Matching gifts are some of the most popular forms of corporate giving, and yet organizations continue to miss out on the opportunities time and time again.
From the donor’s perspective, millions of match-eligible individuals lack awareness of the programs, to begin with. And from the nonprofit’s end, they simply lack the time and energy required to inform and remind donors about the programs in place.
The answer? Automation.
In this guide, we’ll share four key ways in which matching gift automation can help organizations like yours raise more. These include the following facts:
- Supporters are more likely to give if they know matches are being offered.
- Donors often contribute more to meet match minimums and increase impact.
- Additional match-eligible donors are driven to completion.
- Automation helps keep overhead costs low.
Automation helps increase knowledge of matching gift programs from start to finish. Ready to find out exactly how automating matching gifts helps organizations raise more? Let’s dive in with our first reason.
1. Supporters are more likely to give if they know matches are being offered.
Did you know that the availability of corporate matching gifts can actually lead to drastic increases in individual donation rates as well? In fact, according to matching gift statistics from Double the Donation, 84% of survey participants say they’re more likely to donate if a match is offered. This statement is further verified by the fact that giving appeals highlighting matching gifts results in a 71% increase in response rate overall compared to those that don’t.
In order to drive these results, we recommend highlighting matching gift opportunities in all of your fundraising channels—such as phone calls, emails, text messages, direct mailings, social media postings, and even the donation pages themselves.
2. Donors often contribute more to meet match minimums and increase impact.
Not only are donors more likely to give when matching gifts are being offered, but they’re more likely to give more. The same fundraising research also reports that 1 in 3 donors indicates they’d give a larger gift if matching is applied to their donation, which ultimately results in a 51% increase in average donation amount when matching gifts are mentioned.
Some of the most common reasons behind these findings have to do with meeting a company’s minimum match amount as well as being inspired to give more to increase both the initial impact and end matching gift. Thus, mentioning matching gifts within the donation process itself (including in your giving forms and during phone appeals) can be one of the best ways to inspire donors to give more to your cause.
3. Additional match-eligible donors are driven to completion.
This is arguably the most obvious—and straightforward—benefit of matching gift programs, which is the matching gift funding itself. When donors complete the matching gift process, they ultimately funnel additional revenue toward your organization.
In fact, $2 to $3 billion is donated to nonprofit causes through matching gift programs each year, though an additional $4 to $7 billion goes unclaimed.
Matching gift automation helps increase awareness of the programs and drive more eligible matches to completion through continuous follow-ups from the donation process on. This might include confirmation emails, separate matching gift messaging afterward, and more. The more touch points you enlist to market matching gifts to your supporters, the more likely they are to complete the process—which ultimately results in a bonus donation going to your team.
4. Automation helps keep overhead costs low.
This tip has less to do with increasing the amount of fundraising revenue collected and more to do with empowering your team to make a greater impact with the funding you do collect.
In other words, automating the matching gift process allows you to identify and raise more through matching gifts (as previously discussed) without driving up the overhead costs.
If you set up automated streams, it’s the same amount of effort required to send a single message as it is to send a thousand. Thus, as you scale up your matching gift efforts with automation, the investment of time and effort per person will continue to fall. That’s more funding that can go directly to making a positive impact on the causes you care about.
When it comes to automating anything, equipping your nonprofit team with the right tools is essential. In terms of matching gift automation, Double the Donation is the industry-leading provider of such technology. Plus, it integrates with ACD Direct, working seamlessly with its call scripts and online fundraising forms for the best results.
Don’t miss out on all this extra revenue that’s left sitting on the table year after year. Instead, begin driving available corporate funding toward your organization with automation strategies!
