Setting Up and Processing Matching Grants 

What are matches? How do I get a match funder? 

Matches (called matching grants in the Mightycause system) are donations you use as tools to help you fundraise. Your nonprofit asks a donor (for example, a board member, local business or community partner) to provide a grant (large donation) to your nonprofit. Then, your nonprofit leverages that grant as an incentive to donate to your fundraising campaign by promising that donations will be matched up to the amount of the grant. The particulars can vary based on your agreement with the match funder and your fundraising strategy. This can often look like one of the following scenarios:

• For every dollar raised, the match funder (called grantor in Mightycause) will give a dollar up to a certain amount of money.
• Once the nonprofit reaches a certain fundraising milestone (such as $1,000), the match "unlocks" and the matching grant is added to your totals.

How much should the match be?

A matching donation doesn’t have to be a huge amount. An amount as low as $200 can be compelling to donors visiting your page!

 Are Match dollars included in Give Local totals and Bonus Fund calculations?

To ensure your match is counted in your final Give Local totals and Bonus Fund calculations, the pledged match funds must be fulfilled (logged as an online gift or offline gift) on your organization’s page by 5:00 PM of the last day of Give Local. This allows us to manually confirm all match funds are recorded and included before Give Local ends.  See Give Local Gifts & Bonus Fund Terms for more details on which gifts count toward your Give Local total, bonus fund terms, and how to enter offline gifts.

Setting Up Your Match:

Check out this 3 min. informational video by Mightycause to learn more about how to set up matching grants for your nonprofit or check out this article: Matching Grants on Mightycause. Note: Give Local does not use leaderboards, so you can disregard any references to them in the article.

You will have the choice to check or uncheck the "include match value in page metrics" box during setup. Here's how this setting works:

• Checking the box during match setup: This allows match contributions to appear in real-time on your organization’s page. When a donor makes a gift to your page, a matching amount is automatically added to the displayed total. 

Note: while match dollars appear in real-time totals, they are NOT real funds until fulfilled (recorded as either an online or offline gift after your match is complete). See below for more on recording match payments and hiding the placeholder match metrics from your page after payment is made (to avoid them appearing twice in your totals).

• Unchecking the box during match setup: The match will not show in your totals in real time; instead, it will show all at once after the match is met and the match funder pays the match as either an online gift OR the gift is logged as an offline gift.

Recording Match Payments:

1. Online Payments (Preferred):

• If you included the match funder's email during setup, they’ll automatically receive an email with a payment link once the match is met. This button allows the funder to fulfill the match as an online gift, replacing any placeholder match metrics with real funds on your page.
• In this case, there is no need to follow up with the donor. They will receive a donation receipt automatically after making their payment.

Notes: 

1. i. If your matching grant funder pays online directly to your Organization Page instead of the email link mentioned above, you will need to ‘hide match metrics’ from page totals. See the instructions below.
2. ii. If a funder uses a matching grant fulfillment link when another match is live, the donation will count towards the live match. Make sure to have your matching grant funders make the donation when no other matching grants are live on your organization page
3. iii. If you have multiple funders contributing to one match (such as a group of board members), the easiest option is to have each person send you a check. This allows you to control when the gifts are entered and fulfill the match without complications while the match is live. See below for how to record these payments.

2. Checks Sent to Your Organization:

• When setting up their match in the system, use your email address (not theirs) to avoid sending them the automated email.
• After the match is complete, manually record their check as an offline donation on your dashboard. Make sure to add this gift when no other matches are live on your organization page, otherwise the donation will count towards the live match. 
• Follow the instructions below for ‘hiding the match metrics’ if you checked the “include match value in page metrics" box during setup.

Note on Tax Receipts: Offline donations don’t generate automated receipts. If the donor makes an offline gift directly to you, be sure to manually send receipts for these donations.  If the Community Foundation is the one receiving and entering the offline gift, we will send the tax receipt.

3. Checks Sent to the Community Foundation:

• If a donor is sending a check directly to the Community Foundation, email Heidi at Heidi@thecommunityfoundation.com to let her know this will be for a match.

• Let us know once the match is met so we can update your totals and hide any metrics if needed.

Hiding Match Metrics: 

To avoid duplicate totals, follow these instructions if you checked “include match value in page metrics” and your match funder's donation is entered outside the match fulfillment link (see the recording online payments section).

1. Once the match is fulfilled and recorded on your page, go to Fundraising Tools > Matching Grants.
2. Under Past Matches, click the three dots next to the closed match.
3. Select Hide Amount from Page Totals.