How to Fix 5 Mistakes Companies Make with Matching Gifts

How to Fix 5 Mistakes Companies Make with Matching Gifts

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Your company has invested time, effort, and significant budget dollars into creating an employee benefit designed to do good: a matching gift program. This powerful form of corporate social responsibility allows your staff to support the causes they care about most while amplifying their impact through your company’s generosity. It should be a win for employee morale, community engagement, and your brand reputation. Yet, for many companies, these funds go frustratingly unclaimed year after year.

Why should this matter to a corporate leader? The estimated value of unclaimed matching gift funds in the U.S. alone ranges from $4 billion to $7 billion annually. That is a substantial sum of allocated corporate giving dollars that are not creating the employee engagement or community impact they were intended to. Beyond the lost philanthropic opportunity, a poorly executed program can lead to employee confusion, frustration, and the perception that the company is not serious about its CSR commitments.

By identifying the root causes of these failures, your company can transform its matching gift program from an overlooked liability into a celebrated, high-impact asset. In this guide, we’ll cover:

The good news is that these common pitfalls are completely avoidable. For every strategic error, there is a clear, actionable solution that companies can implement to streamline their operations, boost employee participation, and finally realize the full potential of their charitable matching efforts. By focusing on these fixes, you can ensure your generous commitment translates directly into real community impact and stronger employee affinity for your organization.

Mistake 1: Treating the Program as a Hidden HR Perk

The single biggest reason matching gift dollars go unclaimed is simple: employees do not know the program exists. Previously cited statistics show that a large majority of match-eligible donors are completely unaware that their employer offers a matching gift program. For companies, this represents a significant failure in internal marketing and communication.

Why? A matching gift program is not merely a line item in an employee handbook; it is a premium benefit, an engaging facet of corporate culture, and a powerful tool for recruiting and retention. When companies treat it like a passive offering, they are effectively wasting the investment and missing out on the associated goodwill.

Failing to integrate the matching gift benefit into every relevant touchpoint, from onboarding to regular internal communications, guarantees low uptake. Often, the information is buried deep on a CSR page or a difficult-to-find intranet site. Employees who have just made a donation are highly motivated to maximize their gift, but if the program details are not immediately accessible, the opportunity may be lost entirely.

The Fix: A Multi-Channel Marketing and Communication Strategy

Your company’s matching gift program is a significant employee benefit, and it should be marketed as one accordingly.

The solution to the problem involves consistent, multi-channel communication that ensures no employee can miss the opportunity. Here are a few ideas for doing so:

  • Integrate into Onboarding: Introduce the matching gift program during the new hire orientation process. Frame it as a core value of the company and a benefit of employment, not just a policy detail.
  • Leverage Executive Support: Send out an annual or quarterly email reminder about the program from the CEO or a senior leadership figure. A message from the top signals the program’s importance and sincerity.
  • Utilize Existing Channels: Use internal newsletters, payroll stubs, company-wide meeting announcements, and internal social media channels to provide quick, clickable reminders about matching gift participation.
  • Create a Dedicated, Easy-to-Find Hub: Ensure there is a single, easily searchable resource on your internal site dedicated exclusively to the matching gift program. This page should clearly outline the what, who, and how in simple language.

Quick Tip: Boost your matching program’s visibility by tying reminders to key giving seasons. Send out a brief email campaign during the last quarter of the year, reminding employees to submit matches for their Giving Tuesday and year-end donations. Creating a sense of urgency around the annual deadline dramatically increases the likelihood of action.

Mistake 2: Making the Process a Bureaucratic Labyrinth

Once an employee finds out about the matching gift program, the next major hurdle is a submission process riddled with friction. This is one of the most common and frustrating mistakes companies make when matching gifts. In fact, many legacy matching gift programs may still require employees to download and print multi-page PDF forms, attach a copy of the donation receipt, obtain a signature from the nonprofit, and then mail or fax all the documents to a specific HR or accounting department contact. This overly complex, manual process, often involving multiple steps and departments, quickly deters staff participation. If an employee’s attempt to simply double their $50 donation requires an hour of administrative work, they will rightly abandon the effort. The perceived hassle outweighs the philanthropic reward.

This friction barrier is often compounded by poor technology infrastructure. When an employee cannot easily find the submission form or the specific criteria for the nonprofit they supported, they are forced to contact HR directly, which creates unnecessary work for both parties and slows down the entire process. The result is a system designed to discourage participation rather than encourage it.

The Fix: Streamline the Submission Flow with Simple, Digital Tools

The key to overcoming the friction barrier is automation and simplification, ideally through a dedicated corporate giving platform.

  • Establish Clear, Consolidated Steps: Provide a step-by-step guide for employees that is visual and easy to follow. If the system requires a manual task, such as uploading a receipt, make the upload function simple and mobile-friendly. The less an employee has to think about the process, the more likely they are to complete it.
  • Embrace Digital Forms: Move away from paper forms entirely. The entire request process should be housed within a single, secure online portal. Employees should be able to complete and submit their requests digitally in under 5 minutes.
  • Auto-Populate and Verify: Use software that can auto-complete online request forms and collect the necessary donation details directly. Leading solutions like Double the Donation, for example, simplify the process for the employee by streamlining submissions, making the path to completion almost effortless.

Mistake 3: Restrictive Guidelines That Discourage Participation

A matching gift program is a tool for employee empowerment, but overly stringent eligibility rules can make employees feel like the company is limiting their freedom or trying to save money. Common program design flaws include imposing low annual maximums, high minimum donation amounts, or narrowly restricting the types of eligible nonprofits. For example, a company that only matches gifts to educational institutions, while excluding health or environmental causes, may alienate employees who are passionate about these other areas. These restrictive program guidelines are one of the most common mistakes companies make when it comes to matching gifts.

The goal of a matching gift program should be maximum, high-impact employee engagement. When the match cap is set too low, highly generous employees quickly hit the limit, dampening their incentive for the remainder of the year. Similarly, excluding donations to organizations solely on the basis of sector (e.g., excluding religious-affiliated organizations that still perform charitable services) can feel exclusionary and reduce participation across the board.

The Fix: Broaden Scope and Raise Limits to Maximize Empowerment

To ensure the program is viewed as an expansive benefit, companies should review their program guidelines every 1-2 years and work to make them more generous and inclusive. Here are a few ways that your business could do so:

  • Increase the Annual Cap: Data consistently shows that higher matching gift caps directly correlate with significantly higher employee participation rates. Consider raising the annual limit to a level that genuinely encourages significant giving, such as $5,000 or more, to signal a serious commitment to philanthropy.
  • Broaden Nonprofit Eligibility: Unless legally mandated, avoid excluding entire sectors of 501(c)(3) organizations. A general policy of matching donations to any certified charitable organization empowers employees to support the diverse causes that truly matter to them.
  • Align with Corporate Goals, Not Just Savings: While fiscal responsibility is important, the core objective must be impact and engagement. If your goal is to boost employee morale and demonstrate corporate values, consider designing rules that make participation easy and rewarding. This could be achieved by offering a higher match ratio (2:1 or even 3:1) for causes aligned with specific company sustainability or community initiatives.

Did You Know? Research indicates that matching gift programs with annual caps of over $10,000 can see an employee engagement rate up to 40%. This shows a direct correlation between the generosity of the policy and the workforce’s enthusiasm. When companies show serious commitment, employees respond by giving more.

Mistake 4: Failing to Leverage Modern Technology

Many companies still manage their corporate giving and matching gift programs using fragmented systems: an HR platform for employee records, an internal shared folder for storing forms, and an accounting system for processing checks. This siloed approach is perhaps the most critical of the matching gift mistakes companies make, as it creates the foundation for all other administrative failures.

Without a centralized, automated platform, the company cannot efficiently verify donations, track request statuses, or handle the necessary communications with nonprofits. The verification stage becomes a bottleneck, causing long delays that often frustrate both the employee and the benefiting nonprofit.

The Fix: Implement a Dedicated CSR Solution

The solution is to invest in dedicated CSR software or a matching gift automation platform. This technology centralizes the entire process, automating the most time-consuming steps for both the employer and the nonprofit.

  • Automation for Verification: Use a system that can digitally verify the employee’s donation status and employment eligibility. This technology significantly reduces the time and labor required to confirm a match, thereby accelerating the payout process and enhancing the overall experience for all stakeholders.
  • Centralized Tracking and Reporting: A comprehensive platform offers a single, real-time dashboard to track all employee requests. This allows the CSR or HR team to see which requests are pending, which are awaiting nonprofit verification, and which have been paid. This visibility helps prevent requests from falling through the cracks, a common problem with manual processes.
  • Seamless Employee Experience: Modern tools can be integrated directly into your internal HR or benefits portal, enabling employees to easily search for program details and initiate the request process within seconds. This focus on user experience is the defining factor between a successful and a stagnant program.

Mistake 5: Neglecting to Track Metrics and Measure True ROI

The final mistake is a failure to treat the matching gift program like any other business investment by rigorously measuring its results. Too many companies simply track the total dollars matched, stopping short of measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) that reveal the program’s true health and impact. Without granular data, companies cannot identify which departments are participating, what communication methods are working, or which program rules are causing friction. This lack of insight prevents continuous improvement and optimization.

If a company cannot clearly articulate the Return on Investment (ROI) of its matching gift program, not just in terms of dollars, but also in terms of employee engagement and community impact, it risks having the program undervalued or perpetually under-budgeted during annual reviews.

The Fix: Define KPIs and Use Data to Drive Program Optimization

Success requires moving beyond simple output tracking (total matched) to measuring input and process efficiency. Consider the following steps your company can take to do so:

  • Define Core KPIs: Measure critical metrics such as:
    • Participation Rate: Percentage of eligible employees who submitted at least one match request.
    • Match Submission Rate: Number of matches submitted compared to the total number of employee donations identified (if possible).
    • Time-to-Match: The average time it takes from employee submission to the final check being sent to the nonprofit.
    • Departmental Engagement: Participation broken down by business unit to target low-performing areas with specialized promotions.
  • Analyze the Data for Optimization: Then, use these metrics to inform your strategy. For instance, if data shows that employees in the Boston office have a 30% participation rate while those in the Seattle office have a 5% participation rate, you know exactly where to focus your next internal marketing push. If the time-to-match consistently exceeds three months, the data may suggest a flaw in the verification or payment process that requires streamlining.
  • Report Impact Internally and Externally: Utilize the gathered data to create compelling internal reports that highlight the program’s success and its contribution to achieving company-wide CSR goals. Report the total number of nonprofits supported and the combined community impact to reinforce the value of the program to both executives and employees.

By defining key performance indicators and leveraging data to drive program optimization, your company can ensure that its matching gift program not only tracks success but also actively improves over time. Meanwhile, regularly analyzing these metrics enables informed decision-making, helping refine strategies and increase efficiency.

Wrapping Up & Next Steps

A robust, well-executed matching gift program is one of the most powerful and efficient ways for a company to demonstrate its commitment to corporate social responsibility while fostering a deeply engaged and loyal workforce. The unfortunate reality is that many companies inadvertently sabotage their own efforts by falling victim to easily avoided design and execution flaws. By recognizing these five common matching gift mistakes companies make, your business can take immediate corrective action.

The time to transform your matching gift program from an administrative headache into a strategic asset is now. Take the next step by auditing your current program and implementing the automated solutions that will finally ensure your corporate generosity reaches its full potential.

Drive matching gifts with the right software