Does your company have a corporate matching gifts program? If so, it’s an awesome way to make your donations go even further – but many people don’t know anything about it! This post will walk you through what corporate matching is, how it works, and how to see if your company will match your donations.

What is corporate matched giving?
Many companies will match donations their employees make at a 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, or sometimes even a 4:1 ratio! That means you have the opportunity to radically multiply your donation’s impact – giving even more families the opportunity to earn a house by serving their community! Woohoo!

And wanna know something crazy? A whopping 78% of match-eligible donors don’t even know that their company offers a matching gift program, and only 7% of people who donate at companies with matching gift programs actually submit a matching gift request. Crazy right?!

Data Source: DoubleTheDonation.com

Whoa, so much potential for changing lives, and it’s all right at your fingertips!

Corporations want to donate!?
Yes they do. Deciding to participate in corporate matching is a huge commitment, but in a world of ever-growing social responsibility, corporations care about how the public perceives their company. Employees want to work for companies that do good in the world. And many executives truly care about making a difference in the world, just like us.

To put it in a company’s perspective: What better way to impact the community than to partner with nonprofits that their employees already know and love?

Corporate matching provides an efficient and straightforward way to build relationships with charities. Employees also get an added bonus of feeling great about their employer.

This is cool and all, but how does it work?
Corporate matching varies by company, employee status, and nonprofit receiving funds, but here are some basics.

First, you donate to 1MISSION (thanks for partnering with us!). Then you put in a request to your company’s matching gift program. Your company checks with us to be sure you donated, and then they double or maybe even triple your contribution. How easy is that!

Sometimes there are minimum and maximum amounts that companies will match, ranging from $25 to $1,000, give or take. There are also sometimes donation submission deadlines, like submitting by the end of the calendar year or submitting within a set number of months after the date of donation.

Bottom line: If your company matches gifts, you’re already changing more lives when you submit a match request to your company!

So what do I do next?
The first step is to ask your employer if they have a matched giving program. If so, great! Simply follow the process they give you. Your impact will be multiplied, and you’ll radically change lives.

And if your company doesn’t have a matched giving program, that’s OK too! Maybe your employer has other ways of giving back – for instance, by encouraging you to volunteer in your community during work time. Or maybe you can be the catalyst who gets this program off the ground where you work!

Either way, thanks for all you do to support 1MISSION. Let’s build community together.