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Employer Matches

  • 1.  Employer Matches

    Posted 19 days ago
    I have a question as to how other organizations handle employer matches. When we receive a donor's gift and the donor has indicated they will be matched, we apply an employer match pledge to the donor gift.  We give the donor their membership level at the time of the original gift based on receipt of the employer match.  There are several occasions where the employer never matches the donor for a variety of reasons.  Do others handle this process differently?  Would be interested to know other ways to handle this.

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    Margaret McGraw
    Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
    MMcGraw@CWF.org
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  • 2.  RE: Employer Matches

    Posted 5 days ago
    Hello, Margaret - 

    A few years back a colleague and I were routinely surveying on questions like this as they apply to matching gift best practices. I'll see if I can dig out more detailed responses over the weekend, but from what I can recall there were more organizations which based recognition on cash rather than the potential commitment from mg revenue. 

    Personally, I highly recommend ONLY applying a matching pledge (or whatever your system calls it) when you receive the matching disbursement rather than on when the request might have been initiated and/or the gift validated. Waiting for the cash alleviates the need to clean up unpaid mg pledges and keeps reporting simpler and more accurate. No doubt there are advocates for placing the mg pledge at the time the gift is verified and the request submitted to the mg program where there is a practice to request and remind the program to complete the payment. Either way is fine and the trick is to catch up, clean up and set your standards moving forward.   

    On a side note, as you work for a membership driven organization, I would caution against counting mg potential toward any type of recognition that ties to tangible benefits. Most MG programs expressly prohibit their employees to receive benefits triggered from matching revenue though that needs to be reviewed by program and isn't one size fits all. 

    I'd be happy to discuss in greater detail offline if you like.  

    Best regards - Amy

    Amy J. Phillips
    Director of Advancement Services, Gift Acceptance
    Division of University Advancement
    The Catholic University of America
    620 Michigan Avenue, B016 O'Connell Hall
    Washington, DC 20064
    Phone: 202-319-6919




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