This guest post is from Double the Donation, the industry-leading matching gifts platform. You can enable the GiveSignup – Double the Donation integration for any event, donation form, donation website, or fundraising campaign to grow donations through corporate matching gifts. Learn more about the integration here.
While plenty of our fundraising strategies have turned upside down in 2020, there are still many ways to increase EOY contributions during your final December fundraising push. One particularly lucrative fundraising method is employer matching gift programs: they are fast, simple, and can be conducted entirely online.
As one of the most popular forms of corporate philanthropy, employer matching gift programs can drive a whole lot of value for your organization. We’ve compiled the top 5 matching gift facts that can introduce you to this valuable practice and help you drive donations through 2020 and beyond.
Let’s dive in!
Special note: These fundraising facts are provided by Double the Donation’s matching gift research.
1. Over 65% of Fortune 500 Companies Offer Matching Gift Programs
Corporate matching gift programs are widespread, which is certainly demonstrated by our first gift matching fact. Well over half of Fortune 500 companies offer a matching gift program – leading to quite a lot of match-eligible donors.
These programs are diverse, and their different components can impact your matching gift fundraising strategies. Matching gift programs can vary in:
- Organization eligibility
- Some corporations choose specific types of nonprofits for their programs.
- Minimums and maximums matched
- Most programs have minimum and maximum donation amounts that they will match.
- Employee eligibility
- Programs can match to full-time, part-time and retired employees. Some programs even match to spouses of employees.
- Match ratio
- Companies typically match donations at a 1:1 ratio, and some of the best programs match at a 2:1 or even 3:1 ratio!
- Program deadlines
- Many companies will give their employee a year after the donation to submit a request for their gift to be matched. Other companies set specific dates, often timed around the end of a calendar year or tax season.
These widespread programs mean over 18 million individuals working for companies with matching gift programs – and billions of dollars are donated through matching gifts per year. As one of the most common forms of corporate philanthropy, employer matching gifts can certainly fuel your fundraising efforts!
2. Only 1.31% of individual contributions are matched at the average nonprofit organization.
Our next fact might not seem to fit in with the first one. If so many donors are match eligible, and billions of dollars are donated every year, then how are less than 2% contributions matched?
Unfortunately, most nonprofits do not take full advantage of matching gift programs. Despite billions and billions of dollars being offered each year, donors don’t always submit their matching gift requests. This lack of donor action leads to $4-7 billion in matching gifts going unclaimed each year.
Wondering how that could be? Well, if a donor wants to submit a matching gift request, then they need to notify their employer that they made the donation and that they want their company to submit a match to that same organization.
Many donors make their initial contribution, but they don’t take the extra step of submitting their matching gift request.
As a nonprofit organization, you can benefit from encouraging your donors to submit their requests. This can help close the revenue gap in matching gift funds as you close your 2020 fundraising campaigns!
3. 78% of Match Eligible Donors Don’t know About their Matching Gift Programs
As you strategize the ways to encourage donors to submit matching gift requests, it’s important to note that most donors don’t know anything about their matching gift program.
Since the vast majority of match eligible donors have no idea that they are eligible for a matching gift program, they certainly don’t know how to submit a matching gift request.
Donors don’t necessarily lack the motivation to submit a matching gift request. They simply don’t know that these programs exist. So if their employer is not educating them on the benefits of matching gifts, then that responsibility often falls on the nonprofit themselves. By incorporating matching calls to action in your current communication strategy, you can double match-eligible donations and drive revenue for the causes you care about.
4. Mentioning matching gifts in fundraising appeals results in a 71% increase in response rate and a 51% increase in average donation amount.
Our next fundraising fact shows that this lack of donor action is truly based on an awareness gap not a motivational one. This is because most donors indicate that they are actually more likely to donate if they know that a match is offered.
Your donors are people who are connected and committed to your organization. They already took the initial step to make a contribution to a cause that they care about. Why wouldn’t they want to double their donation at no extra cost to themselves?
This fact also shows how important it is to tell donors about their matching gift programs. If awareness is the only factor standing in their way, then closing the awareness gap can be a very lucrative endeavor.
Educational emails that encourage matching gifts can be a great form of donor engagement; you can tell donors how their matched funds will impact your organization, and that their initial contribution can actually go twice as far.
This will certainly leave your donor feeling more engaged post transaction – leading to greater contributions and donor retention.
5. Leveraging a matching gift automation tool (like 360MatchPro) can double or triple an organization’s matching gift revenue.
So now that you know a whole lot more about matching gift programs, you are probably wondering the easiest ways to fully take advantage of them. You can certainly use your current communication avenues to educate and encourage donors to submit matching gift requests, but that will take some time and effort to coordinate your strategy and evaluate your goals.
One simple way to drive matching gift funds is to take advantage of an automated matching gift tool, like 360MatchPro by Double the Donation. This leading matching gift software can be integrated with your GiveSignUp | RunSignUp account, making it easier than ever to get started with employer gift matching.
This tool is designed to educate donors from the donation process and beyond. It captures donor match eligibility on the donation form, then sends personalized outreach after the donation process. These messages even include a direct link to the donors’ matching gift submission form so that they can easily complete their request.
360MatchPro then tracks actionable metrics from within its navigable portal. Your organization can check out the match amounts identified, configure outreach and set and evaluate fundraising goals, all from within the platform.
Employer matching gifts are so valuable to nonprofits, and your organization can certainly harness these funds for the last month of 2020. Check out tools like 360MatchPro to double or even triple your matching gift funds with no additional work for you or your team. Happy fundraising!