Corporate Matching Gifts – The Original Challenge Match

Corporate matching programs have the same potential to increase total giving as home grown challenge match programs.  Annual giving programs have been using challenge matches to increase participation rates and total dollars for decades, yet many fail to invest in growing their corporate matching gift results.

The potential for increasing matching gifts is especially prevalent in phonathon work.  Do you know what percentage of your 2014 phonathon dollars were matched with corporate funds?

A recent study of phonathons managed by RuffaloCODY showed that about 10% of all pledged dollars were eligible for a match in fiscal year 2013.  Programs that are below that average have an opportunity to capitalize on “free money” next year simply by making matching gifts a priority at the phonathon.

A review of over 935,000 phonathon pledges recorded at RuffaloCODY managed phonathons in 2013 provided additional insight into the value of corporate matching gift dollars.

• 7% of the pledges qualified for a corporate match
• The total average pledge value for pledges that qualified for a corporate match was $139.73, compared to $95.61 for pledges that did not qualify for a corporate match

Organizing a challenge match with major gift dollars can be complicated.  If you are looking to avoid the hassle, remember that the ultimate challenge match program is already in place.  Corporate matching gifts are there for the taking.

Please feel free to watch my recent webinar on “Using Phonathon to Positively Influence Matching Gift Programs” if you are looking to jumpstart your corporate matching gift results where I share best practices and recommendations on how you can enhance your phonathon’s training, scripting, and follow-up materials.