Does your organization have a strategy in place to maximize fundraising from employee matching gift programs? If not, taking donors and members to company specific matching gift forms is a great place to start.
Directing donors and members directly to matching gift forms is far more effective than suggesting they “reach out to HR”. In fact, it’s one of the most effective ways your organization can increase fundraising from corporate matching gift programs.
At Double the Donation, we utilize four different approaches to directing your organizations donors and members to the forms they need to submit matching gift requests. We know each method isn’t created equal, so we’ve prioritized the information we provide to donors to maximize the likelihood they’ll submit a matching gift request.
This post is designed to shed light on the prioritization process we use to ensure your donors can easily double their donations. Feel free to contact us via email or schedule time to chat with someone from our team if you have any questions.
Direct Donors to the Electronic Matching Gift Submission Process (1st Preference)
Many of the largest companies offer an electronic matching gift submission process. While a few companies have developed their own proprietary process, the majority of companies contract the matching gift administration process out to a vendor (ex. Easymatch, Cybergrant, etc.)
Fortunately for nonprofits, in the majority of instances the electronic login page is actually publicly available on a website which anyone can access. We direct donors to the login page where they enter their username and password and then proceed through the matching gift submission process.
Wondering what the electronic submission process is like for a donor? Read our article that includes a walkthrough of Home Depot’s electronic matching gift submission process.
Rationale: Your donors are already online and looking for company specific matching gift information. They’re most likely to submit a match request electronically, especially since once at the proper location, it only takes a few minutes.
View an example of Abbott Laboratories matching gift details page where we direct donors to an electronic submission process.
Link to the company’s matching gift website where forms are located (2nd Preference)
While more and more companies continue to migrate over to an electronic submission process, many still require donors to print out / fill out a paper matching gift form. In many cases the form is posted out on a publicly accessible website so we direct donors to the company page where the matching form can be downloaded.
The two possible approaches were for us to download these forms and host them on Double the Donation’s servers or direct donors to the actual company page where the forms are hosted. After testing both strategies, we ultimately decided on the latter
Rationale: While directing donors to a company page to download the form involves an extra step, we see it as the preferred method for providing donors with the form. It ensures they have access to the most up-to-date form as well as reassures them the matching program is still active form.
Click here to view an example of Marathon Oil’s matching gift details page where we direct donors to an electronic submission page
Provide Donors with the Matching Gift Form on our Servers – (3rd Preference)
If a company requires employees to submit a paper matching gift form, we do our best to provide the donor with a copy of the form. If it isn’t posted publicly on the company’s website, we request that the company provide us with a copy of the form.
In these cases we host the form on our server (typically as a PDF) so your donors can easily download it.
Rationale: Providing a copy of the form enables a donor to submit the matching gift request without having to dig around for additional information.
Click here to view an example of Coca-Cola’s matching gift details page where we provide a copy of Coke’s matching gift form.
Redirect Donors to the Company Intranet or HR / Community Relations Contact
Unfortunately we don’t always have the best access to the matching gift forms your donors need. Typically this is for one of the following two reasons:
- There’s an electronic submission process which can only be accessed over the company intranet.
- The form is posted on the company intranet, but the company didn’t want to share a copy with Double the Donation.
In these cases we typically redirect donors to the company intranet. If it’s an online submission process, we notify the donor of this and ask them to go to a specific location on the intranet or to search for “matching gifts.” If there’s a paper form, we provide it via a link or host the form on our servers.
Rationale: While this is less than ideal, just telling donors “Hey, company XYZ will match your donation up to $5,000 and your organization is eligible” increases the likelihood they’ll log into the company intranet to retrieve the form.
Learn How to Raise More Money from Employee Matching Gift Programs.
