Matching Gifts and Challenges Ideas

Below are suggestions and videos from your fellow nonprofits on how to solicit your own matching gifts and challenges.  If you have successful tactics you'd like to share, please email to 401Gives@unitedwayri.org and we will post on this page (can be text or a video).

401Gives Nonprofit Suggestions:

Send your suggestions/tactics to 401Gives@unitedwayri.org! All those that participate will get some 401Gives swag!


"We always ask our Board Members first if they would be interested in funding a match for 401Gives.  This is only our second year participating in 401Gives, but last year we included a foundation challenge grant (which was in its fourth and final year) that helped us maximize donor giving that day.  Additionally, focusing efforts to get donations concurrently with the ones offered through the 401Gives matching prizes is idea!"  Whitney Clarke, Newport Classical

“Matching gifts are a great opportunity to bring your board and donors closer together”.  – Brooke Fairman, Development Director, Rhode Island SPCA

Leadership RI's Chris Donovan offers advice on matching gifts and challenges:

Who do you ask to match your gifts?

We ask our Executive Director and Board members to fund the matching gift initiative. Some folks make their traditional “year-end” gift in March instead of December, while others give to the match fund and make their usual annual fund contribution.

What has been your most successful matching gift or challenge and why?

The only match we have done is the Board member match, which last year was $6,000. We found that donors liked that their donation meant “twice as much” because it was being matched. It also helped to motivate staff and Board members to promote online gifts that day so that we could fully deplete the matching fund with donor gifts.

What advice would you give a nonprofit that is just starting to try to get matching gifts and challenges?

Starting with agency leadership, including staff and Board, probably makes the most sense as these folks should already be giving to the organization and must be invested in the overall 401 Gives effort for it to succeed. It is also important to heavily publicize the match in order to drive up the size of donations.


Logistics

See below on the trainings page for the logistics of adding Matching Gifts and Challenges to your dashboard:

GiveGab Blogs and other Articles:

Matching gift  - getting them onboard for your Giving Day

Giving Day Matches

How to get a matching gift from a major donor

Sample matching gift letters