The Ultimate Guide to Employer Appends for Fundraisers

You gather many details about your donors, including their names, contact information, engagement history, interests, and hobbies. A comprehensive understanding of each supporter allows you to tailor your fundraising strategy and reach your target audience.

However, fundraisers overlook one critical piece of the puzzle: employment data. Knowing where your donors work plays a significant role in how you relate to them in fundraising, corporate giving opportunities, and relationship-building. If you lack this data point on file, employer appends provide the solution.

In this guide, we provide a walkthrough of all things employer appends, including:

The Basics of Data Appends
What Are Employer Appends?
Benefits of Employer Appends for Organizations
What to Look For in Employer Appends Services

Understanding your donors’ employment status elevates your fundraising efforts. You will not want to discard the wealth of information gathered through employer appends, nor the amplified impact it brings.

Let’s get started!

The Basics of Data Appends

Data appends, or data enrichment, is an enhancement strategy that helps organizations learn more about the individuals in their networks. These efforts provide comprehensive, current information about donors and supporters, empowering fundraisers to adjust their messaging and overall engagement strategies by better understanding donors.

To get started, organizations provide their existing information to a data enrichment company, which then compares those donor records against a massive database and fills in the missing details.

Employer appends empower organizations to collect new and optimized data regarding the companies their supporters work for. Beyond employer information, other common types of data enrichment include mailing addresses, email addresses, birth dates, and phone numbers.

These enrichments fill in missing or outdated contact information. That makes it easy to connect with supporters via email outreach, phonathon fundraisers, direct mail solicitations, and other campaigns.

What Are Employer Appends?

Employer appends are a common type of data enrichment for fundraising organizations. Organizations use this process to discover a donor’s current employer.

By providing data points like a person’s name, location, phone number, and education, the enrichment process locates the individual’s employer and job title. The organization receives invaluable insights to uncover matching gifts, identify workplace giving opportunities, and estimate wealth capacity.

How Employer Appends Work for Fundraisers

The employer appends process is simple. After locating a data appending service (we’ll cover what to look for below), you’ll want to collect as much data about your donors as possible. This should include:

Name
Unique ID number
Mailing address (home, business, or both)
Region (state, city, and country)
Email address(es)
Phone number(s)
College or university (along with class year and major/degree, if available)
Last gift amount
Date of last donation
Date the entry was last updated

You will not have every data point available for each donor, and that is fine. Starting with comprehensive information increases the likelihood that the enrichment provider can match supporter records to the right employer data.

The enrichment service provider conducts research by scanning public and privately held databases. These include government records, SEC filings, social media profiles, and business registrations.

When the service provider matches a donor record with an employing company, they note the identified information, check the new data for accuracy, and share their findings with the organization. The organization can then use the information to optimize fundraising and donor relations.

Benefits of Employer Appends for Organizations

Employer appends bring big results to fundraising. Knowing where your donors work plays a significant role in overall engagement strategies and enables targeted efforts for workplace giving opportunities.

Specifically, employer appends help your team:

Determine matching gift eligibility

Thousands of companies offer matching gift programs where they match employee donations to charitable organizations. You need to know where donors work to determine matching gift eligibility. This knowledge gap results in over $4 to $7 billion in matching gift funding going unclaimed each year.

Once you have the necessary information, you can prompt qualifying donors to complete the match process and secure additional funding. This increases corporate match revenue and elevates individual giving.

Keep in mind that matching gift services like Double the Donation help organizations target and follow up with matching gift opportunities. Employer appends provide additional data points to guide strategy, allowing fundraisers to capture supporter information even if the individual is not currently in the donation pipeline.

Here’s an example: “Jody, did you know that your employer, the Home Depot, matches full- and part-time employee donations up to $3,000 per person each year? Click here to request your matching gift!”

Uncover volunteer grant opportunities

If your organization relies on dedicated volunteers, corporate volunteer grants help stretch their donated time further. Philanthropic-minded businesses offer these programs by contributing monetary funds to the organizations where their employees volunteer, multiplying the impact of their employees’ volunteer time. You need to know which companies your volunteers work for. Employer appends provides this data so you can inform volunteers about the opportunities, encourage participation, and direct them to their employers’ request processes.

Here’s an example: “Thanks for all of your help at the shelter this weekend and over the past several months, Sam! As a Verizon employee, your volunteer hours likely qualify you to request a corporate volunteer grant on our behalf. Click here to learn more about how to request your grant!”

Identify potential corporate sponsorships

Corporate sponsors elevate your next fundraising event. Knowing which companies your supporters work for helps identify top prospective sponsors and get your foot in the door. Leverage employment information as an entry point with a potential sponsor or encourage donors to advocate for a partnership on your behalf.

Here’s an example: “Ashley, it’s great to connect with the Microsoft team. More than 100 of our nonprofit’s donors work for Microsoft, and we’ve received thousands of dollars in matching gifts from your company in the past. As it’s clear that we already have a lot in common, would you be interested in sponsoring our upcoming event?”

Estimate wealth data

Wealth levels play a significant role in a donor’s ability to give charitably. Understanding these limits helps organizations determine ideal fundraising asks. Knowing which companies your donors work for and their roles helps estimate their incomes and giving capacity.

Here’s an example: “Sarah, we thank you for your continued support of our nonprofit cause. Will you consider making a $10,000 donation to help us reach our year-end giving goal?”

Tailor donor communications

You want your donor outreach to be personal and targeted. Including direct references to donor-specific information helps develop relationships and shows that you send customized messages. Targeted messaging develops stronger donor relationships, builds connections, and drives involvement. Highlighting an individual’s employing company works well for workplace giving programs. Employer appends provides this data if you do not already have it on file.

Here’s an example: “Jeffrey, the Walt Disney Corporation offers a range of corporate giving opportunities that can benefit our organization in big ways. As a member of the Disney team, you have the chance to participate in matching gifts, volunteer grants, and more.”

Learn more about your supporters

The more you know about your supporters, the better you connect with the individuals who make your mission possible. A career is a key component of a person’s identity. Understanding where supporters work and what they do helps you get to know them and sheds light on their interests and hobbies.

Here’s an example: “As a Petco employee, you likely care about the well-being of the little, furry friends in our community. That’s exactly what our organization, the Atlanta Animal Shelter, is dedicated to as well. Learn more about how you can get involved with the cause here!”

Employer records are a beneficial tool for designing targeted outreach. By leveraging employer appends, you collect the information you need to guide your engagement efforts.

What to Look For in Employer Appends Services

You can conduct donor research internally; however, outsourcing to a third-party provider uncovers accurate information faster. Employer appends services dedicate themselves to finding this data efficiently. Research providers carefully to select the right employer appends service for your needs.

For example, here is what you can expect when working with Double the Donation:

Organizations see successful enrichment rates between 20% and 50% of the records they provide.
Employer appends files are completed and provided within a few days of the organization submitting their inputs.
Enrichment records receive an accuracy rating. This accounts for the uniqueness of a donor’s name, the detailed inputs provided, and the comprehensiveness of the data source.
Previously unknown corporate executives are identified and flagged as potential major donors.
Multiple options are available, including real-time employer appends for Double the Donation users and one-time bulk enrichment services for any organization.
Employer appends files upload into Double the Donation to trigger matching gift emails and automated donor outreach.

Concluding Thoughts

The more you know about your donors, the more you can attract them to your cause. Having employment data on file empowers organizations to seek workplace giving opportunities. Employer appends go a long way toward filling in the blanks. This helps secure matching gift programs, volunteer grants, and corporate sponsorships.

Interested in further developing your organization’s donor data strategy? Dive into these other recommended resources below:

(Blog Post) Comparing Employer Append Vendors. Interested in conducting an employer append and looking for the best service to use? Check out this comparison of top data enrichment providers in the nonprofit fundraising space.
(Webinar Replay) How Kalamazoo College Uses Employer Data. Hear how one educational institution leverages employer data to enhance its development and operational strategies.
(Free Download) Growing Revenue With Employer Appends. Learn how your team can increase fundraising revenue through corporate partnerships and workplace giving programs alike. All you need is to know where your supporters work!

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The Ultimate Guide to Employer Appends for Fundraisers

The Basics of Data Appends

What Are Employer Appends?

How Employer Appends Work for Fundraisers