If you’re new to employee matching gifts, you’re in the right place! We’ll help walk you through the basics. If you’re experienced with employee matching gifts, you may still want to keep reading! 

Why? Because our friends at Double the Donation, mention that only 7% of employees actually submit a matching donation request! That a pretty low number. We’d like to help improve that at Selflessly!

In this article, we’ll take a look at what is an employee matching gift campaign is, as well as, 5 Steps to ensure a successful employee matching gifts program. 

What is a Matching Gift Campaign?

Employee matching gifts (or matching donations) are one aspect of a corporate philanthropy program. Generally, a matching gift campaign is a dollar for dollar matching donation from company dollars to a nonprofit that an employee has supported. Said differently, an employee makes a donation and receives a 1-1 dollar match ratio from the company. By receiving a 1-1 dollar match, the employee’s nonprofit receives 2x the money!

The process can be broken out as follows:

1. An employee makes a donation of any amount 
2. The employee provides the donation receipt to their company
3. The company will then donate the same amount to the nonprofit
4. The nonprofit receives both donations (employee + company)

 

In general, this is why the term matching is used. Company dollars are matched with the employee donation in order to double the impact. Two times the dollars are going to the employee’s nonprofit of choice. If the employee decides to donate $100 to a cause, the company would also donate $100 to that same cause. Thus, $200 going to the employee’s nonprofit of choice!

In certain cases, a company will match greater than a 1-1 ratio. For example, Glick Gives donates a 3-1 ratio on Giving Tuesday and a 2-1 ratio throughout December. You can read more here

Why Are Matching Gifts Important

Breaking this down further, many employees already donate to charities on their own. Because employees care about certain nonprofits, and already donate, they love to find ways to increase money going to their favorite nonprofits. With employee matching gifts, company leadership can be involved in causes that employees care about! 

Matching is an incredible way to have leadership supporting employee’s favorite causes. Through learning more about employees and connecting on items non-work related, leadership can create stronger bonds with each employee. Needless to say, that helps company culture and overall employee retention.

Further, employee matching gifts are a straightforward corporate philanthropy example that supports employees and their communities. By matching donations, companies are supporting their employees and building a positive and socially conscious brand reputation.

5 Steps for a Successful Employee Matching Gift program?

As leadership, it’s important to set guidelines for your company’s employee matching gift program. This way employees know how to request a match, how much money will be matched, and one cause types, if any, will be excluded from matching. 

As leadership, it’s important to provide space to all employees to donate and support causes those employees care about. At the same time, matching donation dollars are from company dollars. Therefore, companies sometimes may have specific criteria in order for an employee to receive a matching donation from those company dollars. 

We see the best results from matching gift programs that are clearly defined and easy to submit the match request. 

1. Decide the dollar amount to match (i.e. $500)
2. Decide which causes to match as a company (all 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations)
3. Announce to all employees that you have matching gifts
4. Create an easy employee matching gift submission process
5. Create reminders throughout the year for employees

**Bonus: Use a Software to Automate 

As a reminder, our friends at Double the Donation, mention that only 7% of employees actually submit a matching donation request! Further, 78% of employees don’t know their companies offer the match! This is where announcements, reminders, and easy submission can help!

As that bonus point, the Selflessly’s software makes those 5 steps a breeze! Companies are able to easily encourage & expand their community outreach through employee matching gifts.

Connect with Us

If you have questions about implementing employee matching gifts at your company, reach out! Not only is it awesome to provide employees space to support causes they care about, but even more you’ll double their impact with company matching gifts (aka matching donations). 

Further, if you’d like to learn more about the Selflessly software overall, from volunteering to donating, reach out any time. We created an affordable Social Impact Software solution so all teams, regardless of size, can engage their employees. Send us a note about expanding your corporate volunteering and giving program today! [email protected]