General Matching Gift Statistics
- 65% of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs
- Source: Double the Donation’s Review of Fortune 500 Companies’ Employee Giving Programs
- Over 18 million individuals work for companies with matching gift programs
- Source: Analysis of employment figures for companies in Double the Donation’s matching gift database
- An estimated $2-3 billion is donated through matching gift programs annually
- Source: Double the Donation’s estimate based on company reported match figures and analysis of surveys
- An estimated $6-$10 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed per year
- The median employee participation rate for matching gift programs is 9%
- Source: CECP Giving in Numbers Report
- Mentioning matching gifts in fundraising appeals results in a 71% increase in the response rate and a 51% increase in the average donation amount (and that’s prior to receiving matching gift funds)
- Source: Tech Soup: Which Fundraising Strategies Work?
- 84% of survey participants revealed they’re more likely to donate if a match was offered.
- Source: The Big-Give Research Initiative
- When a match is offered, one in three donors indicates they gave a larger gift because matching was applied to their donation
- Source: The Big-Give Research Initiative
- Match-funding is the most likely factor to make donors give more. Match-funding even scored higher than emergency appeals.
- Source: The Big-Give Research Initiative
- 12.3% of total corporate cash contributions went through corporate matching gift programs
- Technology companies gave the highest proportion of matching-gift contributions as a percentage of total cash gifts at 17.3%
- Source: CECP Giving in Numbers Report
Employee Participation Rates
Matching gift participation rates vary widely by company. This is a result of how prominently a company promotes matching gifts.
Nonprofits can greatly influence the percentage of their donors who submit matching gift requests.
If you raise awareness and make it easy for your donors / their spouses to submit matching gifts, you can increase matching revenue.
We recommend nonprofits promote matching gifts in three locations:
Takeaway: If you effectively promote employee matching gifts to your donors, you can overcome low participation rates.
Company Specific Matching Gift Statistics
- The top 10 matching gift companies will match on average up to $47,500 per employee per year
- In 1954, the GE Foundation created the Corporate Alumni Program, the first corporate gift-matching program
- Last year GE matched over $39 million in donations from employees to a wide range of 501(c)(3) organizations and accredited educational institutions (including K-12 schools)
- Since the program was created in 1954 over $1.07 billion have been matched by General Electric to nonprofits
- Source: GE Foundation
- Additional Resource: General Electric – Paving the way for Matching Gifts!
- Microsoft is the largest contributor of matching gift and volunteer grant funds
- 65% of Microsoft’s employees participate in the annual giving campaign
- Inclusive of the corporate match, Microsoft employees have donated more than $1 billion to nonprofits
- Since Microsoft began its volunteer match program in 2005, U.S. based employees have volunteered more than 2 million hours of their time to causes they’re passionate about
- In one year Microsoft matched $53.2 million in employee monetary donations
- This represents an 11% increase over previous year match levels
- Donations went to nearly 19,000 unique nonprofit organizations
- Microsoft donated an additional $7.7 million as a result of the 456,000 volunteer hours logged through the company’s employee volunteer program
- Source: Microsoft Corporate Citizenship
- Additional Resource: Microsoft’s Matching Gift Program Enhancements
Statistics from Matching Gift Guidelines
- 93% of companies have a minimum match requirement of less than or equal to $50
- Source: Double the Donation’s Analysis of Matching Gift Programs
- 80% of companies’ matching gift maximums fall between $500 and $10,000 annually per employee
- Source: Double the Donation’s Analysis of Matching Gift Programs
- 91% of companies match donations at a 1:1 ratio
- 4% match at a lower rate such as .5:1
- 5% match at a higher rate such as 2:1 or 3:1
- Source: Double the Donation’s Analysis of Matching Gift Programs
Key Corporate Giving Statistics
- Higher matching gift caps yield higher employee engagement.
- Caps that are set at $1,000 see a 12% employee engagement rate.
- Caps that are from $1,001 to $10,000 see an 18% engagement rate.
- Any cap beyond $10,000 sees a spike in employee engagement up to 40%.
- Source: Double the Donation Insights from the New Corporate Social Responsibility Report
- The top 10 corporations donate over $2 billion annually in cash to nonprofits, much of it through employee matching gift programs
- Corporations give over $18 billion to charities each year
- Giving grew for 64% of companies between 2010 and 2013
- Giving increased by more than 10% for 52% of companies in the survey
- Giving increased by more than 33% for 25% of companies in the survey
- Source: CECP Giving in Numbers
Volunteer Grant and Volunteering Statistics
- 40% of Fortune 500 companies offer volunteer grant programs
- Source: Double the Donation’s Review of Fortune 500 Companies’ Employee Giving Programs
- 80% of companies with volunteer grant programs provide between $8-$15 per hour volunteered
- Source: Double the Donation’s Analysis of Matching Gift Programs
- 59% of companies provided paid-release time volunteer programs in 2013
- This is up from 51% of companies offering paid-release time volunteer programs in 2010
- Source: CECP Giving in Numbers Report
- 50% of companies provided pro bono service programs in 2013
- This is up from 34% of companies providing pro bono service programs in 2010
- Source: CECP Giving in Numbers Report
- About 63 million Americans volunteer each year
- In total, Americans volunteered for 7.7 billion hours
- The value of this volunteerism is worth ~$175 billion annually
- Many of these individuals are eligible to request volunteer grants from their employers
- Source: Volunteering and Civic Life in America by The Corporation for National and Community Service
Additional Corporate Philanthropy Resources
Promoting Matching Gifts
Your donors are unlikely to know about matching gifts unless your nonprofit promotes these giving programs to them.
Check out our resources to learn how you can effectively market matching gift programs to donors via multiple channels.
Matching Gift Companies
Many companies offer a matching gift program (65% of Fortune 500 companies do!), but some outshine the rest.
Double the Donation has compiled a list of the top 10 companies with the best matching gift programs in the United States.
Impact of Corporate Philanthropy
Matching gift programs are just one of the many types of corporate philanthropy initiatives that companies have.
If you’re interested in learning about the importance of corporate philanthropy, read the following article!