Creating a limited-time matching offer

Course: Matching Offers for Crises and Campaigns
Learn how to use limited-time matching offers to strategically increase match rates during critical moments. 
⏰  8 minutes 

Matching offers are a powerful way to enhance your organization's giving programs by increasing match rates for donations to one or more nonprofits. The increased match rate also applies to donations to those nonprofits via a giving opportunity. These offers can significantly drive participation and support the nonprofits that align with your organization's and employees' values.

This article outlines how to create a programmed or relief matching offer for selected nonprofits. Note that these time-limited matching offers do not auto-renew.

To set up or change your standard matching offer or a program-wide offer to all nonprofits, contact support.

Permissions

Users with the budget manager user role can create and edit matching offers. Users with the campaign manager user role can view matching offers. 

Creating a matching offer

To create a matching offer, go to Manage > Company Giving > Matching Offers. Select Create Matching Offer to open the creation form and enter the following details:

• Name: enter a name for your offer (up to 40 characters) that highlights the nonprofit or campaign it supports. The name is not displayed to users, it is for admins to manage matching offers.
• Type: choose the type of offer.
  • Relief: offers set up in response to a crisis or disaster.
  • Programmed: planned campaigns organized around a theme or group of nonprofits.
  • Start and end dates and time zones: specify a start date in the future and an end date, along with the relevant time zones.
    • Select the Start on save checkbox to activate the offer immediately after saving. When selected, the Start date, time, and time zone fields are disabled. The offer starts as soon as it is saved, based on your local time zone.
    • The end date is editable up to the day it expires allowing you to extend the duration of a matching offer.
• Match rate: Choose the match rate you want to offer as a percentage of the original donation. For a two-to-one match, choose 200%. The full rate applies to all donations to any nonprofit in the offer and you can't edit the rate once the offer has started.

Client-admins receive an email notification when a matching offer is created.

Nonprofits

Add nonprofits or nonprofit projects that are eligible for the matching offer. 

• If you choose a nonprofit, the full match rate applies to the nonprofit and any of its projects.
• If you choose a nonprofit project, only the project is eligible for the full match rate.  

To add a nonprofit: 

1. Enter keywords or a cause ID into the Add cause search bar and select Search.
2. Choose the desired nonprofit or project from the results to add it to the list of selected nonprofits. You can learn more about the nonprofit by selecting the nonprofit name. 

Donations to selected organizations receive a match if they're made after the nonprofit is added to an active matching offer.

Nonprofit eligibility 

The nonprofit search results display eligible nonprofits according to your nonprofit filters. Global Giving (GG) cannot be part of any matching offers, but you can choose GG projects.

If a nonprofit becomes ineligible for your program while it’s linked to an active matching offer, you’ll find an ineligible tag next to its name. Donations cannot be made to ineligible nonprofits, and you can remove them from the offer.

Nonprofits in multiple offers

Nonprofits or nonprofit projects can only be included in more than one matching offer if one of the following configurations are different: 

• Currency: if multiple matching offers each use a different currency, the same nonprofit or project can be included in all of them.
• No overlapping dates: if more than one matching offer has the same nonprofit or project attached, they must not be active at the same time. 

If the configurations do not follow the above guidelines, you cannot add the nonprofit to the offer.

Funding Rules

Decide how to fund the matching offer and in which currencies. Eligible donors will receive a match only if the user, offer, or budget limit (for the "Existing Budgets" rule) has not been reached.

For example, let's say you have a 200% limited-time match offer with a user limit of $200 for a specific campaign. A $100 donation is matched at $200, which means the user's limit has been reached and future donations to the campaign are not eligible for the match. 

Standalone

Matches from standalone offers are added to your Donation Reports and you can apply a match offer or per-user limit to manage spending, for each currency you have enabled. A standalone offer is not funded by budgets you’ve set up in the platform, so you cannot monitor usage in the Budgets module.

You can set the following configurations for a standalone offer: 

• Currency: enable the offer for currencies in your program by selecting the currency checkbox.
• Match offer limit: enter the total amount available for matching eligible donations. If there is no limit, select the Unlimited checkbox.
• Per user match limit: enter the amount allocated to each user for matching eligible donations. If there is no limit, select the Unlimited checkbox. 

Note that either the match offer limit or the per user match limit can be Unlimited, not both. Any limits must be non-zero.

Client-admins will also receive email notifications when budget usage reaches 70%, 80%, 90%, and 100%. These emails are sent within 10 minutes of the threshold being triggered and include a link to the edit view of the matching offer. Only one email is sent per threshold.

Existing Budgets

Matches are funded and limited by existing budgets, in each selected currency, and their limits. Select View budgets next to each currency to check the active budget. 

The Matching and/or All budget is used to finance match offers with an ‘Existing budgets’ funding rule, depending on your budget setup. 

Existing Budgets with Limits

Matches are funded by existing budgets in each currency. However, you can enter a Match offer limit for each currency. This is the maximum amount that can be used to match transactions in each currency to the selected nonprofits, over the offer period.

The Matching and/or All budget is used to finance match offers with an ‘Existing budgets with Limits’ funding rule, depending on your budget setup. If the total budget is used before the offer limit is reached, donations eligible for the offer will not receive a match while it is still active. 

Client-admins will also receive email notifications when usage reaches 70%, 80%, 90%, and 100% of the match offer limit. Notifications are sent within 10 minutes of reaching each threshold.

Select Save to complete the matching offer. All saved matching offers are displayed in the Matching Offers table in Pending status.

Client-admins also receive email notifications when a matching offer is updated after creation.

Starting a matching offer

A matching offer automatically begins on the Start date chosen. If you want to start an offer immediately, select the Start on save checkbox in the creation form instead of selecting a future date.

Matching offer statuses:

• Before the start date, an offer is Pending.
• Once it has started, the offer is Active.
• After the end date, the offer is Completed.

Promoting your matching offer

Now that you've created a matching offer, share it with your people! You'll find direct links to nonprofit profiles or projects in the nonprofit section of the offer. 

Consider taking the following steps to maximize the impact:

• Create a giving opportunity: create an opportunity with the nonprofits in your matching offer. Set the Donation Match Rate to Default Match Rate Applied in the creation form.
• Create a news article: write an article promoting the nonprofits in your offer and share it.
• Promote the offer internally: Use internal communications channels like email, intranet, and social media to spread the word about the matching offer.
• Monitor and Adjust: Report on the offer and make adjustments to optimize its impact.

Viewing offer usage

After a matching offer has started, you can monitor usage as employees make eligible donations. To view usage in each currency, go to the table of matching offers and open the active offer. Usage amounts are displayed next to each currency. The usage displayed in matching offers doesn't include matches on upcoming or unprocessed payroll deductions until they are committed.