a closer look at the steps your nonprofit can take to create an operating reserves policy and start saving.
1. Calculate your operating reserves ratio.
Before creating your policy, determine where your nonprofit’s finances currently stand by calculating your operating reserves ratio. Using either the previous year’s actual expenses or your projected expenses for the current year, divide your operating reserves by your annual operating cost.
As a result, you’ll see what percentage of your annual operating costs could be covered by your savings fund if needed.
2. Set a goal amount.
While there is no standard amount that all nonprofits should adhere to, The NORI Workgroup suggests that 25% of an organization’s annual operating expenses (or 3 months of expenses on average) is a good baseline. To set your target to this amount, multiply your total annual expense by 0.25. For other goals, adjust the percentage as necessary.
The most important element of this goal amount is ensuring it meets your nonprofit’s needs. Rather than choosing a percentage at random, consider the potential uses for this fund and your plan for what to do in such a situation.
For example, even if your museum can’t raise funds through ticket sales during its roof repair, donations from miscellaneous fundraisers might provide extra funding to help your organization get by. Consider any supplementary revenue like this and the intentions for using your operating reserves.
3. Determine your strategy to build the fund.
Depending on your nonprofit’s financial situation, some strategies may be more effective than others for building your operating fund. However, there are a variety of ways you can contribute to your reserves, including:
If you choose to raise funds for your operating reserves through a dedicated fundraising campaign, consider which type of fundraiser will help you raise the most. Then, boost the amount you earn by promoting matching gifts. This corporate giving opportunity can increase not just your nonprofit’s revenue, but donor participation and donation amounts, too.
In fact, 84% of donors are more likely to give and 1 in 3 donors would give more if a match was offered, meaning this fundraising strategy can effectively maximize the amount your nonprofit raises for its operating reserves. For more information on how to make the most of matching gifts, watch the following video:
As the video explains, matching gifts offer twice the funding for the time and effort your nonprofit puts into acquiring one gift. To double the amount you raise for your nonprofit operating reserves, look further into matching gifts and how you can promote them to willing donors.
While you won’t be able to determine the specific circumstances under which the operating reserves fund may be used, you can establish a distinct purpose for the funding that guides any future usage of it. For example, the fund’s purpose might be to:
Ensure the stability of the nonprofit’s programs
Cover an unexpected increase in expenses
Compensate for an unexpected decrease in funding
Make purchases to build capacity, such as investing in infrastructure
You’ll want to write out this purpose as part of your policy to ensure everyone is held accountable. Additionally, it could be helpful to mention anything the fund should not be used for to provide extra clarity.
Be sure to also put an individual or team in charge of reviewing and approving requests to use the funds, such as the Executive Director of the board of directors.
5. Assign authority for using the fund.
Along with the circumstances for using the fund, your nonprofit should have a clear chain of command when it comes to who is allowed to access the reserves. Assign authority for using the reserves, including who can request usage and who can authorize it.
In this phase of the process, you should also determine how you’ll report and monitor the fund. Who will be responsible for ensuring the operating reserve is properly used and what accountability measures are in place? For example, a nonprofit operating reserve fund may be kept in a segregated bank account and referred to in financial records by a unique name.
Operating reserves policy template
To effectively outline the necessary guidelines and protect your operating reserve funds from misuse, your operating reserves policy should include the following essentials:
The purpose of the reserves
The types of reserves and the target amount
Authority for using each type of reserve fund
Responsibilities for using operating reserves and reporting use
While these policies are unique to each nonprofit, there are some general guidelines any organization can follow to develop one. For a comprehensive view of what this policy should look like, use this template:
Additional resources for developing an operating fund
It’s no mystery that your nonprofit needs operating reserves. Using the tips in this guide, you can start building an emergency fund to sustain your organization in the most unexpected of situations. For more tips and strategies to maximize your fundraising and build your operating reserves, check out the following resources:
Prospect Research: The Ultimate Guide for Nonprofits. Identify your major givers with prospect research to unlock larger gifts and build your operating reserves. Learn the basics of prospect research in this complete guide.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/nonprofit-operating-reserves_feature.png6001300Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-02-16 14:35:062024-04-30 21:28:17Nonprofit Operating Reserves: The Key to Financial Fortitude
As a nonprofit professional, you likely already understand the importance of marketing in collecting funds and making your cause known. From attracting donors and pursuing matching gift opportunities to promoting your services to your target audience, marketing is a key strategy for successful nonprofits.
Your nonprofit’s fundraising events are no different. Successfully marketing your fundraiser is crucial to the event’s success, not to mention positive fundraising outcomes, and gets your community excited about participating.
When it comes to your charity golf tournament, it’s important to cast a wide net to attract new supporters to your cause. Golf events have a unique appeal. The sport is more popular than ever, so getting the word out about your golf fundraiser lets folks know that they can play the game they love while supporting a great cause.
Ready? Start spreading the word about your golf fundraiser today with these five creative marketing tips:
Without further ado, let’s dive in with our first recommendation.
1. Use an Event Website
An event website for your charity golf tournament serves as the homepage for the event and where folks can go to find more information and get involved. Customize the site with pertinent information about your nonprofit, its mission, and what the tournament is raising funds for. It’s also a good idea to include the tournament’s schedule, recognize sponsors, and give visitors the chance to donate.
And if you’re going to incorporate matching gifts in your event strategy (which you should!), you’ll want to ensure your site is equipped with matching gift information, too.
Interested in learning more about how corporate donation-matching can play a role in your event strategy? Jump to the bonus section now!
The best thing about an event website is that it makes promotion as simple as sharing a link in all your online channels—social media, email campaigns, your nonprofit’s website, or even online ads. You’ll also end up saving a ton of time by collecting registrations and selling sponsorships right on the website.
2. Choose a Memorable Event Name
A catchy tournament name is a great way to brand the event and your marketing campaign. A tournament logo is another option you can leverage in a variety of ways to help connect folks to the event and what it’s raising money for. For example, use the tournament logo and its branding on t-shirts for organizers and volunteers, hole signage, banners, email campaigns, promotional graphics, giveaways, and more. Of course, it should be front and center on the event website.
Get your planning team, staff, or board together for a brainstorming session to settle on a tournament name that makes a lasting impression. Some ideas to get your creative juices flowing might include:
Swing Fore the Kids
Putts Fore Pets
Fairway to Heaven
Putting for Miracles
Teeing Up Hope
Holes Fore Heroes
Scramble for a Cure
If you’d rather stick to a traditional tournament name, such as a “Charity Golf Classic” or “Memorial Golf Tournament” that’s perfectly fine—but consider a specific tournament logo that makes your event stand out.
3. Incorporate Gamification Elements
Competition is a natural part of a charity golf tournament. You can leverage friendly competition in your marketing to help engage supporters about your event. In fact, integrating gamification into your golf tournament gets supporters and participants invested before they even tee off. Try these gamification ideas to get started!
Use a fundraising thermometer or donation tracker on your event website and in social media materials. Post updates and graphics in the days and weeks leading up to the tournament so people can see how their donation can help move the needle towards your goal.
Launch a contest to encourage people to recruit additional teams to play in the tournament. Not only does this help spread awareness about your tournament and cause, but you can stoke a little friendly competition by offering prizes to those who bring in the most number of teams. You might offer mulligans, raffle tickets, and drink tickets as prizes.
Implement user-generated content challenges. Leveraging user-generated content in your marketing provides a great opportunity to broaden your campaign’s reach. For example, you could have golfers share posts with a photo of their teams in the lead-up to the event and have social media followers vote on their favorite team names or costumes by liking, commenting, or sharing posts.
Add an auction to your tournament and promote it in your pre-tournament marketing. Silent and live auctions can certainly be competitive—in the best way possible—because they drive more dollars for your nonprofit. High-end prizes like a donated stay-and-play opportunity at a destination golf club get donors excited and engaged before, during, and after the golf tournament.
4. Collaborate With Local Celebrities & Influencers
Influencer marketing is another tool in your nonprofit toolkit to spread awareness about your nonprofit and your golf event to new audiences who otherwise might not have known about it. Plus, online channels have made it easier than ever to connect with celebrities and influences who can help amplify your event. Consider these options:
Local celebrities. You don’t have to have A-list celebrities involved to make an impact. Local celebrities, like the mayor, local news anchor or meteorologist, radio personality or host, community sports team, or well-known business owner, are more accessible and can add a draw to your fundraiser. It’s a win-win—you’ll get great exposure and they’ll be publicly associated with a great cause.
Social media influencers. Whether you’re connecting with influencers in the nonprofit sector, the golf world, or in your local area, you can improve your event’s visibility with social media partnerships. NXUnite’s list of nonprofit influencers is a great resource for learning more about the nonprofit influencer space.
Once you’ve made contact with them, work together to outline a mutually beneficial partnership. Perhaps in exchange for promoting your tournament on their socials and appearing at the event, they receive a complimentary team registration or two. Consider devoting a specific part of the event to the VIP, such as a hole-in-one contest hosted by them or a signed raffle prize or auction item donated by them. Highlight their presence in your marketing materials to get the most out of the partnership.
5. Leverage Cause Marketing With Corporate Sponsors
You might think of sponsorships primarily in the context of monetary donations. But in fact, you can leverage your corporate partnerships for marketing purposes, too. Cause marketing is marketing carried out by a for-profit business to advance a charitable cause or better society—in this case, your charity golf tournament.
Reach out to your nonprofit’s current corporate partners with a mutually beneficial proposal, providing positive exposure and outcomes for both parties. Your matching gift software can help here, too, when you use donor employment insights to identify top prospects for marketing partnerships.
Then, much like with influencer marketing, think of ways to sweeten the deal in exchange for their partnership, like offering a complimentary team registration for promoting the tournament to their employees or clients.
If leveraging corporate sponsorships isn’t an option for your nonprofit, you might consider offering sponsorship packages for your golf tournament that include cause marketing components. For example, a local business might underwrite paid social media campaigns or television or radio spots in exchange for exposure to your tournament’s field. GolfStatus recommends targeting businesses that are interested in getting in front of the golfer demographic. In either case, you should work closely with the sponsor or partner to determine how you can meet each other’s needs.
Bonus: Double Event Donations with Matching Gifts
As a nonprofit fundraiser, you’re surely looking to get the biggest bang for your buck with your upcoming golf event. Fortunately, integrating employee matching gifts into your overall fundraising strategy can go a long way. And there are a few key ways to do so. These include:
Matching event donations — Any gifts contributed above and beyond an event ticket cost or registration fee can typically be matched by individuals’ employers as usual. Just let your donors know that they should complete the matching gift request process for their company. You can even use a matching gift database like Double the Donation to supply supporters with employer-specific submission forms, guidelines, and more.
Matching the tax-deductible portion of event tickets — The cost of an event ticket or registration fee might be match-eligible, too! However, this process may be a bit more nuanced depending on the individual’s employing company. While the donation portion of the transaction (which is also the tax-deductible amount) will likely qualify for a match, the event’s fair market value will typically need to be deducted from the payment total.
Corporate matching gifts not only supply nonprofits and their events with an additional source of fundraising revenue, but they also incentivize greater individual generosity. In fact, Double the Donation studies indicate that 84% of donors are more likely to give if a match is offered (resulting in a 71% increase in response rate). At the same time, 1 in 3 donors would give a larger gift if a match were available, leading to a 51% increase in average gift size.
In other words, incorporating matching gifts is one of the best ways to supercharge your efforts and bring your fundraising event success to new heights.
Wrapping Up
Once you have a date and location locked in for your charity golf tournament, you’ll want to start planning your marketing efforts so you can start gaining traction as soon as possible. Your planning team should play a crucial role in marketing your golf tournament. You might even appoint someone to take charge of marketing efforts to ensure campaigns are moving forward. A robust marketing campaign is critical to the success of your golf tournament.
February is a time to celebrate love and happiness—and matching gifts. That’s why it’s been dubbed the official Matching Gift Month. This year, we recommend taking the opportunity to scale up your matching gift promotional efforts accordingly.
We’ll cover everything you need to know to celebrate corporate giving and drive action (and matches) this February.
Looking for new and exciting ways to amplify your nonprofit’s matching gift efforts leading up to Match Month? You’ve come to the right place. At Double the Donation, we’re experts at matching gifts, and we’ve compiled a list of suggestions sure to elevate your engagement efforts this February.
Ready to bring your matching gift fundraising to the next level? Let’s explore top recommendations for making the most of Match Month—and see what your team can do to bridge the knowledge and funding gaps alike.
What is Matching Gift Month?
Matching Gift Month is an annual celebration of corporate donation matching, often used to increase awareness and usage of match programs. Held in February each year, Match Month is an opportunity to recognize the extensive impact that corporate philanthropy programs, like matching gifts and more, can have on nonprofit fundraising groups.
And what is that impact? Research indicates that an estimated $2 to $3 billion is donated through matching gift programs each year. That’s a substantial source of funds provided to charitable causes like yours. Not to mention, the mere existence of a match incentivizes individual donors to give at new heights, too. The same reports state that 84% of donors are more likely to give if a match is available, while 1 in 3 would give a larger amount if a match were to be applied.
However, an additional $7 billion goes unclaimed by qualifying nonprofits and their donors each year—largely due to a lack of information surrounding the programs. That’s why many mission organizations and schools are taking the opportunity to elevate their matching gift fundraising and push the initiatives forward this year. And Match Month is the perfect chance to begin.
10+ Powerful Ways to Celebrate Matching Gift Month This Year
These smart marketing and engagement ideas inhabit a fun sense of novelty this month. But they’re also impactful for long-term engagement in your organization’s overall strategy.
For the best results, we suggest integrating multiple of the following methods—both this month and beyond.
1. Give your internal team a refresher course.
Before ramping up your organization’s matching gift efforts for Match Month, it’s a good idea to take a look inward. Hopefully, your internal fundraising team should be well-versed in matching gift information. But perhaps you’ve had a few new team members join since your last group training. Or maybe your staff (and volunteers!) could just use a refresher.
The solution? Start the month off right with your own team. Take the time to reiterate the importance of corporate matching gift programs. Practice asking common matching gift questions, ensuring that all individuals have the knowledge and assets to answer them.
You can even provide your team with access to educational resources and other materials to help grow their knowledge and preparedness for the celebrations ahead.
We have some fantastic free eBooks, blog posts, templates, webinars, and more at Double the Donation.
Plus, we offer the industry’s first-ever Matching Gift Academy—an online learning hub encompassing 45 lessons and more than 7 hours of informational video content across 10+ modules.
When it comes to driving matching gift revenue, your internal team encompasses your greatest assets. Make sure they’re equipped to advocate for the opportunities as best they can!
Top tip:
Though the Academy is valued at $199 per year, current 360MatchPro clients can access the learning system at no cost. Just head to the back-end of your matching gifts portal to locate your organization’s unique coupon code!
2. Share on social media.
Your organization likely has at least one, but likely a number of profiles on popular social media sites. Whether it’s a Facebook page, an Instagram profile, or even a TikTok account, your strategic web presence can go a long way toward marketing matching gifts online.
And what better time is there to begin (or to elevate your strategy) than a month dedicated to all things matching gifts?
To get started, consider sharing the following types of content on your nonprofit’s social profiles:
Images and videos
Social media platforms are increasingly visual-focused. If you want to grab—and maintain—your audience’s attention as they scroll through their feeds, research indicates that incorporating eye-catching images and videos is the way to go. In fact, studies show that image-based social posts receive 2.3 times more engagement than those without, and posts with video content can see up to 10 times higher engagement levels.
That said, Match Month is an optimal time to produce and share matching gift marketing videos and imagery. Or get started with our pre-made social media graphics here! (Hint: click each image to enlarge the attachment and download a copy.)
For more templates and sample matching gift posts, head to “Marketing Assets” within the “Resources” tab in your matching gift portal. Then, explore our customizable social media designs for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more—including graphics specifically for celebrating Match Month.
Not a client yet? Get a demo to see if Double the Donation is right for your team and gain access to a range of tools and resources!
Industry research
Highlight key statistics that effectively demonstrate the potential that corporate matching brings. Double the Donation has compiled some of our favorite metrics here, including an overview of unclaimed funding and a wide range of participating companies.
Check out these examples:
65%
of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs.
26 million+
individuals work for companies with matching gift programs.
11%
of corporate cash donations are made through matching gift programs.
$2.86 billion
was contributed through corporate matching gift programs last year.
$4-$7 billion
in matching gift funds are left unclaimed by eligible donors each year.
Social media is driven by connectivity, networking, and social proof. That’s why case studies, testimonials, and other success stories can be some of the most influential content you can share!
Take a look at a few examples here:
Sharing the total sum of matching gift revenue (e.g., “Our organization collected more than $50,000 in matching gift funds in the past year from donors like you”).
Highlighting specific examples from prior match donors (ex: “Sarah from Home Depot secured a corporate match on our behalf equaling $5,000, bringing her total contribution value to more than $10,000”).
Spotlighting user-generated content from prior match donors (“According to Jennifer, long-time matching gift donor, ‘I love having the chance to stretch the value of my donation, and getting my employer to support my favorite cause is great!’”)
Showcasing historic community impact (“Thanks to generous matching gift donors last year, we were able to feed an additional 1,000 families in need through corporate match funding we received.”)
Your supporters care about the impact your organization (and, by extension, their donations) brings. When your followers see the influence that other matching gifts have had, they’ll be more likely to take steps to do so themselves.
Reiterate that donation-matching programs enable donors to double their impact without reaching back into their own wallets. If you can put it in terms of tangible impact (e.g., feed two shelter cats for the cost of one), even better!
3. Optimize your site for matching gifts.
Social media marketing is great—but there’s only so much you can share in each post. So, how can you ensure your audience can easily access the information they need to take action? Be sure every matching gift-related item you share links back to additional resources for learning more.
The best place to house those resources is your organization’s website. If you already have a built-out matching gift web page (which you should), consider driving traffic to the page for supporters to learn more about the opportunity. And if you don’t have an existing matching gifts page, Match Month is the perfect time to build that online hub.
Here’s an example of a well-designed matching gifts page to consider:
This inspiring sample follows all of our recommended practices. Take a look at the embedded matching gift search tool (which empowers donors to locate the information they need in seconds), a helpful infographic to visualize the involvement process, a detailed FAQ section, and information about the institution required for donors’ requests. Not to mention, it’s prominently located on the school’s navigation menu!
From there, we also suggest integrating matching gifts directly into your online donation process. Ideally, this should include an employment data widget to your giving form and company-specific program details on the confirmation screen.
Does your organization send regular newsletters as a way to keep donors and other supporters in the know about upcoming events and opportunities? A matching gift-focused newsletter—whether physical or digital—can serve as a powerful tool for raising awareness of matching gift opportunities.
And it’s a great way to elevate engagement with the annually celebrated Match Month.
At the very least, consider adding a section about Matching Gift Month involvement in your standard newsletter. But an entire edition dedicated to matching gifts can go a long way toward inspiring participation in the programs!
Programs like these are known as fundraising match programs. And since these initiatives can also be considered a form of donation-matching, they can fit perfectly into a well-rounded Matching Gift Month plan!
Here’s how it works:
Your organization facilitates a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign in conjunction with Matching Gift Month (February).
Your team reaches out to fundraising match-eligible contacts and encourages them to fundraise on your nonprofit’s behalf. (Be sure to mention your Matching Gift Month celebrations and the opportunity for their total funds to be doubled by their employer!)
Volunteer fundraisers solicit donations from their family and friends and participate in any associated event or campaign activity.
At the conclusion of the campaign, fundraisers submit requests for their companies to match the sum of their funds raised.
Fundraisers’ employers review the requests and verify that submissions adhere to program criteria.
Fundraisers’ employers approve the requests and disperse funding to the organizations for which their employees fundraised.
For example, let’s imagine that John Doe of State Street Corporation raises $1,572 for your organization. This is collected from 15 peers and associates through a social fundraising effort your team hosts this Match Month. When John requests a match from his employer, State Street supplies an additional $1,572 for your cause. This brings the total value of John’s fundraising efforts to $3,144!
That’s a lot of extra funding for your mission—all while engaging your donors at new heights and growing corporate support.
Top tip:
Use your matching gift database tool to uncover fundraising match opportunities in your donor network. Platforms like Double the Donation supply information about many types of corporate giving programs—including volunteer grants and fundraising matches when available.
6. Encourage non-eligible donors to advocate for new programs.
Unfortunately, not all companies match employee donations (though new programs are added every day). And some employers are likely interested in getting started—they might just need a little push to do so.
Luckily, your existing (and non-match-eligible) donors can be some of your best champions for inspiring new matching programs. Sometimes, all it takes is an email from a philanthropic employee to get the ball rolling for a new corporate program. And Matching Gift Month can be the perfect time to begin laying a foundation.
Consider sharing a template like this to provide a baseline for supporters considering advocating on your behalf this month:
Subject line: Request for a corporate matching gift program
Hi [manager or HR representative name],
I am writing to request the addition of a corporate matching gift program at [company name].
Thousands of companies across the globe have established employee matching gift programs, agreeing to match gifts made by their employees to qualifying nonprofit causes with their own corporate donations.
This is an extremely beneficial program to host for every party involved—including the company, its employees, and the nonprofits they support. If you’d like to take steps to establish a matching gift program for the company, Double the Donation has provided a number of detailed guides that walk corporate leaders through the process.
Thank you for your consideration!
P.S. — February is National Matching Gift Month, so it’s a great time to get started!
Use 360MatchPro’s “Leading Companies” tool, which showcases the employers most often searched by donors using your company database tool, to identify businesses in your network without existing match programs! Then, craft a personalized plan for pitching a matching gift program or encouraging your donors to do so themselves.
7. Pursue one-off matching gift program opportunities.
Most companies that match employee donations agree to do so to most nonprofit causes. However, if an organization has an existing partnership with a corporation, it may seek a one-off (or unique) matching gift program that is exclusive to the cause.
In some cases, this type of offering can be an ongoing sponsorship opportunity. But it also may be limited to a particular period of time—such as Matching Gift Month! Thus, February (and/or the weeks leading up to February) can be a great chance to begin pursuing such a relationship.
There are a few types of one-off matching gift programs to consider. These include…
One-off match initiatives with companies that do not yet offer complete matching programs. (For example, Carl’s Computer Company does not have an established matching gift program but agrees to match donations solely made to Atlanta University.)
Agreements with companies that do offer traditional matching gift programs but want to match donations to your organization at a higher rate. (Ex: Carl’s Computer Company matches employee donations to all 501(c)(3) nonprofits at a dollar-for-dollar rate and matches gifts made to Atlanta University at a 2:1 ratio for the duration of Matching Gift Month.)
Keep in mind that both types of programs can be beneficial to your cause, your donors, and your corporate partners. In either case, your donors’ employing companies can be some of your most valuable prospects!
Top tip:
Once you’ve established a one-off match with a corporate partner, add the program details (including eligibility criteria and submission instructions) to your company search tool using 360MatchPro’s custom matching gift management feature. This way, the program will populate in your employer search tool, making it quick and easy for donors to access the information they need to participate.
8. Follow up on previously made donations.
Your organization’s work promoting Matching Gift Month might very well drive a number of new donations—and matches—to your cause. But another strategy you can employ involves following up on previously made gifts. Then, encouraging still-eligible donors to submit their requests retroactively.
Here’s a sample follow-up email you might send:
Not to mention, Match Month falls just a few weeks after the year-end giving season when most organizations see elevated giving. Many of those donations may still qualify for corporate matching, even into the first few months of the new year.
In fact, tons of companies set generous matching gift request deadlines—often accepting submissions for up to a year after the initial donation is made. Take this opportunity to remind eligible donors about their employers’ matching gift programs and how they can get involved.
Top tip:
Use a matching gift automation tool (like 360MatchPro) to automate outreach and trigger personalized donation follow-ups!
9. Include matching gifts in staff email signatures.
This is perhaps our simplest suggestion for celebrating Match Month, but it can be particularly effective when paired with some of our other top ideas. We recommend adding a quick line mentioning matching gift opportunities to all of your team members’ email signatures.
More than likely, your organization sends a ton of emails—from donation appeals to thank-you messages and even nonprofit programming outreach. By incorporating matching gifts in automatic signatures, you can use every piece of communication with your cause as a way to promote donation-matching.
While you could add a simple blurb beneath an individual’s name and contact information, making it stand out can produce great results. For that reason, consider getting a graphic made and added to each person’s signature.
You can even use the space to link to additional resources where recipients can learn more.
10. Consider matching challenge grants.
Corporate matching gifts aren’t the only type of match opportunity your organization should keep an eye out for—they’re just the most widely available. But other match-based initiatives, like challenge grants, also have the potential to multiply the impact of a group’s fundraising success.
Rather than a company matching the donations its employees make to charitable causes, challenge grants are facilitated as a way to offer a donation match to all of a nonprofit’s supporters. Typically offered by a generous major donor, corporation, or foundation, these programs are generally organized according to a set time frame (e.g., a 24-hour period) or predetermined threshold (such as up to $10,000). Then, any individual who gives within the time frame prior to the match fund being depleted will have their gift doubled for your cause by the challenge grant supplier.
It’s important to remember, too, that challenge grants and matching gifts are usually not mutually exclusive. That means you can layer a few matching gift opportunities on top of one another (for example, a donor’s gift being matched through a challenge grant and by their employing company) to further amplify your efforts.
And that’s what we recommend doing to celebrate Matching Gift Month!
Bonus: Make matching easy.
Our final idea for celebrating Matching Gift Month is one that will benefit your organization well beyond the 28 (or 29) days of February. A lot of our previous recommendations involve raising awareness of program opportunities in the first place. Now, we suggest going a few steps further and driving matches by simplifying the processes involved.
After all, donors love matching gifts. They love getting the opportunity to multiply their contribution impact. But even your most dedicated supporters might not follow through when the process is too complicated or time-consuming.
That’s why we recommend fundraising organizations employ matching gift software to streamline and simplify the process. For example, 360MatchPro by Double the Donation empowers nonprofits to:
Identify eligibility with the industry’s most comprehensive matching gift database and corresponding search tool, making it quick and easy for donors to locate the information they need to participate.
Provide employer-specific matching gift program guidelines (minimum and maximum donation amounts, qualifying employees and nonprofit causes, match ratios, and more) and direct links to online submission forms, thus driving more requests to completion with actionable next steps.
Enable innovative auto-submission capabilities, allowing eligible donors to complete the match request process directly from the organization’s giving page and removing critical roadblocks facing traditional matching gift submissions.
Trigger automated and personalized matching gift follow-up messaging to remind donors about matching gift availability and encourage them to take the next steps in their companies’ request processes.
Seamlessly implement a matching gift solution into their existing fundraising ecosystem thanks to ready-built integrations with nearly all leading donation tools, peer-to-peer platforms, CRMs, and more—empowering organizations to get up and running with gift-matching strategies in minutes!
Not only does this benefit your donors by making matching programs more accessible, but it also ensures more back-end efficiency for your internal team and results in matching gift revenue growth of more than 61%.
Drawing inspiration from other nonprofits’ Matching Gift Month efforts can be highly beneficial for organizations strategizing their own campaigns. Not only can successful examples provide invaluable ideas and insights, but they can also spark creativity among your team and establish a deeper understanding of what resonates with nonprofit audiences.
That said, take a look at these Match Month campaigns to aspire to.
Example #1: Matching Gift Month Social Media Post
This independent Massachusetts private school took to Facebook and other social media platforms to promote the corporate matching gift opportunity last Match Month.
This institution uses the post as a way to promote matching gifts and encourage unprecedented individual giving. Not to mention, it links to the school’s matching gifts page and company search tool. These resources can supply additional information and assist supporters in getting started!
Example #2: Matching Gifts Web Page
One university opts to use its matching gift web page as a way to increase awareness about Match Month celebrations.
The blurb, which is embedded in the web page, encourages users to research their companies’ matching gift programs and double their giving impact if they qualify. It also includes an informational matching gift video that uses animated graphics to visualize the institution’s matching gift efforts.
Example #3: Match Month Landing Page
This organization published a dedicated landing page on its website as a way to drive awareness of Matching Gift Month among its supporters.
The page begins with a flashy and eye-catching graphic, shares specific performance metrics that reiterate matching gift impact, and implements an embedded company search tool. It even includes a template supporters can use to advocate for matching gift efforts when their employers lack such programming.
Example #4: Matching Gift Month Blog Post
In order to encourage Match Month participation among its supporters, this nonprofit published an informational blog post on its website.
The article outlines the basics of Matching Gift Month, emphasizes the importance of matching gifts for the organization’s mission, and shares additional resources donors can use to pursue matching gift opportunities (such as a direct link to the dedicated Match Page and integrated search tool). Plus, it uses illustrated statistics to communicate the availability of employee gift-matching in a user-friendly way!
Matching gifts have the potential to elevate your organization’s fundraising, bringing your overall community impact to new heights. February’s celebrations can be a fantastic opportunity to jumpstart or scale up your efforts. But it’s certainly not the only time to pursue this funding source.
As you aim to drive awareness of (and participation in) the programs this month, remember that the value of a long-term matching gift strategy can boost your fundraising for years to come. Keep in mind that the practices outlined above—and powering your team with the right tools and resources—can help!
Looking for more helpful matching gift resources? Check out our other recommended blog posts to continue learning:
Complete Guide to Matching Gifts
Dive into the basics and beyond with this complete guide to corporate matching gift programs.
Find out everything from common guidelines and well-known programs to streamlining your efforts with matching gift software.
Not all match-eligible donors will complete their submission processes right away. Discover several impactful strategies for driving more matches to completion with this smart guide.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/DTD_The-Complete-Guide-to-Celebrating-Matching-Gift-Month_Feature.png6001600Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-02-01 16:05:182024-04-02 12:28:24Here’s How You Can Celebrate Matching Gift Month This February
Your university’s alumni are vital members of your community, and they need a place to go when they have questions about resources, events, and ways to give back—that’s where alumni websites come in.
These websites aren’t just online hubs for your alumni community, they’re also valuable tools for boosting alumni engagement and retaining donors. If you’re creating an alumni website for the first time or looking for improvement ideas, the best place to start is other successful websites. In this guide, we’ll explore:
As we analyze the best alumni websites, we’ll also touch on key strategies you can use to boost website engagement, from telling alumni stories to promoting matching gifts. Let’s get started by covering the essential features every alumni website needs.
Essential Alumni Website Features
Just like your main university website must address the needs of prospective students, parents, donors, and current students, your alumni website should feature everything your alumni may need or want to explore. This makes it essential to have clear navigation to the most important pages and information alumni will be looking for.
For most universities, this includes:
A donation page. Alumni who love their alma mater and want to give back to current and future students should be able to easily find your donation page. Make sure there’s a prominent link or button leading to your donation page in your website’s navigation bar. On the page itself, include a mobile-friendly donation form, suggested donation amounts, and information about how to request a matching gift for your university.
News and upcoming events. Engage visitors by regularly highlighting news stories about notable alumni, sharing important university updates, and promoting alumni events. You may do this by creating specific pages or blog categories for news and events. Or, highlight them on your homepage by adding a calendar widget or a rolling carousel of blog posts.
An alumni directory. One of the main reasons alumni visit your website is to network with other alumni in their field. Make it easy for alumni to connect by creating a password-protected alumni directory and hosting it on your website. In the directory itself, enable filtering by college, major, and location. You can also use this page to promote alumni groups and networking opportunities to those looking to connect.
Career services information. Resources and career services that alumni can access should be front and center on your alumni website. Create a page that includes instructions for accessing career services, job listings, and professional development opportunities, then include the page in your site’s navigation bar.
In addition to these essentials, your alumni website should provide other ways for alumni to engage with your university, such as by volunteering or attending school sporting events. If you’re not sure which aspects to focus on, use tools like Google Analytics to analyze the engagement activity on your site and find out which pages alumni visit the most.
9 Best Alumni Websites to Get Inspired By
Now, let’s take a look at a few top alumni website examples and discuss what you can learn from them to improve your own website.
1. Princeton
Princeton’s alumni website is a masterclass in spotlighting alumni news, stories, and events. Right from the homepage, visitors can read the stories of four different notable alumni and feel immediately connected to the Princeton alumni community. As you scroll through the page, you’ll find information about upcoming events to join, university news to catch up on, and a fundraising campaign you can donate to.
Best of all, the Princeton alumni website includes numerous clear calls to action (CTAs) that invite alumni visitors to register for events, watch videos, volunteer, and connect with the community.
2. Washington University in St. Louis
When alumni visit Washington University in St. Louis’s alumni website, they’re greeted with the empowering, welcoming message: “You are WashU forever.” This homepage immediately makes alumni feel at home and takes them back to their days at their alma mater, boosting the chances that they stay on the page and engage with the website.
Directly below this message, five clear CTAs introduce user pathways addressing the main reasons alumni visit the website—to access the directory, find alumni networks, explore events, or learn about upcoming reunions. By honing in on these user motivations and speaking to them right away, this website empowers alumni to find what they’re looking for quickly.
3. California Institute of Technology
One of the highlights of the California Institute of Technology alumni website is its donation page. The form allows alumni to choose from a variety of departments and scholarship programs to support with their donation, and then provides multiple giving options so alumni can choose the donation method that’s most convenient for them.
Specifically, CalTech’s donation page includes a matching gift search tool that alumni can use to find out if they’re eligible for employee giving programs. The donation page also lets alumni designate honorees for their gifts and even donate cryptocurrency.
On its homepage, this alumni website features a video about the association’s “Give 1 Get 1” fundraising campaign. The video follows a student in need of tuition assistance and several alumni who each donate $100 and call one other person to do the same until the student’s bill is paid. This empowering video is followed by a large CTA button that encourages alumni to support their mission and give back just like those in the video.
5. Rhode Island School of Design
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) makes the best alumni websites list thanks to the clear, comprehensive user pathways on its homepage. The website divides actions users might want to take into three categories: Get Involved, How Do I?, and Learn More. Each section then includes links alumni can follow to go right to their desired destination.
6. Vassar College
Look to Vassar College’s alumni website if you need inspiration on how to encourage alumni to get more involved. On this website’s homepage, it features three prominent ways to give back: Make a Gift, Volunteer, and Be a Mentor. Each one is paired with a compelling image, a short blurb about why alumni should give back, and a link to get started.
7. Stanford University
Every alumni website should include a directory that alumni can use to find their peers and network with community members. Stanford’s alumni directory is especially compelling since it features a backdrop of alumni headshots, emphasizing the breadth and diversity of Stanford’s alumni community. It also includes three links users can follow to visit the directory, update their profile, and explore FAQs.
8. Brandeis University
The Brandeis University alumni website gives alumni a variety of unique ways to engage with their community, including by sending branded eCards. Alumni can send the eCard pictured above to any of their friends and peers to invite them to the university’s upcoming alumni weekend.
9. University of Georgia
The University of Georgia (UGA)’s alumni website has a great alumni news section to keep all of its alumni up to date and in the know. This page includes alumni stories, news about new programs, and information about upcoming football games alumni can attend.
Alumni Website Design Tips
Ready to optimize your own website after seeing the possibilities? Keep these alumni website design tips in mind as you do so:
Anticipate website user intent
As mentioned earlier, the best alumni websites are built around users’ reasons for visiting. You can get into the details of your alumni’s unique motivations by analyzing site engagement metrics or sending out a quick survey to ask alumni directly what they want to see from your website.
However, there are also plenty of common motivations for visiting alumni websites that you can start with. For instance, many alumni will visit your website to:
Connect with other alumni for networking purposes.
Find professional development resources and other alumni benefits.
Donate to your university or alumni association.
Keep up to date on the latest alumni and university news.
Make sure that your website not only addresses all of these needs but also makes it easy for users to find everything they’re looking for. Consider adding standout CTA buttons on your homepage that speak directly to alumni and lead them to pages they’re commonly searching for.
Improve UX
Next, take steps to provide a better user experience (UX) for the alumni who visit your website. UX refers to how easy it is for users to navigate your website and engage with content throughout their user journeys. Take the following steps to optimize your site’s user journeys:
Improve navigation. There should be clear, straightforward user pathways that begin on your homepage and take visitors to your most important pages. Create these pathways by including several straightforward CTAs in your site’s header, navigation bar, and footer.
Optimize for mobile. 57.8% of website traffic comes from mobile users. Ensure that alumni visiting your website on their phones don’t run into errors or have to jump through hoops to find information. Test your site’s mobile performance often and make any necessary adjustments.
Remove visual clutter. You don’t want to overwhelm website visitors with too many images or text blocks on any given page. Limit clutter by prioritizing the most important visual elements on each page and removing the rest.
Improve load speeds. If your website takes too long to load, alumni won’t be able to find what they’re looking for quickly. Improve load speeds by compressing images, setting visuals to lazy load, and minimizing HTTP requests.
If you’re not sure how to make some of these improvements, consider working with a web design firm. These experts can help you leverage your content management system (CMS) effectively and ensure your website follows all web design best practices.
Tell alumni stories
Highlighting high-achieving alumni on your website helps strengthen relationships and instill a sense of pride in the alumni who visit it. If you don’t have one already, consider adding a page or blog category to share the stories of specific alumni.
On this page, you can celebrate alumni by sharing news stories and one-on-one interviews. Include photos, videos, direct quotes, and testimonials to let alumni tell their stories in their own words. Mention their class year and other details about their time at your school to help readers connect with them. Consider including a quick form at the bottom of the page that alumni can fill out if they want to share their own story or nominate one of their peers.
Highlight matching gifts
Matching gift programs allow alumni to double their monetary gifts to your university at no additional cost. In these programs, companies commit to matching their employees’ donations to eligible schools and nonprofits at a 1:1 or even 2:1 ratio. This means that if an eligible donor gives a gift of $100, their company would provide an additional $100 donation for a total of $200 for your school.
Matching gifts are an impactful opportunity that’s worth highlighting on your alumni website. Take a look at just a few of the ways spotlighting matching gifts on your website can benefit both alumni and your university:
Alumni can double their impact without increasing their donations.
Your university can double—or even triple—your fundraising revenue.
Alumni are more likely to donate larger amounts if a match is offered.
To access these benefits, start by using a matching gift platform that enables alumni to request matching gifts right from your donation page. As they make a donation, they can quickly input the name of their employer and be automatically directed to eligibility and request information. With auto-submission functionality, you can simplify the process for alumni even further. Here’s how it works:
A donor fills out your donation form as usual.
They enter their work email address and check a box to submit a matching gift request automatically.
The platform submits the request for them, and the donor’s work is done!
Once you have a system in place for simplifying donors’ match requests, take extra steps to promote matching gifts throughout your website. Add matching gifts to a Ways to Give page, write blog posts about the additional impact alumni can make, or create a video explaining how the process works. The more you highlight matching gifts across your alumni website, the higher chances you’ll have of doubling your donations.
With these examples and best practices in mind, you’ll be well-equipped to optimize your alumni website in ways that boost engagement, increase fundraising revenue, and help your alumni find what they’re looking for.
If you want to learn more about improving your website and how matching gifts can make a major difference for your university and alumni, check out these additional resources:
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Alumni-Websites_Feature.png6001600Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-02-01 15:30:362024-09-30 18:06:469 Best Alumni Websites & How to Drive Engagement with Yours
Larger donations play important roles in fundraising success, especially since major gifts of more than $1,000 account for 85% of the average nonprofit’s revenue. The challenge here, though, is that many nonprofits don’t (or can’t) consistently pursue major gifts while juggling many other day-to-day needs and goals.
But there’s a surefire way to consistently secure larger contributions: a leadership annual giving program.
Leadership annual giving unlocks fundraising security with recurring and substantial donations to your nonprofit. This guide explains everything you need to know, broken down into the following sections:
Before you can tap into this powerful fundraising source, you’ll need a thorough understanding of what it is. With that in mind, let’s define leadership annual giving.
What is leadership annual giving?
Leadership annual giving refers to a nonprofit’s largest repeating gifts, typically falling between $500 and $10,000. These leading annual gifts tend to fall in an organization’s mid-level range but largely depend on the giving levels of your organization’s donors. Consider the example to the left of how these donation levels might be categorized.
Leadership annual gifts not only guarantee substantial and sustained support for your organization, but they open the gateway to request larger gifts in the future when you properly steward your relationships with these loyal donors. Plus, there are numerous other benefits of incorporating these gifts into your fundraising strategy.
Around 60% of repeat donors will give again, meaning those who subsequently give to your organization may be a reliable source of support for the long term. Once you’ve already captured a donor’s attention and gained their affinity for your cause, it will be much easier to ask for increased gift amounts or consistent donation frequencies.
To communicate the need for mid-level giving, however, your nonprofit must develop an organized approach to leadership annual giving. An overwhelming majority of donors give less than $500, with the breakdown of donations falling into the following categories according to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project:
53.7% of donors give $100 or less
29.9% give $101-$500
13.8% give $501-$5,000
2.3% give $5,000-$50,000
0.3% give over $50,000
With such a low percentage of donors engaging in mid-level giving, a standardized approach to leadership annual giving is vital to moving donors into this category. Let’s explore the practical steps your organization can take to acquire mid-level gifts.
How to start mid-level fundraising
Thousands of guides exist about securing smaller gifts or chasing major donations. But this advice skips a critical middle step, which is to target leadership annual giving in your fundraising appeals for more sustainable fundraising.
Similar to gifts of other sizes, leadership annual giving requires donor cultivation. Follow these steps to engage supporters in mid-level giving.
1. Identify mid-level giving prospects.
As with many aspects of your fundraising strategy, leadership annual giving starts with your donor data. To narrow your fundraising appeals, you must first identify supporters who might be willing and able to give at this level and frequency. Some data points to guide your prospect research include:
Philanthropic indicators: These factors indicate donors’ willingness to give to your organization, including previous donations to your nonprofit, involvement with other organizations that have similar causes, or personal interests that align with your mission.
Wealth indicators: These factors indicate donors’ ability to give to your organization, including real estate ownership, business affiliations, stock ownership, and other signs of financial ability.
To streamline your data collection, organization, and analysis, consider using a data appending service. Appending data helps ensure your database is accurate and complete, giving you the best possible overview of your prospects.
2. Cultivate donor relationships.
Once you’ve identified mid-level giving prospects, it’s time to form relationships with each of them. This involves educating potential donors about your nonprofit, but also getting to know more about each supporter to build a connection between your organization and the individual.
Personalizing communications by including donors’ names and information about their engagement.
Being transparent about how donations are used and what your nonprofit is doing to fulfill its mission.
Offering insider benefits, such as tours of your nonprofit’s facilities or invite-only events.
Data is still important in the stewardship phase since you’ll constantly learn more about your supporters and use this information to strengthen relationships with them. By cultivating relationships with potential mid-level donors, your nonprofit will also build a trustworthy and impactful reputation in the community. This way, you’ll have a better chance of attracting donors when the leadership annual giving cycle restarts.
3. Make your mid-level fundraising appeals.
Your direct ask for donations must be specifically targeted to leadership annual giving. Whether you reach out via email, design a dedicated donation page, or make your appeal on any other channel, be sure to include the following:
Background information: On any occasion, donors want to know how their gifts will be used. But because of the popularity of smaller, one-time gifts, they may not know what leadership annual giving is or why it’s important. Along with details about your nonprofit, the reason for the fundraiser, and the impact you’re able to make with donations, provide a brief explainer about mid-level giving and why it’s important.
Giving flexibility: Remember to appeal to donors’ preferences to make giving as easy as possible for them. If you don’t have sufficient data from your donors to guide your appeals, use general statistics in the meantime. For example, 94% of recurring donors prefer giving monthly, meaning you should offer the ability to subscribe to monthly gifts to appeal to more donors.
Various involvement opportunities: Even if you’ve done all your research and crafted the perfect appeal to the ideal prospect, they may say no. And that’s okay! If the supporter can’t commit to leadership annual giving right now, you should still secure their engagement with your organization through another form of giving, such as volunteer opportunities or fundraising event attendance.
While your fundraising appeals should take a multi-channel approach, your best bet is to segment donors based on their communication preferences to reach out to each donor on the channel they prefer. Other shared characteristics, like donors’ interests or occupations, can be used to further segment donors and send messages that are as personalized as possible.
4. Steward mid-level donors.
Because a central component of leadership annual giving is recurring gifts, your nonprofit’s continual stewardship of these donor relationships is crucial to securing continued support. A few ways you can continuously engage donors, even after they give, include:
Sending impact reports and other updates about what your nonprofit is doing.
Telling beneficiaries’ stories.
Stewardship solidifies these relationships to ensure long-term support, but may also enable your nonprofit to upgrade these donors over time. This is how you build an organic major giving pipeline, which is extremely important for nonprofits but difficult to do. For example, you might transition a leadership annual giving donor into a major gift donor after establishing a relationship with that supporter.
Leadership annual giving tactics
If you’re ready to increase your leadership annual giving, there are a few best practices you can follow to develop the process.
1. Offer matching gifts.
A classic way to double the amount your nonprofit raises, matching gifts can increase both your mid-level revenue and the likelihood that a donor will give to your leadership annual giving campaign. Here’s how:
More revenue: Eligible donors will have their donations matched by their employers, meaning your nonprofit receives two donations instead of just one. Plus, 1 in 3 donors say they would make larger donations if they knew their gift would be matched.
More donations: When donors find their contributions could be doubled at no extra cost to them, they’ll feel they can make twice the impact and be more excited to give!
Simply let donors know about the opportunity when they donate so they can find out if they’re eligible through their employer. A tool that offers auto-submission, like Double the Donation, can further simplify the process by enabling donors to automatically submit a match request to their employer. For more information on this tool, check out the video below:
Be sure to check donors’ eligibility before reaching out to mid-level or major donors about matching gifts. After all, donors can’t donate matched gifts if their employers don’t offer the program. Even if their employers offer matching as part of their CSR initiatives, donors may be restricted to donation maximums.
2. Launch a giving society.
Providing specific giving amounts is a surefire way to simplify the donation process for any level of giving. However, it can also incentivize leadership annual giving by adding an element of prestige to the donation.
For example, establish 4-5 tiers based on giving amounts, such as one tier for $500-$1,000 gifts and another for $1,001-$2,000 gifts. Then, assign names to each tier and promote the benefits for each, such as invite-only events or tours of your nonprofit’s facilities.
This reward system incentivizes donors to give specific amounts in exchange for achieving a status and receiving the benefits.
3. Track your progress.
Analyze the efficiency of your leadership annual giving campaign by using fundraising data and setting incremental goals. For example, you might set a goal number of prospects to convert into mid-level donors or a specific amount to raise by a deadline.
Marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) are similarly important to track, such as website traffic and cost per conversion. This can help you identify your most successful marketing tactics to convert prospects into donors.
4. Offer non-cash giving options.
97% to 99% of all wealth in the United States is held in assets like stocks and real estate, meaning your donors may not have cash to contribute to your leadership annual giving program. To make this level of giving accessible to as many donors as possible, encourage donors to give non-cash gifts, such as:
Gifts of stock
Donor-advised funds (DAFs)
Planned gifts
Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs)
In addition to being more accessible to donors, non-cash gifts also encourage generosity since they aren’t part of a donor’s liquid, day-to-day funds. In other words, donors can give a significant gift to your organization and still have the spending power needed for their own expenses.
Final thoughts on leadership annual giving
Tapping into leadership annual giving can provide your nonprofit with the support it needs to achieve its goals. If you’re interested in other ways to maximize donations for your cause, check out the following resources:
Donor Recognition: When & How to Acknowledge Supporters. Cultivating relationships with donors starts with showing your gratitude for their contributions. Here is a complete guide to acknowledging supporters for increased retention and engagement.
Nonprofit Basics: Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits. To convert prospects into mid-level donors, you’ll first need to spread the word about your leadership annual giving program. Learn how your nonprofit can leverage Google Ads in this guide.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/leadership-annual-giving_feature.jpg6001300Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-01-30 21:00:572025-02-21 14:59:50How to Raise More: The Truth About Leadership Annual Giving
The Ultimate Guide to Employer Appends for Fundraisers
You likely gather many details about your donors—those who support your cause with their funds, time, or resources. Perhaps you collect names, contact information, engagement history, interests, and hobbies. The more comprehensive an understanding you have of each supporter, the better you can tailor your fundraising strategy to effectively reach your target audience.
However, one critical piece of the puzzle that’s often overlooked is employment data. Knowing where your donors work can play a significant role in how you relate to them in terms of fundraising, corporate giving opportunities, and more. And if you don’t already have this data point on file? That’s where employer appends come in.
In this guide, we’ll provide a walkthrough of all things employer appends—including:
Understanding your donors’ employment status can elevate your fundraising efforts in huge ways. You won’t want to discard the wealth of information gathered through employer appends, nor the amplified impact it brings.
Let’s get started!
The Basics of Data Appends
Data appends are a particular type of data enhancement strategy that allows nonprofits and other fundraising groups to learn more about the individuals in their networks. These efforts aim to provide organizations with more comprehensive and up-to-date information, often concerning their donors and other supporters. This empowers fundraisers to adjust their messaging and overall engagement strategies by better discerning who a donor is and what makes them tick.
Organizations typically provide the information they do have to a company dedicated to data enhancement services. The company then compares donor information against a mega-database of individual data, filling in the details the organization lacks as they go.
Employer appends, in particular, empower organizations to collect new and optimized data regarding the companies their supporters work for. Beyond employer information, other common types of data appends include mailing addresses, email addresses, birth dates, and phone numbers.
As you’ll notice, these types of appends primarily fill in missing or outdated contact information. That makes connecting with supporters easy for email outreach, phonathon fundraisers, direct mail solicitations, and other campaigns.
What Are Employer Appends?
Employer appends are one of the most common types of data appends for nonprofits, schools, and other fundraising organizations. In this case, the unknown information an organization seeks is that of a donor’s employer.
By providing other data points—such as the person’s name, location, phone number, education experience, etc.—the intended result is to locate the company that the individual works for (and sometimes even their job title!). In the end, the organization receives invaluable insights that can help uncover matching gift and other workplace giving opportunities, estimate wealth data, and more.
How Employer Appends Work for Fundraisers
The employer appends process is simple. After locating a data appending service (we’ll cover what to look for below), you’ll want to collect as much data about your donors as possible. This should include:
Name
Unique ID number
Mailing address (home, business, or both)
Region (state, city, and country)
Email address(es)
Phone number(s)
College or university (along with class year and major/degree, if available)
Last gift amount
Date of last donation
Date the entry was last updated
You will likely not have every data point available for each donor. And that’s okay! However, starting with as much information as possible increases the likelihood that the appending service provider can locate and match supporter records to the right employer information.
From there, the appending service will conduct its own research, typically scanning a number of public and privately held databases, which may include government records, SEC filings, social media profiles, business registrations, and more.
When the service provider is able to match a donor record with an employing company, they make a note of the identified information, check the newly collected data for accuracy, and share their findings with the organization. Ultimately, the organization is able to utilize the information to its best advantage in terms of optimal fundraising and donor relations.
Benefits of Employer Appends for Nonprofits and Universities
Employer appends can bring big results to nonprofit fundraising. Knowing where your donors and other key supporters work plays a significant role in overall engagement strategies, not to mention enabling targeted efforts regarding available workplace giving opportunities.
Specifically, employer appending can help your team:
Determine matching gift eligibility —
Thousands of companies offer matching gift programs where they agree to match employee donations to charitable organizations.
However, you likely won’t know which donors are eligible for (and, as a result, which to follow up with about) matching opportunities if you don’t know where they work. In fact, this knowledge gap even results in over $4 to $7 billion in matching gift funding going unclaimed each year!
Once you have the information you need, however, you’ll be able to prompt qualifying donors to complete the match process and secure additional funding on your organization’s behalf. This is true not only in the form of corporate match revenue but in elevated individual giving (and donor engagement), as well.
Keep in mind that matching gift services—like Double the Donation—can help nonprofits target and follow up with matching gift opportunities as well. However, employer appends are often able to provide additional data points with which to guide an organization’s strategy, allowing fundraisers to capture supporter information even if the individual is not currently in the donation pipeline.
Here’s an example: “Jody, did you know that your employer, the Home Depot, matches full- and part-time employee donations up to $3,000 per person each year? Click here to request your matching gift!”
Uncover volunteer grant opportunities —
Similarly, if your organization has a supporter base of dedicated volunteers, corporate volunteer grants can help stretch their donated time even further. These are additional giving programs offered by philanthropic-minded businesses, the difference being that employers contribute monetary funds to the organizations with which their employees volunteer their time. Volunteer grants, which are also referred to as “dollars for doers,” can be an excellent way to multiply the impact of volunteer time for your organization, and supporters love being able to get involved in that way as well.
But again, you’ll need to know which companies your volunteers work for, which is where your employer appends come in. That way, you can be sure to inform them about the opportunities, encourage participation, and direct them to their employers’ request processes to get involved.
Here’s an example: “Thanks for all of your help at the shelter this weekend and over the past several months, Sam!As a Verizon employee, your volunteer hours likely qualify you to request a corporate volunteer grant on our behalf. Click here to learn more about how to request your grant!”
Identify potential corporate sponsorships —
Corporate sponsors can bring your nonprofit’s next fundraising event to the next level, and knowing which companies your supporters work for can aid in determining top prospective sponsors and help get your foot in the door! Once you know where your donors work, leverage the information as an in with a potential sponsor or encourage donors to advocate for a partnership on your behalf.
Here’s an example: “Ashley, it’s great to connect with the Microsoft team. More than 100 of our nonprofit’s donors work for Microsoft, and we’ve received thousands of dollars in matching gifts from your company in the past. As it’s clear that we already have a lot in common, would you be interested in sponsoring our upcoming event?”
Estimate wealth data —
Your donors’ wealth levels can play a significant role in their ability to give charitably, and understanding their limits can help organizations determine ideal fundraising asks. Knowing which companies your donors work for, their roles in the businesses, and more can help shed light on their estimated incomes and, by extension, giving abilities.
Here’s an example: “Sarah, we thank you for your continued support of our nonprofit cause. Will you consider making a $10,000 donation to help us reach our year-end giving goal?”
Tailor donor communications —
You want your donor outreach to be as personal and targeted as possible. Including direct references to donor-specific information helps develop relationships and shows that you’re not sending the same copied-and-pasted message to each person in your contacts. And, as you likely know, targeted messaging can be one of the best ways to develop strengthened, beyond-surface-level donor relationships, build connections with the cause, and ultimately drive more nonprofit involvement among supporters.
Highlighting an individual’s employing company can be a great way to do so, especially regarding getting involved with workplace giving programs. And if you don’t already have your donors’ employment information, that’s where employer appends can help.
Here’s an example: “Jeffrey, the Walt Disney Corporation offers a range of corporate giving opportunities that can benefit our organization in big ways. As a member of the Disney team, you have the chance to participate in matching gifts, volunteer grants, and more.”
Learn more about your supporters —
The more you know about your supporters—donors, volunteers, and prospects alike—the better you can connect with the individuals who make your mission possible. Since most people’s careers are a key component of their lives and what makes them who they are, understanding where they work and what they do can be a key piece of the “getting to know your donors” puzzle. Plus, it can even help shine a light on their own interests and hobbies.
Here’s an example: “As a Petco employee, you likely care about the wellbeing of the little, furry friends in our community. That’s exactly what our organization, the Atlanta Animal Shelter, is dedicated to, as well. Learn more about how you can get involved with the cause here!”
Overall, employer records are an extremely beneficial tool for designing targeted and effective outreach. However, you likely don’t have that information on file for all of your supporters. By leveraging employer appends, you can collect the information you need to guide your organization’s engagement efforts toward success.
Employer Appends Services | What to Look For
It’s possible to conduct donor research on your own; however, your organization is significantly more likely to uncover accurate and up-to-date information about more donors more quickly when you outsource the efforts to a third-party provider. And employer appends services are dedicated to doing just that in the most effective and efficient ways possible.
So how can you select the right employer (or other donor data) appends provider for your needs? Be sure to do your research beforehand.
For example, here’s how it works with Double the Donation:
Organizations typically see successful appends rates between 20% and 50% of the records they provide to the appending service (which is significantly higher than the industry average).
Employer appends are typically completed and provided within a few days of the organization submitting their inputs.
Appends records are assigned an accuracy rating. This takes into account the uniqueness of a donor’s name and the level of detailed inputs initially provided, as well as the comprehensiveness and recency of the data source used.
As an added bonus, previously unknown corporate executives are often identified and flagged as potential major donors.
Multiple appending options are available, including real-time employer appends for Double the Donation users, as well as one-time bulk appends services for any organization.
Employer appends can be uploaded into Double the Donation to trigger matching gift emails and other automated donor outreach.
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Other Frequently Asked Questions
Where does Double the Donation get its employer data?
Our propriety screening method combines data from both publicly and privately available sources. These sources include public government records, SEC filings, social media profiles, business registrations, and a variety of other sources.
What hit rate should our organization expect?
We typically see append rates which range from 20%-50%. This is based on a variety of factors such as:
Donor demographics (higher append rates among organizations which have a greater percentage of donors still in the workforce)
Average donation amount (higher append rates for wealthier donors)
Type of nonprofit (higher append rates for higher education)
How does Double the Donation determine its “accuracy score” for each record?
Our accuracy score is based on a number of factors including:
Uniqueness of donor names: With only a name it can be tough to determine whether we’ve identified the correct individual. The number of individuals with the same name plays a role in our accuracy score. A search for a common name such as “Steve Smith” will have a much lower accuracy score than a more unique / one of a kind name.
Level of detail provided on a record: The more information that you provide on each record, the greater the accuracy score. Even though there may be 1,000 individuals named “Steve Smith” if we’re able to match additional fields such as a phone number or mailing address it increases the accuracy score for that record.
Our data source / date the data source was updated:
We recognize that not all of our data sources are created equal. The data source, as well as the update frequency, plays a role in each individual record’s accuracy score.
Which types of nonprofits see the highest append rates and the most accurate results?
Our ability to append employer data is dependent upon the input file an organization provides to us. Organizations which keep their databases up-to-date see the best results.
For instance:
Do you have an up-to-date email address?
Do you have an up-to-date mailing address?
For higher education institutions, can you provide us with the years your donor / alumni graduated?
How complete are the input files that nonprofits normally send to Double the Donation?
It depends. Very rarely does an organization have comprehensive data on all of its donors, especially when you consider an organization which raises funds from multiple channels (mail, online, phone, in-person, etc.)
We do request that you provide us with as much data as you can as it helps us locate and match your records to the appropriate individual.
Are subsidiaries and alternate spelling variations listed separately or all in a single subsidiary field?
Our matching gift database is comprised of the following two tables:
A table mapping subsidiaries to parent companies
A table mapping all company details to a single parent company
These tables are then joined using a unique ID that ties all the data together.
Can I use employer append files I already have with Double the Donation?
An organization navigates to the “import wizard” to upload its employer appends CSV file.
The organization previews record uploads to ensure the data has been mapped properly.
The organization leverages employer append workflows to match Unknown Eligibility donors with the correct employers.
You can learn more about leveraging bulk employer appends files alongside Double the Donation with our Knowledge Base article on the topic here.
Concluding Thoughts
The more you know about your donors, the more effectively you can target and attract them to your cause. Not to mention, having employment data on file empowers organizations to seek workplace giving opportunities as well.
You may have a solid base of information pertaining to donors’ employing companies already. However, employer appends can go a long way toward filling in the blanks and connecting the dots. This is especially true in terms of matching gift programs, volunteer grants, and more.
Interested in further developing your organization’s donor data strategy? Dive into these other forms of data appends services—and how they can benefit your team—below:
What Is a Date of Birth Append? A Comprehensive Guide. Uncover more about your organization’s supporters with date of birth appending. Find out donors’ ages for strategic segmentation, send birthday outreach, and more.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/DTD-The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Employer-Appends-for-Fundraisers.png3801000Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-01-28 19:14:372025-02-12 15:28:09The Ultimate Guide to Employer Appends for Fundraisers
For many students, attending an institution of higher education is a transformative experience. This is all thanks to the professors you hire, the programs you offer, the facilities you maintain, and the scholarships you grant. To continue presenting your students with the resources they need to fulfill all their academic and personal goals, however, you need funding.
Most schools immediately turn to alumni fundraising to acquire these funds—and it’s not hard to see why. Even though they’ve left your campus, your alumni will always have a special connection to your institution. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk through all you need to know to maximize alumni giving:
The more engaged your alumni are, the stronger your school’s community will be. Set your current and upcoming students for success by improving your alumni fundraising strategy.
Why is alumni fundraising important?
Colleges and universities undertake a variety of projects, initiatives, and improvements to create fulfilling experiences for their students. By securing alumni gifts, your school can:
Fund more scholarships. According to Hanover Research’s U.S. alumni survey, 74% of alumni indicate that their top inspiration for giving to their alma mater would be to either make education more affordable for other students or because they want to give back. Alumni donations are a stellar way for them to “pay it forward” and make your institution more accessible to aspiring scholars.
Create enriching programs and events. Alumni fundraising allows you to increase the value that students receive during their years of study. For instance, you might hire nutritionists to host informational healthy eating sessions, open up more study abroad opportunities, or expand your music program with new course offerings.
Improve campus facilities. Whether you’re seeking to construct a new dormitory building or renovate old classrooms, alumni gifts can provide you with the necessary funds to embark on such projects and improve the student experience on campus.
Upgrade technology. While new technology can be a considerable upfront investment, state-of-the-art tools like laser projectors, 360-degree lecture recording cameras, and interactive whiteboards can significantly boost student engagement.
Provide more student services. More students than ever are struggling with their mental health, with 44% reporting symptoms of depression and 37% indicating that they have experienced anxiety. Alumni gifts can go toward essential student support services such as mental health counseling, career planning, and tutoring.
It’s clear that alumni fundraising can have a significant impact on students and your institution as a whole, so much so that there are even higher education conferences dedicated to it. Understanding and communicating why gifts are so important can go a long way toward raising more from your graduates.
6 Strategies to Encourage Alumni Giving
Your school equips its students with the skills, knowledge, and connections they need to thrive in the professional world. After they’ve received their diplomas and launched their careers, invite them to give back and set the next generation up for success. Follow these six strategies for requesting donations from alumni:
1. Conduct prospect research.
Your alumni are just as diverse as your student base. This means that, especially if you’re trying to secure a major or annual gift, some alumni will be more promising than others. Prospect research refers to the process of using philanthropic and wealth indicators to identify individuals who have both an affinity for your institution and the capacity to give.
Typically, you’ll search your alumni database for information such as:
Past engagement history with your institution, such as volunteering.
Personal interests related to your funding goals, such as an affinity for the arts.
Previous gifts made to your institution.
Real estate ownership.
Business connections.
Stock ownership.
By conducting prospect research, your school will determine which alumni to prioritize for your mid-size or major gift outreach. If this process seems too intensive for your team, there are plenty of prospect research services that can sift through your data and build a list of prospective donors for you to solicit.
2. Segment your alumni.
Before you begin crafting your fundraising messages and reaching out to alumni, take the time to segment your audience. This step involves separating your alumni into various groups based on shared characteristics so you can tailor your communications to resonate with each individual’s giving capacity, interests, and preferences.
An effective way to pinpoint the most promising groups for your segmented alumni outreach is to create a donor persona. According to Fifty and Fifty, a persona is useful for fleshing out your understanding of your target audience and pinpointing common overlapping traits. Here’s an example of a donor persona that could be useful for alumni fundraising:
Name: Melanie Martin
Age: 35-45
Gender: Female
Family Status: Married with young children
Location: Suburban
Education Level: Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees
Occupation: Middle management in a marketing firm
Values: Community involvement, paying support they received in previous years forward
Interests: Connecting with fellow alumni, attending family-friendly events
Challenges/Pain Points: Limited time due to professional and family life, feels disconnected from the school since she graduated over ten years prior
From this persona, you could reasonably infer that Melanie’s main motivation for giving back is to support the programs that got her where she is today. Also, she would rather attend annual, family-friendly, reunion-style events. This allows her to reconnect with her alma mater while juggling the other important aspects of her life. Additionally, you could recommend that she signs up to donate smaller recurring gifts since they are much more convenient and manageable.
You can make personas like this for all your most influential donor segments. Just ensure you regularly revisit and update them with necessary information as your donor base evolves.
3. Promote matching gifts.
Your alumni give because they want to make an impact on your school and the students attending it. With matching gifts, they can double or even triple their donation amount at no additional cost. Many companies have a matching gift program as part of their corporate social responsibility initiatives, in which they’ll match employee gifts made to your institution at typically a 1:1 ratio.
However, an estimated $6-$10 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed every year, simply because donors aren’t aware of these opportunities. Ensure your alumni don’t miss out by promoting matching gifts across your various platforms. For example, consider:
Including basic information about these programs in a section of your email newsletter.
Sending follow-up emails after a match-eligible graduate makes a gift.
Producing eye-catching social media posts to spread awareness of matching gifts.
Creating a dedicated matching gifts page on your school website with detailed instructions about the process.
For alumni who are worried that they won’t be able to give enough to make a meaningful difference, learning about matching gifts could provide them with the motivation they need to follow through.
Check out our short video on matching gift best practices to unlock additional insights for improving your alumni fundraising strategy:
As the video suggests, your school can even turn to a matching gift expert for specialized assistance in using matching gifts to boost your fundraising efforts.
4. Invest in tools that facilitate alumni giving.
Modern technology has opened up many possibilities for your school to raise funds. The more options you provide your alumni, the more likely they are to donate. Some game-changing fundraising tools that are worth investing in are:
Matching gift software. A matching gift platform like 360MatchPro makes it easy for your institution to identify match-eligible donors and send automated follow-up emails with all the information they need to request a match. Plus, with the latest auto-submission feature, alumni who work for a company with CSR software that integrates with 360MatchPro can simply input their corporate email address when they donate and let the technology complete the entire request process for them.
Text-to-give platform. 85% of all Americans own a smartphone. Embrace the popularity of these devices by using a text-to-give platform that allows your alumni to donate directly from their phones. All they have to do is text your chosen keyword to your text-to-give number and receive a link that takes them to your mobile-responsive donation page.
Peer-to-peer fundraising software. Empower your most passionate graduates to fundraise on your behalf with peer-to-peer fundraising software. With this software, alumni can create individual branded donation pages to which they can direct their friends and family.
Event software. Hosting alumni events is an effective way to both keep them engaged and raise revenue for your school. By leveraging event planning and management tools, you can set up registration fees, plan in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, and create a memorable experience for all your attendees.
Online donation pages. Create a dedicated online donation page to house your alumni fundraising efforts. Include a matching gift FAQ, eligible funding programs, and an easy-to-use donation form. The philanthropic sectors of universities are also eligible for the Google Ad Grant, which you can use to enhance your donation page’s online visibility and appear on the top of Google’s search results page for keywords related to your institution.
Review your goals and budget before researching specific software solutions to implement for your institution. Take the time to read online reviews and request demos to determine which options will work best for your needs.
5. Provide a variety of opportunities to contribute.
Not every one of your graduates will be a major donor. However, that doesn’t mean many of them aren’t willing and eager to contribute in other ways. Keep these alumni involved by sharing a variety of opportunities for them to support your school, such as:
Planned giving. Alumni can set up planned, or legacy, gifts that your institution will receive after they pass. There are multiple types of planned giving, including bequests and charitable gift annuities. These gifts allow alumni donors to leave a legacy without having to worry about factoring donations into their day-to-day financial obligations.
Volunteering. While your recent graduates may not have the capacity to make large gifts, they can demonstrate their commitment to your school by contributing their time and skills instead. In fact, the average number of alumni who engage in volunteering is higher among those zero to five years out from graduating than any other cohort. Plus, if their employers offer volunteer grants, you can earn a certain amount of revenue based on the number of volunteer hours your alumni serve.
Fundraising. Encourage your alumni to participate in a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign or start a birthday fundraiser on your school’s behalf. This way, they can support your fundraising efforts by reaching out to their friends and family members for donations.
Attending events. Alumni can register for your events or participate as speakers. For example, they could lend a hand by serving as a mentor for a current student or using their professional expertise to hold workshops on important topics such as financial literacy.
To open up more opportunities that appeal to your alumni, consider sending out a survey to find out what they’re most interested in. You could ask them about the types of events they prefer or what skills they would like to apply as volunteers.
6. Focus on building strong alumni relationships.
At the heart of it, alumni fundraising is anything but transactional. The key to success lies in building strong, meaningful relationships with your alumni. Start by collecting information on and abiding by their communication preferences. Hanover Research found that 7 in 10 alumni donors want to hear from their institution at least quarterly.
Stay connected beyond fundraising appeals by sharing relevant news, updating donors on the impact of their gifts, and interacting with graduates on social media. Remember to practice frequent, thoughtful recognition to demonstrate just how much alumni mean to your school. Rather than sending generic thank-you emails, consider these popular ideas to appreciate your alumni:
Send an eCard. Level up your thank-you’s by producing branded eCards that your team can effortlessly personalize with each recipient’s name and details related to their specific contribution. Dedicated eCard platforms like eCardWidget provide all the tools you’ll need to create your designs, add engaging animations, schedule your eCards, and more.
Gift branded merchandise. Whether you send them a t-shirt or a set of stickers, your alumni will be glad to have the chance to display their connection to your school. This type of appreciation has the added benefit of providing extra marketing for your institution as well.
Add spotlights to your website. Set up a dedicated page on your school’s website to publicly recognize some of your top alumni donors. Ask for permission to feature individual names, photos, and quotes to turn these spotlights into an inspiring resource for other alumni who are considering making a gift.
Whatever thank-you methods you choose, remember to emphasize how your alumni have made an impact on your institution and the lives of its current students to keep them continually invested in your success.
Alumni Fundraising Letter Template
When it comes time to reach out to your alumni, what do you say? Use this template as a jumping-off point for your alumni fundraising letter:
[School Letterhead/Logo]
Dear [Recipient’s Name],
We hope this letter finds you well. As a cherished alumn(us/a) of our [Institution Name] family, you know that we’re on a constant journey to provide our current and incoming students with the highest quality of education. In our pursuit of excellence, we’ve accomplished quite a lot in the past few years, including [one or two recent accomplishments].
This year, we’re taking on a new initiative to [fundraising goal]. By raising $[fundraising goal amount], we’ll be able to [impact on the institution and students].
Today, we kindly ask you to take a moment and reflect on your time at [Institution Name]. Will you join in our efforts to create more valuable experiences for our students, so that they can go on to pursue their career aspirations and lifelong dreams?
Any gift, no matter the size, will leave a lasting impact on our students, faculty, and institution as a whole. To make a contribution, [specific instructions on how to donate, such as visit your online donation page]. If you’d like to learn about other ways to support our initiative, please visit our website to explore volunteering opportunities, upcoming events, and more.
Thank you for being an integral part of our institution’s history and helping us shape a brighter future for [Institution Name] and our students.
Sincerely,
[Signature]
[Name]
[Title]
Popular Alumni Fundraising Ideas
Once you’ve developed a foundation of strong alumni relationships for your institution, get creative to maximize participation. Some popular alumni fundraising ideas to consider include:
Silent auction. Go beyond simply requesting donations from alumni by hosting a virtual or hybrid silent auction. No matter where they’re located, your attendees can bid on desirable items such as concert tickets, artwork, travel packages, and more—all while supporting your school. Procure items that you know will appeal to your alumni to encourage higher bidding and participation.
Cookbook. Your alumni may move away from campus, but that doesn’t mean they can’t feel close to your school’s community anymore. Ask your graduates to submit their best-loved recipes and compile them into a cookbook that you can sell to alumni, parents, and other supporters of your institution.
Sports watch party. Sports are a tried-and-true way to rally your alumni together and rekindle their love for your school. Organize watch parties for your next major sporting event and ask attendees to pay a small registration fee for the experience. These can be wonderful opportunities for alumni to bond and make connections with others in their area.
Brick fundraiser. Is your school planning to construct a new building or renovate an area on campus? Start a brick fundraiser that allows your alumni to purchase a personalized brick or tile with their name on it. You’ll be able to raise funds and your alumni will be able to leave a lasting, physical mark on your institution.
Alumni reunion. An alumni reunion gives your graduates a chance to reminisce about their time at your school and revisit old memories on campus. Beyond charging registration fees, you can earn additional revenue by selling branded merchandise and holding raffles during the event.
After each fundraiser, review key metrics such as your attendance rate and average gift amount to determine which ideas resonate most with your alumni. Use these insights to tailor your alumni fundraising strategy to increase participation moving forward.
Wrapping Up: Maximizing the Potential of Alumni Fundraising
The success of your alumni fundraising efforts depends upon building relationships that harken back to the value you provided graduates during their studies and call attention to the impact they can have on the students who come after them. Make all your alumni feel included by sharing a variety of ways they can contribute to your goals. Then, as they continue to grow and flourish in their lives, they’ll be able to respond to more opportunities to give.
To learn more tips and best practices for connecting with your alumni and raising funds for your school, check out these additional resources:
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Alumni-Fundraising_Feature.jpg6001600Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-01-25 19:23:382024-07-17 16:09:09Alumni Fundraising: A Complete Guide to Winning More Support
Thanks to the growing movement toward increased corporate citizenship, combined with innovative new technology, many companies are stepping up their employee-giving game like never before.
Businesses interested in creating or improving their workplace giving programs—as well as nonprofits eager to engage donors and corporate partners in new ways—will find inspiration in these versatile employee giving campaign ideas.
Before we dive into ideas your business can use for employee giving, let’s explore the basics.
The Importance of Employee Giving
The framework of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming increasingly popular across many sectors. It’s even inspiring employers to provide a variety of ways for their company to give back to the community in the form of philanthropic donations, volunteerism, and proactive policies that put people and the environment first.
Take a look at these statistics to understand the power of CSR:
77% of consumers aim to support socially responsible companies.
93% of employees believe companies must lead with purpose.
92% of consumers would buy a product that supports a good cause.
A welcome shift from the “greed is good” mindset of past generations, corporate citizenship promotes commitment to sustainability both inside and outside corporate office walls.
Employee giving (also called workplace giving) is one of the most popular CSR strategies. It creates opportunities for everyone in a corporate environment to support charitable organizations and causes in a collective effort, making a much greater impact than what most individuals can do alone. From annual fundraisers and donation drives to giving days and volunteer programs, employee giving campaigns will (and should!) look different in every workplace, depending on your unique company culture and values.
However, there is one aspect of employee giving every workplace campaign should include: matching donations.
When individual employees give from their own pockets to eligible nonprofits, their companies should match those donations. Through matching gift programs, companies can double their employees’ impact on the causes they care about. This kind of support and commitment builds buy-in, signals to employees that their company is just as committed to this work as they are, and affirms that their participation is seen and celebrated.
The Benefits of Workplace Giving Campaigns
Employee giving initiatives backed by matching donations can do a whole lot of good—and not just for your nonprofit beneficiaries and the communities they serve.
A company’s public image, for example, can undoubtedly improve with well-documented charitable contributions. Plus, the tax incentives for large philanthropic gifts are nothing to shrug at. Still, it’s the impact that workplace giving campaigns have on employee morale that cannot be understated.
Generosity, science tells us, is tied to human happiness. Creating meaningful opportunities for employees to build relationships and contribute to good causes alongside their peers leads to a greater sense of belonging, stronger engagement in future activities and projects, and higher staff retention. It’s a win-win-win!
With the help of automated systems, giving can become an integral part of the culture of your workplace. Imagine an environment where giving is as much a part of your work week as logging into your email in the morning—not just once a year, but throughout! That’s achievable by implementing matching gift programs and hosting regular employee giving campaigns.
9 Employee Giving Campaign Ideas to Try Throughout the Year
We’ve gathered some of our favorite workplace giving campaign ideas you can implement year-round at your office. Plus, each idea features an example from a real nonprofit that nailed it.
Every workplace is different, so think creatively about how you can customize and adjust these ideas based on your company’s size, time constraints, interests, and areas of specialty. The possibilities are endless—just like your potential for making a positive impact in your community.
1. Prepare for winter with in-kind donations.
Winter is a particularly difficult time of year for many nonprofit beneficiaries, especially if they’re individuals experiencing homelessness or poverty. Encourage your employees to make in-kind donations, which are any non-monetary gift, to organizations that need them. This is an especially great idea for employees with tighter budgets who may not be able to justify a monetary donation.
To make the donation process easier for your employees, partner up with one or a few specific nonprofits. Ask them what donations would be most helpful to them, and then provide your employees with that list of items. Organizations might be searching for items that directly help their beneficiaries, such as canned food or winter clothing, or they might be searching for items to empower them to more effectively help their beneficiaries, such as computers, printers, or fundraising event decorations.
Real-world example: Second Helpings Atlanta is a nonprofit food rescue organization whose mission is to reduce hunger and food waste in the Metro Atlanta area. It rescues healthy, nutritious, surplus food and distributes it to those in need.
They’ve created a network with over 75 food donor organizations across Atlanta, including businesses such as Chick-Fil-A, Mercedes Benz, Pizza Hut, and Publix. These businesses work with Second Helpings Atlanta as part of their CSR and employee giving initiatives to use food for good in the local community.
2. Lean into the competitive spirit for Giving Tuesday.
Year-end is a popular time of year for nonprofit fundraising, and it all begins with Giving Tuesday. This global day of generosity happens the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving and is meant to channel the shopping madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday toward a worthy cause instead.
A virtual peer-to-peer or team fundraising Giving Tuesday campaign is an easy and fun way to foster friendly competition as individuals or staff teams try to out-raise one another for their cause.
The secret to a successful peer-to-peer fundraiser? Keep spirits high and be a cheerleader for your fundraisers! Celebrate everyone’s hard work by shouting out teams at various times throughout the campaign and offering prizes for the teams with the most donations, the highest amount raised, or even the most team spirit.
Real-world example: For the Together Housed campaign, participants created personal or team fundraising pages to raise money over three weeks for women in Los Angeles experiencing homelessness.
This virtual effort raised over $155K for the Downtown Women’s Center and culminated in a live-streamed celebration to thank individual fundraisers and corporate sponsors.
3. Turn your holiday party into an opportunity to give back.
The holidays bring out the giving spirit in even the Grinchiest among us—especially if the food and drinks are free. If you’ve already budgeted for a staff gathering or outing for the holidays, think about adding on a party-worthy fundraising element like a silent auction to benefit a local nonprofit. This is also an excellent time to celebrate your Giving Tuesday teams or winners with silly prizes or awards!
Depending on the size of your staff, a team can volunteer to source auction items or request that everyone (CEO included) contribute an item, experience, or basket to auction off during the party.
Sourcing items can be work-intensive, so make the rest of the process easy on your team by using an online silent auction platform that partygoers can use to bid right from their smartphones. Mobile bidding also makes it easy to create a hybrid or virtual auction experience if your remote employees want to start a bidding war for a good cause.
Real-world example: The Ultimutt Auction fundraiser for the Bow Wow Buddies Foundation offered bidders a range of fun experiences and items from local businesses. To reach a wider audience and build momentum to raise more funds, the organizers had the online auction open for a week, enabling them to raise over $21K!
4. Kick off the new year with a monthly giving program.
With everyone energized by your Giving Tuesday and holiday party success (and hopefully some time off), build on this momentum to get employees excited about giving back regularly.
A great place to start is by hosting a casual “Lunch and Learn” once a month, where a guest speaker or representative from a local nonprofit gives an informal presentation about their impact and need.
The actual giving part can happen in a few different ways:
A monthly stipend from the company that employees can donate
Informal monthly contributions matched by the company
Automated payroll deductions (also matched by the company)
Build buy-in by providing incentives like a catered lunch for those who attend and asking staff to nominate organizations or community groups that are meaningful to them. National celebrations like Black History Month (February), Women’s History Month (March), Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May), etc., can be a great guidepost for causes to highlight if you’re not sure where to start.
Be sure that your company’s matching gift program is set up before you begin your new monthly giving program. That way, you’ll be able to engage your employees through philanthropy and increase the impact of gifts to your local nonprofits.
Real-world example: Clothing retailer rue21’s annual giving campaign organizes staff fundraising teams by department (Marketing, Merchandising, Human Resources, and so on). Each year, they have raised more funds for their nonprofit partner organization, Foster Love Project, which serves youth in foster care.
5. Spring into volunteering.
Financial contributions aren’t the only way to make a difference in your place of work. Harness the power of your team’s talents to give back through volunteer hours or pro bono projects in partnership with a local nonprofit, school, or other community organization.
Volunteering can be skill-based work (graphic design, tutoring, or even accounting!) or just helping with whatever is needed (envelope stuffing, serving meals, or checking people in). It’s all about meeting the needs of your particular community partner.
The key to success here is to incentivize volunteering, which can happen in many ways.
Some companies, including 40% of the Fortune 500 list, give volunteer grants to employees who put in a certain number of hours, and others offer perks like additional vacation time. You can even liven things up by making it a competition to see who can give the highest number of hours by a specific date.
Real-world example: Chicago-based software company Sprout Social organized Philanthropy Week, which combined volunteering and team-based fundraising for local nonprofits.
Teams of employees chose an organization in their community, created fundraising pages, and volunteered on-site to foster deeper connections with their partners.
6. Create your own workplace giving day in May.
Aside from being a great help to nonprofits, volunteering is also one of the most effective team-building activities. Hosting a workplace giving day can empower your company to build connection and belonging amongst your staff—and contribute to a good cause at the same time.
As the weather warms up, partner with a local nonprofit that needs a lot of hands for a park cleanup, meal prep, material assembly, mural painting, or other beautification projects. Make sure everyone on your staff is able and incentivized to attend, get t-shirts made for the occasion, and cap it all off with a celebration and big group photo.
If all goes well, try to make it an annual event that employees look forward to, your nonprofit partners can plan around, and the entire community can feel proud of.
Real-world example: When pandemic restrictions made in-person activities impossible, Presence Marketing organized a virtual 5k and complementary fundraiser in partnership with a charitable foundation to help build a Kindergarten in the West African nation of Togo.
The event was so successful that they organized a second annual day of giving the following year to benefit another charity project!
7. Celebrate summer with sponsorship.
June is the start of summer and Pride Month, a great time to support organizations that serve the LGBTQ+ community. Give your coworkers a special night out together and raise some serious money by sponsoring a fun fundraising event, like a standup comedy, drag show, or a combination of the two!
Planning events is a lot of work, so if that’s not something you can take on, seek out a nonprofit partner already planning a benefit event that you can sponsor. Or enlist the help of a local venue that can help match you with a good cause. If a virtual or hybrid event can help you reach your community better, livestream it!
Real-world example:Platinum Top 50, an industry organization for real estate professionals in Texas, organized a comedy show fundraiser featuring standup and improv from some talented local realtors. In addition to ticket sales, extra donations from individuals and corporate sponsorships helped them to raise over 200% of their original goal for their hunger-fighting nonprofit partner.
8. Go virtual with a back-to-school drive.
Drives for essential items like jackets, toys, and perishable goods are popular for workplace giving campaigns for many reasons. For one, those who are making donations can immediately see the real-life impact of their gifts, which is sometimes harder to communicate with solely monetary asks.
With a virtual drive, donors can still understand exactly where their money is going and, at the same time, give the nonprofit beneficiary more oversight and flexibility to order the items they need and get them directly to the people who need them.
This campaign idea is also great for remote office teams, as virtual drives open up donations to a broader pool of people and save the time and energy it can take a team of employees to collect, organize, and transport items.
Real-world example: With several businesses participating, Teachers’ Treasures organized the Gr8 Paper Push Virtual School Supply Drive and enabled donors to select specific classroom items or just make a flat donation to the campaign.
This campaign also had an added team fundraising element. Local businesses competed with one another to raise the most, which created a lively, fun atmosphere.
9. Make a No Shave November everyone can join in on.
Movember and No Shave November, popular social challenges to see who can grow the most facial hair, were created to raise awareness and funds for men’s health and cancer prevention. Anyone can play on this idea for a good cause of their choosing—just make sure to take lots of photos!
Real-world example: For their annual Let It Grow! campaign, Vermont-based victims’ services agency Windham County Safe Place engaged teams from the police departments, hospitals, and legal groups that they work with for a light-hearted competition. Each team was encouraged to grow facial hair or rock colorful hair extensions and bright nails for the month. Inclusivity for the win!
Every participant received a special pin for joining the campaign. They created their own individual or team fundraising page, donated $25 or more, and encouraged their friends and family to help them reach their goal. The top three earners even won a special prize at the end of the competition! The novelty of this campaign drew attention to their cause from local media and helped them to raise thousands of dollars.
Additional Resources
From selling tickets and making donations to administering payroll deductions and matching contributions, automating as much of your workplace giving campaigns as possible will save you a lot of time and energy. CSR platforms can free you up to focus on what really matters—engaging your workplace community and creating meaningful ways to give back together.
Looking for more inspiration? Dive deeper into these additional resources:
A thoughtful and robust fundraising strategy is key to any nonprofit’s success. As a nonprofit professional, you’re probably always on the lookout for new ideas and strategies to spice up your organization’s fundraising efforts. That’s where challenge gifts come in—when done correctly, this fundraising idea can supercharge your mission with increased gifts.
In this guide, we’ll go over the basics of challenge gifts and empower you to leverage them by covering the following topics:
To maximize the fundraising impact of your challenge gifts, consider investing in fundraising software that will streamline your fundraising processes and efforts. Matching gift software, in particular, will greatly increase the effectiveness of donations made during your challenge gift campaign.
What is a challenge gift?
A challenge gift is a donation that is contingent on another goal, usually another donation. Usually, the donor will commit to donating a certain amount to a nonprofit if the organization or its other donors fulfill a certain goal or take an action within a certain amount of time. Only then is the donation made.
Common challenge gift goals include:
Total money raised. This goal is fairly self-explanatory—essentially, the donor’s gift hinges on the nonprofit reaching a fundraising goal. For example, a major donor might commit to donating $20,000 if the nonprofit raises $40,000 worth of other donations during their next fundraising campaign.
Total number of donors. Instead of committing a donation based on the amount raised, some donors choose instead to base it on the total number of donors that give during a set amount of time. The goal for this type of challenge gift is to help the nonprofit recruit more donors. Some challenge donors may specify that they only count first-time donors, while others will count donations made by any donors.
Matching gifts. For a matching donation challenge, a major donor or sponsor will commit to matching gifts made by other donors. For instance, a major donor may match gifts at a 1:1 ratio up to $30,000. That means that if you raise $30,000 from other donors, then you’ll receive $60,000 in total. However, if you raise less than the match amount, such as $10,000, then you’ll only receive the match up to that amount, or $20,000 total.
Challenge gifts are a great way for a major donor to inspire and encourage other donors to give, resulting in greater fundraising success for the nonprofit. When handled properly, these challenges can be used to secure future support and improve the sustainability of your organization.
What are the benefits of challenge gifts?
At this point, you may be thinking: Aren’t challenge gifts just donations with strings attached? Why would I want those instead of straightforward donations?
Although you might feel that way, challenge gifts bring your nonprofit a variety of game-changing benefits. Some of these include:
Increase fundraising impact. The most obvious benefit of challenge gifts is that they incentivize supporters to give. Your supporters are invested in your nonprofit’s success, which makes it more likely that they’ll donate so that you can secure challenge gift funds.
Attract new donors. If the challenge gift is contingent on acquiring a certain number of donors, it will be especially useful in attracting new donors. Plus, challenge gifts inspire a sense of urgency, providing a compelling reason for potential supporters to engage through donations.
Engage board members. Board members who are passionately invested in your nonprofit’s cause may inspire and engage their fellow board members by making a challenge gift for them. For example, a board member might say that they will give an extra $30,000 if the board as a whole gives $200,000 by a certain date.
Strengthen existing relationships. The urgency from the time-sensitive nature of challenge gifts will also help you secure donations from previous donors. Alongside a great stewardship plan, challenge gifts can greatly contribute to engaging previous donors and increase retention rates.
Form corporate partnerships. Although challenge gift donors don’t have to be businesses, if they are, it presents an opportunity for you to form partnerships with companies that are invested in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Having such a partnership may lead to future support through initiatives such as volunteer grants.
Secure long-term support. Aside from short-term support for immediate fundraising campaigns, certain challenge gifts can also help your nonprofit secure long-term funding. For example, a challenge donor may create a bequest challenge for $50,000. Every time someone submits a signed statement that they have put your nonprofit in their estate plan, the donor will release $2,000 from the challenge gift total.
When it comes to boosting your fundraising and securing support, challenge gifts are a valuable opportunity for nonprofits to reliably meet their goals. While the donor dictates the terms of the challenge, the concept itself has a lot of flexibility, as it accommodates multiple types of challenges.
What are the drawbacks of challenge gifts?
We’ve already touched on the main drawback of challenge gifts—the inability to fulfill the challenge, and therefore the loss of the challenge gift funds. The most common restrictions on a challenge gift include:
Goal amount. Whether it’s the number of donors or the donation amount, each challenge gift comes with a goal amount that the nonprofit must reach. Without reaching this objective, part or all of the challenge gift might be forfeited.
Time. That challenge gifts are time-sensitive creates a great sense of urgency that propels supporters to give. However, that same benefit is also a restriction—your nonprofit only has a set amount of time to reach your goals. This duration can vary greatly, based on the challenge the donor has set.
Donation requirements. These refer to any extra requirements that the challenge donor places on gifts that count toward the challenge gift goal. We’ve discussed that the challenge donor might choose to restrict the type of donor that can participate in the challenge, but they can also restrict the type of donation that qualifies. For example, they might specify that the challenge only applies to direct donations and specify that purchases made at a fundraising auction don’t qualify.
Although challenge gifts have their drawbacks, with proper planning and consideration, you can mitigate their disadvantages. While they might put your nonprofit’s fundraising and donor acquisition strategies to the test, the result will be well worth it—a large amount of funds that you can leverage to support your beneficiaries.
Acquiring Support for Challenge Gifts: 5 Tips
To help you make the most of any challenge gifts your nonprofit receives, we’ll go over five tips for acquiring support to fulfill your challenges. Let’s dive in!
1. Create a challenge gift proposal.
While some donors may make a challenge gift unprompted, it’s more likely that your nonprofit will need to specifically seek out challenge donors, much like you seek out sponsorships. To do so, you’ll want to draft a challenge gift proposal to pitch to potential donors.
As you create your proposal, be sure to:
Introduce your nonprofit. Provide a general overview of your nonprofit’s mission, beneficiaries, and the purpose of the challenge gift that you’re requesting.
Give any relevant context. If there’s any relevant information that would help contextualize your proposal, add it. For example, if your nonprofit works with individuals experiencing homelessness and the weather is much colder than usual in winter, you may say that you’re fundraising for warm winter clothing.
Outline your goals. Whether your goal is to obtain funds, new donors, or bequests, outline it in your proposal. Be specific—for instance, you may say that you want to raise $100,000, attract 500 new donors, or obtain 300 bequests.
Determine the challenge details. Lay out the general details of your challenge so your potential challenge donor knows exactly what is expected of them. Let’s say you want to raise $100,000. In your proposal, detail that you want to do this through a matching donation challenge, where your challenge donor matches $50,000 worth of donations at a 1:1 ratio to help you meet your overall goal of $100,000.
Detail the benefits. Aside from describing what you need from your challenge donor, let them know what they’ll be getting from your partnership as well. For instance, if you partner with a company, include their logo and branding on your promotional materials. That way, they can access potential customers amongst your nonprofit’s supporters.
Keep in mind that your challenge gift proposal should look different depending on which potential donor you’re trying to connect with. Just as you would segment your regular donors based on their interests and preferences, make sure to tailor your proposal based on the donor’s gift capacity and previous engagement with your nonprofit.
2. Strategically connect with challenge gift donors.
There are different types of potential donors that you can connect with to pitch challenge gifts to. When first starting, we recommend reaching out to similar types of potential donors to get a better feel of interacting with them and minimize the number of proposals you need to customize.
In general, most challenge gift donors fall into one of the following groups:
Local businesses. When connecting with local businesses, focus on the benefits that you bring to the local community and how that will bring greater success for the business. For instance, your nonprofit’s environmental focus might enhance a business’ neighborhood and bring in more customers.
Large corporations. Large corporations will likely have more money to donate as a challenge gift to your cause but require more effort when forming a partnership. Keep your pitch focused on the benefits that they receive from the partnership. This could look like a shoutout from your nonprofit or a mutually beneficial CSR partnership.
Major donors. Especially if they’ve previously made donations to your nonprofit, major donors are invested in your mission and strongly want you to succeed. For these pitches, you can discuss more in-depth the benefits that your nonprofit will receive while emphasizing how their previous support impacted your success.
Foundations and grantmakers. For this group of potential challenge donors, you’ll likely go through a rigorous application process to be considered. However, foundations and grantmakers exist to provide support to nonprofits, so you can focus your application on what your nonprofit gains.
Celebrities and influencers. Celebrities and influencers receive a large boost in reputation for being associated with charitable causes such as your own. Plus, their influence will greatly increase the visibility of your challenge. Be sure to take both of these factors into consideration as you craft your appeal to this group of potential donors.
To help you narrow down the potential donors you should connect with, focus on those who have already indicated a philanthropic interest in some way. For example, businesses with existing corporate citizenship or CSR initiatives that align with your cause will be more open to aiding your nonprofit.
3. Thoroughly promote your challenge gifts.
Ensure that your challenge gifts drive the impact you desire by thoughtfully promoting them to all of your nonprofit’s supporters. Use the following marketing channels to do so:
Your website
Direct mail
Email
Text or SMS
Social media
Send communications before and during the challenge to drum up excitement and secure support. Provide all relevant details to supporters so they know how they can help. For example, if your goal is to acquire 100 first-time donors, ask your supporters to reach out to their friends and family to appeal for first-time donations. Provide templates for social media posts and emails that they can use to make their appeals easier.
Additionally, be sure to focus your messaging on urgency and speed. Emphasize the approaching deadline and don’t be afraid to send multiple messages during the challenge as reminders. To make this process more efficient, consider using a marketing tool to streamline your promotional efforts.
4. Maximize your gift impact.
When properly planned and marketed, one of the great benefits of challenge gifts is a boost in the number of donations made during the challenge. Maximize the impact of gifts by diving into matching gifts.
If you’re new to matching gifts, they are a form of corporate philanthropy where employers match their employees’ donations to nonprofits. Although most match at a 1:1 ratio, particularly generous companies may match at a higher ratio, such as 2:1 or even 3:1.
This is how it works:
An employee donates to a nonprofit.
The employee submits a donation match request to their employer.
The employer reviews the request.
The employer approves the match and donates the matching funds to the nonprofit.
As around $4-7 billion of matching gift funds is estimated to go unclaimed every year, it’s clear that one of the biggest obstacles to obtaining matching gift funds is awareness.
During a donation challenge period, you’ll be sending out many communications to supporters to urge them to donate. Maximize the impact of those donations by also reminding supporters to look into their employers’ matching gift programs. With a small amount of effort from them, they’ll be able to greatly increase the funds that you raise. Plus, it won’t require them to gift more of their money!
5. Celebrate achievements and goals.
When the period set by your challenge gift has ended, be sure to celebrate all achievements and goals met with your supporters. Recognize all the donors that have given during this time and thank them for participating in the challenge. Even if you didn’t meet your goals, saying a simple thank you goes a long way toward facilitating long-lasting and fruitful relationships.
If you did meet your goals, then consider hosting a celebration! This can take the form of a donor appreciation event, where you invite all those who gave to come and have fun. Or, if your donors are spread all over the country or the globe, send gifts to them instead. These don’t have to break your budget, as they can be small trinkets or merchandise branded to your nonprofit.
The most important thing here is to let your donors know that your success would not be possible without them. Show your genuine gratitude so that donors are incentivized to continue supporting your mission.
Additional Resources
Challenge gifts are an incredible opportunity for your nonprofit to buckle down and meet its goals. They also incentivize increased giving from your supporters through gamification, making them a worthwhile gift to receive.
If you’re interested in learning more about nonprofit fundraising opportunities, check out the following resources:
How to Unlock Corporate Sponsorships: Get More Support. While not all challenge gift donors are corporations, there’s a possibility that you’ll need a business sponsorship to acquire these gifts. In this guide, you’ll discover how to unlock corporate sponsorships.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Challenge-Gifts_Feature.png8801680Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2023-11-10 13:46:562023-11-16 18:23:33What are Challenge Gifts? A Guide to High-Speed Fundraising
Did you know that corporations give an average of $20-$26 billion to nonprofit causes each year?
More than ever before, companies are committed to giving back to their communities and improving the welfare of others—they’re embracing corporate philanthropy.
But what exactly does corporate philanthropy look like when it’s put into action? We’ve put together this guide to explore different types of corporate philanthropy you should know about and how you can embrace them, whether you’re a company looking to start your own program or a nonprofit strategizing to increase giving to your cause. Here’s what we’ll cover:
Corporate philanthropy holds the potential to benefit both companies and nonprofits. In order to get the most out of these programs, it’s important to gain an understanding of the different forms they can take and how they work. Let’s get started.
Corporate Philanthropy: A Quick Overview
First, let’s create a strong foundation for understanding the different types of corporate philanthropy by covering some basics.
What is corporate philanthropy?
Corporate philanthropy is a term that refers to the ways in which a company gives back to its community or promotes the welfare of others. Most commonly, corporations donate money or time to nonprofits to accomplish these goals. However, each company’s program will look a little different, as they’re often built around the company’s unique values and the needs of the community it aims to serve.
As you research corporate philanthropy, you’ll likely come across the term corporate social responsibility (CSR). Though related, CSR should not be confused with corporate philanthropy. CSR refers to the general attitude a company takes toward society and the role it plays in it. You can think of corporate philanthropy as a specific way that companies put their CSR into action.
Eye-Opening Corporate Philanthropy Statistics
Corporate philanthropy may sound good in theory, but you’re probably wondering if corporate philanthropy is successful in the real world. Let’s take a look at the numbers:
The Prevalence of Corporate Philanthropy Programs
65% of Fortune 500 companies have matching gift programs.
Clearly, companies that are leaning into corporate philanthropy are making a difference in their communities and even strengthening their workplaces. But wait—there are even more benefits!
The Benefits of Embracing Corporate Philanthropy
Corporate philanthropy is a win-win-win for the companies that embrace it, the employees who participate in it, and the nonprofits that are able to move their missions forward because of it.
Let’s take a closer look at the benefits each party experiences when they participate in corporate philanthropy.
Benefits for Companies
Strengthened reputation and brand image. A company that demonstrates a commitment to making the world a better place is often perceived as a more appealing company to work for and buy from.
Boosted employee engagement. When employees are empowered to give back through their employers’ corporate philanthropy initiatives, they have more pride in their jobs and are more motivated to be high achievers.
Better connections with stakeholders. The investors, suppliers, and other groups who support a company’s operations want to see their partners making a positive difference in society. Stakeholders may even want to get involved in a company’s philanthropic work.
Tax benefits. Depending on the area in which a company operates, it may be eligible for tax deductions up to a certain amount if it engages in corporate philanthropy initiatives like matching gifts.
Benefits for Employees
Sense of purpose beyond daily tasks. When charitable work or giving is woven into employees’ working lives, they have a stronger sense of purpose and a more expansive view of their work. They can see the connections between what they do every day and what their company does to improve others’ lives.
Heightened camaraderie between employees. Philanthropic programs that encourage employees to volunteer or serve together enable people to get to know their coworkers outside of the day-to-day at the office. Employees can bond over shared values and experiences, which can help build friendships and improve how employees collaborate.
Enhanced skills. Some corporate philanthropy initiatives provide opportunities for employees to use their professional skillsets or to develop new skills. For example, an expert computer programmer might find it fulfilling to use their knowledge to tutor at-risk youth in coding. Or, an employee may enjoy the chance to do something they don’t do every day, like walking shelter dogs.
Improved health. Research shows that people who give back are healthier and happier. According to the Cleveland Clinic, philanthropic giving can lower blood pressure, reduce stress, boost self-esteem, help combat depression, and even extend the lifespan.
Benefits for Nonprofits
Amplified support. Any increase in support, whether it’s funding or volunteer time, is the obvious benefit nonprofits experience from corporate philanthropy. But its importance can’t be overstated. Nonprofits translate companies’ support into tangible results for their beneficiaries. More funding and time may also empower a nonprofit to drive new projects forward instead of staying in maintenance mode.
Increased visibility and awareness. Because companies often promote their philanthropic work, the nonprofits they partner with get more exposure while the causes they champion get more awareness and attention.
Access to new audiences. A corporate donor or volunteer may very well turn into a lifelong supporter. Tapping into a company’s philanthropic initiatives opens nonprofits up to entirely new communities of potential supporters and, better yet, gives them the chance to start building relationships with those potential supporters.
Access to skilled volunteers. When a company partners with a nonprofit to help drive its mission forward, the nonprofit has access to a whole new group of volunteers with diverse skills. Those skills might include customer service, landscaping, graphic design, or more!
Corporate Philanthropy Challenges To Be Aware Of
While companies, employees, and nonprofits can experience countless benefits from corporate philanthropy initiatives, there are also challenges that come with these programs.
For instance, the initial setup of a corporate philanthropy program can divert resources from a company’s business activities and require careful and consistent monitoring of employee engagement in the program. Or, a nonprofit may face difficult questions from its supporters regarding how it allocates funds from its corporate partner.
Whether your organization is a company or a nonprofit, be aware that you will face challenges as you work to lean into corporate philanthropy. However, don’t let the challenges you face deter you from getting involved with corporate philanthropy programs. With careful planning, open communication, and a commitment to making a positive difference in the community, nonprofits and their corporate partners can overcome the challenges of corporate philanthropy and share in the benefits.
14 Types of Corporate Philanthropy To Know
Now that you know what corporate philanthropy is and why it’s important for companies, employees, and nonprofits, you’re likely ready to start participating. Knowing what to look for in a corporate partner or what your company’s program can offer will be critical to your success. So, let’s explore 14 types of corporate philanthropy you should know!
1. Matching Gifts
The most popular type of corporate philanthropy program that companies offer is matching gifts.
Through these programs, companies financially match the donations their employees make to charitable organizations, usually organizations deemed eligible by the company beforehand (e.g., educational institutions or youth-focused nonprofits).
The company will typically donate the same amount of money to the nonprofit, effectively doubling the donor’s gift. Sometimes the company will donate double or even triple the amount of the initial donation.
The beauty of a matching gift program is that it allows a donor to boost their donation’s impact without reaching back into their wallet!
Here’s how the process works:
An individual donates to a nonprofit of their choice.
The employee checks their corporate matching gift eligibility using a database search tool on the nonprofit’s website.
Once the donor knows their donation is eligible for matching, they fill out any necessary online forms provided by the database tool.
After the donor’s company reviews the forms, it follows up with the nonprofit to confirm the donation.
Then, the company sends the nonprofit a donation!
This process is made even easier when a donor uses a CSR platform that offers auto-submission (more on this below). Instead of filling out multiple forms, all they have to do is provide their corporate email address. The rest is taken care of for them!
Each company’s matching gift program will look a little different, depending on the nonprofits they deem eligible for gift matching, the types of employees they deem eligible for the program (e.g., full-time, part-time, retired), the ratio at which they match gifts, the minimum and maximum gift amounts they will match, and the submission deadlines for the program.
If this type of corporate philanthropy sounds too good to pass up, learn more about matching gifts with these resources!
Sometimes referred to as Dollars for Doers, volunteer grants are another incredibly popular type of corporate philanthropy.
Through these programs, employers match the hours their employees have volunteered with a nonprofit with a donation to that nonprofit.
Volunteer grants are a way to turn time into money—and another way for your nonprofit’s supporters to drive more impact without spending a cent.
The volunteer grant process works like this:
An individual volunteers with a nonprofit on a regular basis.
The volunteer uses a corporate giving database to check if they’re eligible for a volunteer grant from their company.
After verifying their eligibility, the volunteer submits their application for a volunteer grant to their company.
The company reviews the application and confirms the volunteer hours the volunteer has put in with the nonprofit.
The company sends the nonprofit a donation!
Like matching gift programs, volunteer grant programs can differ. For instance, one company may give nonprofits a certain amount of money per hour volunteered, while another may donate a flat amount once a certain threshold of volunteer hours is met. Some companies may also offer team volunteer grants, where a grant is provided when a group of employees volunteers together!
Whether you’re a nonprofit or a company, it will be important to have volunteers log their hours. Verifying those hours will be essential to giving and collecting a volunteer grant.
3. Corporate Grants
When awarding a corporate grant, a company gives money to a nonprofit for a specific program or project. Typically, large companies will offer a grant program, as it can be a lot to manage. But this doesn’t mean smaller companies should shy away from the opportunity to award grants!
The process of getting a grant is a little more complex than something like matching gifts or volunteer grants. The nonprofit will have to apply for the grant with a compelling written grant proposal that clearly outlines its needs for the grant and what it will do with the money.
After reviewing the grant proposals, the company decides which nonprofit will receive the funding. The nonprofit must then use the money specifically for the purposes outlined in the proposal and approved by the granting corporation. To maintain a strong relationship with the company (and to lay the groundwork for future grant success), the nonprofit must report back to the company on how it used the funds and impacted its beneficiaries.
4. Employee Grant Stipends
Also known as employee grants or annual grant stipends, employee grant stipends are given on top of an employee’s normal compensation package each year to allow that employee to give to the nonprofit of their choice.
Grant stipends may not yield as much funding for nonprofits as something like a matching gift program, but they do put the power in an employee’s hands, allowing them to choose where their donations go. This allows a company’s employees to choose to give to an organization that aligns with their personal values or interests. Plus, employee grant stipends can be an attractive part of a well-rounded compensation package!
5. Automatic Payroll Deductions
With this kind of corporate philanthropy, employers make giving extremely easy for their employees.
To participate, employees simply arrange to have part of their paycheck deducted and given to a nonprofit of their choice. However, companies may dictate which types of organizations are eligible to receive donations. To offer this type of corporate philanthropy, companies will need to check that their payroll system enables this functionality.
6. Corporate Volunteer Programs
With a corporate volunteer program, a company coordinates with a nonprofit to set up times when the company’s employees can volunteer.
These volunteering outings may take the form of optional standing times for employees to volunteer with a nonprofit after work or on the weekends. Alternatively, businesses might host full-blown corporate volunteering days, where the entire company engages in a day of volunteer work.
Whatever they look like, corporate volunteer programs can be a lot of fun for the people involved. Employees can enjoy working alongside each other and nonprofits can get to know a new large group of enthusiastic potential supporters.
Plus, these programs allow nonprofits to tap into the company’s skill sets or specialties. For example, a graphic design company might volunteer with a nonprofit and spend time helping a nonprofit revamp the branding on its social media content. Or, a team of bakers might come together to bake and serve treats at a nonprofit event.
The possibilities are endless! And employees will love using the skills they’ve developed at work to do good in the community.
7. Volunteer Time Off (VTO)
Volunteer Time Off (VTO) is paid time off for employees to do volunteer work for nonprofits in their community.
According to the Academy to Innovative HR (AIHR), VTO is a relatively new form of corporate philanthropy. (Remember, 28% of employers currently offer VTO, with the number increasing each year.)
AIHR also notes that the amount of VTO usually ranges from eight to 40 hours per employee per year. While that may not sound like a lot of time, a day or two of VTO can be an attractive part of a benefits package and do a lot to nurture a culture of giving within a workplace. Plus, the collective VTO hours donated by just one company can translate into a huge amount of progress for a nonprofit’s cause.
8. In-Kind Donations
When you think of a donation to a nonprofit, you probably picture a check or credit card. However, donations of items or services, also known as in-kind donations, can also be extremely valuable for a nonprofit.
The great thing about in-kind donations is they cut out a step for nonprofits. Instead of having to purchase items or invest in services, they get access to them with less footwork, saving them time and money.
Here are some examples of how a company might provide a nonprofit with in-kind donations:
Give the nonprofit gently used computers or other technology when transitioning to new equipment for the company’s employees
Donate a day of weeding to clean up the grounds of the nonprofit’s facilities
Run a canned food or clothing drive on behalf of the nonprofit
Have the company’s accountants give nonprofits advice during tax season
In-kind donations are a flexible form of corporate philanthropy. Nonprofits should be specific in what they’re looking for—we suggest nonprofits post a wishlist on their websites. Meanwhile, companies should think of out-of-the-box ways they can give items or services.
Giving scholarships to deserving students is an excellent way for companies to invest in the potential of the rising generation and show how much they value education. A company may decide to offer scholarships directly to high school students headed for college or students who are already studying at the undergraduate or graduate levels. Or, a company may partner with a nonprofit to fund an existing scholarship program.
10. Sponsorships
Setting up a sponsorship between a nonprofit and a company is an effective way to create a long-lasting partnership.
Through a sponsorship, a nonprofit provides frequent financial support to its nonprofit partner. In return, the nonprofit acknowledges its sponsors’ contributions through methods such as:
Issuing press releases to announce the sponsorships
Giving the sponsors a shout-out at events in promotional materials
Spotlighting the sponsors on its website
Creating a sponsorship acknowledgement wall or display
Providing sponsors with exclusive opportunities like behind-the-scenes tours or meetings with the nonprofit’s board
Giving sponsors tokens of gratitude related to the nonprofit’s cause (such as branded merchandise)
The months and weeks ahead of an event is an especially good time for nonprofits to seek out sponsors. Companies can not only provide funding for the event but also critical equipment or even venue space.
11. Cause-Related Marketing
Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) is a type of corporate philanthropy in which a company partners with a nonprofit organization to support a specific cause. The nonprofit then develops marketing campaigns that promote its products or services while raising awareness for the chosen cause or issue at the same time.
The key to a successful CRM initiative is to call the company’s audience to action. When they see the marketing materials promoting both the nonprofit cause and the company’s product, they should be inspired to do something on behalf of the nonprofit cause. This could be donating, sharing a social media message, or registering for an event.
12. Annual Giving
For this type of corporate philanthropy, companies encourage their employees to donate to nonprofits at certain times of the year. This is most common at the end of the calendar year. Donating is popular at the end of the year for personal tax purposes and because of the autumn and winter holidays that focus on giving and generosity!
This can be a fun way for companies to engage their teams around holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, and more. Companies can even get involved in their local communities’ GivingTuesday campaigns, which take place on the Tuesday after American Thanksgiving.
13. Employee Product Donation Programs (EPDP)
Some companies may encourage charitable giving among their employees by offering discounts on the products they sell, which can then be donated to nonprofits.
This is an especially popular form of corporate philanthropy for tech companies. And what nonprofit wouldn’t love new computers, tablets, or smartphones to streamline its operations?
14. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Fundraising
Companies may also partner with a nonprofit and transform their employees into volunteer fundraisers for the nonprofit’s cause.
This is done through peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising campaigns. For these fundraisers, participants (like a company’s employees) are given their own personal online fundraising pages. Then, the volunteer fundraisers solicit donations from their personal networks of family and friends, usually through social media.
This can be a powerful way to engage a company’s workforce, tap into employees’ competitive spirits, and even expand a nonprofit’s audience to volunteer fundraisers’ family and friends.
For Companies: How to Create Your Own Corporate Philanthropy Program
If your organization is a company, you might be interested in starting a corporate philanthropy program of your own after learning about the different options out there.
Here are some steps your company can take to set yourself up for success and engage employees in your efforts:
Consider your objectives. What are you hoping to achieve through your charitable efforts? You may want to make a positive social impact, build customer loyalty, or take care of your local environment. After you define your objectives, set clear and achievable goals, like “Launch a matching gifts program in March for all of our full-time employees.” Having a rock-solid goal will make it easier to bring your corporate philanthropy program to life in a way that maximizes your team’s efforts and minimizes the strain on your company’s time and other resources.
Choose the type of program you want to start. Review the list above to decide which type of program you’d like to start. Consider your company’s philanthropic goals, the shared values you have with potential nonprofit partners, and your employees’ interests. Taking into account the type of program that will resonate with your employees will be imperative because success will depend on their participation. Also, note that you can work up to running multiple types of corporate philanthropy programs. For instance, you may want to have both a matching gift program and a scholarship program, but currently only have the bandwidth for the matching gift program. That’s okay! One initiative is a great starting point and will provide the framework you need to expand your efforts later.
Design the program. Lay out what your program will look like and how it will work. Continuing with the matching gift program example, you should identify which nonprofits will be eligible to receive matched donations, what matching ratio you will offer, and what the minimum and maximum donation amounts are that your company will match. As part of your program design efforts, you may want to invest in a CSR platform to help you facilitate the program.
Partner with a nonprofit that resonates with your values. Partner with organizations that your company and your employees can be excited about working with. Your missions don’t have to be totally aligned, but that can be a bonus. For example, if your company manufactures toothbrushes, you could partner with organizations that provide dental care to people in need.
Create guidelines for employee participation. Identify who at your company can participate in the program. For instance, you might allow part-time, full-time, and retired employees to tap into your matching gift program. You should also lay out the process for how to kickstart the matching process and who employees can talk to if they have questions or encounter any issues.
Launch the program. When you roll out your corporate philanthropy program, be transparent with your employees (and the rest of your community) about the program’s goals and how it will work. Don’t be afraid to share that the program is part of a larger push for CSR or that you’re looking to make more of a positive impact on the community in which your company operates. This honesty will drive more interest in your program and get your employees excited to participate.
Engage employees in the program. Actively promote your corporate philanthropy program to your employees. For example, you might include information about your new VTO policy in your weekly company-wide newsletter or encourage managers to talk about the program in their next one-on-one meetings with directs. To make things more exciting, launch a participation challenge. You might see which department can volunteer the most hours with your nonprofit partner over the next quarter or see which team can bring in the most cans of food for your in-kind donation drive. Don’t forget to reward the winners!
Report on the program’s impact. After your program has been up and running for a good amount of time, take a look at how things are going. (Hint: A CSR platform can help you gather data on your program!) Report to your employees, nonprofit partners, and the larger community on the program’s impact and how you envision the future of your efforts.
Make adjustments as necessary. As you evaluate your program, you may find that some things need to change. For example, you may need to adjust your matching gift ratio or the scholarship amounts you’re offering to local students. Don’t be afraid to make changes. You can even seek feedback from your employees and nonprofit partners so that you have a better idea of how to improve the program.
Starting a corporate philanthropy program takes a lot of work and ongoing maintenance, but it’s worth the effort! You’ll positively impact your community and drive employee participation when you take a thoughtful and thorough approach from the very beginning.
The Winning Element of A Corporate Philanthropy Program: Matching Gift Auto-Submission
Starting a matching gifts program is the easiest way for your company to dive into corporate philanthropy. But sometimes, the process of getting a gift match can be long and drawn out, meaning that employees may disengage with the process and your nonprofit partners may lose out on critical funding.
Take any complexity out of the donation matching process for your employees
Guarantee all matching gift requests are formatted correctly (and actually submitted to your company)
Ensure that the matching gift funds reach your nonprofit partners faster
To tap into the power of auto-submission and level up your matching gifts program, you’ll need to work with the right CSR platform. Double the Donation is not a CSR platform, but we partner with plenty of great vendors that leverage our auto-submission technology. Click the button below to learn more!
For Nonprofits: How to Tap Into Corporate Philanthropy Programs
If your organization is a nonprofit, you’re probably eager to benefit from one or more of the types of corporate philanthropy discussed above! To do so, you need to have a strategic approach. Here’s what we recommend:
Build relationships with potential corporate partners. Get to know the business leaders who run companies in your local area or who share similar values or missions to your own. Get face time with them so that your teams are familiar with each other. Invite them to events. Demonstrate the impact that you could have if you worked together. Then, when the time is right, ask how your nonprofit can become part of their philanthropic program.
Highlight the benefits of partnering with your organization. For instance, when reaching out directly to ask companies to partner with your organization, you might highlight the benefits you give sponsors, such as free publicity or exclusive perks. You could even speak to how your specific cause will help to engage that company’s workforce or how your causes align.
Promote corporate philanthropy among your supporters. Depending on the type of program, the onus will be on your supporters to help your nonprofit tap into their employers’ corporate philanthropy initiatives. Let your donors know that programs like matching gifts and volunteer grants exist and that they could be eligible. Encourage them to inquire about these programs at work, or even to advocate for the creation of a program.
Being thoughtful in how you approach corporate giving will allow you to tap into as many opportunities as possible. You’ll develop more impactful relationships with companies and ultimately drive greater outcomes for your mission.
The Key to Maximizing Corporate Support: A Corporate Philanthropy Database
Our database is the largest and most up-to-date collection of information about companies’ matching gift and volunteer grant programs. Here are a few fun facts about our platform:
We have 24,493 company records
This represents nearly 27 million employees
Our database covers an estimated 99.68% of all gift-match-eligible donors
So, when you invest in our database and embed it on your donation form or your website, you’re empowering your donors (and your team members) to check their volunteer grants and matching gift eligibility and start the process.
Click the button below to take Double the Donation for a test drive!
Wrapping Up: Don’t Miss Out on Corporate Philanthropy!
Remember, although there are many different types of corporate philanthropy out there, the benefits for companies, employees, and nonprofits are universal. Now that you know your options (if you’re a company looking to build its own program) or what to look for in a corporate partner (if you’re a nonprofit), you’re ready to experience those benefits for yourself!
Want to continue exploring the world of corporate philanthropy and CSR? Check out these resources:
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