Matching Gift Automation: The Key to Maximizing Success

Let’s get started with the basics. How can matching gift automation help your nonprofit succeed?

Leveraging automation software can help reduce nonprofits’ workloads and run their operations more efficiently. When you automate your organization’s matching gift collection process, you can raise more revenue while deepening donor relationships at the same time. This equips your team to manage more matching gifts effectively.

Taking an automated approach relieves your team from having to research an individual donor’s employer’s giving program, reach out, and encourage them to submit a match request. Automation allows your team to focus on the important aspects of fundraising like cultivation and stewardship, while capitalizing on top-of-the-line technology to remind donors to leverage their corporate gift matching program.

Best Practices for Leveraging Automation in Gift Matching

During the giving season, you want to make matching gifts efficient. If left to manage manually, it’s likely that valuable matching gift prospects will fall through the cracks.

Luckily, the right matching gift software vendors for nonprofits will incorporate automation into their services. If you’re looking to invest in an automation tool, be sure to prioritize critical functions and seek a solution that will:

• Scan donor information (such as email domains or employer names) for indicators of a match-eligible gift.
• Follow up with donors via automated email messaging after a donation is made.
• Track and report matching gift data to determine success and locate room for improvement.

When you find a tool that integrates with your existing fundraising platform, you can streamline the matching gift process while saving your team time, effort, and resources at year-end.

Segmenting your communications ensures that donors receive only the most relevant and targeted information possible. When it comes to matching gifts, automation and segmentation often go hand in hand.

As you craft your matching gift follow-up communications, consider writing templates for both of these donor segments this season:

• Those who are likely eligible for a matching gift. Example: Donor A works for the Home Depot, which has a generous matching gift program. Follow up with this supporter to let them know of their likely eligibility and direct them to the company’s online forms to take the next steps before December 31st.
• Those who have unknown eligibility for a matching gift. Example: Donor B works for a small, local business, and you’re unsure about its corporate giving offerings. Encourage this individual to contact the company and seek information about their eligibility.

Segmenting based on eligibility ensures that the right donors receive the right messages.

Personalization is one of the easiest ways to surprise and delight your donors amidst mass end of year fundraising appeals. Just because you’re making the most of automation software doesn’t mean you have to miss out on building donor relationships!

At the very least, be sure to incorporate a personal touch in the following ways:

• Address donors by name.
• Acknowledge specific previous gifts.
• Include employer-specific information when possible.

The bottom line is to ensure that each message you send is unique to that recipient and carefully crafted to reflect their engagement with your organization.

Matching gift automation can bring your organization’s fundraising to the next level this giving season, but you’ll need the right tips and tools to get started. To learn more about how to incorporate corporate matching gifts into your annual fundraising strategy, make an appointment with Kindest to discuss.