Doubling your Donation: How your Employer can Help

The holiday season comes and goes, and while you sit at your desk reviewing your Christmas expense totals, a thought dawns on you… You forgot your annual charitable donation! As you hastily type the name of your preferred local charity into the Google search bar, you visualize different numbers in your head, mentally wrestling with the idea of maximizing your contribution without breaking your post-holiday bank.

Before you give up and settle on the same donation as last year, STOP! There may be another solution for you.

Many local, state and nation-wide corporations match financial donations made by employees to nonprofit organizations, most often giving one dollar for every dollar donated. This gift matching ratio varies based on the company and sometimes even the position or standing of the donor.

According to America’s Charities, 65% of companies offer gift matching programs with a range of maximum gifts typically varying from $1,000 to $15,000. While this large percentage of companies is willing to match financial donations made by employees, only 7% of employees at qualifying companies utilize such philanthropic programs.

This underwhelming number is largely due to general unawareness on behalf of company employees. A popular gift matching database, Double the Donation, reports that 78% of employees at eligible gift matching companies are unaware of existing programs.

The first step in increasing philanthropic giving for 2020 is taking advantage of existing company programs that financially support nonprofits both locally and around the country.

Unsure if your employer matches financial contributions to your favorite nonprofit organization? Check the list below for popular companies that offer to match employee financial giving.

AARP

ADP Foundation

AT&T Foundation

Bank of America

BKD LLP

Capital Group Companies, Inc.

Charles Schwab Corp Foundation

Chase Manhattan Bank

Deluxe Corporation Foundation

Dow Chemical Co

Duke Energy

Eaton

Eli Lilly and Company Foundation

Emerson Charitable Trust

Federated Department Stores Foundation

Fidelity Foundation

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

Gap Inc

Geico

General Mills Inc.

General Motors Foundation

IBM Corporation

Independence Investment Associates Inc.

JC Penney

John Hancock Financial Services Inc

J P Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Key Foundation

Keystone Associates Inc.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.

Liberty Mutual

Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Lumina Foundation For Education

Microsoft Corp.

McGraw-Hill Foundation

Mineral Technologies

Morgan Stanley & Co.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance

Nordstrom

Pacific Enterprises

PepsiCo Foundation

Pfizer Foundation

PNC Foundation

Regions Bank

Salesforce

Starbucks

State Farm

Strada

TCF Financial Corp.

The Capital Group Companies

United Technologies

US Bancorp Foundation

USA Funds

U.S. Bank

Verizon Foundation

VMS, Inc

Wells Fargo Foundation

K. Kellogg Foundation

Whirlpool Foundation

Wyndham Worldwide Operations, Inc.

Yahoo!