[BookWorm]

I am wondering if there are directories of companies who match gifts for cultural organizations, educational institutions, etc. I can see that some organizations have a directory online so donors can see if the companies they work for matches gifts for that organization and I'm wondering where to look for information to do something similar.

[Peter Gulka]

This is exactly what blackbaud's matching gift finder service does.
Give your account manager a shout. Generally people rave about the
finders around here.

On 3/7/08, BookWorm <> wrote:
> I am wondering if there are directories of companies who match gifts for
> cultural organizations, educational institutions, etc. I can see that some
> organizations have a directory online so donors can see if the companies
> they work for matches gifts for that organization and I'm wondering where to
> look for information to do something similar.
>
>

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

[Melissa Siobhan]

I do not think that is what their matching gift finder service does at all. What I understand it does is takes your donor file and runs it against their list of matching gift companies.

Unfortunately if you do not have employment info in your database there is no match to a matching gift company. We did a Matching Gift Finder free trial run free at my last job and had a poor match rate because we did not have employment info on many of our records.

There are some places who have a lookup service on their website but I do not know where they get the data from. I have also heard mixed reviews about these lists. Companies change their matching gift policies year to year and even reserve to change their policy at will (in hard financial times) so you are at the mercy of these companies updating their matching info with the vendor which they sometimes do not do.

You can get these vendors telling you that XYZ company has a matching gift program and call their human resources dept for info and find out that they stopped the program three years ago.

[haferkamp]

Do you mean online directory sites like this one? Ours, and all the others I've seen like it, is done through HEP Development Services. (I am not sure exactly what the name of the service is.)

HEP also publishes the Matching Gift Register, which I find absolutely invaluable. I crack it open at least once a day to check a match policy or get contact information.

The online lookup and the paper register list a lot of the same information--such as match ratios and limits, and the procedure an employee must follow to apply for the match.

I believe the online lookup is mostly geared for donors to check whether their companies match gifts. But I refer to it fairly often myself, because it's the most up-to-date, and it contains the full notes for each company (these are frequently curtailed in the paper register). I also like the convenience of typing a name, rather than flipping through the main listings and possibly the indices. There are sometimes companies in the online lookup that aren't in the paper register (recent additions to HEP's database, I think).

On the other hand, the paper register really is my go-to resource, because it includes many useful details that the online lookup does not. Things like what kinds of organizations the company will match to (e.g., cultural organizations), when matching funds are disbursed, and mailing addresses for match programs (online lookup gives only phone and email).

[BookWorm]

Thanks to everyone for the great information.

Haferkamp, your online matching gift directory example is exactly what I'm looking at. Thanks for the links!

Melissa, I was also unimpressed with the free trial run.