10 Best Practices for Matching-Gifts Success

9. Benchmark your results
Include all sources of revenue (annual fund, major giving, event, etc.), and compare results for the matching-gift campaign to both your own fundraising departments and matching-gift results from organizations with similar resources.

Longfield also said you should compare key performance indicators such as:

• Total matching-gift dollars and the percentage of total revenue.
• Total matching-gift dollars by company.
• Number of donors with employment information.
• Resources expended to acquire matching gifts.
• Percentage of matching gifts written off (due to employment change, cancellation of program, collection efficiency, etc.).

10. Include match in recognition
Longfield said you should:

• Encourage matches to qualify for a higher-dollar giving club or recognition level.
• Recognize the cumulative gift as part of a donor's annual-giving total in your annual report.
• Send a separate acknowledgment to the donor when a corporate match is received.
• Invite donors who match to events.