A matching gift is a donation your employer makes to the same nonprofit you gave to, triggered by your gift and usually equal to it. You give $100, your employer gives $100, the charity receives $200, and it costs you nothing extra. The catch is that nearly every program requires you to ask. The match does not happen on its own.
That single requirement explains most of what follows. Matching gift programs are common and the money behind them is budgeted, yet a large share of it is never claimed, because nobody filled in a form. Matching is one form of corporate philanthropy among several, and it is the one that turns on paperwork rather than on generosity.
How a Matching Gift Works, Step by Step
- You donate to an eligible nonprofit and keep the receipt.
- You submit a match request through your employer’s giving portal, HR system or a paper form, inside whatever window the program allows.
- The employer, or a vendor acting for it, asks the nonprofit to confirm it received your gift.
- The nonprofit confirms.
- The employer sends its matching contribution to the nonprofit, often batched with others rather than immediately.
Steps two and three are where matches die. A request nobody submits, or a confirmation email that lands in an inbox nobody watches, accounts for most of the money that goes unmatched.
The Rules Most Programs Set
| Rule | What it usually looks like | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Match ratio | One to one is the common case; some programs go higher for particular causes | Caps the employer’s exposure while still doubling the employee’s gift |
| Minimum gift | A floor below which a gift is not matched | Processing a match costs more than a very small gift is worth |
| Annual cap per employee | A ceiling on total matched dollars per person per year | Makes the program budgetable |
| Who is eligible | Full-time staff at minimum; many programs include part-time staff and retirees | Ties the benefit to the workforce the employer wants to engage |
| Which organizations qualify | Registered 501(c)(3) organizations, sometimes with categories excluded | Keeps the employer out of decisions it would rather not make |
| Deadline | A set period after the date of the original gift | Closes the books on a plan year |
Two exclusions catch people out. A payment that bought you something — a dinner ticket, a table, a raffle entry — is usually not matchable, because only the portion above the value of what you received is a charitable contribution in the first place. Membership dues, political contributions and gifts to individuals are excluded almost everywhere.
Finding Out Whether Your Employer Matches
Most employees do not know, and awareness rather than eligibility is the usual barrier. Four ways to settle it:
- Search your HR portal or intranet for “matching gift” or “workplace giving.”
- Look in the benefits handbook. It is often filed near tuition reimbursement and volunteer time off rather than under anything labeled charity.
- Ask HR or payroll directly. One email usually settles it.
- Ask the nonprofit. Organizations that receive matches tend to know which local employers run programs.
If the answer is no, ask whether the company would consider starting one. At a small employer that is one person’s decision, and the next section is what they need in order to make it.
Setting Up a Matching Gift Program at a Small Business
A program at a twelve-person company does not need software. It needs six decisions and somewhere to record them.
- Ratio and cap. Decide what you match and how much per employee per year. A modest cap you honor beats a generous one you suspend in a bad quarter.
- Eligibility. Full-time only, or part-time and seasonal staff as well. Say which, plainly, in writing.
- What counts. Any 501(c)(3), or a defined list. Decide in advance how you will handle a request you would rather not fund, because one will arrive.
- Deadline. A window after the gift — long enough to be fair to someone who gave in December, short enough to close your year.
- Process. A one-page form, an email address a named person checks, and a spreadsheet. At this scale that is a complete system.
- Budget. Put the cap times headcount in the plan, expect actual participation to be far lower, and do not book the underspend as a saving.
Then tell people, more than once. Announce it, put it in onboarding, and raise it again when staff are already thinking about giving: after a local fundraiser, at year end, when a colleague is raising money for something. A program nobody remembers exists has the same effect as no program.
The Tax Side
- The employee deducts their own gift, if they itemize. The match is the employer’s contribution, not theirs, and they do not deduct it.
- The employer deducts its match under the rules for its entity type: on the corporate return for a C corporation, subject to the 10% of taxable income cap and a five-year carryforward, or passed through to owners’ personal returns for an S corporation, partnership or most LLCs.
- Only the portion of any payment above the value of what was received in return is a charitable contribution, which is the reason event tickets are usually excluded from matching in the first place.
- Confirm your own position with a tax advisor before you write the policy, and tell employees to do the same about their own returns.
Matching a Gift to the Miami County Community Foundation
Where the gift is going to the Miami County Community Foundation, there are two ways to make the original donation. The sitewide Donate Now button opens a drop-down of the funds that can take money online, so the fund is chosen at the moment of giving. The other route is a check, made payable to the Miami County Community Foundation with the fund name written in the memo line, mailed to 702 Baptiste Dr, Paola, KS 66071 — the check is made out to the Foundation, not to the fund. Online gifts run through PayPal or a debit or credit card, which produces the dated receipt a matching portal will ask you to upload.
Employer forms generally want four things about the recipient: legal name, address, employer identification number, and proof of 501(c)(3) status. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) and has been since November 2007, and the IRS classifies it under section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) as a publicly supported charity — the category most matching programs and most individual deduction limits are written around. Call (913) 404-7287, email info@micocf.org, or use the contact page for the verification details your employer’s form asks for. The Foundation’s funds are held c/o First Option Bank.
One point is specific to fund-based giving. The match arrives as a separate transaction from your original gift, so it will not carry your fund choice with it automatically. Name the fund in the match request, or tell the Foundation which one it belongs to, and it lands where you meant it to. The funds held at the Foundation are listed with what each one supports.
A match is easier to justify once you know what share of profit to give, and it pairs well with an employee volunteer program.
Where a Match Fits in a Business’s Giving
Matching is the least demanding form of corporate giving there is. No cause selection, no event, no committee — employees choose and the business follows. That is also the limit of it. The money goes where staff already give, which is not always where the business would place its own. Employers that take giving seriously tend to run a match alongside something they chose deliberately, whether that is an ongoing charity partnership or a fund of their own.
Either way, the fastest thing you can do this week is smaller than a program. Ask your employer whether it matches. Ask your staff whether theirs do. The Foundation’s ways to give page sets out the routes a matched gift can take once you have the answer.
