The Ultimate Guide to Drive Donations: Corporate Philanthropy and Matching Gift Fundraising​

Thousands of organizations offer Corporate Social Responsibility programs. However, it can be difficult to know how to leverage these programs to generate more donations for your nonprofit. One way this could be accomplished is through utilizing matching gift fundraising to its fullest potential. 

ClickBid and Double the Donation teamed up to provide an informational webinar around the matching gift landscape, five best practices to leverage matching gifts and an exclusive demo of how you can get started utilizing by using ClickBid and Double the Donation’s integration.

Check out the on-demand webinar below to learn how to start driving donations through corporate philanthropy and matching gifts. Don’t want to watch the webinar? No problem! Keep scrolling to read our webinar recap instead.

What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? 

CSR is related to corporations trying to improve society in some way. These efforts can range from donating money to nonprofits to implementing environmentally-friendly policies in the workplace. 

There are several different types of corporate social responsibility including:

1. Corporate Philanthropy
2. Corporate Volunteerism 
3. Environmental Leadership
4. Ethical Labor Practices
5. Economic Responsibility 

In this webinar and blog recap, we focused on “corporate philanthropy” as it is the easiest and most straightforward avenue for nonprofits to directly harness. 

Breaking Down Corporate Philanthropy

Corporate philanthropy occurs when a corporation promotes the welfare of others, usually through charitable donations. Companies can leverage this type of CSR in various ways (most commonly through matching gifts). 

Millions of individuals qualify for these types of programs, which then lead to billions of dollars donated through corporate philanthropy every single year.

It’s important to note that corporate philanthropy can occur both through existing programs and also through new programs created either by the corporation themselves or even by your nonprofit.

The Matching Gift Process

Matching gifts are one of the most common forms of corporate philanthropy. Companies offer benefits like matching gifts for many reasons including tax incentives, employee retention, and CSR marketing initiatives to name a few. 

Most matching gift programs have their own guidelines, but the vast majority of them follow the following steps:

1. The donor submits a donation to your organization
2. The donor submits a matching gift request to their employer
3. The company approves the request per their company program
4. The company issues payment to your organization

Matching Gift Components

There are four types of match gift components that are most commonly used in corporate social responsibility programs. The following information explains each one. 

Organization Eligibility

Many nonprofit organizations qualify for matching gift programs, however, some guidelines may need to be followed (like the organization has to be a fundraising organization that is considered a nonprofit or an educational institution). Some exclusions may apply, but most fundraisers qualify for the majority of matching gift programs.

Match Ratio

Next, we have matching gift ratio. When you think of a matching gift program, many people believe there has to be a one-to-one match ratio. But not all matching gift programs offer that match strategy. Many companies will actually double or triple an employee’s donation. That can sometimes even depend on the donor’s employment status or the kind of nonprofits receiving the funds. 

Employee Eligibility

The third component is employee eligibility. Some companies will only match gifts from full-time employees, but that is becoming rare as corporate philanthropy programs improve. Some of the top programs will even match gifts made by retirees or even the spouses of current employees. 

Gift Amount and Program Deadlines

Almost every program is going to set its maximum and minimum donation amount that they’re able to match. These parameters depend on the program though. Expiration dates are important to keep in mind as well. Some companies might give their employee a year to submit a match gift request after their original donation. Other companies will set specific deadline dates.

 You will want to make sure that your donors are informed of these different guidelines so that they feel empowered to take action to submit a matching gift request from their employer. 

Corporate Matching Gifts are Everywhere

As mentioned before, matching gifts are one of the most common forms of corporate philanthropy. Well over half of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs (Double the Donation). That means millions of individuals are eligible for gift-matching programs. Not to forget all of the companies who are not Fortune 500, but still offer these programs. 

Despite this giant matching gifts industry, $4-7 billion in matching gift revenue goes unclaimed each year (Double the Donation). So, why is there this huge amount of money that’s going unclaimed every year? 

To answer that question, we have to go back to the matching gift flow. If a donor wants to get their gift matched, they have to submit a matching gift request to their employer. The problem is that many donors are not actually submitting a matching gift request to their employer. 78% of match-eligible donors are unaware that their employer offers a matching gift program (Double the Donation). Only 7% of match-eligible donors are actually submitting the matching gift request (Double the Donation).

The main problem we actually need to solve for is the “donor awareness gap.” Many donors don’t know about these programs, but if they were educated about gift matching, they may be more inclined to give. Below are some top best practices for educating your donors about matching gifts. 

Best Practices for Educating your Donors about Matching Gifts

Collect Employment Information on Your Donation Forms

Capture employment information on your online donation form, and ensure your donors know why you’re asking for it and what to do with it. Ensure you keep a record of where your donors work to track valuable corporate giving opportunities so that you can communicate with them about their potential matching gift programs at their place of work. 

Provide Direction on Your Confirmation Pages

Give donors clear directions for what to do next to get their gifts matched once they receive a confirmation for donating. Be sure to encourage them to submit a matching gift request. Donors commonly feel most engaged during the giving process  — don’t miss out on their momentum.

Communicate with Your Donors through Matching Gift Emails

Follow up with donors about their matching gift eligibility who just gave. Be sure to focus on educating and empowering them to ensure your donors understand the next steps they should take. Include matching gifts in your other email campaigns as well for a greater impact!

Create a Matching Gift Web Page

Tell all website visitors (not just those who donated) why they should get their gifts matched by creating a specific, educational webpage for them to review. Reassure them that your organization accepts matching gift submissions and offer tips on how to check with their employer.

Track Your Data

Make sure to measure your gift-matching performance. By tracking the number of match-eligible donations, total number of matched donations, and total revenue from gift matching, you can ensure your plan is sustainable. 

360MatchPro and ClickBid Integration Overview

Now it’s time to get started. Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro integrates directly into the ClickBid platform to make it easy for donors to make a donation and identify their corporate match eligibility. The integration then provides donors with the next steps to submit the matching gift request directly from the confirmation page.

To learn more about how Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro integration works with ClickBid, check out the webinar segment below for a short demo. 

Continue Learning

Want to learn more about how you can incorporate a matching gift strategy at your nonprofit organization? Click here to watch the rest of the webinar or reach out to us for more information.