Email Outreach & Matching Gifts: 10 Top Tips for Nonprofits

Kindest and Double the Donation offer an easy-to-use, streamlined solution that leverages seamless integration between Kindest’s fundraising platform and Double the Donation’s matching gift automation tool, 360MatchPro.

Matching gifts are a significantly underutilized source of nonprofit funding, often due to a lack of awareness on the donor’s part. With well-crafted email follow-ups, your organization can help drive more matches to completion by guiding supporters throughout the process⁠. And you’ll see more corporate dollars flowing into your mission in no time.

If you’re looking for new ways to optimize your organization’s matching gift email communications, you’ve come to the right place.

Here are ten top tips that we recommend nonprofits implement for the best results:

1. Grab the donor’s attention in your subject line.
2. Address the recipient by name.
3. Recognize the individual’s most recent donation.
4. Highlight the increased value that matching gifts bring.
5. Request employment data if you don’t already have it.
6. Provide company-specific matching gift guidelines.
7. Send an initial email follow-up within 24 hours of a donor’s gift.
8. Incorporate more than one matching gift follow-up email.
9. Encourage donors to keep you in the loop through next steps.
10. Automate your email outreach to streamline the process.

Ready to find out how? Let’s begin with our first suggested practice.

1. Grab the donor’s attention in your subject line.

This is a best practice for just about any email communications with your donors, but when it comes to matching gifts, you have some great opportunities to make the most of your subject line space.

As you craft this short but mighty component of your email, keep in mind that donors typically give to make an impact on a cause they care about. As such, consider highlighting the doubled impact of matching gifts with a bold, attention-grabbing subject.

Here’s an example: “Double your donation’s value with a corporate matching gift. See if you’re eligible here!” 

2. Address the recipient by name.

Here’s another key tip that you should incorporate in all of your communications, whether email, text, mailing, or anything else. Greeting the email recipient by name helps personalize your communications from the very beginning. When a donor feels like a request is being made of them on a personal level, they’re increasingly likely to respond as compared to a more generalized ask.

For example, “Mark, your donation is eligible for a corporate match!” is much more personalized than the simple “Your donation is eligible for a corporate match!”

3. Recognize the individual’s most recent donation.

It’s a good idea to begin your matching gift email by acknowledging and thanking the donor for their contribution to your cause. This communicates that you know they’ve recently given and that you appreciate their ongoing support. Not to mention, it also enables you to highlight the specific gift you think might be eligible for a corporate match.

It can be as simple as this: “Thank you for your donation of $100! Did you know this gift might be eligible for a corporate match from your employer?”

4. Highlight the increased value that matching gifts bring.

One of the best ways to prime your audience for further involvement is to effectively communicate the importance of the support they’re giving your organization and its mission. We previously mentioned that incorporating matching gift value in your email subject line can be a great way to grab the reader’s attention from their inbox. Now, once they’ve opened your message, you have another opportunity to further highlight the value that matching gifts bring.

Consider this: “Your gift of $100 has provided meals for 100 children in need. Request a donation match from your employer to supply 100 more!” By putting your matching gift request in terms of tangible mission impact, you can help drive additional matches to completion through additional donor motivation.

5. Request employment data if you don’t already have it.

Knowing the companies for which your donors work is critical for establishing effective matching gift fundraising strategies. If you don’t have a donor’s employment data on hand, be sure to incorporate a request for the information within your follow-up email.

For example, “Johnny, thank you for your recent donation! Did you know your gift may be eligible for a corporate match? Enter your employer’s name here to find out.”

6. Provide company-specific matching gift guidelines.

Once you’ve located your donors’ employment data, it’s important to simplify the matching gift process by providing them with their employing companies’ matching gift eligibility criteria. This typically includes minimum and maximum donation amounts, match ratios, submission deadlines, qualifying types of employees, eligible nonprofit causes, and even submission forms!

Equipped with this information, individuals can quickly determine whether their recent donation qualifies for a match through their employer and decide to take the next steps.

But where does your organization get all that information from? More than likely, either a lot of manual research of a comprehensive matching gift company database.

7. Send an initial email follow-up within 24 hours of a donor’s gift.

Encouraging donors to get further involved with your organization through matching gifts is an essential next step. In order to do so effectively, timing is everything!

Once a donor gives, you want to send your follow-ups fairly soon in order to capitalize on the individual’s remaining giving momentum. However, you don’t want to send it too quickly and risk the email being discarded by a donor under the impression that it’s a part of their automated donation receipt or acknowledgment.

Thus, it’s important to find a strategic balance⁠. Studies show that matching gift emails sent within the first 24 hours following a donation being made result in a 53% open rate⁠—which is 2-3 times higher than the average nonprofit email open rate!

8. Incorporate more than one matching gift follow-up email.

You don’t have to stop at one matching gift email per donation, either!

Double the Donation’s research reports that sending multiple matching gift reminder emails to donors can increase the number of matching gifts submitted by donors by 48%. That’s a huge jump in response rates, showing that a second follow-up can be exactly what you need to drive more donors to action. Perhaps you’ll even want to adjust your additional outreach emails with the purpose of reminding donors about matching gifts rather than informing them in order to differentiate your messages! For example, you can start with a note like this: “Jim, have you submitted your matching gift request yet?”

9. Encourage donors to keep you in the loop through next steps.

Knowing if and when donors submit their matching gift requests enables nonprofits to predict incoming match revenue and adjust their communication strategy accordingly. But how can you get that information after the request has been submitted? You’ll typically have to ask⁠—and one of the easiest ways to do so is within your follow-ups.

We recommend incorporating a prominent link or button in your email outreach that directs donors to share their matching gift status. This can be as simple as:

“Once you've submitted your matching gift request, we would appreciate it if you would click the following link to let us know!”

Then, you’ll also want a button for if the individual is not eligible for a match, such as this:

“If your company doesn't offer a matching gift program or won't match your donation we’d appreciate knowing that too; just click the following link.”

Gathering this information from donors can help close the loop on potential matches, which may help inform your matching gift strategy.

10. Automate your email outreach to streamline the process.

Enlisting the above steps can be a great way to raise more funding through corporate matching gifts, but conducting the processes manually can require a significant amount of team member time and effort. Luckily, email automation tools have been developed for exactly that purpose.

Kindest and Double the Donation offer a solution to automate this process. Pertinent donor data is collected during the giving process, which then flows into the matching gift software to trigger automated, personalized, and informative follow-ups via email. Equipped with the inspiration and information they need, more donors complete their matching gift requests, and your organization can easily track their progress throughout the process.

Want to learn more? Fill out this form to kickstart your corporate matching program!