Double your fundraising revenue with matching gifts! Learn how your team can integrate matching gifts into your campaigns with the tips and tricks here.
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• Streamline the process: Make it incredibly easy for donors to find out if their gift can be matched by integrating matching gift tools directly into your donation forms and automated follow-up emails. This direct approach can significantly boost donor participation in corporate matching programs.
• Empower your team and target wisely: Ensure your internal team fully understands matching gifts, then use donor data to identify eligible donors for personalized outreach. Knowing who to target makes your fundraising campaigns much more effective.
• Consistent messaging is key: Weave matching gift opportunities into all your fundraising campaigns, from year-end appeals to event materials, so donors consistently see the chance to amplify their generosity. Repetition helps this powerful message stick and increases overall engagement.
• Elevate donor stewardship: Don’t forget to specially acknowledge and thank donors who complete a match, keeping them informed about the multiplied impact of their gift. This deepens their connection and shows you value their extra effort.
• Leverage partners and real stories: Mobilize your corporate partners to promote matching gift programs internally to their employees and share compelling success stories about matched gifts. Real-world examples inspire others to take action and boost overall giving.
• Track and optimize for growth: Continuously monitor key metrics like match initiation and completion rates to understand what’s working and where you can refine your strategy. This data-driven approach ensures your efforts effectively grow your fundraising revenue over time.
For nonprofits and institutions looking to raise funds, every dollar counts. So what if you could double or even triple your donations without asking your supporters to give more? That’s the power of matching gifts. Despite the enormous potential of corporate matching gift programs, billions of dollars in eligible donations go unclaimed each year. Why? Donors either don’t know their gifts can be matched or don’t know how to complete the process.
Integrating matching gifts into your fundraising campaigns is one of the most effective ways to increase revenue, deepen donor engagement, and amplify impact. But it doesn’t happen by accident—it requires strategy, timing, and the right tools.
Below, we’re sharing 10 actionable tips to help your team fully leverage matching gifts in your fundraising efforts. Let’s begin!
Before you can promote matching gifts to donors, it’s essential that your internal team understands how they work. From development staff to communications professionals, everyone should be familiar with the basics of corporate matching gift programs.
Therefore, it’s a good idea to hold a short training session or workshop to explain:
When your team is well-versed in all things matching, they can confidently communicate the opportunity to donors and answer questions effectively as they arise.
Many organizations send out generalized appeals without knowing which donors work for matching gift companies. That’s a missed opportunity. Using tools like matching gift software or employer appends, you can identify where your donors work and flag those who are likely eligible for a match.
Once identified, tailor your messaging for each individual. For example, after a donation is made, you can send a targeted follow-up like: "Thanks for your gift! Did you know your employer, XYZ Corporation, may match your donation? Here’s how you can double your impact in just a few clicks."
Personalized messaging increases the likelihood that donors will follow through, and makes it even easier for them to do so.
The fewer steps a donor has to take, the better. By embedding matching gift tools directly into your donation form, you make it easy for donors to check their eligibility and start the matching process instantly.
Software like Double the Donation (which integrates seamlessly with your Almabase fundraising tools) allows donors to search for their employer as they’re making a gift. It even provides forms, guidelines, and contact information in real time, streamlining the process dramatically.
This simple integration has been shown to significantly increase match completion rates and grow fundraising revenue with ease.
Even if a donor skips the matching gift process during checkout, you can still guide them afterward. Automated email follow-ups are a highly effective way to remind donors about their match eligibility.
Consider setting up a series of emails timed to go out after a gift is made. Here’s an example sequence:
In each message, make sure the language is friendly, encouraging, and focused on impact. Include clickable buttons or links to company lookup tools to remove friction and drive supporters through the process.
Your organization’s website is an essential resource. Hosting a dedicated landing page for matching gifts can serve as a central hub for all your related outreach efforts.
For the best results, this page should:
From there, you’ll want to link to this page from your main website navigation, donation forms, confirmation/thank-you pages, email footers, and social media posts. In other words, make it easy for donors to find and refer back to when they’re ready to learn more or initiate a match.
Matching gifts shouldn’t be an afterthought—they should be baked into the DNA of your campaigns.
Whether you’re running a year-end appeal, Giving Tuesday initiative, peer-to-peer fundraiser, or capital campaign, consistently highlighting matching opportunities goes a long way. Phrases like:
…can prompt curiosity and inspire action.
Add matching gift language and tools to appeal letters, emails, event materials, digital ads, and more. Repetition helps donors absorb the message, making them more likely to participate when the time comes.
Acknowledging and stewarding donors doesn’t end after the first thank-you. In fact, you can build stronger relationships by keeping them informed about the matching gift process.
If a donor completes a match request, send a separate thank-you noting their extra effort and impact. If their match is received, send a special acknowledgment with updated gift totals and a story about what that additional funding made possible.
You can even tag matched donors in your CRM and invite them into higher-touch stewardship journeys or giving circles, reinforcing their sense of value and connection to your cause.
If your nonprofit or institution has corporate sponsors or partners, work with them to educate their employees about matching gifts. Many employees aren’t even aware that their companies offer these programs, and a simple nudge from HR or internal communications can spark significant action.
For example, consider asking your corporate partners to:
This not only drives more matching donations but also deepens your relationship with the company—a win-win on all fronts.
People are inspired by stories. When you share a real story about a donation that was matched—and the tangible impact it created—it makes the concept of matching gifts come alive.
Here’s an example: "When Rachel donated $100 to support local tutoring programs, her employer matched it, bringing her impact to $200. That covered an entire month of tutoring for one child."
Include stories like these in newsletters, appeal emails, social posts, and annual reports. It helps donors visualize the extra power they have, simply by checking a box and requesting a match from their employer.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Therefore, try tracking key metrics related to matching gifts, such as:
From there, you can use this data to find gaps and opportunities. Are donors dropping off after the first email? Are small-dollar donors getting their gifts matched more often than major givers? Are some campaigns more successful than others?
By analyzing trends and experimenting with language, timing, and placement, you can continually refine your strategy for better results overall.
Matching gifts are one of the most underutilized fundraising tools available to both institutions and nonprofits. With a thoughtful approach and a few strategic integrations, you can unlock a hidden revenue stream that requires no extra money from your donors—just a little extra effort.
By educating your team, leveraging technology, telling powerful stories, and weaving matching gift opportunities throughout your campaigns, you’ll increase participation, raise more money, and deepen donor engagement.
Don’t let matching gifts be an afterthought. Make them an integral part of your strategy—and watch your impact grow.
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With the fundraising landscape more competitive than ever, universities today are looking for new and innovative ways to engage donors, increase participation, and maximize revenue. Two strategies that have gained significant traction in recent years are crowdfunding and matching gifts. Individually, each has the potential to enhance donor engagement and raise critical funds. But together? They can create a powerful multiplier effect that brings your efforts to new heights.
In this post, we’ll break down what these strategies are, how they work together, and what universities need to know to make the most of both.
In this blog, we’ll cover:
Whether you're part of a development office, a faculty member leading a campaign, or a student organization hoping to raise support, understanding how to combine crowdfunding with employer matching gifts is essential. Read on to find out how you can do so!
Unlike traditional fundraising campaigns that rely heavily on major gifts, crowdfunding leverages the collective power of many small-dollar donations—typically from students, alumni, parents, faculty, and friends—to reach a targeted goal. It’s fast-paced, digital-first, and deeply community-driven.
Crowdfunding in a university context generally involves launching time-bound, project-specific fundraising campaigns through online platforms. These campaigns are usually promoted via email, social media, and peer-to-peer outreach, encouraging supporters to give and share within their networks.
Universities use crowdfunding to support a wide variety of initiatives, including:
These campaigns tend to be more successful when they are tied to compelling stories, clear outcomes, and enthusiastic champions, such as student leaders or faculty. All in all, crowdfunding offers several unique advantages for universities:
Corporate matching gifts are one of the most underutilized opportunities in university fundraising, despite their incredible potential to multiply donor impact. When donors give to your institution, many of their employers are willing to match that donation dollar-for-dollar, doubling or sometimes even tripling the original gift. Thousands of companies—ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations—offer these programs as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts.
In other words, a matching gift is a charitable donation made by a company to match an employee’s contribution to a nonprofit or educational institution. For example, if an alum donates $100 to your university, their employer may contribute an additional $100, effectively doubling the gift at no extra cost to the original donor.
For colleges and universities, matching gifts represent a low-effort, high-reward revenue stream. Here’s why:
Despite the benefits, many institutions fail to maximize matching gift potential. As a result, billions of dollars in matching gifts go unclaimed every year, largely due to a lack of awareness and promotion.
By understanding the mechanics and benefits of corporate matching gifts, universities can take meaningful steps to close the gap and unlock a powerful source of untapped funding.
💡Bonus resource: Read How Higher Ed Leaders Leverage Matching Gifts for Success to gain insights from real university fundraising teams!
On their own, crowdfunding and matching gifts are powerful fundraising tools. When combined strategically, they create a multiplier effect that can significantly boost the results of university campaigns while also enhancing donor engagement and satisfaction.
Here’s what you need to know: Crowdfunding campaigns are built around community engagement and momentum. When donors see their gifts being matched, they’re more likely to give and give more. Matching gifts…
This synergy makes matching gifts a natural complement to crowdfunding efforts. Combining these two strategies is a simple but effective way for universities to raise more money, deepen donor relationships, and make every gift go further.
Successfully integrating crowdfunding and matching gifts into your university’s fundraising requires thoughtful planning, the right tools, and clear communication. Here are some best practices to ensure both elements work seamlessly together and drive maximum results.
One of the biggest obstacles to maximizing matching gifts is simply a lack of awareness—both among donors and university staff. Many alumni, parents, and even employees don’t realize that their employers offer gift-matching programs—or those who do are unsure how to take advantage of them.
For this reason, we recommend:
By educating donors early and often, you’ll not only increase participation but also foster deeper donor engagement. It’s a win-win!
When your crowdfunding platform and matching gift tools work together, the donor experience improves dramatically. For this reason, we recommend selecting a crowdfunding platform that supports seamless matching gift integration. Look for compatibility with tools like Double the Donation and Almabase!
From there, you should be able to embed an employer lookup tool directly into your online crowdfunding forms so donors can easily determine their eligibility as they give. Not to mention, the system should automate post-donation follow-ups with personalized instructions and next steps for the individual’s employer.
The bottom line is this: When your tools communicate effectively, you reduce manual work, increase efficiency, and provide a better donor journey overall.
To build momentum and improve future campaigns,it’s essential to monitor your results and share wins not only in terms of crowdfunding but also matching gift success. Tracking not only helps you evaluate performance but also provides compelling proof points that encourage future participation from donors and corporate partners alike.
Recognition and transparency go a long way in building community, trust, gratitude, and ongoing support. Plus, showcasing results helps reinforce the value of matching gifts for donors.
When implemented strategically, crowdfunding and matching gifts can significantly expand a university’s fundraising potential. Crowdfunding opens doors to broader audiences and grassroots participation while matching gifts offer a unique opportunity to amplify impact at no extra cost to the donor.
By integrating these approaches, educating donors, and leveraging the right technology, universities can unlock new streams of support and make every dollar go further. Now is the time to evaluate your current fundraising strategy and consider how these two powerful tools can work in tandem to elevate your efforts. Good luck!
Crowdfunding & Matching Gifts: What Universities Should Know
Looking to bring your university’s fundraising strategy to new heights? Find out how crowdfunding and matching gifts can help uncover support in this guide!
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Matching gift challenges have always been a great way to motivate donors and boost participation—but keeping up with them? That’s another story. Manually tracking donations, updating totals, and making sure your campaign stays engaging can take up valuable time that could be spent building relationships with donors.
That’s why we built Almabase’s new Matching Gifts and Challenges—so you can run dynamic, high-impact fundraising challenges without the operational headaches. Here’s what makes it a game-changer:
What motivates your donors the most? Is it the thrill of a dollar-for-dollar match or a nostalgic nod to a class year? Or is it perhaps a time-sensitive goal that builds urgency?
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With the new matching gifts challenges, the admin can design and set custom participation, tiered donation, and time unlocks additional funds when a specific donor count is reached. This flexibility will allow you to create challenges unique to your mission and resonate with your donors.
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No more scrambling to update donors or manually tracking challenge progress. Every gift is instantly recorded, and challenges auto-update, giving your team a clear picture of campaign performance by automatically updating the matching gift thermometer. With less time spent on admin work, you can focus on what truly matters—building relationships, crafting compelling donor messaging, and driving long-term fundraising success.
Your giving page isn’t just a place to donate—it’s a dynamic hub for your fundraising priorities. With customizable layouts, you can categorize and highlight your most important campaigns, ensuring donors see what matters most. Whether it's donor participation challenges or time-sensitive giving day matchups, multiple campaign hubs help you tell a clearer story and drive more impact—while a frictionless donation process ensures more completed gifts and fewer drop-offs.
Gamifying your campaigns does more than raise funds—it builds community. Challenges like matching gifts or participation goals create shared milestones, helping donors feel part of something bigger. With Almabase's matching gifts challenges, you're not just creating campaigns—you're creating moments that bring your community together, inspire generosity, and leave a lasting impact.
2X fundraising impact with auto-updating matching challenges
Drive better fundraising outcomes with new auto-matching gifts and challenges! Automatically update matching gift thermometers, create dynamic fundraising challenges, and streamline your campaign management—no manual tracking needed.
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Is your university making the most of matching gift fundraising opportunities? Unfortunately, the answer is probably not. The truth is that matching gifts are a significantly underutilized form of funding for all sorts of schools, universities, and institutions. That means that to maximize your school’s revenue, the way you view and promote matching gifts to donors could likely use a revamp.
Matching gifts have the potential to fuel any organization’s fundraising efforts and help you secure the most revenue possible. Ready to drastically improve your matching gift marketing strategies and bring in more corporate dollars? Check out these five best practices if you’re looking to up your matching gift marketing strategies to encourage corporate giving participation among your university donors.
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Many alumni enjoy supporting the schools that helped pave the way for their success. Effective fundraising campaigns can be an excellent means for engaging these former students long after they leave your campus. And taking things a step further is matching gifts.
According to statistics from Double the Donation, more than 18 million individuals are employed by companies with matching gift programs. More than likely, a good amount of your school’s alumni are among those people.
However, the vast majority of match-eligible donors are unaware of the programs offered by their employers — which often puts it on the organization to market these opportunities effectively. If you’re looking to promote matching gifts, consider the following powerful marketing and outreach avenues to use:
While it’s certainly a good idea to inform all sorts of people about the wide availability of matching gifts, taking an alumni-centered approach can be a great way to focus on these types of generous supporters and target your efforts accordingly.
Many donors use your university’s website to learn more about how to get involved and where to give as well as additional opportunities for support. As such, it’s important that you provide ample information about matching gifts on your site.
We suggest crafting a dedicated matching gifts web page with the following tips in mind:
Then, direct supporters to this informative resource by linking to it in your matching gift emails, school-wide newsletters, social media posts, and other fundraising materials.
Whether you’re looking to plan for a dedicated giving day or other fundraising occasion or simply optimize your long-term strategy, corporate matching gifts are a great way to go. When you integrate matching gift fundraising into your existing donation process, it allows donors to determine their own eligibility for a matching gift without ever having to leave your donation page.
Here’s how it typically works:
1. A donor fills out your school’s online donation form.
2. The donor is provided with a simple company search widget embedded in the page.
3. The donor fills in their employer’s name and submits the donation.
4. The donor is provided with guidelines for their employer’s matching gift program on the confirmation screen.
Supporters are usually at the peak of their engagement while completing your online donation form, so it makes sense that you’d want to incorporate matching gifts at this time. Plus, research shows that 1 in 3 donors report that they’d likely make a larger gift if they know it will be matched by their employer, which makes it an impactful strategy for increasing donation sizes as well.
When it comes to matching gift fundraising for universities, one of the best things you can do to set your team up for success is to keep a detailed record of companies with especially generous matching gift programs. Then, you can compare this information against the companies that your alumni are working for to get a better idea of your existing match-eligible prospects.
After all, a significant part of effectively leveraging matching gifts depends on having and using the right data to drive your fundraising strategies. For matching gifts, donor employers are the most important metric there is.
Following up with supporters after they’ve made their gifts is one of the best ways to take your donor relations to the next level and maximize the number of donors who request corporate matches. We recommend segmenting donors by their likely eligibility for a match (based on information collected during the donation process) to ensure your messaging is as tailored and relevant as possible. Consider these examples:
Luckily, if you’d like to streamline this process and save time and resources for your school, you can automate the follow-up process from beginning to end. All you have to do is invest in a matching gift automation tool, and the software will do the rest!
Failing to promote matching gifts to supporters is essentially throwing away free donations. When you take a strategic approach to marketing, however, you allow your generous donors to make an even larger impact on your school, establish corporate partnerships with businesses in your network, and secure additional revenue for your university’s needs.
Just remember to inform alumni and other supporters of these exceptional giving opportunities, promote matching gifts through your school website and donation page and follow up with donors to drive match requests to make the best of your fundraising efforts.
Matching Gift Marketing for Universities: 5 Best Practices
Are you securing corporate matching gifts for charitable donations made to your university? Get started or up your efforts with these effective practices.
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October 29, 2021
12 minutes
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