Employee matching gifts are simply that: corporate donations triggered by a gift made by an employee. This practice originated in the 1950s, when the chair of the General Electric Board of Directors persuaded his company to match employee gifts in order to stimulate their giving to colleges and universities. Since that time, many companies have adopted the idea and have expanded it to include other causes, although the bulk of the money still goes to education. Statistics from a recent survey done by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), a nonprofit organization that promotes employee matching gifts, show that 51% of the companies surveyed made gifts to at least one noneducational organization, 30% matched environmental/conservation groups and 23% matched gifts to all nonprofit organizations.

A few more interesting statistics from CASE include:

• 33% of employee matching givers will match contributions from retirees
• 14% will match contributions from spouses of eligible employees
• 12% match employee gifts at a ratio of 2/1 or even 3/1
• Most matching gifts are unrestricted or are for the same use as the employee's gift
• In addition to cash employee gifts, some companies will also match gifts of securities (51%) and volunteer time (6%)

Among the companies surveyed by CASE, the industries having the most matching gift programs were manufacturing, finance, insurance, services, and public utilities.

How to Use Matching Gifts

Employee matching gifts are a good source of steady, predictable income which can usually be used for general operating support. However, in order to generate a significant amount of income from matching gifts, you must have a sizable base of individual members, since only a very small percentage of your members will actually participate. To reap the benefits, members must be consistently educated about the benefits of matching gifts and must be encouraged to take the initiative in obtaining these gifts. This strategy is especially appropriate for your major donors, since many corporations will match four- and even five-figure gifts.

How Does the Matching Gift Process Work?

Company employees initiate matching gifts. The usual steps include:

1. The employee gets a matching gift form from his/her employer (often the human resources department) and fills it out in full.
2. The employee sends the form to the nonprofit organization along with his/her contribution.
3. The nonprofit receiving the gift completes the form and mails it back to the company in question.
4. The company sends the nonprofit the matching gift.

If a company does not have a matching gift program, an inquiry from an employee can sometimes help motivate management to set one up.

How to Encourage Matching Gifts at Your Nonprofit

To encourage matching gifts, all you have to do is put regular announcements in your publications and on your web site urging your members to ask the companies where they work how to participate in the company matching gift program (see sample announcement at the end of this chapter). Each company is slightly different, so it is important for employees to read the guidelines carefully, but most companies follow the format described above. Someone on your staff will need to take responsibility for publicizing the opportunity in your publications and on your web site and handling the requisite paperwork with the companies in question. It is also important to mention the employee matching gift opportunity in any literature created especially for your major donors.

If you have an eager volunteer or board member, you can do more. You can research, or even survey the larger companies in your watershed, community or state to find out which ones make matching gifts to environmental groups. Then, you can publish this list periodically in your newsletter, again with an announcement urging any member who works at one of the listed companies to inquire about how to generate such a gift. You can also add this information to your web page so that interested members can see at a glance whether their employer is listed.

Along with these two actions, you should also begin accumulating information on your members' employers on your database. Create a field for this information and fill it in whenever you can. The information can be gathered from member surveys, personal conversations, newspaper articles, or third party reports. Eventually, once you have accumulated a substantial amount of employer data, you may want to generate personal letters to those members who are eligible for matching gifts, urging them to apply.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in Washington, D.C., (202) 328-2273, has a program to promote employee matching gifts with corporations, and also provides nonprofit charitable organizations with information on how to motivate prospects. They have compiled lists of corporate matchers which you can purchase for a fee.

Another way to accumulate this information is by looking at the publications of very large environmental organizations like The Nature Conservancy, or the National Parks and Conservation Association. The Nature Conservancy publishes a list of over 400 companies which match members' gifts in their annual report.

Other Benefits

Finding out where your members work can have other benefits. Companies that make matching gifts are likely to have programs that encourage employees to volunteer and may also make in-kind or cash gifts to organizations recommended by an employee. Often, companies allow employees to take a day off with pay to join in a group volunteer project.

Acknowledging Matching Gifts

Since it is the employee who is really responsible for generating a matching gift, it is appropriate to send the member/employee a note, thanking them for generating the donation, and this letter can be easily copied to the business in question as an acknowledgement of the corporation's match. It is also a good idea to list companies making matching gifts separately in your annual report, since this automatically creates a list of employee matchers for your members to look at.

If you have a large base of members (several thousand), or a significant number of major donors, encouraging them to make employee matching gifts is easy to do, and could generate significant new resources for your organization.