Matching Grants and Corporate Partnerships
Lesson 1
Watch and listen to a recording with slides, or read the full text below. NOTE: Some pieces of the video content may be outdated. Rely on the text below for the most up-to-date content.
One of the most compelling elements of Give OUT Day, for organizations and donors alike, is the prospect of winning prize money. Donors can see that their impact goes beyond their individual donations, because their gifts help your organization win even more funds.
That’s the same reason to secure a matching grant. Not only is it an additional donation for your campaign, but it also serves to motivate your donors, because their impact can be doubled.
Where can you find a matching grant? Of course, you can look to your board members and major donors, who may be willing to contribute based on their giving history.
You can also consider local businesses or other corporate partners, especially those you already know well. Think about businesses that have a logical connection to your organization, because then it might be easier to make your case. Beyond matching grants, businesses can partner with organizations in other ways, too, like co-hosting an event, donating a portion of sales, or advertising your campaign to customers.
Get a donor early on in the process to match funds and use it as a major donor strategy touchpoint (especially if there are not other obvious excuses to reach out to them).
Ashton Giese
Rainbow Railroad
Get started early and assign a point person
Assigning someone in charge of managing your communication with each matching grant prospect is important for cultivating these relationships.
Develop your pitch
You should make sure that your prospect understands the power of a matching grant: not only the donation itself, but the strong influence on other donors as well – and on securing even more funding through prizes.
Plus, you can strengthen your case by offering something in return: at the very least, mention of the company and inclusion of their logo on your marketing collateral, like your fundraising page and social media.
Make your pitch digestible
It can be helpful to compile the important details – the concept of Give OUT Day, your goal and case for support, and benefits of providing a matching grant – into a digestible graphic or brochure to share with your prospects.
Make a reasonable ask
If the prospect has never given before, start with a small ask that they may be more likely to respond to. You can always ask them to increase their support in the future, but you have to get them in the door first.
Thank your donor
If a donor agrees to a matching grant, make sure they feel appreciated. It’s a big deal!
Deploy your match strategically
When should you announce your match to secure the most donations? One option is during a Give OUT Day Power Hour (covered in a previous lesson), because you could drive donations during a specific period of time that could win you extra prize money. Or you could announce your match at an event (see the next lesson) to foster continued excitement about your campaign.
Market your match strategically
No matter when you announce it, make sure to use all your marketing channels to share the news. You could share it in an email to fundraisers, an update on your page, a social media post, an email to your supporters, your phone banking script, and so on.
Example: San Diego Pride
San Diego Pride was successful in leveraging a match from a major donor in their Give OUT Day campaign.
We hope you will join us on #GiveOutDay to support @SanDiegoPride and the incredible programming they offer for LGBTQ+ youth. We are matching all donations up to $10,000. Read more here: https://t.co/Glvnkq26Km #tlap #LeadLAP #kidsdeserveit #PrideMonth #dbcincbooks
— Shelley Burgess (@burgess_shelley) June 30, 2020pic.twitter.com/WenXX24ZWF
Template: Matching Grant Pitch Email
Subject: Exciting opportunity: Give OUT Day sponsorship!
I hope you are doing well! [Thank you again for supporting our organization with a $1,000 sponsorship last year.]
I wanted to reach out about another exciting opportunity. [LGBTQ Organization] will be participating in Give OUT Day in May! That means that every donor we secure in the month of May, through May 30, will help us win thousands in prizes. [Our goal is to raise $5,000 to fund 1,000 calls with LGBTQ youth seeking support.]
Would you consider supporting our campaign by making a matching grant of $2,000? Not only will the match bring us so much closer to our goal, but it will also serve to motivate other donors to make gifts. The impact would really extend far beyond the match itself!
As a benefit of providing the match, your logo would appear in our campaign communications and website. We couldn't be more grateful!
I would love to set up a time to chat with you more about this opportunity. Do you have availability this week?
Template: Matching Grant Marketing Email
Subject: Major announcement
We have an exciting announcement! Thank to the generosity of [insert donor], every donation up to [insert amount] will be matched dollar-for-dollar!
We are so thrilled to share about this match as part of our Give OUT Day campaign this year. From May 1 through May 30, every donor brings us closer to winning thousands of prizes. And not only that, because your donation will now also be matched! Will you make a gift today?
For our Give OUT Day campaign, our goal is [to raise $5,000 to fund 1,000 calls with local LGBTQ youth seeking support.] Your donation of only $20 will [insert specific impact of donation.]
Thank you for making a gift today!
Matching Grants on Mightycause
How do matching grants work on the Give OUT Day platform? Navigate to your dashboard, and under “Fundraising” select “Matching Grants.” You can add a new matching grant by clicking “Create” in the upper-right corner.
- The basics. When creating a matching grant on the platform, you input the name of the donor (or leave anonymous), the match amount, a title, duration, and an image. We encourage you to ask the donor of the match to fulfill it on your organization’s fundraising page online, and uncheck the option to include the match value in page metrics. Otherwise, your page totals may be off.
- Match type and other settings. You will also select a match type and configure other settings. For example, you can select whether donations only above a certain value count toward the match, to incentive higher donation amounts.
- Notification email. Finally, you’ll input the email address that you would like to receive a notification when the match has been met or closed. This email will include an optional link to make the match donation, so it can go to the donor – of it can go to you if you want to ask for the match from the donor directly.
- How it appears. When the matching grant is live, donors will see a badge on the “donate” button alerting them that a match is available, and Mightycause will auto-calculate how much of the match has been fulfilled. In your donations report, you will be able to see which donations were matched and in what amount. A grant summary block will appear on your Mightycause page listing all live matching grants and showing the amount still available. (Clicking the badge on the Donate button will take users to the grant summary.) Matching grant amounts will also be reflected in Leaderboard totals.
- Managing matches. You can manage and edit your matches at any time by navigating back to the “Matching Grants” page on your dashboard. For example, you can change the start time of a grant, or you can manually close a grant. You can set up multiple simultaneous grants and queue grants in order. Here you can also download your match history.