Double the Impact: Best Data to Collect for Matching Gifts
Corporate matching gifts are a significantly underutilized source of fundraising revenue in which businesses match donations made by their employees to eligible nonprofit organizations.
While it’s possible to collect matching gift dollars without a well-thought-out strategy in place, making the most of this funding approach will require the right tools and tactics. If you’re looking to solve common problems that arise concerning matching gift efforts, we suggest taking a strategic look at your organization’s data>—especially that which concerns corporate giving.
Here, we’ll discuss these four data points, how to collect them, and the impact they have on your nonprofit’s matching gift revenue:
- Percentage of eligible matches completed
- Companies providing the most dollars
- Total corporate matching gift revenue
- Average matching gift size
Leveraging corporate matching gifts is an excellent way to double donations made to your nonprofit. Ready to find out how to continuously increase your efforts by tracking the right data points? Let’s get started.
Percentage of eligible matches completed
This first metric is one of the most critical to collect and leverage if you’re looking to build a data-driven corporate fundraising strategy. This essentially shows how much of your potential matching gift revenue is actually being secured for your cause—and can provide a brief overview of your current efforts.
How to Calculate This Metric
To calculate the percentage of your nonprofit’s match-eligible donations that actually receive a match, you’ll first need to determine which of your gifts are likely eligible in the first place. This step can be significantly streamlined by leveraging matching gift software equipped with a comprehensive database of thousands of companies’ giving program guidelines.
Then, you’ll need to determine which of the gifts you receive fall into the donor’s employer’s specific requirements. Finally, you can compare the number of donations that did receive a corporate match to the total number of eligible gifts—and that’s your percentage completed!
Why This Data Point Matters
According to Double the Donation’s matching gift statistics, only 1.31% of gifts are matched at the average nonprofit, despite more than 10% is typically eligible for these types of corporate matches. Calculating your organization’s corporate match dollars secured compared to those potentially available is a great way to visualize the extent of your efforts and see how you compare to the average nonprofit.
Companies providing the most dollars
Being knowledgeable about top matching gift companies is critical for informing your organization’s strategy going forward. As you look to improve your matching gift fundraising, be sure to take a look at the companies that are providing your organization with the most matching gift dollars on a regular basis.
A key best practice is to select a donor management software solution that provides full integration with a matching gift platform that streamlines matching gift search directly within their fundraising applications. By streamlining this, donors visiting a donation webpage have the opportunity to immediately take advantage of the matching gift programs for which they're eligible, helping nonprofit organizations maximize their fundraising opportunities.
How to Calculate This Metric
When it comes to matching gifts, the most important piece of donor information you need is their employer.
To determine which companies are providing your organization with the most matching gift dollars, make sure to record and track matching gifts, and the companies they come from, over time. Then, compare totals by the employer to see which businesses are supplying the most revenue through these corporate giving programs.
Why This Data Point Matters
When you take a look at the most generous and philanthropically minded companies in your nonprofit’s network, you can uncover potential for new and strengthened corporate partnerships. These charitable businesses can be some of your greatest prospects for ongoing corporate relations!
Keep in mind that the companies you receive the most matching gift revenue from will likely be those that employ a significant number of your donors as well as those with extraordinarily generous donation maximums and match ratios.
Total corporate matching gift revenue
Your organization’s total corporate matching gift revenue is a powerful metric for understanding the impact of these types of employer-giving programs. Plus, this data can be extremely beneficial to track and compare growth over time as you increase your matching gift efforts.
How to Calculate This Metric
This is one of the easiest yet most critical matching gift metrics to collect and leverage for your fundraising. To calculate, simply add up the total corporate donations made through employer-matching gift programs over a certain time period.
Why This Data Point Matters
The whole point of collecting matching gifts is to secure much-needed funding for your organization’s mission and vision. Being able to communicate that impact in dollars is a fantastic way to demonstrate its value to donors, corporations, and other key stakeholders.
You can even go as far as translating matching gift dollars into tangible mission benefits. If your team has collected $1 million in matching gift revenue over the past year, you can put that in terms of X number of families provided with resources or Y animals saved in your local shelter.
Average matching gift size
Most companies will match employee donations that are anywhere from $25 to $10,000. To increase overall corporate funding, it’s a good idea to take a look at the way your matching gift revenue is broken down by gift size.
How to Calculate This Metric
To calculate your nonprofit’s average matching gift size, you can start with the sum of all corporate matching gift revenue as determined in the previous step. Then, simply divide this total matching gift revenue amount by the number of gifts that were matched during that same time period.
Why This Data Point Matters
This type of data can help you see where there are gaps in your matching gift strategy. For example, you may see that many mid-level and major gifts are being matched, while the majority of smaller-level donations seem to be slipping through the cracks.
To combat this concern, you might employ a matching gift automation tool to reach out to all eligible donors and drive more matches to completion—even without requiring a ton of time and effort from your staff.
All in all, having the right data (and equipping your team with the right data collection tools) can go a long way toward maximizing the revenue you collect through this powerful fundraising strategy.
When you determine the current standing of your nonprofit’s matching gift fundraising approach, you’ll see where you’re excelling and in which areas you have room for improvement. In the end, you’ll be able to make twice the impact on your organization’s mission, which is what really matters. Good luck!
