TL,DR:
- While corporate giving is up, $4-$7 billion in matching gift revenue goes unclaimed annually, primarily due to low awareness among donors.
- Framing matching gifts as a helpful suggestion empowers donors to easily maximize their impact.
- Nonprofits can capture more by collecting employer data, prompting matches at every touchpoint, and acting on donor signals.
Nonprofits leave $4-$7 billion on the table each year in underutilized corporate matching gifts. [1] Why? Two things drive this gap:
- Donors don’t know matching is an option.
- Nonprofits lack the systems to change that.
But the programs continue to grow, with more and more companies offering to double or even triple their employees’ donations to causes like yours. In this post, we’ll explore what a corporate matching gift is, the best ways to maximize these gifts, and the top 3 tips for building a corporate matching gift strategy that will turn matching gifts into a reliable revenue stream.
The Current State of the Corporate Giving Landscape
While the days of corporate philanthropy being defined by giant, once-a-year checks are fading, overall giving by companies is up significantly (9.1%) year over year. [2]
Here’s what we’re seeing define the corporate giving market today:
- A Shift to Workforce-Driven Giving: Corporate philanthropy has been largely decentralized and heavily tied to everyday employee engagement and CSR.
- Rapid Program Expansion: Companies are aggressively expanding (and lowering barriers for) their workplace giving initiatives. This means reducing minimum gift thresholds, raising maximum match caps, and extending eligibility.
- Multiple Ways to Participate: More and more businesses are offering multiple workplace giving initiatives so staff can get involved in the ways that best suit them. These include matching gifts, volunteer grants, and payroll giving!
- Increasingly Proactive Marketing: Low awareness results in unclaimed corporate support, so more organizations are taking proactive steps to market these opportunities to supporters. According to the 2026 Nonprofit Corporate Engagement report, 37% of organizations are currently “in the process of building a formal strategy for workplace fundraising and volunteering” [3].
The Bottom Line: The money is there. The corporate infrastructure is already in place. For nonprofits, this shifting landscape presents a massive opportunity to diversify revenue and increase support. But if your approach to matching gifts hasn’t changed in the last few years, you’re likely leaving critical funding untapped.
What Are Corporate Matching Gifts?
Corporate matching gifts are a form of philanthropy in which a company matches employees’ donations to a nonprofit or school. These gifts represent mutually beneficial partnerships between companies, their staff, and the charitable organizations that receive their combined support.
For nonprofits benefitting from matching gifts, the value is multifaceted. Not only do organizations gain access to a portion of companies’ CSR budgets, but they also tend to unlock additional generosity from their core networks. In fact, research from Double the Donation indicates that donors are more likely to contribute when a matching gift program is in place [4]. Not only that, but an estimated 1 in 3 donors is more inclined to make a larger gift when a match is on the table.
While these programs are incredible, it’s essential that fundraising organizations empower their supporters to take advantage of them in order to truly scale their impact.
How to Take Advantage of Corporate Matching Gifts
The best way to start taking advantage of corporate matching gifts is by raising donor awareness. Once donors are knowledgeable about these programs, they are likely to take advantage of the matching gift year after year.
Luckily, there is some helpful technology that can automate this. For example, donors can search Double the Donation’s database of nearly 25,000 companies to see whether their company is listed and, if so, access their specific guidelines and submission links.
Beyond any specific technology solution, at the most basic level, you need to know where your donors work. To capture this information, add a field to your online giving forms for “Employer” or “Company.” Then, use that information and follow up with personalized communications containing relevant details about their company’s matching gift program.
For more generic communications, direct your audience to a dedicated matching gifts page on your website or suggest that donors contact their HR teams to learn about applicable match policies. You’ll also want to include information that may be needed to complete a match request, such as your EIN, legal entity name, mailing address, or P.O. Box.
Top 3 Tips for Building a Responsive Corporate Matching Gift Strategy
Modern fundraising is about responsive fundraising, or putting the donor at the center of your strategy. When done well, this involves listening to their needs, connecting personally, suggesting the right next step at the exact right time, and learning from the data and improving.
When you treat matching gifts not as a corporate bureaucratic process, but as a conversational suggestion that empowers the donor to take action, you unlock incredible generosity. After all, a matching gift suggestion doesn’t ask a donor to dig deeper into their own pockets after giving. Rather, it invites them to maximize their impact using their employer to drive support. It’s the ultimate win-win.
To help you close the multi-billion-dollar matching gap, here are some practical tips for building a responsive matching gift framework.
1. Embed the Suggestion Directly Into the Donation Experience
The most efficient way to help your donors match their gifts is to integrate tools like Double the Donation right into your online giving form. This prompts the individual to do their research while they are already making the donation, at the point when their engagement is highest.
Right as they wrap up their transaction, prompt them with the exact matching guidelines and next steps for their specific employer.
Want a giving form that makes moments like this effortless? Virtuous Raise lets you build customizable donation experiences that meet donors where they are, without the technical headaches.
2. Weave Suggestions Into Your Automated Thank-You Cadence
A responsive thank-you should be the continuation of a conversation. Because your CRM is now tracking employer data, tailor your gratitude streams to suggest matching gifts across multiple channels.
For example, a quick post-donation email or text message allows you to keep the focus primarily on communicating your thanks while featuring a direct link to your matching gift page to learn more. Meanwhile, if a staff member or volunteer is making thank-you calls, equip them with the donor’s employer info beforehand. They can say: “We noticed you work at X Company. Did you know they match gifts like yours?”
You can even build an automated workflow to follow up with donors who gave in the last 30 or 60 days but have yet to initiate a match. Remind them of the effect their gift is already making, and recommend a match to double that impact.
Automating sequences like this used to require a developer and a lot of patience. With Virtuous CRM+, you can build multichannel donor workflows triggered by real behavior, without the complexity.
3. Equip Your Major Gift and Corporate Cultivation Teams
Your frontline fundraisers should be thoroughly trained in using matching gifts as a relationship-building tool. After all, suggesting a match can be incredibly powerful when cultivating a passionate supporter who may be expressing hesitancy to give.
If an individual wants to make a $500 impact but only has $250 in their personal budget, a matching gift keeps the conversation alive. It validates their financial boundaries while empowering them to achieve their philanthropic goals through their employer.
Your gift officers are already having the right conversations. Virtuous Momentum helps them have more of them, with donor intel, AI-drafted outreach, and prioritized daily action plans built around each relationship.
Frequently Asked Questions About Corporate Matching Gifts
What is a corporate matching gift?
A corporate matching gift is a contribution made through an employee-led giving program in which a company financially matches its team members’ donations to eligible nonprofits or schools.
It’s essentially a pre-approved generosity multiplier. When an individual gives to your organization, their employer writes a check for that same amount (or more), effectively doubling the total impact of the original gift at no extra cost to the donor.
Which companies offer matching gift programs?
Thousands of companies across every major industry offer matching gift programs, including roughly 65% of Fortune 500 corporations. Leading global brands like Microsoft, Google, Disney, and Apple are well-known for their robust workplace giving initiatives, but hundreds of mid-sized and local businesses offer them as well.
Collectively, these programs cover more than 26 million employees who are eligible to have their charitable contributions multiplied by their employers.
What are corporate timelines for matching gifts?
Corporate matching gift guidelines vary widely by company. While many businesses align their deadlines with the end of the calendar year, a significant number offer a grace period extending into February, March, or April of the following year, while others use a rolling deadline (such as 6 or 12 months from the date of donation).
Regardless of the deadline, corporate processing timelines often take several months from the moment a donor submits their request until the match funds are actually disbursed.
How do monthly donors work for corporate matching gifts?
For monthly donors who may want to take advantage of a matching gift program, there are a few ways they can do so (though their employer may dictate which option is best).
One possibility involves the donor requesting a matching gift for each monthly donation. The other widely accepted alternative is to wait and request the match as a single lump sum for the year. In order to get matches in before year-end deadlines, you’ll likely want to send a reminder sometime in December.
Do event contributions count toward matching gifts?
Generally, yes, but with an important catch: companies will only match the tax-deductible portion of an event ticket or registration fee. Because corporations cannot match funds where the donor receives a tangible benefit (like a catered meal, entertainment, or t-shirt), nonprofits must subtract the fair market value of those perks from the ticket price.
However, any general donations made above and beyond the baseline ticket cost are fully eligible to be matched.
What are volunteer time-matching programs?
Often called volunteer grants or “Dollars for Doers” programs, these initiatives occur when a company matches an employee’s volunteer hours with a financial donation to the nonprofit. For every hour an employee spends volunteering, their employer writes a check to your organization, usually based on a set hourly rate (like $15 per hour) or upon hitting a specific number of hours.
How can my team effectively steward matching gift donors?
Requesting a matching gift requires extra time and effort from your donor. Therefore, make sure you appropriately acknowledge the work they did in this process. Let them know the impact of the matching donation to further cultivate the relationship.
Also, make sure that you ask repeat donors to secure a matching gift again the next year. Once they complete the process the first time, donors can more easily request a match for future gifts.
Final Thoughts on Maximizing Matching
Corporate Social Responsibility programs are on the rise. Building processes and communication into your nonprofit’s fundraising routine now will pay off exponentially over the years.
If you are still not sure where to go next, check out our friends over at Double the Donation, and make sure your nonprofit fundraising ecosystem is set up to make finding matching gifts as easy as possible for you and your donors.
Get a demo of Double the Donation! Request a free demo to discover how Double the Donation works alongside powerful fundraising tools (like Virtuous!).
Sources
[1] Corporate Giving and Matching Gift Statistics
[2] Giving USA 2025: U.S. Charitable Giving Growth.
[3] 2026 Nonprofit Corporate Engagement Report
[4] Matching Gift Statistics Every Nonprofit Should Know
