Matching Gifts: The Easiest Win for Your Team

Most people who give to a cause they care about assume the transaction is simple: they decide on an amount, they send it, that is the number that arrives. For a surprising share of donors, that is only half the number available to them. The other half is already budgeted, already approved, already waiting behind a form they have never opened. All it needs is a nudge.

Matching gifts are one of the least glamorous and most effective tools in giving. There is no gala, no auction paddle, no naming rights. There is a portal, a confirmation email, and a gift that shows up twice as large as the one you sent. For a small local nonprofit like ours, that second gift is not a rounding error. It is a real week of tutoring, a real seat at summer camp, a real piece of a scholarship.

What is a matching gift, really?

A matching gift is a donation your employer makes to a nonprofit to match one you already made. Many companies offer it as a standard benefit, the same way they offer a retirement match. You give first. Then you submit a short request through your company, usually an online form or a giving portal, telling them where your gift went and how much it was. Your employer verifies it and sends a second gift of the same size to the same nonprofit.

The most common structure is dollar for dollar, so a $100 gift becomes $200. Some companies match at higher ratios, some cap the total they will match per employee per year, and some include retirees or part-time staff. The details vary. The principle does not: a donation you were going to make anyway can arrive at double its size, and the only new thing you have to do is tell your employer you made it.

The second gift is already approved and budgeted. It is just waiting behind a form nobody opened.

How do you set up a match?

The whole process usually takes a few minutes. Here is the honest, unglamorous version of how it works.

First, make your gift the way you normally would. Second, find your company's program. The fastest route is to ask your HR or people team, or to search your internal systems for phrases like matching gifts, workplace giving, or corporate social responsibility. Many large employers run everything through a dedicated giving platform, and you may already have a login. Third, submit the match request. You will be asked for the nonprofit's legal name and tax ID. Ours is Hope Horizon East Palo Alto, EIN 77-0151434. Enter the amount and date of your gift, confirm, and you are done. Your employer handles the rest, and the matching gift lands with us a few weeks later.

If you get stuck, you are not the first, and you will not offend anyone by asking. Matching portals are often clunky, and the nonprofit's exact legal name is a common snag. Send us a note and we will walk you through it or send you the one detail your form is missing.

Why does doubling matter so much here?

Because of where we sit. Hope Horizon is in East Palo Alto, inside one of the wealthiest regions on earth, serving a community the wealth mostly skipped. In the local Ravenswood City Elementary School District, during the 2024-25 school year, about 12 percent of students scored proficient or above in English on the state test. The statewide figure that year was closer to 49 percent. Roughly nine in ten Ravenswood students come from low-income families.

Those numbers are the reason a doubled gift is not an abstraction to us. We serve around 120 students on a typical day. Summer camp runs six weeks for $250 a child, and many families cannot cover even that. Twelve of our students are in college right now on Hope Horizon scholarships. Every one of those things is funded a gift at a time, and when a gift arrives twice as large, the math on our end is simple: one more child at the table, one more week of tutoring, one more scholar we can say yes to.

Why is this the easiest win for a team?

Because it multiplies without asking anyone to give more than they already planned to. A single person filing a match doubles their gift. A team of ten, each filing their own request, can turn a modest giving day into something that genuinely moves a program. Nobody has to reach deeper into their own pocket. They just have to point the money that already exists in the right direction.

If you want to organize something at work, it can be as light as a shared message: here is a cause a few of us care about, here is the legal name and tax ID, here is the link to our giving portal, match your gift by Friday. We are happy to hand you a clean one-pager with everything your colleagues will need, so nobody has to hunt for paperwork or guess at our EIN.

And if your company offers volunteer grants, sometimes called dollars for doers, the leverage stacks. Those programs donate money based on the hours an employee volunteers. Which means a colleague who spends Tuesday afternoons tutoring a reader may be able to turn that same time into a gift on top of it. Time and money, from the same afternoon.

Nobody has to give more. They just have to point the money that already exists in the right direction.

What if your employer doesn't match?

Plenty do not, and that is fine. A matching program is a nice multiplier, not a requirement, and a gift given straight to the work still does exactly what it says. If your company does not offer one, the most useful thing you can do is ask them to consider it. Benefits like this often get added because one employee raised a hand and asked why they were leaving free giving on the table. You might be that employee.

Either way, the point stands. Somewhere between your good intentions and a kid at a table in East Palo Alto, there may be a form your employer already wants you to fill out. Opening it is one of the quietest, highest-leverage things a person who works for a generous company can do.

Common questions

What is a matching gift?

A matching gift is a donation your employer makes to a nonprofit to match one you already made, often dollar for dollar. You give, you submit a short request through your company, and your employer sends a second gift of the same size. It turns one donation into two.

How do I find out if my employer matches donations?

Ask your HR or people team, or search your company intranet for "matching gifts," "workplace giving," or "corporate social responsibility." Many employers run their program through an online portal. If you are not sure, contact us and we can help you check.

Does Hope Horizon qualify for matching gifts?

Yes. Hope Horizon East Palo Alto is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 77-0151434. That is the number most employer matching portals ask for when you designate your gift. If your company needs anything else to verify us, we will provide it.

Can my whole team's gifts be matched?

Yes. Each employee submits their own match request, so a team giving day can multiply quickly. If you want to organize a group effort, we can give you a simple one-page guide with our details so nobody has to hunt for the paperwork.

Does volunteering count for a match?

Sometimes. Many employers also offer volunteer grants, sometimes called "dollars for doers," that donate money based on the hours you volunteer. If your company offers this, your afternoons tutoring can turn into a gift on top of your time.