[JillB]

Hi all,

Wasn't quite sure where to post this in the forum... I'm wondering if anyone has any opinions on HEP vs Blackbaud's MatchFinder? We're interested in having a link on our website for donors to lookup whether their company will match their gift. HEP has quoted us a (much) lower price and i can't see any difference between their product and BBs, but just want to cover all my bases - i.e. throw it out to all you wonderful folk!

Thanks!

[haferkamp]

We were just discussing a similar question over in this thread.

I've never used Blackbaud MatchFinder, but it's my understanding that it compares your constituents (based on their Employee/Employer relationships) to a database of matching companies, and gives you various information about the findings.

MatchFinder doesn't sound remotely like the HEP service that provides a webpage--like ours--where donors (or you!) can look up information on a specific company's match program.

Either service could be valuable to you, but they seem to be completely different things.

(I think HEP might offer a database-analysis service similar to Blackbaud MatchFinder--but I haven't used it myself, or looked seriously at it, so I'm not sure.)

[haferkamp]

Jill, I must apologize! It looks like I was wong.

According to their MatchFinder Plus page, Blackbaud actually does offer to make you a website (sounds comparable to HEP's E-Match Donor Link) for looking up match companies. I'm not sure if this is a new element of the MatchFinder service, or if I just hadn't noticed.

Blackbaud's webpage didn't seem to have any samples of the match company listings that would be returned, so I can't say how the information you'd be given would compare--in terms of details--to what HEP would give you.

I was interested to note that the MatchFinder page promises "Copies of corporate matching gift program guidelines." If that means a copy of the program's official guidelines document, then that would really be something! I don't believe HEP (or the CASE Matching Gifts Clearinghouse before them) has ever being able to offer an extensive collection of full program guidelines. . . . Though Blackbaud's blurb doesn't say how extensive a collection they can provide, or whether it's actually the full guidelines and not Blackbaud's summary (like a HEP listing for a match company).

More generally, I personally would be a bit cautious about Blackbaud's ability to do a good job with a matching gifts service--i.e., provide thorough, accurate, informative, clear data, and present/store it in a way I can access and use efficiently. I find RE's matching gift features quite often require me to do a lot of workarounds and manual twiddling, in order to get the results I want.