Corporate Matching Gifts

THE KEY TO UNLOCKING EXTRA REVENUE THROUGH EMPLOYEE GIVING PROGRAMS

Employee giving programs, or corporate matching gifts offer an exciting opportunity to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Each donation could be doubled, tripled, or more, and every hour volunteered could come with a monetary contribution as well. In this article, we’re going to explore two of the most popular forms of corporate philanthropy:

Employee matching gifts: Donations offered by companies to nonprofits that their employees have already supported.

Volunteer grants: Monetary contributions made by a company to a nonprofit that their employees have volunteered for.

Let’s dive in

What are corporate matching gifts and employee volunteer grant programs?

Corporate matching gift programs, such as those found in Charity Navigator, are charitable giving programs created by corporations in which the company matches donations made by employees to nonprofit organizations or educational institutions. Donors can double their impact by utilizing the matching gift programs that are in place at thousands of companies.

Employee giving programs have been around since 1954, when the GE Foundation created the Corporate Alumni Program, the first corporate matching gift program. Today, the GE Foundation matches over $35 million annually to 501(c)(3) organizations and accredited educational institutions (including K-12). Since then, thousands of companies have created similar employee-giving programs.

The most common match ratio is 1:1, meaning that the company will donate the exact same amount as the employee did. Each company will set a dollar amount that they will contribute in Sample Article: Employee Giving Programs 10 matching gifts per employee each year. Employees can then make as many matching gift requests as they like until they hit that maximum dollar amount.

Volunteer Grant Programs

Volunteer grant programs, also known as “Dollars for Doers” programs, are charitable giving programs setup by companies to provide a monetary donation to eligible nonprofits where their employees volunteer as a way to encourage community engagement.

If you volunteer for a nonprofit organization like ours and work for a company with a volunteer grant program, you can request a volunteer grant from your employer to increase your impact on our organization. These volunteer grants can be set amounts ($750 for 50 hours volunteered) or hourly amounts ($10 per hour volunteered).

Last year we received four matching gifts and volunteer grants, which helped us raise an additional $5,000. This year we set a goal of raising $10, from these programs. If we meet our goal, we’ll be able to better [insert organization’s mission and how the organization would use the additional funding]. You can help us reach these goals by searching for your own match-eligibility. Immediately gain access to detailed information about your employer’s corporate giving programs and assess your eligibility by searching our database of companies that offer employee matching by clicking HERE.

We’ll provide you with as much of the following as possible:

• Up-to-date, company-specific program guidelines
• Minimum volunteer hours required to qualify for a matching donation
• Links to the online matching gift request forms or downloadable PDFs offered by your employer
• Our contact information (Tax ID, address, fundraising contact), which you may need for your matching gift request

How prevalent are corporate giving programs?

Corporate giving programs have gotten more popular with time. More than 65% of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift or volunteer grant programs, and countless smaller companies have followed suit. Some companies have gotten creative with their corporate giving, offering higher matches to organizations in a specific sector (educational, cultural, environmental, etc.) or even matching funds raised by employees in peer-to-peer campaigns.

A few examples of these programs include:

• Verizon provides $750 grants for 50 volunteer hours and matches up to $5,000 annually
• IBM provides $1,000 grants to nonprofits where an employee has volunteered for 40 hours. They also match up to $5,000 annually for current employees or retirees.
• BP, in addition to similarly generous matching gift and volunteer grant programs, matches funds raised for nonprofit walks, runs, etc. and offers every employee an annual $300 grant to donate to any nonprofit organization, no initial donation or volunteering required!

Thousands of companies, representing more than 18 million people, offer matching gift or volunteer grant programs. We hope you’ll take a few extra minutes to see if your company offers employee giving grants that could equal hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars for the nonprofit organizations and educational institutions you care about.