Sweeten the Dough: Leveraging Matching Gifts
Spring is slowly tipping into summer (into the 80 degrees in the DC area this week, and my dog is loving it when we work on the back porch), and I’m hoping that if you’ve been following along with our Spring Campaign series you’re just about ready to launch your fundraising effort!
If you’re coming in late, here’s a recap:
Week 1: Set your goals
This week, we’re going to talk about how you can sweeten up your campaign with a matching gift!
Why do matching gifts work?
There are a lot of theories on why matching gifts work. Maybe it’s because people love deals (it’s like a BOGO 💵 sale…but for nonprofits!). Maybe it’s because people feel like their money will go farther. Maybe it’s because there’s a sizeable investment already made, so people feel more confident in giving.
I think it’s probably a mix of all of these reasons. Everyone has their own reason why they like responding to gift matches. But the bottom line is that they work, to the tune of doubling the average gift size of a campaign.
How do gift matches work? Does the donor really only match?
We have all seen campaigns with gift matches. Those giant $50,000 matches that boggle your mind if you’re a smaller nonprofit. (I had a Client who got a $1 million match from a corporate sponsor once! 🤯) You might have seen these gift matches rolled out by other nonprofits, but if you’ve never done a gift match campaign before, they can feel a little confusing. Let’s fix that.
Usually when you set up a gift match you go to one or more donors and ask them to commit to giving a certain amount to a campaign. More often than not, that donor commits a set amount that they will likely give regardless, they just allow you to publicly discuss their gift to motivate other donors to give. Sometimes donors will set up a “challenge match” which means they will truly only donate the same amount that you give (raise $500, they give $500; raise $10,000, they give $10,000). But most commonly when I’ve worked with donors on this, they’ll say “I’ll give $10,000 regardless.”
Now, let’s say you’ve got a campaign goal of $10,000, but you don’t have a single donor in your network that would actually be able to give $10,000…what do you do then? This is a really common problem for smaller and startup nonprofits. Let’s talk about the many ways to pursue gift matches, a few of which can bring the power of gift matches within the reach of smaller nonprofits.
Methods of getting gift matches
Simplest Method: Match from a single, current donor
The easiest way to set up a gift match is to go to a major donor who has already committed funds to your nonprofit and ask if you can leverage their gift to match the campaign.
What does this look like? You’ve got a donor who has already pledged a gift of $10,000 to your organization this year. Maybe they’ve even already paid that pledge. You go back to that donor and ask if you can make their gift to the organization public as a gift match. Then you launch your campaign saying that “We have a gift of $10,000 that will match every donation made to this campaign.”
Why does this work? Okay, so you already were going to get the gift–you haven’t raised more money this way–but the fact that someone already gave $10,000 to your organization gives other donors the confidence that someone has already put up way more money than they have and found it a worthwhile investment. And the major donor that matches feels like they are getting extra impact for the gift they already made, so it’s a terrific stewardship touch point. Win-win!
Next Simplest: Match from a single, new donor
If you’ve been trying to get a new major donor prospect to finally make a gift, inviting them to make a gift that you can leverage as a matching gift can be a great way to make a solicitation that will be extra motivating…because the major donor also feels like their gift is being “matched” in a way. You can also do this as a renewal for a current major donor. But the difference between this and going to someone who is already committed to a gift is that you are asking for new money for the gift match.
What does this look like? You have a donor or prospect that you think will say yes to a solicitation of $10,000. When you do the solicitation, you ask if they would be willing to give $10,000 to match a $10,000 campaign you are about to launch. Usually, I try to stagger the ask. FIRST, I ask for a gift of $10,000. THEN, once they’ve said yes, I ask if we can leverage it as a matching gift. The problem with combining the asks “Will you make a gift of $10,000 that we can leverage as a gift match?” is that you’re upping the odds that the donor will make it a “challenge match” (matching only what you can raise) vs. a $10,000 gift that you’ll get regardless. Now, even if you come up short in your campaign, a challenge match is better than nothing…but it can add pressure and stress to the campaign for staff. Imagine getting a $10,000 commitment from a donor, then only raising $2,000. You’ll end with only $4,000…and it would have been better and easier to just ask that donor for a straight up $10,000 gift.
Why does this work? Once again, you’re setting this up to feel like a doubling of their contribution for both the major donor who gives the matching gift AND the donors that participate in the campaign. It’s a great option for a more hesitant donor who seems interested in giving, but perhaps doubts your nonprofit’s sustainability or revenue diversity. You can let them put you to the test (and in the long run, they are helping you become more sustainable and revenue diverse).
More Complicated: Donor Pool Match
But, Kelly, we don’t have a single donor who would contribute $10,000.
I hear that. No problem! You’re a good candidate for a donor pool match. This is where we do a quiet campaign with our larger donors to create a pool of money that totals $10,000 that can match our $10,000 campaign. I’ve done this with organizations who have a decent number of $500-$1,000 donors. If we can ask five $1,000 donors and ten $500 donors for gifts. Yes, this does mean we have to make 15 asks instead of one…but we still get a match to leverage to get the $10,000 from the bigger campaign.
Why does this work? For all the same reasons the above worked. When a donor knows their gift will be leveraged to get more dollars, they are usually more willing to give. So if you’re a smaller organization that still has some lower-end major donors, this is a great option for you. It introduces your donor community to the concept of gift matches (and, hey, it’s possible someone in your community that you think can only give $500 or $1,000 to you CAN give more when properly motivated), and it still gets you a big number to use in your campaign.
Peer-to-Peer Gift Matching
Okay, so you don’t have a pool of people who can match even at the $500 level? That’s okay too. We’re going to do a bit of peer-to-peer donor gift matching.
There are two ways I’ve seen this done:
Option 1: Leverage current donors to match gifts of their friends that they bring in. You ask your current donors and community to sign up for a peer-to-peer giving campaign. They set up a fundraiser within that campaign. Then they ask their friends and family to give, and they commit to matching whatever their friends give (up to a certain amount, if they desire). So I could set up a page, have two friends donate $50 each, and then I donate $100. So we’re getting our donors to self-organize matching gifts.
Option 2: Donors match gifts given by other donors they don’t know. This takes a bit more coordination, but still makes people feel like they are giving in a way that amplifies their giving. You can set up a fundraising page that publishes giving and allows comments (like GiveButter). Let people know they can either give an initial gift OR they can comment on another gift and commit to matching it. Again, this takes a little more coordination and finesse on the part of the nonprofit, but again, you’re leveraging the appeal of gift matches. So in this case, I give $100, and then someone else comments on my $100 and says “I’m matching this” and gives $100.
Your Homework Assignment
What do you think? Will one of these gift matching options work for your organization? Pick which one you want to try, and then get to work doing the donor outreach to make it happen!
