A step-by-step guide to employer matching gifts: detect eligibility at checkout, automate the request, and follow up to recover lost revenue.
Why matching gifts are the easiest revenue you are not collecting
Thousands of companies match employee donations dollar for dollar, yet industry estimates suggest several billion dollars in matching gifts go unclaimed every year. The money is already promised. The donor already gave. All that stands between you and a second gift is a short employer form most donors never realize they qualify for. For a stretched team, that is not a fundraising campaign, it is found revenue sitting in plain sight.
The problem has never been donor willingness, it is friction and timing. Donors forget, do not know their company participates, or hit a clunky portal weeks later when the moment has passed. We break down the scale of the lost dollars in our look at why matching gifts go unclaimed, but the short version is simple: if you only mention matching in a year-end email, you are leaving most of it on the table. The fix is to surface eligibility at the exact moment of generosity.
Step one: detect eligibility right at checkout
The single highest-leverage change is moving match detection into the giving moment itself. As a donor types their email or employer name, an employer-search field checks it against a live database and instantly tells them whether their company matches and how much. This is where matching gifts earns its keep, powered by Double the Donation, our partner database of over 24,000 companies and their matching policies, so the lookup is accurate and current rather than a guess.
Detection only works if the giving flow does not get in the way. A fast, mobile-friendly checkout keeps donors from abandoning before they ever reach the employer field, which is why pairing detection with an optimized smart checkout matters more than people expect. When the match prompt appears inline, framed as "your employer will double this," donors act in the same session. Capturing employer data at this stage also feeds cleaner records downstream, so you are not chasing details later.
Step two: automate the employer request so it actually happens
Detection without follow-through still loses the gift. The goal is to remove every manual step between "I am eligible" and "the request is submitted." After a match is detected, the donor should see their employer's specific instructions, pre-filled forms where available, and direct links to the company portal, all on the confirmation screen while motivation is highest. The fewer clicks and the less typing, the higher the completion rate, which is the whole game.
Personalized follow-up does the rest of the work. Our DonorCardAI and conversational agents can answer "does my company match" in plain language and walk a donor through submission without a staff member touching it, much like the AI-driven nudges we describe in our donor retention playbook. Because Whitelabel keeps two-way sync with Salesforce, HubSpot and Klaviyo, every detected match and submission status flows into your CRM automatically, so your team sees the pipeline without exporting a single spreadsheet.
Step three: follow up, measure, and keep the money flowing
Most matches are not lost at detection, they are lost in the gap between intent and the employer deadline, which is often months out. Set a simple cadence: an immediate confirmation reminder, a nudge a week later, and a final prompt before the company's submission window closes. Automate these so eligible donors get timely, employer-specific reminders without manual list-building, and so a busy week on your end never costs you a confirmed match.
Treat matching like a tracked program, not a hopeful add-on. Watch detection rate, submission rate and confirmed-match revenue, and use real analytics to see where donors drop off so you can fix that one step. Whitelabel layers on top of your existing stack with no replatforming, and pricing stays all in at 3.5% platform plus 1.5% processing with donors covering fees by default, so the matched dollars you recover are not eaten by surprise costs.
Frequently asked questions
What is Double the Donation and do I need it to run matching gifts?
Double the Donation is a database of corporate matching gift programs covering more than 24,000 companies and their specific policies, forms and deadlines. It is the partner that powers match detection inside Whitelabel, so when a donor enters their employer, the lookup is accurate and current. You do not manage it separately. It works behind the scenes in your giving flow.
How much matching gift revenue do nonprofits typically miss?
Industry estimates suggest several billion dollars in eligible matching gifts go unclaimed each year, largely because donors do not know their employer participates or forget to submit before the deadline. The biggest single lever is detecting eligibility at the moment of donation rather than mentioning it once in a year-end appeal.
Will adding matching gifts slow down or complicate my donation page?
No. Match detection runs as an inline employer-search field that checks eligibility as the donor types, so it adds a prompt rather than a separate step. Because Whitelabel layers on top of your existing stack with no replatforming, you can turn it on without rebuilding your site, and it syncs results into your CRM automatically.