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Matching gifts without pledges

Patrick Kelleher-Calnan

We sometimes get matching gifts coming in that don't have an existing matching gift pledge. Maybe someone didn't tell us that they submitted their gift to their employer for a match, maybe a payroll donation comes in via Benevity with the match already included. To the best of my knowledge, you cannot add a matching gift payment without first creating a matching gift pledge. This makes data entry for these gifts cumbersome, and i've found such gifts in my database that were simply added as cash.

Does anybody have any tips or tricks for dealing with these sorts of gifts? I'd love to get these gifts processed more efficiently.

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JoAnn Strommen

As to gift and MG coming at the same time, I don't know that it can be done any differently than to first enter the gift and then the MG. Our gift entry person would enter the gifts first and then do a separate batch for the matches. It does make sense that you can't match a gift until the gift is in the system.

We have had a few of the unknowns/no gift to match, too. Latest was for volunteer hours. How do you put hours on a consituent record to match? LOL We've had to just enter as a cash gift and make note/reference on the gift that it was a match.

Will follow to see if anyone else has some tips.

Wendy Bondeson

We use appeal 'Matching Gift' and 'Workplace Giving' to accommodate for those that come in the same payout or that we don't know what gift it is matching. We also use a package 'VH' when it we know it is for Volunteer Hours. It works for us.

Patrick Kelleher-Calnan

Thanks @JoAnn Strommen and @Wendy Bondeson! That is about what I expected. Using appeal records to track matching gifts is an interesting idea for a work around.. I'll have to mull that one, though for now I think I want to use the matching gift types to track these gifts.

Steff McCusker

Hi there! My workaround is entering both gifts, but using a "subtype" for the matching gift: "match" and adding a note in the comment indicating which gift this match was affiliated with (and soft-crediting the original donor for said match). I also make a note in the comment section of the donor's original gift indicating that the gift was then matched by such-and-such organization. We are a small enough organization that this workaround is ok for us…so far.

Rachel Kauer

Hi Patrick,

We run into this situation fairly often as well, especially with gifts coming in through Benevity, Frontdoor/Cybergrants, and similar platforms where the match arrives before we’ve created a matching gift pledge in the system - often because we were never notified of the application.

In Raiser’s Edge, you’re correct that you can’t apply a matching gift payment unless there is a matching gift pledge first. What has worked well for us is this:

Confirm it’s a company match.
In the gift details (especially for Benevity and other third-party platforms), we look at the source information to see whether the payment is:
- A company matching gift, or
- An individual payroll deduction/employee gift or credit card payment.
Find the original individual gift.
Once we know it’s a company match, we go back to the most recent related gift from the individual donor that the company is likely matching.
Create the matching gift pledge from that gift.
From the individual’s gift record on what is most likely the related gift, we use the option to create a Matching Gift (i.e., a matching gift pledge) to the company.
- We set the pledge date to the date of the company’s payment that has just arrived.
- We enter the pledge amount to match the actual company gift we received
Apply the matching gift payment.
Once the pledge is created, we can enter the company’s matching gift as a matching gift payment or apply it against that pledge in the batch, using the date the funds were actually received.

This keeps the data clean and still allows us to record the gift correctly as a matching gift (instead of simple cash), even if no pledge existed ahead of time.

For Benevity and other 3rd party platform gifts where the employee portion and the match come together, we rely on the Benevity detail to separate the employee gift from the company match and then follow the same process -employee gift first, then create the matching gift pledge and payment from that.

It’s a few extra clicks, but once you get into the rhythm of “match arrives > locate last individual gift > create matching gift pledge > enter matching gift payment,” it goes pretty quickly and keeps reporting and crediting accurate.

I should also note that when we receive gifts from a third-party platform like Benevity, we treat the platform similarly to a bank check. We give the hard credit directly to the individual or company donor, and then record the platform source in the Reference field or as a specific gift code, rather than crediting the platform itself as the donor.

For ACH payments and checks that come through with multiple gifts, we break out the individual gifts in the batch and apply the same approach - hard credit to the true donor, with the third-party platform or processor simply noted as the payment source.

I hope this helps thanks!

Tioga Anderson

With the switch to most matches coming through third-party processors, I no longer utilize the matching gift function very much. Only use it for the few gifts that come with a paper form that I have to fill out and send back. I now use a 'matching gift payment' appeal code and soft credit the donor whose gift is being matched.

Patrick Kelleher-Calnan

Thanks @Steff McCusker, @Rachel Kauer, and @Tioga Anderson!

Tioga - That's a good point on where the matching gifts are coming from. I could see using an appeal code becoming messy for my reporting because of the other ways we're using soft credits (spouses, DAFs). Something to mull for sure.

Miki Martin

When I was at a small org I followed the process @Rachel Kauer does. I liked this process because it felt cleanest.

At my current, much larger org, because they were having so many issues with MG pledges carrying into a new fiscal year and possibly not being fulfilled, they switched to an appeal for both the Corporate Employee Giving and Matching Gift. It is a lot easier, for sure, especially when entering those large Benevity donations. We hard credit the platform, though, and soft credit the donor for the employee portion and the company's foundation for the match. We do not soft credit the donor for the match. The biggest struggle I have with this process is not being able to easily see whether donations were ever matched or when.

Candy Reichert

We do the same process as Rachael only we hard credit the DAF for both gifts.

I enter both employee and employer gift in the same batch, including notes as to dates of original gifts, giver, and Matching Org, and soft credit the original donors. I have the employee gift create the matching pledge at the time I process the batch. Then open the Matching gift and manually apply it to the Matching pledge after the batch is committed. If you have a saved recurring gift batch in dbv, it is important to remember to update the matching gift pledge info with each new batch because it saves from the last gift processed.

I wonder how using the appeal tracking process would affect the VSE Case reporting.

Rachel Kauer

@Candy Reichert

Just to clarify our practice: we treat only treat third‑party pass‑through platforms the same way we treat bank checks (we hard‑credit the company/individual making the payment rather than the platform itself.)

Donor‑advised fund (DAF) sponsors are handled differently. For DAF gifts, we hard‑credit the DAF sponsor as the legal donor, and we soft‑credit the recommending individual.

Sorry, I should have clarified what I meant!