Matching Gifts for Run/Walk/Ride Events: Top 5 Companies
At Double the Donation, we often discuss matching gift programs, or those through which employers match the donations made by their employees to qualifying nonprofits. However, did you know that many national (and even international) companies also offer fundraising match programs?
These opportunities are a bit different than the traditional matching gift programs, and depending on the type of fundraising your nonprofit partakes in, you might be missing out on them!
Fundraising match programs also involve employer matching. However, unlike matching gift programs that solely cover financial donations made from an employee’s own bank account, fundraising match programs involve a company matching all of the funds raised by an employee during a fundraising activity.
This is particularly important to consider in regards to one of the most popular fundraisers in the nonprofit world: The Run/Walk/Ride event.
These events involve participant donors running/walking/cycling a certain distance and collecting pledged donations from their personal networks corresponding to that distance. Those pledged donations benefit your nonprofit and the farther a participant exercises, the more they raise!
However, for donors that work for a company offering fundraising matching, these pledged donations can be doubled. We’re going to discuss the following five companies with fundraising match programs:
- Intuit, Inc.
- McAfee, Inc.
- BP
- State Street Corporation
- Penguin Random House
Before diving into the above companies, however, we’re going to look at the easiest way to discover these opportunities– with dedicated matching gift tools.
The Best Way to Discover Matching Gifts
To capitalize on these fundraising matching programs, you first need to discover where they exist. The easiest way to do that is by using dedicated matching gift tools.
Matching gift tools allow your organization to discover where these opportunities exist and pursue them if so. For example, 360MatchPro is a fully automated matching gift tool that automatically searches a donor’s eligibility once a donation is made. If eligible, information regarding how to submit a match request is sent to the donor as well.
With that, check out these top 5 companies that offer fundraising match programs.
Companies that Match Gifts to Run/Walk/Ride Events
Intuit, Inc.
Intuit is a software company that develops financial and tax preparation software. It has 8,500 employees and offers a comprehensive matching gift program to its employees.
Intuit’s matching gift program includes an individual match, in which the company will match an employee’s donation of up to $2,000 to a nonprofit organization or educational institution of their choosing. In addition, Intuit’s corporate giving programs include a fundraising match. Intuit matches all of the money personally raised by an employee for a fundraising event.
There is a combined $2,000 maximum match (for both individual and fundraising matches) per employee every year.
Learn more about Intuit’s matching gift program.
McAfee, Inc.
McAfee, the world’s largest security technology company, is a computer security software organization located in California that was recently acquired by Intel.
McAfee offers both individual matches (at a 1:1 ratio), and fundraising matches (also at a 1:1 ratio).
There is a combined $1,000 company matching limit per employee.
Learn more about McAfee’s matching gift program.
British Petroleum (BP)
BP, the fifth-largest company in the world by revenue, is an international oil and gas company headquartered in London. BP employs nearly 80,000 people across the world with a large presence in the United States.
BP’s employee grant programs include the traditional personal donation matches, as well as matches for money raised from employees’ friends and family members. BP will match a maximum of $5,000 per employee, per year.
Learn more about British Petroleum’s matching gift program.
State Street Corporation
State Street is a financial services holding company that was founded back in 1792 in Boston. After many years of successful growth, the company now employs more than 30,000 people internationally.
State Street offers a matching gift program for employee donations called GiveMore, which matches at a 1:1 ratio. Within this program, annual matching limits are extremely generous but also vary by role:
- Board of Directors, CEO, President and Vice Chairs can receive up to $35,000 in matching funds.
- Executive Vice Presidents can receive up to $25,000.
- Senior Vice Presidents can receive up to $15,000.
- All other employees can receive up to $5,000 in matching funds.
State Street also offers a fundraising match program called CollectMore, where the company will match an employee’s fulfilled fundraising pledges. Limits in the CollectMore program are lower, but nonetheless, being able to have funds matched is an incredible benefit for employees participating in a fundraising walk, bike, or ride type of event.
Learn more about State Street’s matching gift program.
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House matches employee donations of up to $2,500 per employee per year to most 501(c)(3) nonprofits.
To sweeten their program even further, Penguin Random House has a Fundraising Match Program where the company will match up to $1,500 per employee (included in the $2,500 per employee annual maximum), per calendar year, for money raised personally by employees for fundraising events to qualifying nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
Types of fundraising events include, but are not limited to, walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons, and 5K’s to name a few. Each fundraising request will be considered on a case by case basis.
Learn more about Penguin Random House’s matching gift program.
Fundraising match programs are the perfect addition to any Run/Walk/Ride event.
If you’re planning such an event, check to see if any of your donors work for the above companies. If any of your participants are match-eligible, you can receive twice the fundraised donations for that participant!
