Key Matching Gift Statistics
Employee Participation Rates
Matching gift participation rates vary widely by company. This is a result of how prominently a company promotes matching gifts.
The graphs to the left illustrate the matching gift program employee participation rates for a few leaders in various sectors. Some companies, like American Express and Microsoft, heavily promote their corporate philanthropy programs, while others don’t.
This means it’s incredibly important for your organization to do its part in raising awareness of matching gifts. We recommend that nonprofits promote matching gifts in three locations:
Takeaway: If you effectively promote employee matching gifts to your donors, you can overcome low participation rates.
Matching Gift Statistics: Typical Program 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
Matching Gift Statistics: Top Companies
- The top 10 matching gift companies will match on average up to $47,500 per employee per year
- 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
- 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!
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 gave over $20 billion to nonprofits in 2017.
- Giving increased by more than 15% for 60% of companies surveyed between 2015 and 2017.
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
- 65% of companies surveyed provided paid-release time volunteer programs in 2017.
- The average corporate volunteer rate participation rate is 30%.
- The participation rate at top-quartile corporate volunteer programs is 42%.
- Source: 2018 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!