Corporate donation matching — aka Employee Matching Gifts — is one of the most popular employee giving initiatives across all businesses.  No matter the shape, size, or sector, any company can start a matching gift program.

Essentially, employers participating in these efforts offer to financially match their employees’ donations to qualifying nonprofit causes. This combines employee choice with company goals.  

It’s a great way to benefit a company’s employees! A teams gets to make a positive impact on the world through charitable-minded organizations⁠—while utilizing the advantages of CSR (or corporate social responsibility) on their own bottom line. 

Yet many companies that offer these matching gift programs see effective matching gift reporting as a significant challenge. And from the nonprofit end of things, tracking and reporting incoming donation matches can be just as difficult.

That’s why we’ve put together this comprehensive resource with impactful insights into optimal behind-the-scenes matching gift reporting efforts for both corporations. Effective reporting on employee matching gifts makes a successful program. 

In this guide, we’ll explore the following key topics:

• The Importance of Effective Reporting
• What Corporations Should Track
• Reporting & Data Analysis

Ready to dive into corporate matching gift reporting and see what your team can be doing to better advance your giving and fundraising endeavors? Let’s get started.

The Importance of Effective Reporting on Employee Matching Gifts

Effective matching gift reporting is one of the key pillars of effective employee matching gift strategies. After all, tracking & reporting help determine whether a company’s (or nonprofit’s) efforts are being fruitful⁠. Further, is the time & energy worth it.

Companies often invest substantial resources into developing their CSR and workplace giving programs. Yet if eligible employees don’t know about the program or are not utilizing these initiatives, it’s a miss. The companies behind them will not see the greatest return on their investment in these programs.

This is where purposeful reporting strategies come into play. When a company tracks its levels of participation and impact, it can easily determine the success of these initiatives and locate any areas with room for improvement. And the same principles can be applied to the nonprofit side of the equation!

What Corporations Should Track

To understand and measure corporate giving success, a company should be tracking a number of data points over time. When it comes to matching gifts programs, these include:

Matching Gifts Requested

How many employees are requesting gift matches for their donations in a year? In a quarter? In a month? To what value do these matching donations add up?

When a company makes note of the total matching gift requests made by employees, they can have a quick overview of the usage of their matching gift program. This figure can be visualized either as a number of donation requests made or as a total amount of revenue equal to the sum of the requested matching gifts.

Example: In the last year, 41 of a company’s employees have requested matching gifts for their favorite charities⁠—totaling approximately $2,755 worth of matches.

Matching Gifts Disbursed

Sometimes an employee’s initial donation will not meet their employer’s specified eligibility criteria, meaning their gift would not qualify for a match. In cases like these, some gift requests may be denied, resulting in these numbers being a bit lower than the previously discussed requested gift metrics.

Again, this metric can be viewed in terms of either a number of employee donations matched or a total amount of match revenue disbursed.

Example: 40 of the 41 requested matches in the past year were approved and disbursed to nonprofit causes, totaling $2,740 in matching gift revenue provided.

Average Matching Gift Size

To determine the average size of matching donations a company makes, they should simply add the total amount of match revenue disbursed and divide it by the number of donation matches made.

The resulting value can provide the corporation with insights into the typical size range of approved matching gifts at their company. For example, one company might see hundreds of employees participating in their programming requesting low-valued donations. At the same time, a different business may see fewer employee donors securing matches for more substantial nonprofit donations than the former.

Example: With a total of $2,740 in matching gift revenue disbursed among 40 approved donation matches, the company’s average (mean) gift size would be $68.5.

Employee Matching Gift Participation Level

A company’s matching gift participation level allows them to determine the utilization rate of its available matching gift programming.

To calculate this metric, a company should first identify the total number of match-eligible employees⁠. That might mean current, full-time staff members or include part-time workers, retirees, and even spouses, depending on the company’s program guidelines.

Then, determine the number of employees who have participated in the matching gift program by requesting a corporate match in a specified time range. Now, divide the number of participants by the number of eligible employees (and multiply by 100 to convert the result to a percentage), and that’s the current participation rate.

The closer to 100% you see, the higher your company’s matching gift participation level⁠—and the more impact you’ll see as a result of investments in your program.

Example: Out of 100 employees at a company, 40 have participated in a matching gift effort in the past year⁠—which is an 40% participation rate.

Organizations Matched To

Each company should make a note of the causes, missions, and specific organizations their employees tend to gravitate toward. This way, they can see which causes their employees are most passionate about and decide to up their efforts by hosting group fundraising campaigns or volunteer events alongside these types of nonprofits in addition to established matching donations.

Example: Of the 40 approved donation matches, 10 gifts were made to health aid organizations and 3 were made to a local animal shelter. The others were divided amongst a range of other eligible nonprofits.

Reporting & Data Analysis

A corporate giving initiative such as matching employee gifts is sure to produce a ton of valuable data for participating corporations and organizations. Yet without the right tools and strategies in place, your team will likely overlook some of these potential insights.

While it’s possible to manually track and manage data reporting on matching gift programs on your own, it will require a lot of team member time and effort, which may be better spent elsewhere. And that’s where innovative technology comes in!

For companies, comprehensive CSR or corporate giving software (that’s what we do @ Selflessly!) can make a big difference in the ease with which your team can collect program metrics, track progress and growth over time, and pull impactful, data-driven insights. As a result, you’ll be able to better visualize the tangible effects of your programming, including your employees’ charitable contributions.

For nonprofits, a matching gift fundraising and automation platform like Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro can bring similar benefits. Organizations utilizing this software will be able to quickly view and follow employee donors through the various stages involved with securing a match, compare match-eligible donations to actual matching gift revenue, and forecast upcoming opportunities.

With the right reporting and data analysis strategies, companies and nonprofits can each set themselves up for continual, ongoing success in their matching gift efforts. And in doing so, the corporate fundraising partnerships forged through these philanthropic programs can bring significant impacts to each party involved.

 

Wrapping Up – A Better Way to Report & Match Employee Donations

An estimated $4-$7 Billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed each year! That’s a lot of money.

Our team at Selflessly is here to help. Scaling a CSR program to all employees is a challenge. Not to mention the limited time you have. With Selflessly, you can launch a robust CSR program with less than 30 minutes / week of your time. We help with the reporting of matches. We help encourage employees to use their match. We help you!

Further, we are here to help with suggestions for your corporate philanthropy, in general. From employee volunteering to employee matching gifts, send us a note. Reach out via email with questions or request a demo today.

Have a great week!