Matching Gifts Companies

Amanda Twombley

Hi All, 


 I am new to Raisers Edge and still learning the ins and outs. I recently went to a Fundamental class to learn about Raiser Edge Basics. While there I learned about matching gifts. We currently do not do anything with matching gift companies unless the donor notifies us that we should be expecting a match from their employer. 


I am wondering if you could give me some insight on how your organization does matching gifts and if it would be worth it for us to start. It seems like a huge process to undertake and I want to know that is worth the time. How does your organization stay current with the matches and involved with the donors to encourage them to fill out the forms to their employers for matching gifts? Are you able to use Query to report on the gifts you've received and the ones your still waiting on? 


Thank you, 


Amanda Etter

Gift Processor 

International Crane Foundation 

 

Angela Tuttle 2

Amanda Etter:

Hi All, 


 I am new to Raisers Edge and still learning the ins and outs. I recently went to a Fundamental class to learn about Raiser Edge Basics. While there I learned about matching gifts. We currently do not do anything with matching gift companies unless the donor notifies us that we should be expecting a match from their employer. 


I am wondering if you could give me some insight on how your organization does matching gifts and if it would be worth it for us to start. It seems like a huge process to undertake and I want to know that is worth the time. How does your organization stay current with the matches and involved with the donors to encourage them to fill out the forms to their employers for matching gifts? Are you able to use Query to report on the gifts you've received and the ones your still waiting on? 


Thank you, 


Amanda Etter

Gift Processor 

International Crane Foundation 

 

We record matching gift pledges only if we have paperwork from the matching gift company. We follow-up with matching gift companies as needed. There are companies that you can hire to manage matching gifts but we tabled that idea until next year. I recently attended a CASE Conference and one of the speakers mentioned that they include matching gift language and follow-up in their receipts or acknowledgement letters. They manage everything in-house and the few sentences that are added at the bottom of their letters were personalized based on the donor and their employer.     

Cara Perez

We only add the MG Pledges if we have paperwork or have been notified by the donor that they are matching. We used to have a link on our website that showed which companies match gifts for our donors but it didn't seem to be used much. We have also added an attribute to constituent records that lists if the donor has a matching gift company and the name of the company. We do add a line about matching gifts in our receipts and for those who have an attribute we will tweak their thank you letter slightly and let them know they can match their gift. 

 

 

Amanda Twombley

Thank you both for your responses, they are very helpful. We were wondering how to track matching gifts and if  attributes would  be a good way to do it. Its good to know that it is working for other organizations. We have a link on our website too to that shows matching companies. We were considering sending out a reminder, like a post card or email, to our donors to remind them to check if their employer does matches. Has anyone done this and received good results?  Has anyone used MatchFinder services?

 

 

Merrianne McGill

Angela Tuttle:

 

Amanda Etter:

Hi All, 


 I am new to Raisers Edge and still learning the ins and outs. I recently went to a Fundamental class to learn about Raiser Edge Basics. While there I learned about matching gifts. We currently do not do anything with matching gift companies unless the donor notifies us that we should be expecting a match from their employer. 


I am wondering if you could give me some insight on how your organization does matching gifts and if it would be worth it for us to start. It seems like a huge process to undertake and I want to know that is worth the time. How does your organization stay current with the matches and involved with the donors to encourage them to fill out the forms to their employers for matching gifts? Are you able to use Query to report on the gifts you've received and the ones your still waiting on? 


Thank you, 


Amanda Etter

Gift Processor 

International Crane Foundation 

 

We record matching gift pledges only if we have paperwork from the matching gift company. We follow-up with matching gift companies as needed. There are companies that you can hire to manage matching gifts but we tabled that idea until next year. I recently attended a CASE Conference and one of the speakers mentioned that they include matching gift language and follow-up in their receipts or acknowledgement letters. They manage everything in-house and the few sentences that are added at the bottom of their letters were personalized based on the donor and their employer.     

 

We too only add a matching gift pledge onto a record if we have the actual paperwork or confirmation from the donor's employer that they are going to match the gift. When the match is complete, we send a letter to the employee letting them know that their gift was matched by their employer.

Amanda Twombley

Could you give an example of the language you use on your thank you letters to remind/ask donors to contact their employer about matching gift? 

Amanda Twombley

Merrianne McGill:

Angela Tuttle:

 

Amanda Etter:

Hi All, 


 I am new to Raisers Edge and still learning the ins and outs. I recently went to a Fundamental class to learn about Raiser Edge Basics. While there I learned about matching gifts. We currently do not do anything with matching gift companies unless the donor notifies us that we should be expecting a match from their employer. 


I am wondering if you could give me some insight on how your organization does matching gifts and if it would be worth it for us to start. It seems like a huge process to undertake and I want to know that is worth the time. How does your organization stay current with the matches and involved with the donors to encourage them to fill out the forms to their employers for matching gifts? Are you able to use Query to report on the gifts you've received and the ones your still waiting on? 


Thank you, 


Amanda Etter

Gift Processor 

International Crane Foundation 

 

We record matching gift pledges only if we have paperwork from the matching gift company. We follow-up with matching gift companies as needed. There are companies that you can hire to manage matching gifts but we tabled that idea until next year. I recently attended a CASE Conference and one of the speakers mentioned that they include matching gift language and follow-up in their receipts or acknowledgement letters. They manage everything in-house and the few sentences that are added at the bottom of their letters were personalized based on the donor and their employer.     

 

We too only add a matching gift pledge onto a record if we have the actual paperwork or confirmation from the donor's employer that they are going to match the gift. When the match is complete, we send a letter to the employee letting them know that their gift was matched by their employer.

 

That currently what we do too. I've been wondering if we are missing a opportunity by not reaching out to donors about matching gift opportunities though. 

Faith Murray

We've never done the website plugin -- want to, though -- but we have distributed a brochure to our donors in their thank-you letter stuffers. As a religious org, it's harder for us to qualify for matching gifts, so we usually only get a couple new add-ons when we promote, but it still makes the effort worth it. I'm sure that a non-religious educational institution, or human welfare organization could probably glean a greater response because more matching gift companies would qualify them.

Merrianne McGill

We use to send a letter to donors who worked for a matching gift company but did not send in their matching gift agreement. We secured some gifts that way, not many, but some. With staff changes, we have not done that in some time. We also give soft gift credit to the employee for honor roll to bump them up in the giving club. We did not do that in the past when we were in another database system.

Merrianne McGill

This is a sample of the matching gift notify letter we send to the employee for whom the gift was matched.


Dear (EMPLOYEE SALUTATION):
Thank you so much for doubling your impact at Westminster College!
We appreciate the time taken to secure a matching gift from your employer. Corporate matching gifts generate substantial funding for the College and you play a big part!
I am delighted to share that a gift has been received from (MATCHING GIFT COMPANY) as a match to your contribution.  The matching gift has been designated for the (DESIGNATION).
We greatly appreciate your role in securing additional funding for Westminster College.
Best wishes,

 

Amanda Twombley

Merrianne McGill:
This is a sample of the matching gift notify letter we send to the employee for whom the gift was matched.


Dear (EMPLOYEE SALUTATION):
Thank you so much for doubling your impact at Westminster College!
We appreciate the time taken to secure a matching gift from your employer. Corporate matching gifts generate substantial funding for the College and you play a big part!
I am delighted to share that a gift has been received from (MATCHING GIFT COMPANY) as a match to your contribution.  The matching gift has been designated for the (DESIGNATION).
We greatly appreciate your role in securing additional funding for Westminster College.
Best wishes,

 

Thank you for your example! 

Katrina Freeburg

I recently discovered RE has a place to indicate a company matches (buried under the business tab in the donor record - image below), so we're going to start using that.


We enclose a matching gift reminder insert in every thank you letter, but have not built a good process to track "unmatched" gifts. I hope to build a query pulling all gifts made that fiscal year (w/o a matching pledge) once we start using the check box, but this will take some time. And some matches have to be requested sooner than 12 months.


We have a HEP Data widget in our website that enables donors (and staff) to find a company's matching parameters, but I don't know if we direct donors to that page on a regular basis.


If someone else has already perfected this process, I'd like your notes!

Katrina Freeburg, CFRE

Seattle Preparatory School

Director of Individual Giving
kfreeburg@seaprep.org

206.577.2237 desk




 

Adam Weinger

Hi Amanda,

I know this post was created a while back, but I thought I'd jump in this thread in case anyone else stumbles across this post: matching gifts can be tricky to pursue, but they become much easier when using matching gift software. Many Blackbaud products do integrate with Double the Donation's matching gift tool, which automates matching gift identification/outreach for nonprofits. Using this solution, you can see which donors qualify for matching gift funds, then automate matching gift follow ups similar to the templates listed in this thread. These messages actually contain a direct link for donors to submit their company-specific matching gift form once they receive the email.

DTD also offers flexible pricing options so that orgs of different sizes can see an ROI from the solution. Happy to answer any other questions if needed.