Spring fundraisers are in full swing, and your organization is probably making strides towards your next goal - but are you feeling like your campaign could use a boost? Employer matching gifts are a great way to engage donors and revamp your current fundraising initiatives.
If you’ve never incorporated matching gift asks into your fundraising campaign, it can be tough to know where to start. That’s why we’ve compiled 3 ways to revamp your fundraising strategies using matching gift appeals. These proven best practice approaches include:
- Educating donors during the giving process
- Engaging donors after their donation has been completed
- Empowering donors to pursue matching gifts
Using these three strategies, you can freshen up your spring campaign in no time. So let’s dive in!
Educate Donors During the Giving Process
If you aren’t familiar with employer matching gifts, here’s a quick recap: Employer matching gifts are a form of corporate philanthropy in which companies will match contributions made by employees at no cost to the employee or nonprofit. Most companies offer matches at a 1:1 ratio, but some programs will match 2:1 or even 3:1!
So if employers are the ones contributing these funds, then you are probably wondering why our first best practice involves educating donors. Well, despite matching gift programs being a great way to earn extra cash, most nonprofits majorly miss out on these programs - to the tune of $4-7 billion in matching gifts going unclaimed each year. And the primary reason for these funds going unclaimed is a lack of donor awareness.
Yep, you read that right. Your nonprofit is probably missing out on matching gifts, simply because your donors don’t know that they can submit a matching gift request. In fact, 78% of match-eligible donors have no idea that they even qualify for a matching gift program.
The great news is that all you have to do to solve this problem is educate your donors! Once your donors learn that they can double their donation, why wouldn’t they want to increase their contribution at no extra cost to themselves?
We recommend educating donors specifically during the donation process for a couple of reasons:
- The donor already feels connected and committed to your organization. This “giving mindset” makes donors more likely to submit a matching gift request.
- Matching gift requests are time sensitive - and the earliest you can educate donors is at the time of donation.
We recommend placing a very short blurb on your donation form hinting at matching gifts, then making the direct call to action on the confirmation/receipt page. This will create a frictionless, timely ask that educates donors and drives donations!
Engage Donors After Their Donation Has Been Completed
Not only are matching gifts a great way to earn extra cash, but they also contribute to donor engagement. Sending matching gift messages to donors after the donation process has been completed provides another touchpoint for you to make a matching gift appeal while fostering donor relationships.
Matching gift messages are also proven to have impressive engagement results. In fact, mentioning matching gifts in fundraising appeals results in a 71% increase in response rate and a 51% increase in average donation amount - making it a very valuable outreach tool!
These messages also provide the opportunity to share more information with donors than you might be able to on your donation page or confirmation screen. For example, you could share resources with top matching gift companies or valuable matching gift statistics.
We recommend that you send these emails after the donation process, but not immediately after. That might seem like a strange distinction, but there is a reason for this: most donors expect a confirmation email directly after a donation. Since they are anticipating a receipt, they might not recognize your matching gift email as requiring any course of action, and you risk the donor discarding the message as a proof of purchase, and not a matching gift appeal.
You probably already have a plan in place to target donors through email, so make the simple addition of adding matching gift appeals to your current outreach strategy!
Empower Donors to Return to Matching Gifts
Our final matching gift appeal involves creating a dedicated matching gift page on your website. This simple web page might include a quick summary of matching gifts and the impact they make on your organization. You can even provide insight into how your organization uses different matching gift funds for specific causes within your campaign.
We recommend placing this page with your other “Ways to Give” pages so it’s easy to find. We keep on stressing the lack of awareness that surrounds gift matching, so having multiple avenues to educate donors can be really beneficial in receiving gift matching requests. The great thing is that this page can tell all visitors about gift matching, and not just current donors. 84% of donors are actually more likely to donate in the first place if their gifts are matched, so your matching gift page can turn website visitors into new supporters!
So if you’re conducting a campaign spring cleaning, try boosting your campaign with employer matching gifts. You can even automate each of these strategies using powerful matching gift software like 360MatchPro. This solution integrates seamlessly with Soapbox Engage so that you can drive matching gift funds without any unnecessary effort. Interested in checking it out? Schedule a personalized 360MatchPro demo!
About Double the Donation: Automate your matching gift fundraising with the industry-leading solution from Double the Donation. The 360MatchPro platform provides nonprofits with tools to identify match-eligible donors, drive matches to completion, and gain actionable insights. 360MatchPro integrates directly into donation forms, CRMs, social fundraising software, and other nonprofit technology solutions to capture employment information and follow up appropriately with donors about matching gifts.
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