This guest post was provided by Double the Donation
Effective matching gift strategies can help your nonprofit secure additional fundraising revenue, increase donor engagement, and build mutually beneficial relationships with charitably-minded businesses. However, not many organizations are making the most of these powerful corporate giving opportunities.
If you’re looking to level up your team’s matching gift fundraising, collecting, storing, and leveraging the right data is crucial. But what are the best data points to prioritize? Consider the following:
- Donors’ employer information
- Common matching gift guidelines
- Number of match-eligible donors
- Top matching gift programs
- Highest value match-eligible donations
- Corporate matches completed
- Matching gift revenue secured
Knowing which data to collect is the first step in optimizing your strategies. Ready to find out how this information is invaluable for improving your approach to matching gifts? Let’s dive in!
1. Donors’ employer information
Knowing your donors’ employers is a critical part of understanding who they are and how they can best impact your mission. Plus, being aware of common careers held by donors and companies they are employed by can help you build out your donor personas for future targeted fundraising.
Once you’ve determined a donor’s employer, be sure to record that information in your CRM to leverage at a later date.
2. Common matching gift guidelines
Not every company’s corporate giving program is the same. When you market matching gifts to donors, it’s important to have basic information and guidelines ready to direct their next steps. Some of the most common guidelines to consider include:
- Donation minimums and maximums
- Match ratios
- Eligible employees
- Eligible nonprofits
- Match request deadlines
As you can see, there’s a ton of information to keep track of for just a single matching gift program—so how can you be expected to manage data for every company that might employ one of your donors? That’s where an easily searchable matching gift database of this information comes in!
3. Number of match-eligible donors
According to these matching gift statistics, more than 18 million individuals are employed by companies with matching gift programs. But how can you know how many of those eligible supporters are giving to your organization?
When you’ve determined your donors’ employers (either by asking them directly, including a field in your donation form, or screening their contact information), you can find out approximately how many individuals are likely eligible for a corporate match.
This is an excellent metric for estimating the potential unlocked by your matching gift fundraising strategies. If you uncover a ton of match-eligible donors in your network, you’ll know that this is a powerful avenue in which to expand your efforts.
4. Top matching gift programs
Tracking top matching gift programs is another insightful way to locate high-value potential matches. Since you’ve already determined your donors’ employer information as highlighted previously, be sure to cross reference those with highly philanthropic-minded businesses to get started.
Here are a few examples of well-known companies that have extremely generous programs:
- ExxonMobil offers up to a 3:1 match depending on the type of nonprofit and will provide up to $22,500 to eligible organizations.
- Johnson & Johnson matches at a 2:1 ratio up to $20,000 for current employees, with a 1:1 match for retirees as well.
- Coca-Cola matches donations at a 2:1 rate up to gifts of $20,000 for both full-time and retired employees.
Keeping an eye out for donors employed by these companies (and other generous matching gift businesses) can ensure you don’t miss out on these opportunities for corporate funding.
5. Highest value match-eligible donations
Matching gifts allow you to effectively double donations, which means the total revenue you can collect is directly related to the size of the initial contribution.
As you plan your donor outreach, make sure to invest additional time and effort into those who have the potential to secure the highest matching donations. This is typically determined based on the following factors:
- Largest donations: A $10,000 gift is going to result in a higher match than a $50 gift. Thus, you might decide to prioritize personalized outreach for any match-eligible donations over a certain threshold.
- Highest match ratios: For higher level gifts, sometimes the match ratio can be the most important factor in prioritizing your prospects. If one donor makes a $20,000 gift that’s eligible to be matched at a 1:1 ratio and another submits a $15,000 donation that can be matched 3:1, the latter gift has a higher potential match value and should be treated as such.
Even if you end up employing a matching gift automation tool, it’s a good idea to also include a more personal approach for these high-value donors. To determine which individuals deserve this type of increased attention, tracking donors with the most corporate giving potential is critical.
6. Corporate matches completed
Did you know that only 1.31% of individual contributions are matched at a typical nonprofit despite an average of 10% of donors being eligible? If you’re looking to increase your organization’s corporate giving revenue, tracking the number of employer matches that are driven to completion can be an excellent goal.
This metric can typically be analyzed in the following ways:
- Total number of matches secured: This first way of looking at your data will simply provide you with a sum of donations to your organization that were matched by the donor’s employer.
- Percentage of eligible matches completed: Taking things a step further, you might view your matching gift data as a percentage of matches completed versus total match-eligible gifts.
Once you have your data, you can determine the success of your matching gift efforts and see where there’s room for improvement.
7. Matching gift revenue secured
Leveraging matching gifts allows you to receive free donations with little to no additional effort required on your part—which has the potential to drive your fundraising revenue through the roof. As such, keeping track of the matching gift revenue you’ve secured over a period of time allows you to measure exactly how much of an impact these strategies have on your overall funding.
This is also a fantastic metric to follow over time. As your matching gift efforts increase, the amount of revenue secured through this channel should grow as well.
Corporate philanthropy is a largely underutilized fundraising strategy for many nonprofit organizations. When you prioritize the above information and ensure you have a detailed overview of your donors and your matching gift revenue, you set your team up for continued success for long into the future.
Just be sure you have the right tools to collect, store, and manage this invaluable donor data. Otherwise, it can be extremely difficult to make the most of this powerful corporate giving tactic while juggling so many data points. Good luck, and happy matching!