What is Matched Giving?

Matched Giving is when an organisation (normally a company) matches the amount of fundraising an employee does for another organisation (normally a charity). The fundraising of the individual, or indeed a group of individuals is matched from the company's own resource up to a pre-determined level.

Matched giving schemes often see at least a double return for fundraising effort. So if someone raised €1,000 this could be matched by the company and €2,000 could be given in total to the charity. In some instances the company will more then match the donation - sometimes as much a three times the amount raised.

The level of matching applied depends on the companies policy, as does the upper limit of amount raised. €1,500 is not an uncommon threshold above which fundraising is no longer matched.

The important aspect of matched fundraising is that is much be applied for through an employee in a company with an active Matched Giving policy. Such schemes are often used in combination with payroll giving schemes.