How to Manage Your CyberGrants Portal For Smart Nonprofits

How to Manage Your CyberGrants Portal [For Smart Nonprofits]

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Corporate matching gifts are one of the best ways for nonprofits to maximize their fundraising with bonus donations and increased donor engagement. And how exactly do nonprofit organizations receive funding through these matching programs? It all starts with a request from the initial donor and typically is processed through a corporate giving or CSR platform.

In terms of CSR platforms, one key platform to keep in mind is CyberGrants.

Corporate giving platforms like CyberGrants are sold to corporations looking to manage their philanthropy. But there’s another side of the platform that is designed specifically for nonprofits⁠—a portal with which fundraisers can manage their incoming matches, verify initial donations, facilitate volunteer grant requests, and more. And best of all? It’s free!

If you’re interested in learning more about CyberGrants for nonprofits and how to best manage your CyberGrants portal for maximal success, you’ve certainly come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the following:

In the end, you should have a solid foundation of knowledge surrounding CyberGrants and its nonprofit-specific tools that can lead your organization in the right direction.

Ready to dive in? Let’s get started with the basics.

What to Know About CyberGrants

With over 400 corporate customers, CyberGrants is one of the largest providers of matching gift and corporate giving software for companies⁠, and it’s known for allowing the most customization of any CSR platform. In summary, each company that organizes a matching gift program through CyberGrants can adjust its donation verification process, types of gifts to match, email notifications, number of subaccounts, and more.

From the perspective of the organizations receiving the matches, this can sometimes lead to an overwhelming process. That’s why we recommend nonprofits setting themselves up for CyberGrants success by documenting and keeping up with the information they need to complete their end of the matching gift process. And we’re here to provide you with tips and tricks on how to do so!

How to Manage Your CyberGrants Portal - and what to know about CyberGrants

Benefits of CyberGrants for Nonprofits

Some of the largest matching gift companies in the world⁠—including Verizon, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, American Express, and many more⁠—use CyberGrants to manage their corporate giving. The more companies that utilize any particular platform, the more likely your organization is to qualify for matching gifts made available through said platform. Thus, CyberGrants is a particularly beneficial portal to get started with.

Learn how to manage your CyberGrants portal so you can accept matches from companies like these.

From there, registering your organization with the nonprofit portal will allow you to increase the visibility of your cause among charitable givers, elevate your matching gift eligibility, and simplify matching gift requests for your donors⁠—all of which elevate the likelihood of matches being driven to completion.

Not to mention, pre-registering your cause with platforms like CyberGrants will streamline the process for you and your team when matching gifts do become available. You’ll already have the legwork down, meaning you’re ready to verify gifts and accept matches with ease.

CyberGrants’ Matching Gift Verification Process Overview

The exact matching gift process⁠—from initial donation and employer match request to nonprofit verification and corporate match disbursement⁠—can vary greatly from one company to the next. On the nonprofit end, one of the biggest priorities has to do with verifying with the company that an employee donor’s contribution was actually made.

Today, the majority of companies that use CyberGrants require the NPO in question to verify that the organization received the employee’s initial donation. However, other employers do not require manual verification at all, instead opting to authenticate donations through gift receipts or rely on the goodwill of their employees.

For each matching gift request from CyberGrants, the NPO will receive a unique Gift ID to identify that donation via automated email. From there, the Gift ID and donor’s last name will be used to verify the donation in the CyberGrants portal. Depending on the company’s settings, a donation amount, contribution date, and access code may be provided as well.

Take a look at this example of a matching gift request;

Learn how to manage your CyberGrants portal with sample emails.

Meanwhile, here’s a sample matching gift request with different information, including an access code;

Learn how to manage your CyberGrants portal with sample emails.

In each sample email, the organization is prompted to follow the instructions provided by CyberGrants on behalf of the donor’s employer. In both cases, the matching gift recipient is asked to navigate to the CyberGrants website, enter the supplied information, and verify the donor’s gift.

From there, the company can approve the match and disburse the appropriate funding to the organization.

FAQ | How to Manage Your CyberGrants Portal

Still have questions? Many organizations do⁠. We’ve compiled a list of some of the most-asked questions (and answers) from nonprofits looking to manage their CyberGrants portals to produce the greatest results.

What is FrontDoor?

FrontDoor is CyberGrants’ consolidated portal with which nonprofits can register to manage and verify gifts across employers and programs with ease.

Currently, companies that utilize CyberGrants for matching gift management have the choice to opt into participating via FrontDoor’s portal. At this time, CyberGrants is actively advocating for more companies to get started with FrontDoor⁠ and make the most of innovative features, such as the Donations Tab. This allows nonprofit users to verify donations in a single window, rather than requiring that they manually log into each company or subaccount’s portal through a separate URL.

Here’s what it looks like for nonprofit users;

How to manage your CyberGrants portal using FrontDoor

Overall, FrontDoor makes the verification process faster and easier for users and enables nonprofits like yours to get more out of available matching programs.

What are subaccounts?

Subaccounts are essentially additional accounts nested within an organization’s main account and can be created by the nonprofit itself or by a donor, depending on a company’s subaccount creation and management settings.

Let’s take a look at a company with a few subaccounts nested in their main portal;

How to manage your CyberGrants portal with subaccounts

And here’s a company that chose to create a central portal with no subaccounts;

How to manage your CyberGrants portal with no subaccounts

Generally, subaccounts can reflect an organization’s multiple chapters, branches, or locations within the organization, or they can be nominated by a donor who didn’t see an account that reflected their desired organization. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the more subaccounts in a portal, the greater the likelihood that there will be matching gift requests that end up “hiding” from them.

Most companies have subaccounts within their company portal. The number of subaccounts able to be created is dictated by the company (for example, there might be an unlimited number of subaccounts that can be created or this ability may not even be available to their employees). Some have over 70, while others have only a central portal or 2-3 subaccounts.

Why do we receive grants from companies for which we have not confirmed any matching gift requests?

Not all companies require verification from the organization for matching gifts and volunteer grant requests. Typically, if a company doesn’t ask the nonprofit to verify a gift or volunteer hours, it is because the employee has already verified the gift by attaching a donation receipt or proof of hours volunteered with their submission request.

Some, but not all, of these companies will send email notices of approved requests that let the nonprofit know when a payment is on the way. Companies may also utilize CyberGrants to allow their employees to make payroll deductions to an organization, which may or may not result in an email notification being triggered through the system.

What happens if we receive a request we don’t qualify for?

Occasionally, your organization may receive a gift verification request from a company even though your cause doesn’t qualify for the company’s matching program. For example, this may occur in cases where a company matches solely to educational institutions or won’t match to religious or politically affiliated organizations, and your organization falls into an excluded category.

However, regardless of the company’s requirements, employees can still submit match requests, which is why your team may see ineligible verification requests flowing in. Even if your organization verifies the initial gift in your portal, it’s likely that the company will reject the match request and no payment will be sent.

Will all pending matching gift and volunteer grant requests show up on the Donations Tab?

Unfortunately, not all requests will show up in FrontDoor’s Donations Tab. Some companies have opted out of using the tab entirely, whereas others have opted in only partially. In these cases, some requests may not populate in your organization’s Donations Tab.

To know if a particular company has opted in, you can submit a support request to the company via CyberGrants. From there, we recommend recording and organizing their response so your organization can develop the proper verification process in the future.

Why is there a gift under the Donations Tab that is from a company not listed under the Company Portals Tab?

If a gift is listed under the Donations Tab and not under the Company Portals Tab, the company might be new to CyberGrants and is still being configured. Or alternatively, this is your organization’s first gift request from the company.

The gift can be confirmed in the Donations Tab, but you will likely want to add the company to your sidebar for easier access to future gifts. To do so, input the donor’s last name and the gift ID into the Add Company section at the bottom of the portal’s sidebar. Submit and confirm access, and the company should be visible immediately after refreshing the page. If not, you can send a support ticket, and CyberGrants should be able to add the company from their end.

Best Practices for Nonprofits Using CyberGrants

Now that you understand the basics of CyberGrants, let’s go over a few tried-and-true tips for making the most of the platform.

To simplify the process as much as possible and minimize the amount of overhead required, we recommend the following;

1. Create a login sheet.

Companies that have yet to fully transition to CyberGrants’ FrontDoor have a different link to their company portal that cannot be accessed through the main FrontDoor link.
As such, it’s a good idea for organizations to identify those that don’t use FrontDoor and establish and maintain detailed documentation for these companies⁠—including the URL and login information for each.

Additionally, it’s ideal that an organization uses the same contact information for each company portal beyond FrontDoor. Most essentially, be sure to utilize a single email address for your CyberGrants logins as the main notification channel for gift verifications. This will establish that all emails requesting confirmation of gifts will be sent to the correct inbox that your staff will have access to and know to check on a regular basis.

2. Establish a process for locating “hidden” gifts.

Each company that uses CyberGrants can configure if and how they want to notify organizations about new matching gift requests⁠—and some companies opt not to enable notifications at all.

As a result, nonprofits should have an established system in place to regularly check for matching gift requests that either ⁠—

  • Don’t show up in the Donations Tab;
  • Haven’t been automatically emailed to the organization.

Fortunately, these “hidden” gift requests should make up a small percentage of the total gift requests that the nonprofit receives, so these checks could be infrequent⁠—such as a few times a year.

Keep in mind that although many companies allow twelve or more months for submitted requests to be approved by the organization, some offer as little as 90 days from the date of submission. Thus, teams should factor each company’s deadlines into their decision-making process regarding exactly how frequently to check that company’s portal for gifts.

3. Make a plan for subaccounts.

Sometimes, an organization will receive an email from CyberGrants informing them that a company’s employee has nominated the nonprofit for inclusion in their Employee Giving Program. When this occurs, the organization has a few options regarding how it can respond.

For example, the nonprofit can choose to follow the instructions provided in the email to review and edit the information in the nomination request. Then, they can later confirm it, which will create a new subaccount in that company’s portal.

Alternatively, the organization can respond to the request and ask that CyberGrants associate the nominated account with one of the existing subaccounts for that company. This option can be helpful when the organization has several existing subaccounts and does not want any more to manage and follow up with. (Hint: Nonprofits should especially monitor and limit the number of subaccounts created in portals that utilize hidden gifts.)

4. Produce a “Portal Information” document.

To simplify gift verification, we recommend that nonprofits have a dedicated document they can reference while confirming initial donations. This document should host basic details about your organization (such as mailing address, contact information, EIN, and more) and ACH information, if applicable.

Each company requires different data for its verification process. Some ask for little to no information, while others may request a list of current board members, race/ethnicity breakdowns of the population served, and even the nonprofit’s annual budget. Having a unified location from which to derive all these particulars will make it significantly easier for the organization to confirm its pending gift requests.

CyberGrants is an invaluable tool for nonprofits looking to make the most of matching gifts. By managing your organization’s portal well and taking steps to streamline and standardize matching gift requests, you can set your team up for ongoing success using all the resources at your disposal.

Interested in learning more about matching gift programs and best practices to maximize your organization’s success? Check out our other educational resources:

Get started with matching gift best practices, with Double the Donation.

This is a basic guide about how you can use corporate giving to increase employee engagement at your company.

Increase Employee Engagement with Corporate Giving

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The importance of employee engagement, which is defined as the emotional and functional commitment an employee has to their organization, cannot be overstated. According to Gallup, companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%.

As we discuss in another article, engaged employees are also happier, stay with companies longer, and are more philanthropically minded.

While the benefits are clear, employee engagement is a struggle for most companies, with over 71% of employees reporting that they are not fully engaged.

One effective way your company can increase employee engagement is through corporate giving. When companies offer accessible ways for employees to get involved in philanthropic endeavors, whether that’s through matching gifts, corporate volunteerism, or other forms of nonprofit support, employees will be more likely to participate. This in turn boosts their engagement level.

In this article, we’ll discuss some basics of employee engagement and dive into how you can use corporate giving programs to increase your employees’ engagement. This includes:

Let’s get started.

Here are the key drivers of employee engagement.

Three Key Drivers of Employee Engagement

It’s said that employees don’t leave companies; they leave people, and it’s true. Many of the reasons employees claim they aren’t engaged in their company have to do with people.

Let’s take a look at these statistics and the key drivers behind employee engagement:

Here are the three key drivers of employee engagement.

  1. Employees’ relationships with their direct managers: 80% of employees who were dissatisfied with their direct manager were disengaged.
  2. Employees’ belief in senior leadership: 70% of employees who lack confidence in the abilities of senior leadership are not fully engaged.
  3. Employees’ pride in working for the company: 54% of employees who are proud of their company’s contributions to society are engaged.

Offering corporate giving programs can have a positive impact on all three drivers of engagement. When leadership takes an interest in corporate philanthropy and makes a point to focus on how the company can help the community, employees tend to view this in a positive light.

Here's how you can increase employee engagement at your company.

How Companies Can Increase Employee Engagement

There are many strategies companies can use to increase employee engagement. Dale Carnegie highlights five great reasons to do so, and we’ve added a few ideas that our own research has shown enhances employee engagement:

  1. Senior leadership must articulate a clear vision to all employees. Without a clear goal, employees will not know what they’re working toward.
  2. Employees should be encouraged to openly communicate and influence the company’s vision with their input.
  3. Direct managers should foster healthy relationships with their employees.
  4. Senior leadership should continuously demonstrate that employees have an impact on their work environment.
  5. Managers should show employees that they are valued as true contributors, giving them a sense of empowerment.
  6. Managers should organize and encourage team volunteerism in communities as a way of giving back and encouraging social interaction outside the office.
  7. Companies should give back to local nonprofits. Corporate giving programs, like matching gift programs and volunteer grants, are a great way for corporations to support organizations that employees care about.

Management and senior leadership should take a hands-on approach to encouraging employees to engage with these opportunities at their company. Now that we’ve covered the basics of employee engagement, let’s jump into corporate giving specifically.

This is how you can use corporate philanthropy to boost your employee engagement levels.

Using Corporate Philanthropy to Increase Employee Engagement

Keeping employees engaged and helping the community at the same time seems like a pretty great deal, right? That’s why many companies are investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR) to help improve the communities in which their employees live and work. 

One major component of CSR is corporate philanthropy, and within that, there are several corporate giving programs companies can offer. When employees participate in those programs, this enhances their view of the company and gives them an opportunity to help nonprofit organizations that they care about. More and more companies are realizing these benefits, leading to an increasing trend of corporate philanthropy programs being implemented and expanded by businesses across the country.

In order to boost employee engagement, companies can:

This is how companies can increase employee engagement using corporate giving programs.

  1. Offer matching gift programs. Nearly two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies offer a matching gift program that makes employees’ charitable contributions go twice as far. Matching gift programs help engage employees by showing them that the company not only encourages donating, but takes part in it as well. Employees can feel proud knowing their employer gives back.
  2. Encourage volunteerism. Whether a company offers paid time off for employees to volunteer or encourages employees to team up and participate in fundraising events, employee engagement can skyrocket when volunteerism is part of a company’s philanthropic culture. Allowing employees to band together to better the community helps them feel like the company supports them and will boost their dedication.
  3. Offer volunteer grants. Volunteer grants are donations that companies make to nonprofits after an employee has volunteered for a certain amount of time. Volunteer grants demonstrate a company’s commitment to helping worthy causes and instills a shared sense of philanthropy among employees, boosting engagement and satisfaction.

When companies support the causes their employees care about, this helps strengthen the relationship between not just the company and its employees, but also between the company and the nonprofits they help. All of these effects come together to create a positive reputation for the company, happy employees, and a better community.

This is how you can implement and maintain your corporate giving program as you focus on employee engagement.

How to Implement or Enhance Your Corporate Giving Program

When it comes to corporate giving, managing your program can be overwhelming. After all, if your company offers a matching gift or volunteer grant program, you’ll need to track each employee donation and volunteer hour, as well as the requests that come through for matches or grants.

Corporate giving software for companies is an effective option that many corporations already take advantage of. These solutions allow companies to manage workplace giving, matching gifts, volunteer opportunities, and more.

For example, the right corporate giving solution equips your company to:

  • Set up and view employee donations, such as automatic payroll deductions.
  • Review and/or automatically approve matching gift requests.
  • List volunteer opportunities for employees.
  • Track employee volunteer hours.
  • Manage and approve volunteer grant requests.

Whether you’re setting up a new corporate giving program or trying to build on what you already have, corporate giving software can help you get the most out of your program. After all, the easier it is for employees to log in and participate, the more engagement you’ll get in the long run.

If you’re looking to get started with corporate giving or improve and better manage your company’s philanthropic programing, working with a software provider will allow you to incorporate all of the recommendations above and begin seeing real results as soon as possible.

This is why corporate giving programs are a win-win for everyone when it comes to employee engagement.

Conclusion: Why Corporate Giving Programs are a Win-Win for Everyone

In summary, there are many benefits of incorporating giving programs like matching gifts, volunteer grants, and volunteerism. These include:

  • Employees getting to experience an enjoyable and rewarding team-building event.
  • The corporation giving back to the community.
  • The corporation’s reputation in the community being enhanced through positive press coverage and other channels.
  • The nonprofits receiving volunteer support and/or additional funding.

While there are a multitude of ways to increase employee engagement, utilizing corporate giving programs can be one of the most beneficial options for employees, companies, and nonprofits alike.

Here are some additional employee engagement and corporate giving resources.

Additional Employee Engagement & Corporate Giving Resources

If you’re interested in learning more about corporate giving and employee engagement, we’ve compiled some excellent resources for you:

Find out how to drive corporate philanthropy at your company!

How to start a matching gift program [for companies]

How to Start a Matching Gift Program [For Companies]

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Thousands of companies host matching gift programs that encourage and amplify employee giving to nonprofit causes. When an individual works for such a company, they are able to make a donation to their favorite charitable organization and request a corporate match as well. This stretches the impact of their initial gift further, allowing them to make a more significant difference with their dollars.

While these types of programs are continuing to grow in popularity among companies and their employees alike, unfortunately, not all businesses offer gift-matching. But it’s not too late to get started!

If you’re a corporate leader looking to find out how to start a matching gift program for your company, you’ve come to the right place. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk through the key actions that, when done right, will enable you to develop an effective matching program for your business. These steps include:

  1. Setting a budget and goals for your donation-matching program.
  2. Identifying matching gift threshold criteria.
  3. Determining eligibility for your matching gift programs.
  4. Deciding how your company will facilitate matching.
  5. Establishing your matching gift request process (and deadline).
  6. Exploring matching gift auto-submission to simplify participation.
  7. Crafting an employee-facing matching gift policy document.
  8. Informing employees about your matching gift initiative.
  9. Ensuring your matching gift program is added to the top matching database.
  10. Collecting data, tracking impact, and making program improvements.

Companies match gifts for a wide range of reasons. These typically encompass business-related benefits such as increased employee engagement, improved reputation, tax deductions, and more⁠. In fact, employees and consumers alike are now more than ever demanding corporate social responsibility from the brands they support.

Studies show that more than 77% of employees reported a sense of purpose as a part of the reason they selected their current employer, while 2/3 of young employees won’t take a job at a company with poor CSR practices, and 55% of employees would even take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company. At the same time, 90% of consumers worldwide are likely to switch to brands supporting good causes, while 66% would pay more to CSR-focused businesses.

Reasons why companies should start matching gift programs

However, genuine altruism can be another key driver behind matching gifts and other workplace and corporate philanthropy programs. Corporate leaders know they have the opportunity to make a real difference in the world and utilize their businesses to do so. And launching a matching gift program is a particularly impactful way to go.

Let’s dive in with the first step.

1. Set a budget and goals for your donation-matching program.

Before you can (or should) launch any new corporate initiative, it’s important to begin with your budget and goals. The same is true for matching gifts. These two criteria will guide the rest of your efforts⁠—your budget because it allows you to determine your new program’s limits and goals to help prioritize objectives and establish what success looks like.

When it comes to budget, we recommend setting a figure that is on the higher end of realistic for your business. That is because, although not every employee will choose to partake, you want to be sure you have the funding should you end up with higher participation rates than you’d initially expected.

You’ll also need to determine where this money will come from. Keep in mind that, though some companies reallocate funding for their matching gift programs from an existing philanthropic budget, others opt to establish a match reserve that is above and beyond any prior giving.

Now, for your goals; two of the most common types of objectives that a company might set in terms of matching gift program success have to do with dollars donated or employee participation. For example, you may decide that your goal for the first twelve months of your program is to contribute $X thousand dollars through employee matching gifts. On the other hand, perhaps you set a primary objective to incite X% staff participation in your matching gift program’s foundational year.

For additional context, take a look at the participation rates from several top matching gift companies in the financial, technology, consumer goods, and pharmaceutical industries:

Employee participation rate is one of the more crucial matching gift statistics.

Regardless, either objective structure works; it’s just a matter of ensuring your team is on the same page.

2. Identify matching gift threshold criteria.

Once you have your budget and goals set, it’s time to establish the boundaries of your program. Essentially, this criteria determines the total amount of funding that is available to each employee on an annual basis and should include the following details:

  • Ratios ⁠— Your matching gift ratio is the rate at which you agree to match employee donations. 1:1 is by far the most common match rate, with 91% of companies match donations doing so at a 1:1 ratio. However, some companies (approximately 4%) choose to match at a lower rate, such as .5:1, while others (5%) match at a higher rate, such as 2, 3, or even 4:1. For context, if an employee were to make a $100 donation, a 1:1 match would involve a $100 corporate gift, while a .5:1 match would result in a $50 match, and a 2:1 ratio would produce a $200 match.
  • Minimum amounts ⁠— Next is the minimum amount that your company agrees to match. Minimums are typically set in order to ensure employees are requesting corporate funds for the organizations they truly care about and support with their own dollars. Overall, 93% of companies with matching gift programs have a minimum match requirement of less than or equal to $50, with the average falling at $34. However, minimums can be as low as $1, and some companies choose not to set minimum gift amounts in the first place.
  • Maximum amounts ⁠— On the other end of the spectrum, nearly all companies set maximum match amounts that they’re willing to pay. Maximum caps allow corporations to manage their budgets properly and ensure there is funding available for any eligible employee to participate. Our research shows that 80% of companies’ matching gift maximums fall between $500 and $10,000 annually per employee, the mean amount coming in at $3,728.

Some businesses even vary their guidelines depending on an individual’s employment status or job type. For example, executive-level team members may be eligible for a 2:1 match up to $20,000, while all other employees receive a 1:1 match up to $10,000. In the same vein, you may decide that part-time and retired employees can request a particular amount of match funding, while current full-time staff are eligible for a higher level.

3. Determine eligibility for your matching gift programs.

Beyond monetary amounts, many companies also set specific eligibility criteria regarding the employee types that qualify to request matches, nonprofit mission types that qualify to receive matches, and contribution types that qualify as initial donations. Let’s take a look at each in further detail as you decide which kinds of gifts your company is willing to match:

  • Employee participants ⁠— Most matching gift programs are divided into eligibility status based on employment with the company offering the program. Typically, any combination of current, full-time, current part-time, and retired employees will qualify to get involved. However, some companies take things a step further by offering program eligibility to spouses and other family members of current and former staff members as well.
  • Donation types ⁠— By this point, you should have already determined the amounts you’re willing to match per employee in a pre-determined period. Now comes the question of which types of donations are eligible for corporate matching. Nonprofit donations can be made through a wide range of channels, including (but not limited to) an organization’s website, online donation tools, peer-to-peer giving campaigns, text giving, direct mail, recurring donations, phonathons, paycheck deductions, event pledges, stock donations and other gifts of securities, and more.
  • Nonprofit recipients ⁠— Though many companies will match gifts to any nonprofit organizations, others will choose specific mission types to either focus on or exclude from the matching initiative. For example, churches and other strictly religious organizations are some of the most common exclusions from companies’ matching programs. On the other hand, some companies will choose a specific cause type (often educational institutions) to which they will exclusively direct matching gift funds. Overall, companies typically choose from organizations in categories such as higher educational institutions, K-12 schools, health and human services, arts and cultural organizations, civic and community organizations, environmental organizations, and more.

In order to ensure an optimal employee giving experience, experts recommend providing a large number of choices for employees to give⁠ and to get their gifts matched⁠. Similarly, your company will likely see significantly increased participation levels should you open the program to as many employees and nonprofits as possible.

However, if your company does not have the budget or the bandwidth to introduce a fully-fledged matching gift program, another option to consider would be a custom matching gifts program. What’s the difference? Rather than matching gifts to any or all nonprofit causes, a custom matching gift initiative involves a more direct partnership with a single fundraising organization. From there, a time constraint is typically established (for example, doubling all staff donations to a breast cancer research center made throughout Breast Cancer Awareness Month). You’ll want to encourage employees to support the selected nonprofit during the span of the campaign, then your company will match the total given to make each dollar go farther toward the organization’s mission.

While more limited in scope, custom matching gift programs can be an excellent way to forge mutually beneficial nonprofit-corporate partnerships, rally employees around a particular cause, and gain critical experience in matching gifts. When you see the impact you can make with a custom program, you might even decide to go all in with a traditional matching gift offering!

*While Double the Donation offers custom matching gift management functionality, this feature is designed specifically for fundraisers looking to manage custom matching gift initiatives—Double the Donation does not work directly with corporations. If you’re a company interested in creating a matching gift program, contact us, and we’ll share information about our corporate vendor partners.

4. Decide how your company will facilitate matching.

Even after launching your matching gift offering, maintaining an effective program will require some continuous upkeep from company leadership. However, you don’t have to do it all manually if you choose not to.

There are generally two key management methods you can choose from:

  • In-house program management ⁠— Many companies⁠—particularly small businesses⁠—start by matching gifts on their own. While this can keep program overhead costs low, it will require additional investments of time and effort from corporate management. After employees submit their matching gift requests, there must be a process in place to facilitate the review of employee submissions, verify initial donations meet matching criteria, approve corporate matches, and disburse match funding.
  • Outsourcing to third-party solution ⁠— The alternative to in-house management is outsourcing aspects of your matching gift program to a third-party solution. Though this path will typically involve paying fees to various software vendors, it ultimately saves your team time, effort, and resources. Working with a matching gift software vendor (we have reviews of several top providers for businesses of all shapes and sizes here) allows your company to take a more hands-off approach to matching gifts while streamlining the processes involved for employee participants.

Either practice works, and many companies find that they begin with an in-house management style but later upgrade with corporate giving technology to elevate their efforts. As you make your decision, keep in mind that CSR is an investment that tends to bring substantial benefits to your business as a whole.

Start a matching gift program with a top CSR partner!

5. Establish your matching gift request process (and deadline).

In order to participate in your newly developed matching gift program, employees need to know how to participate and how long they have after making their initial nonprofit donations to complete the request process. Regarding the latter, most companies set their program participation deadlines according to one of the following schedule approaches:

  • Number of months following an initial donation ⁠— Most commonly six or twelve months following the date of an employee’s initial donation, this type of matching gift deadline works on a rolling basis. If an employee donated to a nonprofit on a certain day one year, they might qualify to request their match until the same date the following year. Or, they might remain eligible for six, nine, or even eighteen months after their original gift, depending on the company offering the program.
  • End of the calendar year ⁠— For companies that utilize the calendar year to organize their matching gift programs, it’s simple to determine when a match request is due. Whichever year the initial donation was made, the match must be submitted by December 31st of the same year. This is true regardless of whether the gift was contributed on January 1st or December 1st. However, this can result in employees who give later in the year having significantly less time to submit their matches.
  • End of the calendar year + grace period ⁠— Similar to the previous type, some companies choose to enact a matching gift deadline based on the end of the calendar year and then add on a grace period. The grace period is typically a few additional months into the next year. This means that an individual’s match request would typically be due by February, March, or April following the year in which the initial donation was made.
  • End of the fiscal year ⁠— If your company operates on a schedule other than the calendar year, it might make sense for your team to set your matching gift deadline in relation to the end of that year instead. Drawbacks to this method may occur if employees are not aware of the fiscal year the company runs on, so be sure to proactively communicate your deadline to employees if so.

Other common stipulations include that the employee must be gainfully employed by the company at both the time the donation is made and the time the match request is submitted and paid out.

As you craft your submission deadlines, you’ll also want to determine which information you’ll request from employees looking to submit their match requests. Common requirements include the employee’s name, organization name, mailing address, and tax ID number, and donation amount and type. You may also ask for a copy of the individual’s donation receipt, and some companies choose to verify each donation with the organization itself (though that can be a hassle for all parties involved).

You’ll also need to establish and ultimately communicate the way in which employees will go about requesting their matches. If you choose to manage your program with a matching gift software vendor, be sure to direct team members to the company’s online match request portal. If you end up facilitating your program in-house, ensure individuals know how to complete the submission process and have the resources they need to do so.

6. Explore matching gift auto-submission to simplify participation.

When you offer a matching gift program for your employees, you want them to partake. Otherwise, you limit the benefits of the initiative that you’ve invested your time, energy, and resources into developing.

Thus, in order to boost participation in your program, it’s important that you make the process involved in doing so as quick, easy, and painless as possible. And the best way to do so is by enabling matching gift auto-submission!

Auto-submission functionality is a trailblazing initiative made available through Double the Donation and its innovative CSR platform partners—including Millie, Selflessly, POINT, and more.

When a company leverages one of these corporate giving solutions to facilitate its matching gift program, they automatically empower employees to get their gifts matched directly from their favorite nonprofits’ websites. Whereas previously, donors were required to complete a separate request process and provide nonprofit and donor information, all they need to do with auto-submission is provide their corporate email address (or another piece of identifying information).

Starting a matching gift program with auto-submission

From there, the software systems process the request seamlessly behind the scenes, reducing roadblocks for employees and resulting in elevated engagement in the programming.

Working with a matching gift vendor that offers auto-submission will also allow your company to become a Certified Leader in Matching Automation (CLMA). That means you’ll be recognized for offering the most universally accessible, easy-to-complete matching gift process for your employees.

Remember: the more easily your staff can participate in matching gifts, the more likely they’ll be to complete their end of the process. Fortunately, offering auto-submission (and becoming CLMA-certified) is the best way to do so.

7. Craft an employee-facing matching gift policy document.

Some of the biggest reasons employees fail to participate in their companies’ matching gift programs, even if they make qualifying donations, is that they are unaware of their eligibility or lack understanding of the match request process and, subsequently, end up missing the deadline. Therefore, it’s essential that you take steps to communicate your program’s guidelines and instructions for participation to eligible employees.

One of the easiest and most effective ways to do so is by producing employee-facing documentation with all the information your staff will need to get involved. This should include your company’s match criteria, such as:

  • Match ratio
  • Minimum and maximum donation amounts
  • Qualifying employees and nonprofit causes
  • Types of donations and submission deadlines
  • Matching gift request process and links to online forms
  • Participation in auto-submission

Once you have all the information in one place, it’s easy for employees to determine whether their most recent donations are eligible for matching and take the initiative to participate. Keep in mind that, as you make adjustments to your matching gift program, it’s important to ensure your corporate giving policy documentation is as accurate and up-to-date as possible.

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE MATCHING GIFT POLICY TEMPLATE

8. Inform employees about your matching gift initiative.

Once your program is live, it’s time to begin promoting the opportunity to your employees. This is an essential, though often overlooked, step in the process. In fact, our research shows that despite 26 million individuals working for companies that match gifts, more than 78% of the group has never been made aware of the programs.

Unfortunately, many of those individuals never go to request corporate matches regardless of their eligibility to participate. In the end, that means companies are not reaping the maximum benefit of the programs they worked to establish.

Thus, in order to make the most of your business’ match initiative, it’s imperative that you take the time to ensure your workforce is aware. What this looks like specifically can vary from company to company.

You might:

  • Send out a team-wide email;
  • Announce the inception of your program at a meeting;
  • Add a section to your office policy handbook;
  • Incorporate matching gifts in your onboarding process going forward;

Or even all of the above.

The bottom line is that your employees should know about the program and be reminded of the opportunity multiple times throughout the year.

9. Ensure your matching gift program is added to the top matching database.

Directly informing your staff about your newly developed matching gift program is critical. Now your team should be aware of the initiative and ready to get involved. But you also want to ensure that employees are reminded of the program opportunities directly after making eligible nonprofit donations⁠—ideally from the organizations themselves.

For that to occur, you’ll need to first confirm that your matching gift program is added to the leading database of corporate matching gift program information: Double the Donation. Once added, employees will be able to search your company and receive program-specific details straight from the organizations they support, often within a donation confirmation screen widget or follow-up email.

Add your company to Double the Donation's database after starting your company's matching gift program

From there, employees can navigate to your company’s matching gift request forms online and complete their submissions while leveraging their post-donation momentum. It simplifies the process involved for team members and results in significantly more matches being completed⁠—meaning more nonprofits receiving funding and increased benefits for your company.

To add your company, follow this link and provide the information requested. This includes your company name, submission materials (such as links to online forms, PDF uploads), and eligibility criteria.

(Hint: the more information you share, the easier it will be for employees to participate in your program.)

10. Collect data, track impact, and make program improvements.

This last stage of the matching gift development process involves taking a look at the program you’ve created and determining whether it meets the criteria previously set in place during step #1. You should be collecting and analyzing data throughout the process (made particularly simple when utilizing program management software). Now, this data comes in handy to help determine program success.

For example, did you meet or exceed your goals? If so⁠—what happens now? Will you set loftier goals for the future and continue matching? If not, how will you adjust your program strategy to ensure your team is on track to reach your goals this time around?

You can also take a closer look at your company’s data to determine and communicate program impact. This should answer questions like how many and to which nonprofits did your company give? What amounts were donated through both employee gifts and corporate matches?

Finally, you’ll want to explore ways to continuously improve your matching gift program in the months and years to come. Consider ways to drive employee engagement in your programming. Elevate giving by increasing your match ratio or maximum donation cap. Or simplify participation in your program by enabling matching gift auto-submission for your employees! You can even use dedicated employee recognition platforms to call out those who participate. As your company grows, your matching gift initiative should grow alongside it.

Final Thoughts & Additional Resources

It doesn’t have to be difficult to get started with matching gifts, and your company’s programming doesn’t have to be the most built-out initiative before you can make it available to employees. Everyone has to begin somewhere, and following the nine steps above will allow you to build a solid foundation for your workforce.

Good luck, and happy matching!

Interested in learning more about matching gifts and developing optimized employee giving initiatives? Check out these other educational resources for companies here:

Start a matching gift program with a top CSR partner!

Find out how Venmo for nonprofits can help your organization raise more.

How Venmo for Nonprofits Can Help Organizations Raise More

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Every day, millions of people use Venmo to send and receive money from each other. Nonprofits receive money in the form of donations all the time, so of course, they also benefit from using Venmo!

While there isn’t a specific version of Venmo for nonprofits, organizations can still leverage regular Venmo accounts to effectively collect donations on the app. Venmo simplifies the fundraising process and allows nonprofits to reach a wider audience of supporters, including younger donors.

Whether you’re familiar with Venmo or not, we’ll make sure you understand how to use it effectively for your nonprofit.

At Double the Donation, we connect nonprofits with matching gift opportunities. We know how important it is to maximize your organization’s fundraising potential. Just like matching gifts, Venmo fundraising is another way to ensure that you’re collecting as many donations as possible. We’re happy to share this guide to Venmo for nonprofits to help you reach your fundraising goals and continue running your organization smoothly.

Here are the topics we’ll cover in this article:

Follow along to learn how Venmo works, why your nonprofit should use it, and how you can leverage it to its fullest potential.

Maximize your Venmo fundraising with matching gift software.

These are the basics of Venmo for nonprofits.

The Venmo for Nonprofits Basics

Let’s start with a basic definition of Venmo. Venmo is a peer-to-peer mobile payment service that allows people to request and accept funds from each other. Instead of using cash, checks, or direct bank transfers, Venmo securely deducts money from users’ bank accounts and sends it to the intended recipients. That way, transactions are easy and protective of your sensitive information.

Venmo is one of many payment processing apps, but it’s certainly one of the most popular options. Check out these statistics about Venmo’s size and scope:

  • Venmo has more than 83 million users.
  • Its largest user age group is 25-34-year-olds.
  • The app processed about $230 billion in payments in 2021.

Here are some important Venmo for nonprofits statistics.

Why do so many people rely on Venmo for their payment processing needs? For starters, it’s extremely simple to use. Once you link your bank account, debit card, or credit card to your account, all you have to do is find who you want to pay, type in the payment amount, and send it.

Another useful feature of Venmo is that you can keep money in your account to use in the future or transfer it to your bank account for safekeeping. For a combination of the two, you can input the amount you’d like to transfer and leave the rest in your account.

You might already use a more traditional payment processing platform like PayPal. While Venmo supports nonprofits in the same way PayPal does, it’s still an effective and secure fundraising method.

Check out the advantages of Venmo for nonprofits.

Advantages of Venmo Fundraising

People use Venmo all the time to pay their friends, family, and even some businesses. Making a Venmo account for your nonprofit changes the game for donations. Instead of going through the formal process of filling out your donation form, donors can now send you money just like they would for people they know. That way, the process is easy and familiar to donors.

These are the advantages of Venmo for nonprofits and donors.

Benefits for Donors

Venmo fundraising provides a whole new donation experience. Here are some of the key benefits the app offers to donors:

  • Ease of use. Since people are familiar with Venmo, using it for donations makes it easier for donors to lend their support. The app itself has a simple interface that new users can quickly pick up on. Instead of navigating to your donation page, donors now have the ability to donate to as many nonprofits as they would like all within the same app.
  • Reliability. Venmo is a reputable payment processing platform with ample encryption. They take care to protect your account information and monitor your account activity to thwart suspicious transactions. Using Venmo, donors can feel comfortable donating to their favorite causes without worrying about their information being compromised.
  • Smaller transactions. With an average transaction amount of around $60, Venmo invites donors of all giving capacities to contribute. People can feel comfortable giving $10, $100, or $1,000 through Venmo because of the nature of the app.

Donors will appreciate the opportunity to donate through a well-trusted, easy-to-use platform.

Benefits for Nonprofits

While Venmo is a great platform for prioritizing the donor experience, it also boasts many advantages for nonprofits that create an account, such as:

  • Affordability. Nonprofits are always looking for ways to keep their costs down. Venmo makes it easy because they don’t charge any monthly fees. They also don’t charge any fees for sending money with a linked bank account or debit card. When accepting donations, the associated fee is only 1.9% + $0.10. Other than that, the only other fees are for sending money with a credit card or initiating instant transfers to your bank account, both of which are optional.
  • Free publicity. One of the unique features of Venmo is that it functions like a social media app. You can add your friends and family to see their transactions and vice versa. This feature allows donors to show off their support for your cause and encourage others to do the same.
  • Stronger donor relationships. Since people use Venmo primarily with friends and family, they associate the app with people they know. Therefore, using Venmo to donate to your organization may help donors feel a more personal connection to your nonprofit. Additionally, nonprofits can comment on the donations they receive to thank donors and even start a conversation with them.

Using Venmo for nonprofits is a win for both donors and organizations accepting donations. The app is easy to use and invites donors to form a deeper connection to the causes they care about. Your nonprofit can obtain all the benefits we’ve discussed by simply setting up an account.

We'll walk you through how to create your Venmo fundraising account.

Creating Your Venmo for Nonprofits Account

Just as using the app is easy, creating your nonprofit’s Venmo account is even simpler. While Venmo doesn’t yet have a nonprofit account option, they are performing a private beta test for a select group of nonprofits, so nonprofit Venmo accounts could be coming soon.

For now, though, nonprofits can create regular accounts following these steps:

Follow these steps to create your Venmo for nonprofits account.

  1. Download the Venmo app or visit the Venmo website.
  2. Choose your sign-up method and create your password.
  3. Verify your phone number and email address.
  4. Add and verify your bank account.
  5. Change your username and add a profile picture that represents your nonprofit.

It couldn’t be easier to create your account. As soon as your nonprofit sets up its Venmo account, you can spread the word to your donors so they can start taking advantage of your new fundraising method.

We'll give you tips for how to promote your Venmo for nonprofits account.

Promoting Your Nonprofit’s Venmo Account

Once you create your nonprofit’s Venmo account, the next step is to let your supporters know about it. Current donors will be excited about this new and easy way to donate, and prospective donors may be more enticed to start giving with this option.

There are several ways that you can tell your donors about your new capacity for Venmo fundraising. Check out some of our ideas:

Promote your Venmo for nonprofits account using these methods.

  • Create a Venmo donation tutorial. It’s safe to assume that many of your supporters know how Venmo works, but not all of them. Help them out by filming a video tutorial that teaches donors how to set up their own Venmo account and how they can use it to donate to your cause. Post the video on your website and social media to spread the word.
  • Link your Venmo account to your social media. Speaking of social media, it’s one of the most powerful tools for communicating with your supporters. Create a post introducing the concept of Venmo donations and provide a link to your account in your bio. Additionally, include your Venmo username in all email newsletters alongside your other social media profiles.
  • Share your Venmo QR code. Venmo provides each account with a unique QR code, making it easier to find the Venmo account you’re looking for. You can post your nonprofit’s QR code on social media, include it in email newsletters, and print physical copies to hand out at events.
  • Indicate Venmo as an option on your donation page. You likely feature a donation form on your nonprofit’s website. However, telling visitors on this page that Venmo is another option for donations can allow people to decide which method they prefer and donate accordingly.

Your supporters will be thrilled to hear that your nonprofit is making strides to create a seamless donor experience with Venmo. However, there are extra steps your organization can take to strengthen relationships with your supporters through the app.

Venmo fundraising provides opportunities to connect with donors.

Connecting with Donors Through Venmo Fundraising

Venmo presents a unique opportunity to build relationships with your donors when they lend you their support. While the format of the app itself allows you to interact with others like on other social media platforms, there are additional ways your organization can intentionally connect with donors on Venmo.

Connect with donors using Venmo fundraising.

Ask for small donations.

Of course, large donations are always appreciated, but every donation counts. Considering that Venmo has a younger audience, you might be better off encouraging smaller donations. That way, you can acquire new donors who never would’ve considered donating before through more traditional methods.

Try asking your nonprofit’s social media followers to direct message your organization with their Venmo username and how much they’re willing to donate. Then, you can send them a request for that amount so that they won’t forget.

Respond to each donor.

It’s important to show your appreciation for your donors. Venmo makes it easy by allowing you to like and comment on Venmo transactions. Use it as an opportunity to thank donors and maybe even start a conversation about your cause.

You can ask donors why they chose to donate to learn more about them. Then, feature the best answers on your social media with their permission. This way, you can show others why your donors feel compelled to support your organization.

Know your audience.

Younger generations dominate Venmo, so it’s important to keep that in mind when running your account. Make your responses fun by using emojis and GIFs that Venmo provides.

You also might want to select certain donors and give them a shoutout on your social media. Younger donors will love being recognized for their fundraising efforts.

Incentivize donations.

A little healthy competition can make donating more fun. Plus, you’ll raise even more for your cause. Try hosting a fundraising competition by splitting supporters into teams. You can let people form their own teams, create teams based on demographic factors, or choose groups randomly.

Each team will compete for who can raise the most money. Give the winning team a prize such as a social media shoutout, gift cards, or free branded merchandise. Turning donating into a game will encourage more people to join in on the fun.

Bear in mind that this serves as a form of peer-to-peer fundraising, and some employers will match the amount their employees raise for an organization. Promote the opportunity to incentivize participation and drive greater fundraising results!

Encourage more Venmo donations with matching gifts.

Matching gifts allow you to double or even triple the amount you earn for your organization. Plus, donors will feel good knowing they had an even larger impact on your organization than they anticipated.

Using employer appends, you can determine which of your donors’ employers have matching gift programs. Then, you can reach out to those donors letting them know that their employers will match their donations to your nonprofit, even those made through Venmo. That way, you can maximize your fundraising potential and highlight Venmo as a viable donation platform.

With Venmo, you can really get to know your donors, make the donation process fun, and raise more for your cause.

Check out these additional resources that will help you maximize the impact of your Venmo fundraising.

Additional Resources

Nonprofits are always looking for ways to increase their donations. While most typically search for new ways to promote their organization as a whole, why not try out a different fundraising platform altogether?

Using Venmo for nonprofits is the best way to encourage donations by connecting with younger supporters on an app they already use regularly. For Venmo users, donating to your cause can become just another part of their Venmo routine alongside splitting checks and paying rent.

Once you’ve set up your nonprofit’s Venmo account, you might start looking for new ways to maximize your fundraising potential. Matching gifts allow you to gain the support of your donors’ employers. With your new Venmo donations rolling in, you’ll want to check out these resources to see how you can double or even triple them:

Double the Donation can help you maximize your Venmo fundraising with matching gifts.

How to advocate for a matching gift program to your employer

How to Advocate for a Matching Gift Program to Your Employer

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Matching gifts are one of the simplest and most impactful ways for nonprofit donors to amplify their support for their favorite causes. Unfortunately, not all companies offer these initiatives⁠—which is why you’re searching for best practices on how to advocate for a matching gift program.

You’ve come to the right place! Double the Donation is full of experts on matching gift programs, and we’ve compiled a list of easy tips for individual employees to take in order to effectively communicate the value of matching gift programs to the corporate leaders at their company.

Specifically, we recommend taking the following steps:

  1. Cover the basics of matching gift programs.
  2. Explain the benefits of matching employee gifts.
  3. Highlight similar businesses with matching gift programs.
  4. Share resources to streamline program development.
  5. Emphasize simplicity with auto-submission and CSR platforms.
  6. Use a template to communicate your request.

In this guide, we’ll walk through each practice in detail. Ready to learn more about how to convince your boss to build a matching gift program?

Let’s begin!

1. Cover the basics of matching gift programs.

First things first, it’s a good idea to begin with a solid foundation of knowledge regarding workplace giving programs and matching gifts. Not only will this help you to understand the value of the constantly growing opportunity, but it can also enable you to better advocate for the programs to your employer.

Matching gifts are one of the most popular forms of corporate philanthropy⁠—both in terms of the number of programs available and the high regard for the initiatives among companies, employees, and nonprofits alike.

This is typically an ongoing opportunity where a company agrees to match monetary donations their team members make to qualifying nonprofit causes. For example, Employee A decides to contribute $100 to Nonprofit B. Employee A then submits a match request to their employer, Company C. Company C reviews the submission, verifies the initial gift, and makes their own corporate donation to Nonprofit B. In the end, Nonprofit B receives double the funding, while Employee A is able to see their dollars make a larger impact and their employer support the causes that they care about.

Knowing the basics of matching gifts can help advocate for a matching gift program.

It helps to make your request as detailed as possible so your employer knows exactly what your matching gift program entails and isn’t surprised down the line. A helpful timeline to include is the general steps of starting a matching gift program. Consider these essential steps from re: charity’s Guide to Starting a Corporate Matching Gift Program:

  1. Establish your minimum and maximum giving amounts
  2. Determine which types of causes and which employees are eligible for participation 
  3. Create a submission process
  4. Launch your program

Most matching gifts go unclaimed due to employees being unaware that their company offers a matching gift program. Thus, your company should prioritize promoting your program to employees so it can achieve its maximum potential.

You may also want to take the opportunity to highlight typical matching gift parameters. Each company that builds a matching gift program has the chance to set its own matching gift ratio, minimum and maximum match amounts, submission deadline, and more. They can even determine which types of employees and nonprofits are eligible to participate, thus tailoring the program to meet the company’s specific needs and abilities.

In order to provide some more context into what existing companies are doing, we also have key statistics and benchmarks that can be shared. For example, 93% of companies have a minimum match requirement of less than or equal to $50, with the average landing at $34. On the other end of the spectrum, 80% of companies’ matching gift maximums fall between $500 and $10,000 annually per employee, for a mean of $3,728. And when it comes to ratios, 91% of companies match at a 1:1 rate, while 4% match at a lower rate (such as .5:1) and 5% match at a higher rate (such as 2:1, 3:1, or even 4:1).

2. Explain the benefits of matching employee gifts.

Once you have the basics of matching gift programs down, it’ll be essential to understand and communicate the range of ways in which a company can benefit from offering employee matching gifts. As your employer considers developing a matching program, it’s important to continuously highlight the value that will be derived from it.

Use these stats to advocate for a matching gift program at your company.

Specifically, we can break things down into both internal and external advantages.

Internal

People want to work for companies that support the greater good. That’s why businesses that give back to the community tend to see:

  • Increased levels of employee engagement. When employees feel good about the companies they work for, they’ll be more likely to be highly engaged in their jobs. By matching employee donations, a company can elevate engagement levels while simultaneously giving back to their communities and society as a whole.
  • Higher rates of team member productivity. This piggybacks off of employee engagement. Highly engaged employees are more likely to see high levels of productivity in their roles, having been increasingly inspired to drive forward the company and its success with their own efforts.
  • Longer staff tenures overall. More and more, individuals are looking for companies to work for that make a difference. When businesses offer socially responsible benefits such as matching gift programs, employees will have fewer reasons to seek employment elsewhere.
  • Opportunities to attract new talent to the workforce. Individuals looking for employment with companies that benefit nonprofits, and specifically the causes their employees care about, will be more likely to apply and accept positions with CSR-focused businesses.

In fact, research shows that over 77% of surveyed individuals report a sense of purpose as part of the reason they selected their current employer, while more than 54% of employees who are proud of their company’s contributions to society report being fully engaged in their job. Even more, 55% reported being willing to take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company.

Corporate leaders know that a positive work environment is essential to running a successful business. Thus, philanthropy is key⁠—and giving directly to employees’ favorite causes through matching gifts can produce even greater results than supporting nonprofits in a more general sense.

External

The reasons to launch a matching gift program don’t stop at internal benefits, either. Companies can also see substantial advantages when it comes to their consumers.

Research into CSR, and specifically matching gifts, reports that 77% of consumers are motivated to purchase from companies committed to making the world a better place and that over 90% of consumers are likely to switch to brands supporting good causes. Plus, 66% of consumers would pay more to socially and environmentally responsible businesses.

Thus, if businesses are looking to best appeal to their buyers, they know to contribute to nonprofit causes and that matching gifts are an effective way to do it. Because consumers are now expecting⁠—and even demanding⁠—social responsibility from their favorite brands, not participating in such programs can even cause businesses to lose out on a major competitive advantage.

3. Highlight similar businesses with matching gift programs.

One of the most impactful ways to persuade your employer to launch a matching gift initiative is to show them a number of well-known businesses that are already doing so. It’s its own kind of social proof! They’ll see other companies, perhaps even their competitors, benefiting from matching employee donations and be increasingly inspired to get involved.

You can even provide examples based on the industry in which you’re employed. For instance, let’s say you work for a bank. You may consider the following companies’ match programs as a model:

  • Truist Bank ⁠— matches full-time employees’ donations of between $50 and $2,500 at a 1:1 ratio to most nonprofit organizations
  • PNC Financial Services Group ⁠— matches full-time employees’ donations of between $50 and $2,500 at up to a 4:1 ratio to many nonprofit organizations
  • Bank of America ⁠— matches current employees’ donations of between $24 and $5,000 at a 1:1 ratio to nearly all nonprofit organizations

Meanwhile, if you work for a retailer, you might highlight programs from companies like these:

  • The Home Depot ⁠— matches current employees’ donations of between $25 and $3,000 at a 1:1 ratio to most nonprofit organizations
  • Gap Corporation ⁠— matches current and retired employees’ donations of between $10 and $10,000 at a 1:1 ratio to most nonprofit organizations
  • Macy’s ⁠— matches current and retired employees’ donations of between $25 and $500 at a 1:1 ratio to most nonprofit organizations

Perhaps you’re employed by an airline. In that case, get inspired by Alaska Airlines’ matching gift program. Work for a hotel? Check out Choice Hotels’ standout program!

Or, if you want to provide a few matching gift companies in the same area as your employer, we’ve produced several geographic-based lists to help. Encourage your company to look at examples of powerful matching gift programs in Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and so on. Just search “matching gift companies in [the city of your choice]” to locate even more inspirational programs.

The bottom line is that there are tons of existing matching gift companies to aspire to. By sharing sample programs with your employer, you can help inspire them to take steps to develop their own initiative.

4. Share resources to streamline program development.

One of the most significant roadblocks for many companies interested in matching gifts is that they simply don’t know where to start. You can help remove obstacles before they occur by sharing useful resources from the beginning.

For example, we created a step-by-step guide on how to establish a matching gift program for companies in situations just like this. This resource covers key undertakings, which include setting a budget and objectives, determining eligibility criteria, promoting the program to employees, tracking data and making improvements, and more. Or we’ve also created a free downloadable template that companies can use to customize their program policies.

If you’re interested in other corporate-facing assets, we have these resources as well:

Feel free to forward the guides to your employer to help kick things into action.

5. Emphasize simplicity with auto-submission and CSR platforms.

A common hindrance for new companies considering exploring matching gift programs is that it can seem like a significant undertaking—both in terms of getting the program off the ground as well as managing matching gifts in the long run. Luckily, dedicated technology known as CSR or corporate giving platforms enable businesses to launch and facilitate matching programs with ease.

In order to overcome this potential roadblock with your employer, we recommend coming prepared with information about such solutions and how they can help. For example, some corporate giving technology empowers companies and their employees to give quickly and easily with new matching gift auto-submission abilities made available through tightened integrations between nonprofits, donors, companies, and employees.

This innovative functionality allows employers to decrease time spent on matching gift requests for themselves and their employees, consequently resulting in more completed matches, and amplifying the ROI of these programs.

Advocating for a matching gift program with auto-submission

6. Use a template to communicate your request.

Now, it’s time to put everything together and begin actively advocating for a matching gift program at your company. During this stage, you want to ensure your matching gift program request is as well-thought-out and well-written as possible. You also want to make sure you can hit all the points discussed above.

Get a headstart on drafting a message to your employer by utilizing a customizable template like this:

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].

If you weren’t aware, thousands of companies across the globe have begun establishing employee matching gift programs as a way to support their staffs and the nonprofit causes they contribute to. Companies that offer these programs essentially agree 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. For the companies specifically, matching gift programs tend to result in substantial advantages in terms of employee engagement and retention, opportunities to attract competitive candidates, improved brand image, and even increasing sales.

And on the employee’s end, team members love knowing that their employer is willing to contribute to their favorite causes; hence, why they end up having longer tenures in the business and seeing higher levels of engagement than ever before.

In order to best understand the impact that matching gifts can have on [company name], I recommend checking out matching programs from well-known businesses such as General Electric, Gap Corporation, Coca-Cola Company, and the Home Depot.

If you’d like to take steps to establish a matching gift program for the company, Double the Donation has provided a detailed guide that walks corporate leaders through the process. You can access the resource here in hopes that it will help simplify the creation of such a beneficial program and use this free template to kickstart your policy creation.

Thank you for your consideration,

[Your name]
[Job position]
[Contact information]

If you choose to go with a face-to-face meeting with management, feel free to use the above template as conversation talking points or a presentation follow-up message instead. Overall, a combination of verbal and written communication touch-points is likely going to produce the greatest results.

More and more companies are developing matching gift programs, and your employer just might be one of them. By promoting the opportunity to the decision-makers at the company you work for, you can help communicate the increasing demand for this type of socially responsible corporate initiative.

Best of luck!

Interested in diving deeper into matching gifts and other corporate philanthropy initiatives to help prepare your company for success? Explore our other educational resources here:

Double the Donation can help individuals advocate for a matching gift program.

Matching gift videos, tips and examples

Matching Gift Videos | Examples and Best Practices

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Corporate matching gifts can significantly benefit any institution’s fundraising efforts. Raising awareness of the programs is essential, however, as available opportunities are often overlooked, especially for organizations developing a new matching gift program. For nonprofits, schools, and other fundraising organizations, matching gift videos may be just the answer you were looking for.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the basics of matching gift videos (and how to create the most impactful content for your audience), as well as share high-performing examples from organizations to be inspired by. Feel free to explore the following topics:

In the age of YouTube, TikTok, social media reels, and more, video is a favorite channel for content creators to share important information and engage with their audiences. And, when done well, viewers love to watch them⁠ (on average, for a total of 100+ minutes a day).

When it comes to matching gifts, you may already have a good amount of content on your website⁠—perhaps a dedicated match page, informative blog posts, and even a matching gift widget on your donation forms.

But did you know that research indicates viewers retain significantly more of a message when they watch it in video format (95%) compared to written text (10%)? Thus, matching gift videos can be a powerful tool for effectively marketing matching gift opportunities to your institution’s supporters.

Let’s dive in with a few tried-and-true tips and tricks for creating optimized matching gift video content.

6 Best Practices for Producing Impactful Matching Gift Videos

A well-made video has the ability to engage its audience from beginning to end, share vital information that is processed and retained, and remain at the top of the viewers’ minds for long after the last second is up. Plus, video has only gotten increasingly popular according to shifting trends.

Follow these tips to create a video that elevates your matching gift strategy and meets the above standards and more.

1. Embed the video on your matching gift web page.

In order for your matching gift video to produce the greatest results, you’ll want to ensure it reaches the widest audience. One of the best ways to do so is by embedding the video directly into your organization’s matching gift page. After all, this is where supporters will navigate to learn more about matching gift program opportunities, so it makes sense that it’s the key location in which your video will live. Then, be sure to share your matching gift page with supporters and potential donors alike.

We also recommend incorporating your video in donor-facing communications such as donation receipts and gift acknowledgments, as well as any campaign landing pages for giving days, peer-to-peer fundraisers, annual fund campaigns, and more. The more opportunities you have for donors to engage with your video, the better you’ll fare!

2. Start by introducing matching gifts as a concept.

Before you dive into the nitty gritty of matching gifts in your donor-facing video, it’s a good idea to cover the basics. After all, tons of donors will have never heard of matching gifts prior to being introduced via your newly developed content.

Thus, we recommend starting at the beginning. Explain what corporate matching gift programs are, provide an overview of the wide availability of the initiatives, and emphasize how matches are made possible through the direct actions of individual donors.

3. Highlight how quick and simple the matching process is.

Most companies with matching gift programs offer a simple request process that can be kicked off online in less than five minutes. However, donors who don’t understand what’s involved in matching gift programs may assume that it’s a significant undertaking.

Be sure to emphasize the speed and simplicity of the donor’s end of the process! Typically, all it takes is some basic information about the donor, their initial donation, and the organization they supported.

You might even mention how it’s typically an entirely digitized submission experience, often involving an online portal or PDF form to complete. Plus, some companies now offer auto-submission, allowing their employees to submit a request in just a few clicks without ever leaving the organization’s giving page!

4. Keep your content short, sweet, and to the point.

There’s a ton you could say about matching gifts if you were, for example, giving a multi-hour lecture on workplace giving programs. In your matching gift video, however, it’s best to keep it short and sweet.

You’ll want to cover the basics of matching gifts and provide enough of a foundation to draw donors in and inspire them to participate. But you don’t want to lose your audience’s attention, so you’ll want to stick with an overview (with a call to action to dive in). 60 seconds is our recommended run time!

5. Incorporate closed captioning for increased accessibility.

If your matching gift video will include a voiceover or other speaking parts, it’s important to add closed captioning for the text. This will allow for optimal accessibility, enabling individuals who are hard of hearing and those watching without volume to get the most out of your video content.

6. Direct viewers to additional resources.

Your matching gift video is great for providing an overview of matching gift programs quickly and effectively. But it’s not the only source of information on matching gifts you should make available to your supporters. Thus, in your video, we recommend directing viewers to additional resources as well. This may include your dedicated matching gift web page, company search tool, or even resources on Double the Donation’s website.

Sample Matching Gift Videos Created That Work

See our best practices in action by exploring existing matching gift videos created and utilized by organizations like yours. As you watch these videos, consider which elements can be brought into your own video production strategy to drive success.

Virginia Commonwealth University ⁠— You could double your donation! | Matching Gifts

Virginia Commonwealth University produced this video in early 2020 to educate donors about the impact and availability of matching gifts. Get inspired by their matching gift video here:

Summary of the Matching Gift Video

Virginia Commonwealth University’s matching gift video stars two sets of look-alikes, each donning VCU apparel to represent matching gift opportunities to their audience.

The video shows the pairs walking through three key steps that a viewer can take to get their donation matched to VCU⁠. These include navigating to the school’s matching gift page with its embedded company search tool, making an individual donation at the provided giving page URL, and following the instructions provided to request a match.

Here are a few standout screengrabs:

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What this Matching Gift Video Does Well

Virginia Commonwealth University’s matching gift video stands out for its:

  • Creative utilization of look-alike individuals to represent corporate gift-matching;
  • Communication of school spirit through the incorporation of branded apparel;
  • Step-by-step overview of the donation and matching gift processes;

Case Western Reserve University ⁠— CRWU Annual Giving Matching Gifts

Case Western Reserve University is another example of a higher education institution that uses a top-notch matching gift video to communicate the importance of corporate matching opportunities. Take a look at their video here:

Summary of the Matching Gift Video

CWRU’s matching gift video utilizes animated elements to highlight matching gift opportunities to viewers. The video begins by likening matching gifts to more common “deals” such as BOGO (buy one, get one free) sales, instant rebates, and more to establish the value of these programs.

From there, they continue to convey that matching gifts are widely available and allow donors to create a greater impact with their gifts while directing the audience to their dedicated matching gift web page to learn more. Finally, they concluded with a powerful data point that states that the school collected nearly $300,000 in matching gift funds the previous year, encouraging viewers to follow suit.

Here are a few standout screengrabs:

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What this Matching Gift Video Does Well

Case Western Reserve University’s matching gift video stands out for its:

  • Engaging use of animation to tell the story of matching gifts;
  • Incorporation into CWRU’s dedicated matching gift page, in addition to being posted on the institution’s YouTube page;
  • Symbolism regarding 2-for-1 and BOGO sales as a way to reiterate the impact of corporate gift matches for donors and organizations;
  • Utilization of statistics to effectively communicate the power of matching gifts the school has seen in the past.

Other Unique Ideas for Nonprofit Matching Gift Videos

We’ve shared several tips and examples for effective matching gift videos⁠—but what exactly should your video contain?

Here are some content ideas that can help guide the creation of your nonprofit or school’s matching gift video to ensure it stands out, resonates with your supporters, and drives impact.

Share a constituent story.

One of the main reasons donors participate in matching programs is because they want to increase their impact on a cause they care about. Make the most of that idea by telling specific constituent stories that will connect with your audience and urge them to do more.

For example, consider sharing about one student we’ll call Jack. Jack was able to pursue a degree and thrive at your university thanks to a scholarship opportunity made possible by generous donor funding. Now, enter Jill. When donors request matching gifts on behalf of your institution, it allows you to support twice as many students⁠—including Jack’s sister, Jill.

Use relevant imagery to help visualize matching.

Videos rely on incorporated imagery to grab and maintain viewers’ attention and interest. In order to represent an abstract concept such as matching gifts, we recommend utilizing applicable symbols.

A few of our favorites include a pair of matching (or mismatched) socks and identical gift boxes. Other ideas may include twins or look-alikes (human or otherwise), multiple briefcases or stacks of cash, matching games, or complementary puzzle pieces. The more creative, the better!

Example of imagery in matching gift videos

Conduct a brief matching gift FAQ.

Many donors will have questions about matching gift programs, the role they play in fundraising, and how an individual would get involved. Answer some of the most commonly asked questions rapid-fire style to provide all the information an individual would need to get started and remove possible roadblocks before they even arise.

Alternatively, you could ask your audience what questions they might have about corporate gift-matching, then create a matching gift video for your organization based on the inquiries provided.

Highlight matching gift fundraising statistics.

Matching gift statistics can be one of the most effective ways to communicate the power and prevalence of matching gift program opportunities to your audience.

When a donor hears something like, “$4 to $7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed per year,” or “Over 26 million individuals work for companies with matching gift programs,” they may be more inclined to look into their own matching gift eligibility status and, as a result, request a match on your behalf.

Interested in including matching gift stats? Here are a few of our other favorites:

  • 65% of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs;
  • An estimated $2-$3 billion is donated through matching gift programs annually;
  • 84% of donors say they’re more likely to donate if a match is offered;
  • 1 in 3 donors indicates they’d give a larger gift if matching is applied to their donation.

Matching gift statistics to include in matching gift videos

Emphasize local businesses with matching gift programs.

Many businesses have local roots, which means there are likely many opportunities for corporate matching programs right in your neighborhood. Research a few companies’ programs and consider highlighting the opportunities in your matching gift videos!

For example, if you’re fundraising for an organization in Atlanta, you may choose to highlight companies based out of the city, such as Coca-Cola, Home Depot, IBM, and more. Then, don’t forget to inform your audience that tons more companies across the country or even the globe offer these programs as well. They’re typically not restricted to a single geographic location, meaning all donors should look into their employers’ available matching initiatives.

Bonus! Get a Matching Gift Video From Double the Donation

In case you don’t have an in-house production team, we wanted to make it as quick and as easy as possible to acquire an impactful matching gift video for your audience. That’s why Double the Donation is now offering matching gift video production services!

Existing Double the Donation clients have two options…

Free Generic Matching Gift Video

Getting started with a Double the Donation-branded, 60-second overview of the matching gift opportunity and how Double the Donation’s tools can help is easy⁠—and free!

Ready to download your matching gift video? Simply navigate to the Marketing tab in your account. From there, scroll to the Matching Gift Videos section, locate the FREE Matching Gift Video for Donors, and select Download Now. The video will instantly begin to download to your device, and from there you can upload it to your matching gift page and other fundraising resources.

Free Double the Donation-branded matching gift video

Custom-Branded Matching Gift Video

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a video that will match your organization’s branding and style⁠—complete with your logos, colors, and more⁠—a personalized matching gift video is the way to go. And now, you can request one from the Double the Donation team in seconds for a small fee.

To do so, head to the Marketing tab in your Double the Donation account, and locate the Matching Gift Videos module. Select the Learn More button from the Personalized Video for Your Nonprofit section, and you’ll be prompted to complete a brief form that requests your organization name, logo image file, and primary brand color.

Custom-branded matching gift video

From the time you submit your inquiry, you can expect to receive the completed video in approximately five business days⁠—and it will be delivered straight to the email address indicated on the video request form!

Learn more about requesting a matching gift video from Double the Donation here.

That’s a Wrap!

Matching gift videos can be a particularly effective (and memorable) way to communicate information about matching gift programs and encourage donors to participate. With these tips, tricks, and examples in your back pocket, you should be well on your way to creating impactful videos for your nonprofit or educational institution. Best of luck!

Interested in learning more about strategic matching gift marketing best practices? Check out our other blog posts here:

Get started with matching gift best practices, like matching gift videos, with Double the Donation.

We're here to answer all your email append questions.

What Is an Email Append? All Your Questions Answered

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Email marketing is an extremely cost-effective way to reach out to your supporters. Compared to other types of marketing, email campaigns don’t require any physical materials or the same level of staff time. Not to mention, they also offer a higher response rate than other marketing methods such as direct mail or phone calls.

Therefore, email marketing is an effective communication channel for getting in touch with your supporters and sending them valuable information.

However, the email addresses in your supporter database may not be accurate or may be missing entirely for some supporters. With email appends, you can stay on top of your email address data and have more time to focus on your campaigns’ content.

We’re here to answer your questions about email appends, so you can successfully deliver more emails and ultimately boost your marketing ROI. To cover all of the essential topics, we’ve compiled a list of the most frequently asked email append questions, including:

At Double the Donation, we help connect nonprofits with matching gift opportunities. Email is one of our primary forms of communication with our clients and their match-eligible donors, so we understand how important it is to have the correct email addresses for each of your contacts. That’s why we’ve written this guide to email appends. Our goal is to make sure your nonprofit can leverage this useful data for easier communication with your supporters.

Since we have a lot to cover in this guide, let’s should get started!

Enhance nonprofit fundraising by appending donor data with Double the Donation.

Find out what an email append is.

What Is an Email Append?

An email append occurs when an organization submits information from its supporter database to an email append service and receives updated supporter email addresses in return.

To help correctly locate email addresses, some of the identifying information the nonprofit might share with the data appends provider can include full names, postal addresses, past email addresses, and other details they have on file. The provider will then match the information against their database to obtain the most recent contact information. Since it’s easy for email addresses to become outdated, email appends are extremely helpful in making sure you can stay in touch with your supporters.Read on for why your organization might need email appends.

Why Does My Organization Need Email Appends?

It’s very common for email addresses in your supporter database to be incorrect. Think about how many times you’ve changed an email address, abandoned one, or gotten a new one. Here are some examples of situations that could cause email addresses to be incorrect or become outdated:

  • Typos
  • People using fake email addresses when signing up for your email list
  • People moving
  • Changing jobs or graduating
  • Switching to a different email address
  • Abandoning email addresses or forgetting passwords
  • Passing away
  • Missing email addresses from some supporters entirely

There are several reasons why the email addresses in your supporter database could be incorrect.

With this lengthy list in mind, it’s clear to see how it’s incredibly likely that your supporter database includes invalid email addresses, which can make your communication with your supporters less effective.

These are the email append benefits.

How Will My Nonprofit Benefit from Email Appends?

As we previously discussed, you may have missing or inaccurate information regarding your supporters’ email addresses. Email appends will help fill in the gaps so you can communicate with as many of your supporters as possible.

When you have a strong collection of supporter email addresses, opportunities open up for how you can communicate and share information with them. Check out these six areas that will improve by using email appends:

  • Newsletters. Your organization likely already sends out email newsletters to your supporters. However, using email appends will allow you to expand your newsletter audience.
  • Online donations. When you have the right email addresses for your supporters, it’ll be easier to increase conversions for donation requests.
  • Survey feedback. Since more people will receive your surveys, you’ll be able to get more feedback and apply it to your organization.
  • Relationships with supporters. It’s possible that you could lose your relationships with some of your biggest donors and supporters due to outdated email address data. Retain the bonds you’ve created with your supporters by keeping accurate contact information for them.
  • Time saved. Think about how long it would take people on your team to manually search for the matching email addresses for every supporter in your database. Save time that could be reallocated for better purposes by using email appends.
  • Matching gifts. Equipped with email appends, your organization can easily follow up with donors about matching gift opportunities. If a donor shares their business email with your organization, then your nonprofit can easily determine whether their employer has a matching gift program.

These are the six areas that will improve by using email appends.

How Email Appends Will Impact Your Marketing Performance

In addition to the ones listed above, there are so many other benefits that email appends provide, specifically for the quality of your email communications. Some of the most impactful benefits you can expect on your marketing performance include:

  • Improved email deliverability. Sometimes, emails won’t go through for various reasons. They might bounce back and send you a notification, but it’s difficult to address the reason each email didn’t go through individually. Email appends will improve your email deliverability by providing you with the most current email addresses for your supporters.
  • Increased open rates. The more emails that go out to the correct email addresses, the more people will open them. Make sure your email campaigns don’t go to waste by sending them to the wrong email addresses.
  • Protection against spam traps. Spam traps are email addresses used to catch senders sending spam emails. Some organizations will repurpose outdated email addresses to create spam traps. If your organization falls for a spam trap, it can have serious repercussions for your email deliverability, bounce rates, and overall sender reputation. Cleaning your supporter database periodically will help to prevent spam traps.

Check out the benefits of email appends for your nonprofit's communication quality.

Email appends can help you with your marketing efforts and overall data hygiene. To add the updated contact information to your supporter database, you’ll need to work with an email append service for help with the process.

Enhance nonprofit fundraising by appending donor data with Double the Donation.

Here's how your organization can get email appends.

How Can My Organization Obtain Email Appends?

If your organization is interested in email appends, you’ll need some help getting the necessary data. That’s where an email append service comes in.

Hiring an email append service simplifies the email append process. It will be your job to give them access to the relevant identifying donor data from your supporter database. In return, they’ll send you the email appends they find.

Here’s a list of different information types you can send an email append service to utilize as they search for your supporters’ current email addresses:

  • Unique ID number
  • Name
  • Region
  • Past email addresses
  • College or university
  • Class year and major/degree
  • Last gift amount
  • Date of last donation
  • Date entry was last updated

Email append service providers will know that you probably don’t have all of this information on hand, and that’s okay. Just give them as much as you have to make their job easier.

Using the data you provide them, your email append service provider will find your email appends in different online databases. To ensure that they’re accurate, most providers will perform some sort of accuracy check or scan before sending them back to your organization.

Check out the other types of data appends in addition to email appends.

Are There Other Types of Data Appends Beyond Email Appends?

Email appends aren’t the only data append type out there. If you’re missing other data from your supporters, chances are there are appends available to help acquire that information.

Here are some kinds of data appends that data append services typically offer:

These are the types of data appends that append services can provide.

  • Employer. Finding out your supporters’ employers can help you to identify matching gift opportunities. People may be more likely to donate to your cause if they know their employer will match their donation. With employer appends, you can inform potential donors of the expanded impact their donation could have.
  • Postal address. Improve your direct mail campaigns with address appends. Request donations, send important updates, or thank your donors with a letter for a personal touch.
  • Phone number. Contacting people by phone is a highly effective outreach strategy. Use phone number appends to host a successful phone-a-thon or text-to-give campaign.
  • Date of birth. Knowing your supporters’ birthdates can help you create customized campaigns based on age. Date of birth appends also provide the opportunity to send your supporters birthday gifts or perks.

Combining your appended email addresses with other data appends can create even more value for your nonprofit. For example, you can use date of birth appends to segment your supporters by age. Then, you can leverage your email appends to send personalized newsletters to each age group with relevant organization updates and opportunities.

To knock out all your data appends at once, it’s best to find a data append service that will provide all the data append types you need. That way, they can extract all the information and import it into your CRM all at once.

Here are some ideas for how to use email appends.

How Can Different Nonprofits Leverage Email Appends?

Organizations of all kinds communicate with their supporters via email. Therefore, there’s a high chance your nonprofit could benefit from email appends by emulating the ways other organizations leverage them.

If you’re not sure how your organization could best leverage email appends, we have a couple of examples of how different nonprofits use them to assist them in their communication with their supporters.

Bear in mind that to leverage email appends to their fullest potential, you’ll need to contact an email append service provider and chat about your nonprofit’s unique needs.

To start, use these examples for inspiration:

Environmental Nonprofits

It’s important that your organization’s operations align with your nonprofit’s values. That’s why environmental nonprofits choose to communicate in ways that are better for the environment. Direct mail can waste paper that can be saved by communicating through email instead.

Email appends ensure that these organizations can stay true to their missions while still fostering effective communication with their supporters.

Schools

Schools and universities rely on their alumni for donations, volunteers, and feedback. However, once people graduate, they typically abandon their university email accounts. Additionally, young alumni may start new jobs or enroll in graduate school, acquiring new email addresses as they go.

With the help of email appends, schools and universities can make sure they continue their relationships with alumni wherever they go after graduation.

Associations

It can be difficult to reach association members through direct mail, especially if they’re spread out around the globe. Staying in contact with members through email is important because it reminds them of the perks of their membership and updates them about upcoming events and initiatives.

Cultural Institutions

Cultural institutions such as museums, zoos, and aquariums are nothing without their members and visitors. They depend on membership fees and ticket revenue to stay running. Therefore, it’s necessary to keep supporters engaged through email to encourage them to come back and check out new events and exhibits.

Political Organizations

Informing people about important issues can be difficult over the phone and through text messages. Emails from political organizations allow people to digest the information on their own time and refer back to it when it’s time to vote.

All Nonprofits

Any nonprofit can use email appends to identify matching gift opportunities. With business email appends, your organization can easily identify your supporters’ employers and research their matching gift programs. If you already know your supporters’ employers, you can leverage email appends to reach out to potential donors and inform them of their employers’ matching gift programs to encourage them to donate.

 

These are the qualities of a good email append service.

What Qualities Should a Good Email Append Service Possess?

There are lots of email append services out there, so what makes one right for your organization? If you’ve never used an email append service before, it can be difficult to know what to look for and which claims are actually important.

Here’s a list of qualities that every reliable email append service should possess:

  • Verifies your email appends for accuracy. There can be some uncertainty surrounding whether email appends are actually accurate or not. Ensure that your email append service has the necessary measures in place to check for correctness.
  • Offers other kinds of appends. It’s way easier to use one data append service for all of your data append needs than to hire an individual service for each one. Think about which types of data you’re looking for and find a service that supplies all of them.
  • Accepts entire data files. Effective email append services will allow you to send complete data files from your supporter database and pick out the information they need. That way, you don’t have to spend time selecting certain columns or clearing out unnecessary information.
  • Gets back to you quickly. Once you decide to append email addresses, you’ll probably start planning how you’ll want to implement them fairly quickly. Find an email append service that can return accurate results efficiently so you can use your new data right away.
  • Provides quotes. It’s extremely helpful to know ahead of time how much a service will cost your nonprofit. Some email append services will take a look at your data needs ahead of time and offer you a quote for their assistance.

There are several qualities that a good email append service provider should have.

When you’re looking for your email append service, keep these qualities in mind to find the best service for your organization. NPOInfo by Double the Donation possesses all of the qualities we’ve mentioned above. They’ll be happy to assist you with email address appending!

Check out NPOInfo by Double the Donation for your email append needs.

Here are some additional resources about data appends.

Conclusion

Considering how widespread email newsletters, updates, and general communications are for nonprofits, it makes sense that any organization would benefit from email appends.

At their core, email appends ensure that you’re reaching your intended audience and retaining relationships with your supporters. Additionally, they’ll provide more information about your supporters, which is always helpful for guiding your decisions as an organization.

Now that you know all about email appends, you might want to learn more about other types of data appends that could benefit your organization. Check out these data append resources below:

Enhance nonprofit fundraising by appending donor data with Double the Donation.

Find out how date birth appends could help your nonprofit.

What Is a Date of Birth Append? A Comprehensive Guide

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When collecting information from your supporters, you’ll probably capture bits and pieces of who they are. You’ll learn their names, email addresses, and phone numbers just to name a few. However, there are probably some snippets of information you don’t collect that could really benefit your organization’s understanding of your supporters.

Date of birth is one such category of information you might not gather from supporters, and that’s where a date of birth append comes in handy. Some people might not want to offer their date of birth to an organization to reveal how old they are. Additionally, they may not see how that information could improve their experience with your nonprofit. Frankly, you might not understand how having one’s date of birth could help your organization either.

However, gathering date of birth appends can actually help your organization communicate more effectively with your supporters once you know a little more about them.

In this guide, we’ll answer questions you may have about what a date of birth append is and how it works. The questions we’ll be covering include:

Here at Double the Donation, we help make the matching gift process easy for nonprofits. Considering our focus on efficiency, we know how important it is for nonprofits to have easy access to the data they need to improve their communications with supporters. This guide will walk you through date of birth appends and how they can help out your organization.

With that in mind, let’s get started learning about date of birth appends!

Enhance nonprofit fundraising by appending donor data with Double the Donation.

Get a clear definition of date of birth appends.

What Is a Date of Birth Append?

A date of birth append comprises an individual’s day, month, and year of birth sourced from a public database of demographic information. You use the information supporters have already shared with your organization to successfully identify them and pull the correct birthdate. This might include their full name, contact information, and education.

Knowing your supporters’ dates of birth can allow you to send customized messages based on age and birthday, resulting in a higher ROI for your marketing efforts.

Check out the benefits of date of birth appends.

What Are the Benefits of Date of Birth Appends?

Data about supporters, such as their email addresses or phone numbers, have obvious benefits. They allow you to get in touch with your supporters in different ways to share important updates, request donations, or let them know about upcoming events.

The benefits of knowing a supporter’s birthdate may not be as clear to you, so we’ve developed a list of some of the top advantages of using date of birth appends, including:

There are many advantages of leveraging date of birth appends.

  • Birthday newsletters and gifts. Simply wishing your supporters a happy birthday can help you build lasting relationships with them. If you want to take it a step further, send your supporters a birthday gift such as a branded t-shirt or mug to show that you care about them and their life milestones.
  • Personal fundraisers. Speaking of birthdays, many people like to celebrate their special day by asking for donations to their favorite cause on social media. Remind your supporters that they can fundraise on your behalf in honor of their birthday.
  • Better understanding of supporters’ habits. Perhaps some of your supporters are more likely to give donations to your cause themselves to celebrate a milestone birthday. If you know the date of birth of a donor who typically lends their support around their special day, you can better plan for which times of year you’ll be receiving more funds.
  • Voter age verification. It would be a waste of time and resources to contact people about upcoming elections who aren’t even eligible to vote. Make sure you’re only sending messages about voting to those who can actually vote using birthdate appends.
  • Segmentation. Do you have a campaign that only applies to an audience of a certain age? Maybe you work to provide Medicare to those who need it or help low-income students with their college applications. Perhaps you want to send the same message to all of your supporters but through different platforms based on which ones each age group prefers. You can use date of birth appends to easily segment your supporters by age so you only send relevant communications to them.
  • More complete understanding of your supporters as a whole. No matter what kind of nonprofit data you have, the more you collect, the better you can understand who your supporters are. Having a complete picture of your supporter base will make your outreach more targeted and effective.

If any of these birthdate append benefits seem useful to your organization, you might be wondering how to move forward with the date of birth append process. Let’s make sure you fully understand the process so that you can experience all of the great advantages we just covered!

Follow along to learn about the date of birth append process.

How Does the Date of Birth Append Process Work?

Once you’ve decided that you want to conduct a date of birth append, it’s important to know how the process works so you can be prepared. To conduct a date of birth append, most organizations use a date of birth append service that finds the information for them. These services make it way easier for you to secure the data you need without wasting your team’s time.

For a date of birth append service to help you out, you must first give them the data you currently have for each of your supporters. They accept a variety of information, including:

  • Unique identification number
  • Name
  • Mailing address
  • Region
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • College or university
  • Class year and major/degree
  • Last gift amount
  • Date of last donation
  • Date entry was last updated

Don’t worry if your nonprofit doesn’t have all that information, though! As with any data append, just provide as much information as you can. That way, it’s easier for the date of birth append service to correctly identify your supporters and find the birthdates you’re looking for.

After receiving the information you’ve provided, date of birth append services will search public demographic information databases to match birthdates to your supporters. To ensure they pull accurate records, most service providers perform some sort of accuracy scan or check. They may also assign an accuracy rating to each birthdate append based on the results of the scan to share with your team.

At the end of the process, your date of birth append service provider will send you your birthdate appends and related accuracy information if applicable.

These are the steps of the date of birth append process.

Hopefully, you’ll leave the process satisfied with the data you’ve received and have a more complete picture of your supporters. However, you might be missing other information that similar data append services can also help you with.

Check out the other data append types that are available to nonprofits.

What Other Types of Data Appends Are There Aside from Birthdate Appends?

Most date of birth append services offer much more than just birthdates. If you find a comprehensive data append service, they will be able to help you with all kinds of data appends. Here are some other common types of data appends your organization might benefit from:

  • Address appends. Address appends allow you to build successful direct mail campaigns.
  • Employer appends. Identify matching gift opportunities with employer appends.
  • Email appends. Make sure you have all your supporters’ email addresses so you can inform them about upcoming events and opportunities.
  • Phone number appends. Try text-to-give fundraising or a phone-a-thon with the help of phone number appends.

These are the types of data appends that append services can provide.

The best part about using a general data append service is that they’ll likely provide you with all your data appends at once. That way, there’s no need to go through multiple rounds of pulling data, resulting in a quicker experience for your team. Equipped with all your new data, you’ll be able to immediately update your supporter database and start sending out more personalized campaigns.

There are several different ways nonprofits use date of birth appends.

How Do Organizations Use Date of Birth Appends?

Earlier on, we introduced some of the benefits of date of birth appends, but what might they look like for your nonprofit in particular? Different organizations use date of birth appends to personalize their marketing efforts and offerings based on age and birthday.

To help you gauge what this might look like for your organization, here are some specific ways nonprofits take advantage of birthdate appends:

  • Museum and zoo ticket or membership perks. Who wouldn’t want to visit a museum or zoo at a discounted rate for their birthday? Cultural organizations like to give out special birthday deals, and date of birth appends can ensure that they offer them to as many of their supporters as possible.
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising. Social media birthday fundraisers have grown significantly in the past couple of years. Sending a message to your supporters around their birthday to remind them of this opportunity can help you maximize your fundraising efforts.
  • Voter outreach. Political advocacy groups are the perfect example of an organization type that could benefit from age segmentation. Only send messages about voting to constituents who are of voting age. To engage constituents in certain age groups, reach out to them with new information about causes that apply to them and let them know what they can do to help besides voting.

Hopefully, these use cases gave you a better idea of how your organization could leverage date of birth appends. If so, you’ll want to move forward by leveraging a date of birth append service provider.

Make sure you use the right date of birth append provider with these tips.

Which Date of Birth Append Service Provider Is Right for Me?

If you’re researching date of birth append service providers, you might be overwhelmed by the number of options you have. It’s helpful to know what to look for when selecting which service you’ll work with. After all, you’ll be entrusting them with sensitive data and will expect them to provide efficient, accurate results.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of guarantees every good birthdate append service should provide, including:

  • Accuracy scans. If the date of birth appends you receive aren’t accurate, then you could be sending your supporters birthday messages on the wrong dates or segmenting your supporters by age incorrectly. Make sure your date of birth append service has a system in place for checking the accuracy of the data they collect.
  • High match rate. Beyond performing accuracy scans, you’ll want to know that your date of birth append service provider has a history of accurate data matches. For example, NPOInfo by Double the Donation has a 40-70% match rate for date of birth appends, which is quite high compared to other providers.
  • Additional append types. A dedicated date of birth append service would be great, but a general data append service for all your data append needs would be even better. Find a provider that offers all the appends you’re looking for.
  • Efficiency. The quicker your provider can get you the data you need, the better — as long as they don’t sacrifice accuracy. With timely results, you’ll be able to immediately start working on new campaigns and fixing up old ones with your new date of birth append data.
  • Quotes. Before you start working with a birthdate append service provider, you’ll want to make sure their services are within your budget. Reliable birthdate append service providers will offer you a quote if you let them know how much data you’re looking for.

Follow this checklist to make sure you're using the right date of birth append service.

Keep these qualities in mind when looking for a date of birth append service provider, and you’re sure to find one that will handle your supporters’ data with care and give you the information you need.

Request a quote from NPOInfo by Double the Donation.

Check out these resources for more information about collecting and managing supporter data.

Additional Resources

With date of birth appends, you’ll be able to communicate with your supporters in more personalized ways. Whether you send them birthday wishes or include them in an age-specific campaign, gathering date of birth information will get you one step closer to a complete picture of who your supporters are and how you can best reach out to them.

As we mentioned before, you may be looking for other types of appends or resources about supporter data. If so, we’re here to help you out with these relevant articles:

Enhance nonprofit fundraising by appending donor data with Double the Donation.

Learn how the phone number appending process works.

What Is Phone Number Appending? How the Process Works

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These days, people are glued to their phones, and most would probably consider either texting or calling as their primary form of communication with others. Therefore, making sure the phone numbers you have for your supporters are up to date is essential for smooth and effective communication with them.

Even if you know how important it is to have phone numbers for your supporters, you may not know how to go about gathering that information. Of course, you could periodically ask your supporters if they’ve gotten a new phone number. However, phone number appending is a much simpler way to collect phone numbers without bothering your supporters.

Phone number appending ensures that you have accurate phone numbers so that you can effectively reach out to your supporters and keep them engaged with your organization. Whether you’re updating contact information or missing phone numbers from several individuals, phone appends can help you round out your supporter data without your supporters having to lift a finger.

Before seriously considering this type of service, you might have some questions about the phone number appending process. Here are some questions we’ll go over in this article:

At Double the Donation, our main focus is educating nonprofits about matching gift opportunities and software. Matching gift software makes the process of acquiring matching gifts easier, just as phone appends make gathering current contact information for your supporters more efficient. We’re happy to help nonprofits find ways to get the resources they need that will make their operations run smoother. That way, they can save time and reallocate it where it’s really needed.

Click on the questions you’re wondering about to learn more or keep scrolling to answer them all!

Enhance nonprofit fundraising by appending donor data with Double the Donation.

We'll start off with a quick definition of phone number appending.

What is Phone Number Appending?

Phone number appending is the process of inputting supporter data into phone append software and receiving missing and updated phone numbers back.

When leveraging a data append provider, you’ll simply provide them with identifying information for each supporter. Then, they’ll use that information to correctly identify them within their comprehensive database of phone numbers. That way, you can contact your supporters using the correct information. Doing so will ensure that you’re reaching your target audience.These are the advantages of phone number appending.

What Advantages Does Phone Number Appending Provide?

Your organization likely already has phone numbers for some or all of your supporters. However, people change their phone numbers all the time, so the ones you have may no longer be accurate.

Phone number appending provides several general benefits for your organization, such as:

  • Updated contact information. Having the most current contact information for your supporters not only ensures that you can reach them but also that you can continue building relationships with them. Plus, you can do so without ever having to ask them to update their information.
  • Less time wasted on unviable numbers. Even if your organization has phone numbers for all of your supporters, chances are some of them are outdated. Calling or texting old or incorrect phone numbers wastes your time and energy that could be used to contact the people who will lend you their support.
  • Well-rounded supporter database. With any type of data, the more you have of it, the more robust and well-informed decisions you can make. Phone appends are no different. Having correct phone numbers for your supporters can help you to focus on the content of your campaigns rather than the method of communication.

In addition to these general advantages of phone appending, there are certain types of fundraising and outreach that your organization can leverage or improve with updated supporter phone number data.

Check out the benefits of phone number appending.

Specific Use Cases for Phone Number Appends

Of course, the top advantage of phone number appending is being able to actually reach your supporters, but what does that look like in different scenarios? Here are three different areas where phone number appending is particularly useful:

  • Phone banking. Calling people up and asking them to donate to your cause can be a more personal way of gathering funds. Take advantage of this fundraising method by using the most current phone numbers for your donors.
  • Text messaging. While calling is a great way to reach people, texting can elicit even quicker responses and opens up the opportunity for text-to-give. With cell phone appends, you can reach your supporters and receive donations even faster than before.
  • Phonathons. Schools and universities in particular love to fundraise by having current students call alumni and request donations. To reach your fundraising goals and avoid any mixups, you’ll want to make sure your students have accurate contact information for the people they’re calling.

If we’ve convinced you how important phone appends are, you might want to jump right into the process. Lucky for you, we’ll walk you through it step by step.We'll explain exactly how the phone number appending process works.

What Does the Phone Number Appending Process Look Like?

Hiring a reliable phone append service provider makes phone number appending a breeze. All you have to do is supply them with the supporter information you do have so they can give you the phone numbers you need.

The process of phone number appending

Examples of information you can provide to a phone append provider include:

  • A unique ID number
  • Full name
  • Region and postal address
  • Email address
  • Education information such as school, year, and major
  • Last donation amount and date
  • Date entry was last updated

You don’t need to have all of this information to go through the phone number appending process. However, the more data you give to your phone append provider, the easier it will be for them to find accurate data.

Once your phone append service provider has your supporters’ information, they can use it to find recent numbers for your constituents. In most cases, they’ll obtain the numbers from a variety of data sources online.

To help you determine how accurate the phone appends they’ve found are, some phone append providers will run the numbers through software that checks for accuracy and may even conduct manual checks. They will then rate the accuracy of each append so you know how much you can trust each one.

Lastly, your phone append service will send you the complete phone appends. From here, update your nonprofit’s CRM with the new and missing phone numbers for your supporters.There are other kinds of data appends besides phone appends.

Can I Get Other Kinds of Data Appends?

Yes! There are plenty of other kinds of data appends, and most phone append services will offer them in addition to phone appends. If your nonprofit needs other data appends, check which ones your phone append service provides. Since they’ll likely pull the data all at once, they’ll probably them back to you at the same time as your phone appends.

Our quick guide to nonprofit data appends explains that there are several common types of data appends you can leverage, including:

  • Employer appends
  • Email appends
  • Address appends
  • Date of birth appends

These are the types of data appends that append services can provide.

While employer appends can help you identify matching gift opportunities, email, postal address, and date of birth appends can improve your communication with supporters. Ultimately, strengthening your database with this information will allow you to cultivate stronger relationships and push your work forward altogether. Here are some examples of how nonprofits use phone number appending.

What Are Some Examples of How Nonprofits Actually Use Phone Appends?

If you’re still unclear about whether your nonprofit could benefit from phone appends, it might help to hear some real examples of how organizations have used them in the past. That way, you can compare these organizations’ situations to your own to figure out if you should move forward with the phone number appending process.

Here are some organization types that use phone appends and what they use them for:

Universities

We mentioned before how phonathons are a great way to connect with alumni and potentially receive donations from them. Besides phonathons, universities can also use phone appends to update alumni about current campus initiatives and invite them to alumni-specific events.

Political Organizations

Especially in the midst of election seasons, it’s important to communicate your most important issues to voters and how your organization aims to solve them. However, these issues can be too complicated to spell out in a text or email. Contacting constituents over the phone presents the opportunity for you to actually converse with them about important topics and answer any questions they may have.

Advocacy Groups

If any of your supporters are young adults, you’ll want to contact them in their preferred style of communication: texting. With phone appends, advocacy groups can share information about their causes with younger supporters using SMS outreach. That way, they can be sure that they’re reaching out to their supporters in ways that work best for them.

Public Broadcasting Services

Does your organization run pledge drives on the radio or TV? Chances are, it’d be helpful to feature testimonies from real supporters. By calling previous donors and asking them to give a statement about their involvement with your nonprofit, you can encourage new donors to donate and one-time donors to convert into recurring donors.

Takeaway: Phone appends provide all sorts of benefits depending on your organization’s needs. If you’re unsure how it might play into your team’s strategies, feel free to ask your service provider about how they’ve seen other organizations leverage them. With that in mind, it’s time to find a phone append service that will provide you with accurate results.

Here are some guidelines for choosing a phone append service.

Are There Guidelines for Selecting a Phone Append Service?

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when choosing a phone append service. After all, picking the right one could make the process quick and easy whereas selecting one that does not fit your organization’s needs or standards could be a waste of your time.

There are some guidelines for picking the phone append service provider that’s right for your nonprofit. For example, you’ll want to find a phone append provider that:

  • Checks your current phone numbers. Receiving missing phone numbers is helpful, but what about the incorrect or outdated ones hiding in your supporter database? A good phone append service will check the phone numbers you currently have and update any that are no longer viable.
  • Offers other types of appends. If you need multiple kinds of data appends, it’s best to get them all from the same service provider. This cuts down on costs and time needed to receive your data. To make the process easier, look for a phone append service that offers other types of appends in addition to phone appends, such as postal address and employer appends.
  • Provides landline and cell phone numbers. These days, most people communicate using their cell phone numbers, but some may prefer their landlines. It’s important to find a phone append service provider that can find all relevant phone numbers no matter what type.
  • Checks for accuracy. The whole point of phone appends is that they will prevent you from calling the wrong numbers and wasting your time. Make sure that’s the case by selecting a phone append service that has checks in place for accuracy.
  • Finds phone appends for individuals and businesses. Perhaps your organization has some businesses they need to update contact information for in addition to individuals. A good phone append service will be able to find appends for both individuals and businesses.
  • Works quickly. You probably won’t want to wait long to incorporate your phone appends into your CRM and start putting them to use. See if your phone append service can provide an estimate of how quickly they’ll be able to return your phone appends.
  • Gives nonprofits quotes. It’s likely your organization has a budget for how much they’re willing to spend on phone appends. Get an idea of how much a phone append service will cost you with a quote.

Try to find a phone append service with these characteristics.

Think about which of these guidelines are most important to your organization and prioritize them when you conduct your phone append service search. It’s even possible to find a phone append provider that has it all. For example, NPOInfo by Double the Donation offers everything we’ve listed above.

Request a quote from NPOInfo!

After you've gone through the phone number appending process, you'll want to continue building relationships with donors and volunteers.

Wrapping Up

Communication with your donors and volunteers is what ensures lasting relationships and support. To make sure you can effectively reach out to your supporters through texts or phone calls, reach out to a phone append service and learn more about how they could help you find the phone numbers you need.

Once you have your phone appends, you might be looking for more tips that will help you keep donors and volunteers around. Check out these resources for advice on how to retain your supporters and put your phone appends to good use:

  • Improving the Donor Journey with Matching Gifts. Knowing that their employer will match their donations to your cause can get donors excited about the expanded impact they can have on your organization. Make sure to use your phone appends to inform your donors of any matching gift opportunities available to them.
  • Donor Thank-You Letters: What You Need to Say. Showing donors how much you appreciate them is an important part of your relationships with your supporters. Sending a simple thank-you text message or making a thank-you call can show how much you care.
  • Volunteer Engagement | Strategies for Smart Organizations. The best way to keep volunteers around is to make sure they’re engaged and excited about helping your organization. This article will provide you with some tips for retaining volunteers. You’re already off to a great start with phone appends because they’ll allow you to stay in touch with your volunteers.

Enhance nonprofit fundraising by appending donor data with Double the Donation.

 

Matching gift guidelines overview

Matching Gift Guidelines | Ratios, Minimums, Maximums & More

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Thousands of companies match donations made by employees to a range of nonprofit causes through corporate matching gift programs. However, billions of dollars in available corporate matching revenue go unclaimed each year⁠—largely due to a lack of awareness surrounding the programs and the matching gift guidelines and request process that are required for donors to participate.

A general understanding of corporate giving is a great foundation for maximizing nonprofit revenue. However, in order to succeed in acquiring matching gifts, you’ll need to understand the nitty-gritty elements of program stipulations.

For example, companies are able to decide their specific guidelines for matching gift participation based typically on employee eligibility, nonprofit eligibility, and submission deadlines. From there, the amount that a company will match (per employee per year) is based on a combination of matching gift ratios, minimums, and maximum match amounts.

In this post, we’ll break down the key components of basic matching gift guidelines:

  1. Match Ratios
  2. Minimum Match Amounts
  3. Maximum Match Amounts
  4. Employee Eligibility
  5. Nonprofit Eligibility
  6. Forms and Deadlines

Not to mention, we’ll also provide an overview of the most effective method for determining program eligibility through companies’ matching gift guidelines. Equipped with the right tools, you can easily identify matching gift opportunities and communicate eligibility criteria and next steps to guide donors through the request process.

The match ratio is an important component of corporate matching gift programs.

1. Match Ratios

Companies determine how much to match employee donations based on a preset ratio. In most cases, companies choose to match donations at a dollar-for-dollar rate (otherwise known as a 1:1 ratio).

When a program offers a 1:1 ratio, an employee will donate to an eligible nonprofit, submit their matching gift request to their employer, and then their company will match that gift with the same amount.

For instance, if an employee donates $100 to a nonprofit that’s eligible for the company’s match program, the employer will donate an additional $100. In the end, the nonprofit receives a $200 donation, which is double the original contribution.

Although you can expect to see a lot of 1:1 matching programs, ratios can range from .5:1 (or a $50 corporate donation for a $100 employee gift) all the way up to 4:1 (which would be a $400 company gift in response to a $100 employee contribution). Either way, the nonprofit receiving match funding results in significantly increased amounts flowing to the organization.

Let’s take a look at matching gift ratios in action. Consider these companies, for example:

  • Puget Sound Energy matches employee donations at a .5:1 rate.
  • Apple matches employee donations at a 1:1 rate.
  • Coca-Cola matches employee donations at a 2:1 rate.

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to matching gift rates is an individual’s employment type. While ratios are typically standardized across all employee types, some companies will vary amounts depending on an employee’s position or type of employment.

For example, part-time employees, retirees, and even team member spouses may have a lower match rate than corporate executives who work for the same company. Take the following companies as an example:

  • Soros Fund Management matches donations from partners at a 1:1 rate and employees at a 2:1 rate.
  • Johnson & Johnson matches donations from current employees at a 2:1 ratio and retirees at a 1:1 ratio.

Takeaway: Matching gift ratios vary from company to company and may change based on employee position. These stipulations are entirely up to the company, and nonprofits and employees should stay up-to-date on their match opportunities.

Minimum match amounts are common elements of corporate matching gift programs.

2. Minimum Match Amounts

Unfortunately, not every company will match every donation made by an employee⁠—even if they do have a matching gift program in place. In order to qualify for a company match, restrictions are often put in place regarding the minimum donation amount they will match.

If a donor’s contribution falls below that set amount, the company will not match the gift. Keep in mind that this isn’t intended to restrict employees’ philanthropic efforts. Rather, it’s to ensure that employees are requesting matches for causes they truly care about.

Nonetheless, corporate matching gift best practices suggest keeping the minimum low to encourage participation and make the programming accessible to employees of all budget sizes. As a result, some companies will match donations that are as little as $1. However, the most common minimum requirement is $25, with 93% of companies having a minimum match requirement of less than or equal to $50, and the mean minimum amount falling at $34.

Let’s take a look at these companies’ matching gift minimums for a few common examples:

Another thing to note is that, depending on the company, an individual who makes multiple smaller donations within a year may be able to consolidate them into a single donation match request⁠—despite falling beneath their employer’s minimum for any particular gift.

Takeaway: Companies apply minimum matches to ensure that the giving budget goes to nonprofits that employees actually care about. Most often, set minimums are $25, but they range from $1 to $100+.
Learn about maximum match amounts, which are an important element of matching gift programs.

3. Maximum Match Amounts

In addition to match minimums, companies also put caps on match amounts to ensure there’s enough in the giving budget for each employee to participate. If an employee donates more than the maximum match amount, still, only the defined maximum will be matched by the company.

Maximum matches have quite the range, too. Often, you’ll come across upper limits of between $1,000 and $5,000, with $3,728 as the average maximum threshold. However, there are plenty of companies with matches that are way above that scope.

Take a look at these companies with matching gift caps across the spectrum:

Regardless, each philanthropic program is generous and has the power to make a major difference in the nonprofit world.

Takeaway: Each company has a different maximum amount it will match. Typically, these are around $1,000 to $15,000, but it’s not uncommon to see caps that are higher or lower than this.

In order to submit a request, employees must be eligible, and the eligibility component is defined by the corporate matching gift program.

4. Employee Eligibility

Often, companies create eligibility requirements for employees that may depend on their position or another factor.

For example, some companies match donations made by any current employee, regardless of full- versus part-time status. Others will match retired individuals’ donations even after they depart from the business. Others still will even match gifts made by an employee’s spouse.

To get a real-world idea of this concept, take a look at these companies:

  • Acuity Brands matches donations from directors and executives only.
  • British Petroleum (BP) matches donations made from current employees, but not retirees.
  • Sherwin-Williams matches donations made from all current employees and retirees.
  • ExxonMobil matches donations made from employees, spouses, surviving spouses, and retirees.

Keep in mind that, as previously mentioned, different positions can sometimes mean different match ratios and maximum match amounts, too. For instance, some companies may allow current employees to donate up to a higher amount than retired employees. Another common case is programs that offer executive employees higher maximums than other employees.

Some companies also choose to further reward employees who go the extra mile. For example, take a look at these programs’ matching gift guidelines:

  • American Express offers a 1:1 match ratio for employee donations. However, if the donor serves on a nonprofit board or volunteers more than 50 hours in a year, the first $1,000 of their donations will be matched at a 2:1 ratio.
  • RealNetworks offers a standard matching gift program, but if an employee works at the company for 5 years, they receive an additional $500 grant for a nonprofit of their choosing.

Takeaway: In most cases, there aren’t too many requirements employees have to meet to be eligible for matching gifts. However, sometimes, companies adjust program criteria based on employees’ positions.Nonprofit eligibility is a vital component of corporate matching gift programs.

5. Nonprofit Eligibility

Just like there are standards employees have to meet to request matching gift funds, there are requirements for the nonprofits looking to receive match funding, as well.

While companies typically match donations to most registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits, some companies place restrictions on the types of organizations that are eligible. If a company deems a nonprofit ineligible, employee donations made to that organization will not be matched.

Like all other components of corporate giving programs, the eligibility requirements for nonprofits differ from company to company. These restrictions are often put in place because companies want to support organizations that align with their own views and values while avoiding controversial causes.

For example, churches and other religious organizations are often excluded from matching gift programs. However, many companies will match to religiously affiliated organizations that serve a secular purpose (such as an associated K-12 school or food pantry), while others will match to houses of worship all the same.

Other companies may choose a particular type of organization to which it will exclusively match donations. For example, some businesses match only to educational organizations, while others offer higher maximums or match ratios for schools and higher ed institutions.

Take a look at these companies’ nonprofit eligibility criteria:

  • Air Products and Chemicals matches donations made to colleges and universities at a 1:1 ratio up to $5,000, arts and cultural organizations at a 2:1 ratio up to $2,000, and environmental and conservation organizations at a 1:1 ratio up to $1,000.
  • ExxonMobil has a maximum match amount of $22,500 for donations made to educational institutions, while it will only match up to $2,000 for donations made to cultural organizations.
  • Verizon will match up to $5,000 per employee per year to schools or $1,000 per employee per year to other 501(c)(3) organizations.

Takeaway: Companies sometimes place restrictions on which organizations can receive matching gifts. It’s up to donors and nonprofits to be on the lookout for these eligibility requirements.

The final major components of corporate matching gift programs are forms and deadlines.

6. Forms and Submission Deadlines

Once all requirements of a company’s matching gift program have been met, this is when submission forms and deadlines come into play.

As a quick refresher, here’s how the typical process works:

The matching gift process is straightforward once all eligibility requirements have been met.

At this point, we’re coming up on the third step in the above procedure. The donor has previously determined that they’re eligible to participate, and now they’re ready to submit their matching gift request.

Though some companies may still utilize paper request forms, most companies are turning to online portals to manage and process employee requests. The bottom line is that there needs to be a way for employees to submit their match requests and the way in which they expect the request to occur should be outlined within the company’s matching gift guidelines.

Regardless of form type, once the donor has navigated to their company’s matching gift forms, they’ll be prompted to provide basic information for the submission. This typically involves details about themself, the specific gift they made (including donation amount, currency, date of transaction, etc.), and the nonprofit that received the donation (such as the organization name, mailing address, and tax ID number).

In addition to the forms themselves, companies also have to define a specific deadline by which the forms must be submitted. For instance, an employee generally can’t donate to a nonprofit and submit a match request two years later.

Instead, in their guidelines, companies might select a specific annually occurring deadline, accept requests for a specific time period (such as six months or one year) after the individual donation was made, fall in line with the end of the calendar year in which the donation was made, or offer a brief extension beyond the calendar year.

To view a few common types, here are request deadlines for several major companies:

  • CarMax accepts matching gift requests within 180 days from the date of the donation.
  • Microsoft accepts matching gift requests for donations up to 12 months later.
  • Boeing accepts matching gift requests from employees until January 31 of the following year after the donation.

Takeaway: Businesses must create accessible forms and define deadlines before putting a match program in place. Nonprofits and their donors need to be aware of these submission instructions and deadlines, otherwise, they may miss out on matching gifts.

Identifying the key guidelines and elements of corporate matching gift programs is easier with a matching gift database.

Matching Gift Database: Identifying Companies’ Guidelines

Nonprofits need to stay up-to-date on companies’ matching gift guidelines, such as donation minimums, maximums, ratios, eligibility, and so on⁠—and that’s a lot of information to manage. Unfortunately, gathering companies’ guidelines on your own can be a mundane and time-consuming process.

With a matching gift database (like Double the Donation), the research is streamlined and simplified for nonprofits and donors alike.

This type of innovative technology ensures that your organization has access to thousands of companies’ matching gift program guidelines at your fingertips. As a result, you can easily determine donors’ match eligibility potential and communicate the opportunities to qualifying donors.

Specifically, a matching gift database enables you and your donors to:

  • Search for 20,000+ companies’ and subsidiaries’ matching gift programs in seconds
  • View and share available information (e.g. forms and requirements) for easy access
  • Determine matching gift eligibility and next steps

Think your nonprofit can benefit from this type of tool?

With Double the Donation, organizations like yours can even automate the process. From collecting employment data directly within the donation process to quickly determining eligibility and following up via email, no match opportunities will be overlooked.

Matching gift programs have several guidelines that need to be met in order to qualify for participation, all defined by the companies that offer them. As you’ve learned, the most commonly defined elements are the match ratio, minimum and maximum match amounts, employee and nonprofit eligibility, and submission deadlines.

Take all of these factors into account, and equip your team with the tools you need for success, and you’ll be able to effectively increase the funding source for your organization and its mission. Now, get out there and boost your matching gift potential!

Interested in learning more about matching gifts? Check out these additional resources for more corporate giving tips and tricks:

Identify more matching gift guidelines with Double the Donation.