12 Best Practices for Matching Gifts in Higher Education

1. Create a Strategic Plan for Matching Gifts

If you plan for it, the donations will come. Take time this year to create a Matching Gift strategic plan that includes annual Matching Gift goals, action items on how to meet those goals, and deadlines to keep your team on task. HEPdata’s Matching Gift Solution offers a user-friendly home page that lists the status of all gift-match eligible donations with real-time updates to make keeping up with your strategic plan a breeze.

2. Foster a Regular Dialogue with Donors

How often do you follow up on incomplete matching gift donation opportunities? If you do not have a plan to do this regularly until the paperwork crosses the finish line, you’re leaving a lot of funding to chance. Follow up every month until the paperwork is complete. If this task seems burdensome, remember that platforms like HEPdata’s Auto Match can track, monitor, and follow up on your behalf.

3. Segment and Customize Your Communications

Not all donors are the same. The messages you send to students will be different from the messages going to new alumni, alumni ages 70+, alumni from the top 50 matching gift employers, and donors who have given $100 or less. Take your database and segment each donor based on various factors, then create highly targeted marketing campaigns for each.

4. Stay Up to Date on Matching Gift Companies

Do you know the latest updates on the top Matching Gift corporations? Who is no longer offering Matching Gifts? HEPdata’s Auto Match offers exhaustive tracking of Matching Gift companies with 7,000 more monitored than the nearest competitor (for a total of 20,000!). It also includes direct access to Fortune 500 companies for accurate information and updates on guidelines.

5. Add a Website Feature that Gives Donors a Way to Look Up Employer Matching Gift Info

This is the easiest, fastest way to connect your donors to information without them needing to ask HR or research on their own. Part of the HEPdata’s Match Lookup, the eMatch Donor Link has been a top resource for higher education institutions for the past 20 years.

6. Quantify How a Donation Will Make an Impact

No one wants to imagine their donation going towards the electric bill, however necessary it may be. Inspire donations by letting donors know exactly what their dollars will go to, such as $25 providing 10 meals for a student or $100 going toward books for the new student library.

7. Use Actionable Language During Follow Up

What headline grabs your interest more: “Complete your matching gift paperwork” or “Help us turn your $25 donation into $50?” Write headlines that spark action and offer tangible outcomes.

8. Make Outreach Calls Personal and Conversational

When your fundraising team hits the phones for donations, be sure they make a donor feel recognized and appreciated. How are they doing? Where are they working? How are they involved with the university? These questions can also uncover important database info. If they’re with a company offering Matching Gifts, solicit that on the phone. Also, be sure to recognize that they’re a Matching Gift donor during the call.

9. Celebrate Matching Gift Donors

Recognize and celebrate donors who have their gifts matched. This acknowledgment can encourage others to participate and shows appreciation for their contribution.

10. Educate Your Staff About Matching Gifts

Ensure that all staff members, especially those interacting with donors, are well-informed about matching gift programs and can effectively communicate their benefits.

11. Leverage Technology to Streamline the Process

Utilize software solutions that can automate the identification, tracking, and follow-up of matching gift opportunities, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency.

12. Regularly Review and Update Your Matching Gift Strategy

Periodically assess the effectiveness of your matching gift initiatives and make necessary adjustments to improve outcomes and adapt to changing circumstances.

Three Reasons Why Matching Gifts Go Unclaimed

Matching gifts offer the opportunity to double any donation received, all for just the handful of minutes required to complete the necessary paperwork.

If it’s so easy, why does an estimated $4-7 billion in matching gift revenue go unclaimed every year?

The reason isn’t a lack of corporate generosity.

In our 25 years of experience, the top three reasons why matching gifts go unclaimed are:

  1. Donors don’t know their company will match a gift;
  2. Organizations don’t follow up with donors after they donate; and
  3. Organizations are working off of out-of-date information.

Here are a few solutions to these challenges that will help boost your revenue opportunities moving forward.

1. Donors don’t know their company will match a gift.

By far, this is the biggest reason behind unclaimed matching gifts. Research shows 80% of matching gift-eligible donors are unaware that their company will match their gift.

Why does this matter? Because approximately 84% of donors say they’re more likely to donate if a match is offered and 1 in 3 donors are willing to give more if a match is offered.

Solution: Your best opportunity to double a gift is to introduce matching gifts at the point of donation. Adding an online search tool such as Match Lookup with eMatch Donor Link in the donation process allows your donors to search their employer before, during, and after a gift to see if their company will match. This tool is configurable to the preferred look and feel of your website, can be placed on as many web pages as needed, and offers metrics to ensure you’re maximizing the tool.

2. Organizations don’t follow up with donors after they donate.

Manually following up individually with donors to ask if they are eligible for a matching gift is a time-consuming process. The same amount of work is required for a $10 donation as compared to a $10,000 donation. We have spoken to organizations with dedicated teams spending upwards of 30 hours per week managing their matching gifts program, only to feel they are barely making a dent in their follow-ups.

Solution: Automating the manual steps in the matching gift process can save countless hours and quickly reap significant revenue increases. Auto Match is a simple, easy-to-use platform that automatically identifies matching gift eligible donors, tracks their donations, and follows up until the necessary paperwork is complete. The system seamlessly integrates with many fundraising platforms and most organizations see an average 53% increase in matching gift revenue the first year.

3. Organizations work off outdated or incorrect matching gift policy data.

With tens of thousands of companies offering matching gift programs, all with policies being updated regularly, keeping track of each change can quickly become daunting. But with 65% of Fortune 500 companies offering a matching gift program, millions of people are eligible, making this a worthy fundraising pursuit.

Solution: HEPdata Matching Gift Solutions offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date matching gift database available. Our team of researchers constantly updates our database of over 23,000 companies, ensuring you have access to the most current information. This allows you to confidently promote matching gifts to your donors, knowing you have accurate and timely data to support your efforts.

By addressing these three common challenges, organizations can significantly increase their matching gift revenue and make the most of this often-overlooked fundraising opportunity.

8 Matching Gift Trends to Boost Revenue for Nonprofits & Higher Education Institutions

If you’re a nonprofit or higher education institution, you’ve likely had to get a lot more creative in your fundraising efforts as of late. With everyone looking for new solutions to similar issues, it’s also key to keep abreast of industry trends and see how others are successfully adapting to changing times.

But you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. In fact, you may already have what you need waiting in your donor database.

Here are 8 matching gift trends that can help boost revenue for your organization:

1. Donors Are Increasingly Unaware of Matching Gift Programs

If you ask the average donor if their employer offers a matching gift program, the odds are that they won’t know. It is usually not covered in a benefits program and unless HR is promoting this as an option, people won’t know and likely won’t take the initiative to find out. Which is why organizations are educating donors on what a matching gift is and how to find out if they are eligible. Even better, some organizations are doing the heavy lifting for donors and checking employers in a database.

2. Large Companies Are Expanding Their Matching Gift Programs

The changing times have proven to work in favor of non-profits and higher education institutions. Large companies are expanding their matching gift programs to include larger donations and opportunities for giving. Companies such as Google and Facebook have garnered multiple headlines for their matching gift donation opportunities.

3. Smaller Companies Are Starting Matching Gift Programs

Every single day, more and more small companies are starting matching gift programs. The pandemic hasn’t caused companies to miss a beat. It’s built into the values of the staff and companies themselves. People want to work for employers who value community and altruism, and this has made CSR much more than just a corporate buzz term.

4. Matching Gift Automation Is Becoming the Norm

Organizations are realizing that manually tracking matching gifts is time-consuming and prone to errors. As a result, many are turning to automated solutions that integrate with their existing systems to streamline the process, ensuring no matching gift opportunities are missed.

5. Increased Focus on Donor Education

Nonprofits and educational institutions are investing more in educating their donors about matching gifts. This includes providing information on their websites, in newsletters, and during fundraising events, ensuring donors are aware of the potential to double their impact.

6. Integration with Online Donation Platforms

To make the process seamless, organizations are integrating matching gift tools directly into their online donation platforms. This allows donors to check their eligibility and initiate the matching gift process at the point of donation.

7. Personalized Follow-Up Strategies

Recognizing that donors may need reminders, organizations are implementing personalized follow-up strategies. Automated emails and communications are sent to eligible donors, guiding them through the matching gift submission process.

8. Leveraging Data Analytics

By analyzing donor data, organizations can identify patterns and opportunities for matching gifts. This data-driven approach helps in targeting communications and maximizing the potential of matching gift programs.

By staying informed about these trends and implementing strategies that align with them, nonprofits and higher education institutions can significantly boost their revenue through matching gifts.