Soapbox Engage Blog

Corporate matching gift programs are becoming an increasingly popular offering among philanthropic-minded businesses looking to better engage with their employees, improve their reputation among consumers, and support a range of nonprofit causes. As a result, thousands of organizations are trending toward strategic matching gift fundraising efforts to raise more for their missions through these generous and widely available giving opportunities.

In many cases, companies agree to financially match generous contributions their employees make to eligible nonprofits, typically at a dollar-for-dollar ratio. (In other words, corporations double team member donations.)

Nonprofit-business partnerships like these are often referred to as mutually beneficial relationships between the giving company and the receiving organization. But did you know that the donors involved in the transactions can benefit greatly as well?

Here are three key reasons why:

1. Donors love stretching personal donations further.
2. Donors love increasing the impact on their favorite causes.
3. Donors love engaging employers with their passions.

First things first⁠—how do we know donors like participating in matching gift programs? Corporate giving research reports a significant positive correlation between donors being offered a gift match by their employer and donors being more likely to give (and to give more).

In fact, these statistics show 84% of knowingly match-eligible nonprofit supporters being more likely to give in the first place, resulting in a 71% increase in donation response rate as compared to those without knowledge of matching gift program availability. At the same time, 1 in 3 donors indicated that they’d likely contribute larger donations if they knew it was being matched, which led to a 51% boost in average donation size for match-eligible donations.

In this guide, we’ll dive into three of the most powerful reasons behind these findings for why donors love participating in matching gifts. Let’s begin!

1. Stretching personal donations further.

A common reason why donors don’t give to the organizations they care about is that they don’t see their personal inputs making a significant difference in the cause. The availability of matching gifts can help more donors overcome that mindset by allowing them to stretch their gifts further.

For example, let’s say your organization is hosting a capital campaign with a lofty goal of raising $5 million in the next three years. To a small or mid-level donor, the size of the gift they could potentially contribute may seem inconsequential when compared to the overall objective of the fundraiser. $50 (or whatever an individual may be able to give) can appear to be a mere drop in the bucket. Of course, your team understands the vitality of every dollar. But from the donor’s perspective, it can be difficult to understand the potential impact an individual’s contributions can make!

Luckily, matching gift programs can help organizations like yours reach their campaign goals in a fraction of the time. Not only are existing individual donations eligible to be matched by the donors’ employers, but more supporters will be likely to participate in the first place when they see the increased value that their matchable gift might have.

2. Increasing the impact on their favorite causes.

The #1 reason why donors give to support nonprofit fundraisers is that they see the organization making a difference on a cause they care about⁠—and they themselves want to play a role in the impact it brings.

That’s why so many nonprofits utilize tangible benefits to aid donors in visualizing the influence their contributions can have on the organization’s mission (for example, donation asks such as “Just $5 a day can feed a family of 5”).

Matching gift programs offer a unique way for organizations to elevate individuals’ donor journeys (from identification and cultivation to solicitation and stewardship) by increasing the tangible impact they see their dollars making on the cause.

When an individual secures a dollar-for-dollar match from their employer on behalf of an organization they give to, they can effectively make twice as much of a difference in the organization’s mission. Rather than $5 feeding a family of 5 for a day, donors can see that their $5 donation can now feed two families⁠—meaning double the number of beneficiaries receiving aid from the same initial contribution.

3. Engaging employers with their passions.

Companies that offer employee matching gift programs do so in part to engage with their staff by showing interest in the causes that employee donors support. When individual employees have a real say in their employers’ philanthropic efforts, they’re increasingly likely to be productive in their roles, support a positive workplace culture, reduce levels of turnover, and more.

These things are obviously great advantages to the businesses⁠—but they also offer unique benefits to the participating employees themselves.

After all, team members love knowing that they play a hands-on role in the company’s giving, especially when their own personal efforts are driving more corporate dollars toward their favorite charitable organizations.

It’s why employees love getting their donations matched! Not only do matching gifts enable individuals to do more for nonprofit causes and stretch their own contributions further, but they also foster better long-term relationships between employers and employees with strategic workplace philanthropy opportunities.

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Matching gift programs are well-loved by donors across the board⁠. Unfortunately, these programs continue to go underutilized⁠—largely due to a lack of awareness among the donors who could be eligible to participate.

So what can your organization do to overcome this challenge, inform more donors about matching gift opportunities, and ultimately drive more company matches to completion?

Be sure to promote donation-matching every chance you have! This should include social media postings, directly in your online giving form, within your donation thank-you messages, and more. Good luck!