 Today's on demand give big training is focused on matching grants. My name is Sarah and I'm from mighty cause and mighty cause is the technology partner for give big St. Craig Valley. So for today we're talking all about matching grants we're super excited there's a lot of content to cover. But basically fundraising is all about getting your supporters excited about charitable giving and matching grants is just an incredible tool that you can start to use to get your donors motivated to give. So we're going to break everything down you need to know as far as how to secure a matching grant and how to set up a matching grant. So here we go. So what is a matching grant matching grants are a fundraising tool that is used as basically a donation incentive so your nonprofit is going to secure a large donation or even a smaller donation, which is offered up as a match to incoming donations. So basically if someone gives you know $10 they'll get $10 match that would be a one to one match. So if you've ever wondered whether it's better to receive just a one big donation or a bunch of small donations matching grants are just a really great fundraising tool that will give you both at the same time which is really great. A matching grant can either be provided in advance or it can be set as conditional upon meeting meeting a certain fundraising goal. The terms itself for the match can vary based on you and your grantor, but the end result is the same. So your nonprofit is building fundraising momentum, you're getting your donors excited about giving by offering to match their donations, and then your matching grant helps get you closer to achieving your fundraising goals for give big. So why matching grants. We have some, you know, four main bullet points here so one it creates urgency so by offering the chance to make your money go further for a short period of time that's going to entice a lot of donors and help, you know incentivize to give while your matches live. It helps make the donors money go further so that it's also another incentive for why to use matching grants. Everyone likes to have, you know, more bang for their buck. So by creating a match and advertising your match and letting your donors know that you have a match live. This is going to incentivize a large group of donors to give well the matches live. During the day, you know, during live, the live event for give big it's a really great to try and schedule a couple couple matching grants to try to just give your campaign a boost during the day. We have this example here a buy one get one store like if you're shopping at a store buy one get ones are going to entice a lot of people to make the purchase to give the money. And in this case, help, you know, your campaign get even further. We also are going to help you create a clear actionable call to action so when it comes to donating people like to be told, you know, in very direct terms, how they can help you and what is the best way for them to offer their donation when is the best time to give. So with a matching grant you definitely have a perfect call to action. The matching grant is live you're going to let everyone know, give now to double your gift to double your donation. And then it also definitely empowers donors who are giving in smaller amounts so not all supporters are able to you know have the same financial means to be able to give larger gifts and sometimes that can be discouraging to donors who give in smaller amounts they might feel like it doesn't make as much of a difference. And they all know that smaller gifts definitely start to add up and they are definitely, you know, every gift counts. So by offering a matching gift. This is going to empower donors who given smaller amounts to be able to give more and feel like what they're giving is actually boosting your campaign and boosting the impact. So for wonderful reasons to start thinking about how to utilize matching grants. So moving into how to secure a matching grant, securing a matching grant isn't going to be very different from working to get a major gift, or to find a sponsor for your campaign so there are three basic steps you can take to get a match for your next campaign for give big, you can prospect cultivate and ask those are kind of our main breakdown so for step one for prospecting. So prospecting is basically the process of determining who might be able to help provide a matching grant to your organization. So even if your nonprofit is small odds are you have people already involved with your nonprofit that would be good prospects for providing matching funds. So you'll pretty much start by making a list of kind of stakeholders within and outside of your organization, and then filtering them based on a few key factors. So first before you start you'll want to determine your needs for this campaign. Of course matching grants they play a supportive role in your fundraising effort, they're definitely a tool you can use to push your organization closer to its goals. So when you're starting to think about a matching grant the first thing you're going to want to do is really start to understand what it is that your fundraising goals are and what you want the matching grant to do for you. Some examples do you want it to push your fundraiser to raise more money is a major goal for you to get more donor acquisition like new donors. So how much are you looking to raise for your campaign overall, and how much would you need a matching funds to kind of try to make that match the emptying to donors during the day. So understanding how you'll use a matching grant will help you determine what kinds of supporters to include on your list. You can think about, you know, also starting to target donors, maybe larger gift givers who have given to your campaign in the past and you're likely kind of thinking that they might give again those would be kind of people to add to your list to consider for a match at a high level. You can also look within so every nonprofit you all have a few groups of people who should always be on your list of prospects for matching grants. We always want to start with your board of directors, one of the most common sources of matching grants during, you know, give big and giving days are your board members. The digital board members may be willing to provide grants but boards you can also consider pooling together money for a match. So fundraising overall is one of your board's primary commitments to your organization so your board is definitely kind of a natural starting place to start to look when you're prospecting and kind of searching and figuring out who could provide a matching grant. And then like we I said a little earlier, matching donors, major donors. The major of future behavior is always past behavior. So if you have any donors with a history of giving at a higher level, those people might be at the top of your list as well. And then any existing sponsors so any companies or organizations you've had sponsorship relationships within the past. Those would be good matching grant prospects as well. It's easier to cultivate an existing relationship then start a brand new one. So don't feel like you have to reinvent the wheel. You don't have to start completely from scratch start with the people and the groups who you already have as part of your nonprofit circle. And then some criteria for consideration. There's a few key items that can help you determine whether a prospect is likely to give. You'll want to make sure you do a little bit of research on each prospect with some things in mind. If you have a prospect connected to your cause, what's your relationship, you want to make sure there's a strong link between, you know, your prospect grant maker and your organization in order for the prospect to be worth pursuing. Does your prospect have a history of giving to organization have they given to, you know, other organizations like yours if you're looking at someone new. Prospects usually have a strong history of philanthropy. So if you're looking at, you know, previous donors who have given in larger amounts. Those would be good prospects. And then it's just overall it's important to do the research and just make sure you're organized before you practically start reaching out to secure a matching grant so all of this information should just help you start to think about those conversations that you're going to make and help, you know, allow you to make a very more much more informed ask before you do so. Getting into step two for cultivate nonprofit development. It's all about building relationships. So this step is really where your nonprofit starts to reach out so you get to know your prospects you start building the relationship or, you know, reopening that relationship and you haven't, you know, communicated or outreach to the donor very recently. Hopefully you are because you know you want to keep your donors close, but cultivation is very individual it's very tailored to the type of relationship that each prospect has with your organization. So obviously a board member is going to require less get to know you than someone who might be a little more new to your work. If that's somebody on your list. Likewise, you're going to interact with the company in a very different way than you will an individual supporter. If you are reaching out to like a sponsor to reach out for a match for your organization. But ideally the relationship you're building with your donors are going to last throughout your campaigns. So it's going to build many gifts into the future and many more conversations. So as you're talking to these, you know, starting to cultivate and you know reach out and put the feelers out make sure you're taking notes listen to what they're saying maybe it's not a good year for them because XYZ maybe they need you to ask earlier. Or maybe they need you to ask a little closer to the event. Make sure you're taking all these notes because you can come back, you know, at another time if it doesn't work out. You can use that information to help you make a match during a future campaign or even, you know, next year's get big. But you can learn a lot by reaching out to these potential prospects. How does your donor like to be contacted as a preference for how they, you know, everyone's totally different so definitely do your research take your notes. And, you know, if it doesn't work out you have the knowledge for this donor for a potential future match. But if it does work out you know you move into step three for your ask. This is where of course all your hard work you've poured into getting organized doing your research and chatting with your prospect will hopefully pay off. It's generally the easiest part of the process but there are a few tips that can help me get more likely so that you'll hear a yes, and help secure that matching grant. So you should definitely be prepared to break down and more detailed for your prospect how matching grants work your plans for the campaign. What time you're thinking for the match what it can do for your nonprofit any goals you have if you're trying to raise like you know a total dollar amount where you're trying to secure a new donors by like having a match. Let them know how providing them matching grant is going to benefit you at the organization while also benefiting them so do some homework make a solid pitch to help you feel more confident. And your prospect will feel more confident in your nonprofit because they have all of this information they can tell that you've done the research. Be sure to tailor your ass to your grantor's interest so donors are going to give because they give something out of it they get something out of it at the end of the day. So this is where you know your research and conversations help make the difference, you know what they're interested in what speaks to them to use that to help make an ass that is going to resonate with them. For instance, one example is a corporate prospect, you know a corporate sponsor who's making a matching grant get for you. They may want to know that you're going to provide you know some publicity for them and make the process obviously as simple as possible so we'll get into another side kind of the different areas that you can add publicity if the grantor wants it. But things like this are good little kind of tokens to carry with you because you know how the match works you know how the feature works on give big and all of that is going to help you make a more compelling pitch. So matching grant features on the give big and may cause platform, we have total flexibility on start and end times you can start a grant in the past which is really nice so if you forget to start your match and you need to backdate it we can totally do that. We have the ability to queue matching grants one after the other. So if you have, you know how to really successful kind of first three cold debate as type of steps. Don't feel like you can only do one match you can schedule them throughout the day. We have the ability to include matching grants amount in your total raised on your organization page. We have the ability to include offline donations in your matching grant totals if you want offline donations to count towards the match. We have a bunch of various matching types that you can choose from. You can review your upcoming and past matching grants. And of course you can download a full reports with all the data for your previous matching grants once they close. So moving into what a live match looks like. We have a couple really great features to show that the matches live on your organization page for give big. The match and grant is live donors are going to see a badge kind of like a little sticker. You can see right here saying that there is one matching grant live and alerts them that the match is now available if they click this donate button their their donation is going to be matched. So many cause auto calculates how much of the match has been fulfilled for you so you can kind of you can see you know how much of the grant is left. So in your donations report you can also see which donations were matched it'll let you know specifically which ones have a match and then how much the wet amount. And then on your organization page we also have a kind of a grant summary block that will appear on the main page. If you scroll down a little bit and it'll show live matching grant with a bit more detail people can see you know a photo that you've added that you know the title of the match who's sponsoring it, if they choose to not be anonymous. So a lot of good stuff available to you, you'll definitely still want to use you know your own marketing and not just rely on the page itself you want to you know send out emails and use social media. But this is kind of some different features so that people can see that the matches live on your page. So how to add a matching grant for your organization. So your matching grant tool it's going to be located on your dashboard for your organization under the drop down menu fundraising, and then you can click matching grants and you'll end up on the matching grants dashboard it looks something like this. So you'll have your live matches a little below that you'll have you know your, your past matches so you can pull the reports from them. And then this is what the screen looks like when you're ready to make a new match. So right on your match manager page you can click the plus sign create. And you can start to build out your match. So, kind of briefly what it looks like you can add your match sponsor you can choose to hide the beam publicly. And what this include match value and page metrics means this will be the total value for your match you can add the photo. If your grantor doesn't have a photo say that's not a corporate sponsor and they don't want to personal photograph of themselves up there, you can always just add, you know, your own logo to this match just to add a little bit. Just to add a visual element to your match. So you can see there you can set the start and time and the date, and then we'll get into kind of the different features available for the match setup but there's a bunch to choose from. So as you're getting ready and you're thinking about matches. It's helpful to just go to this page click create and just kind of look and read and see what all is available to you. So when it comes to match types and matched conditions. The most common type of match is going to be your one to one match so basically that means each donation that comes in is matched in full until the grant is filled or there's no more money left. However, there are other options you can also choose from if you'd like to set up your matching grant a little differently or if you've already done a one to one match and you're curious about what else is out there. So you can match a specific percentage of each donation. We need to like this option you're asked to enter percentage this option is automatically set to 100% so that you're one to one match. However, this can be a handy tool if you'd like to stretch your grant a little further by matching only a portion of each donation like only 50%. Or if you'd like to be, you know, super generous and grant that money and match that in two to one ratio which would be 200% so you can play around with the percentage of what amount is match. You can also match a maximum dollar amount per donation. So the tool allows you to cap the amount that can be matched so this helps ensure that you're matching grants so you have $1000 is not fulfilled too quickly with a couple large donations. So we always want you know large donations they're wonderful. But if someone comes in, you have $1000 grant that's live and someone comes in and makes, you know, a $500 donation that absorbs a $500 of your grant. And then that doesn't leave a lot of room left for you know those smaller gift givers and other people to do that kind of buy one get one. So if you have $1000 match available, it's good to consider setting a cap to say something like $100. So you can, you know, let a bunch of people start to get a little bit out of that match. We also have the cumulative threshold match. This allows this match allows you to create different styles. You can also apply total match when cumulative donations equal the match value. You can also apply total match when a certain quantity of donate. So then we also have cumulative threshold matches. These also are a different style of match. There's a couple different options here. The one that I'm going to kind of highly is apply total match when a certain quantity of donations is received so you can put a little more limitations on this. Okay, so moving on to match types and match conditions. Of course, the most common type of grant money cause and during a give big campaign is going to be a one to one match. So that means that each donation is matched in full until the grant is fulfilled. However, there are a couple other options that you can also choose and we'd like to set up something a little different maybe you've already done that you're looking for something new. So we have, of course, you know, you can play around with the specific percentage that is matched or from each donation a one to one match would be 100% match. You could do a 50% match if you would like to only match, you know, half of the amount that somebody gives. Or if you want to be more generous and you feel like a two to one ratio would be really exciting you could also do something like that which would be a 200% match. We also have matching a maximum dollar amount per donation. This is a nice feature, because it allows you to just cap the amount that can be matched so this ensures that you know $1,000 grant isn't fulfilled too quickly with a few large donations. So if you have $1,000 match available and you've set a cap to $100, you can prevent a few big donations from wiping out your entire grant. We also have cumulative threshold matches which are a couple different options here. You can do an all or nothing match where a grantor agrees to give you you know $1,000 only if you can raise $1,000. We also have applied total match when a certain quantity of donations is received so this option creates a match that is based on the number of donations you receive so for example, you can set up a match that will only be fulfilled once you receive 20 donations. So this isn't based on unique donors. This is if you know anybody who gave so if a donor donates twice that would be considered two donations towards your match. This is a great option to utilize if you are participating in a giving day. It just adds a little bit of extra excitement. You can, you know, really rally people based on how many donations are needed for your match so you can say we need 10 more donors. So it adds a little momentum during the day. We also apply total match on a certain number of unique donors as reached. So this option creates a match based on the number of unique donors versus what we just talked about. So for online donations unique donors, they're considered unique through email address. So for example, if two different individuals donate to your cause we count them individually because they have different email addresses. So it's a good option to utilize if you're participating in a giving day that has, you know, special power hours or prizes so we have to wait and see specifically what the prizes for give big for this year will be but once we know you can definitely start to consider how you set up your match based on different prizes and the conditions for each for setting match conditions. So you have a couple of match conditions that you can include on your match. So you can set a minimum per donation amount before the match is applied. So this option allows you to create a minimum donation amount before a donation is applied towards a match. So an example would be if you would like to motivate donors to donate at a higher amount at a specific time you can set your match up so that only donations over a certain amount go towards the match so maybe only donations over $25 go towards the match. And that definitely incentivizes donors to give a little more if they have the ability. If you give $25 and you'll end up actually getting, you know, $50 towards the campaign. You can also include offline donations in the match. Obviously, you know, this is something we talked about and go in a little bit more detail because this tends to be a point of confusion, but this option is automatically enabled. So we can talk more about whether or not you should enable it or shouldn't enable it. It's coming up. We also have include organization fundraisers in the match. If you're adding a matching grant through your organization page, you're going to see this option. It's also automatically enabled for organizations. So this means that all campaigns, any peer to peer fundraising campaigns created for your organization will be included in the match. So if you would like only your organization page to be included with the match, you're going to want to unselect that option. But if you're comfortable having, you know, the match applied to anybody who has given on any page, even if it's not your directly organization page, this would be like if a board member created a peer to peer fundraising page. If someone made a gift on their peer to peer fundraiser, you would also match it there. So something to think about. And then we also have apply match once per donor. So this option is going to give me the ability to have the match count once per donor. It's a great option if you're looking to bring in new donors or you want to reach a specific, you know, donor count for the match period or during the day. So all things to consider, you can of course, you know, if you don't need to do any of this, you can only do the things, you know, that you want, maybe you're brand new to matches, maybe you want to stick with the one to one 100% kind of match. But if you haven't done it before, it's a definitely a very robust tool that you can kind of go in and spend some time like really tinkering with. There's a lot of good stuff that you can do with it. And so this brings us to the setting include match value and page metrics. So I wanted to talk about this in a little more detail because sometimes it tends to be a point of confusion. So underneath the value amount when you're setting up your match, you can see it right here in red include match value and page metrics is automatically checked so you can decide whether or not you want to keep it checked or you want to disable it. So basically keeping this box checks means that the total raised dollar amount on your page is going to include a visual of your grant money. So for example, if you have a one to one match for $1000 say and you keep that box checked, then if your donor makes a $5 gift, your fundraising page metric is going to automatically jump up to $10 so it's showing that additional $5 from the match. In real time. So if the same match were to set to disable that box, then when they make their $5 gift, the pay your metrics on your page are just going to display the $5 donation it's not going to show in, you know, real time that additional $5 gift. So when it comes to whether or not you should include page value and metrics, it really is going to depend on whether or not your donor is going to make their gift as either an online gift or an offline gift. So if your grantor plans to fulfill their match online. That means we recommend disabling this option so do not reflect you know your match value and page metrics that's the easiest thing to do. Because basically, once your, you know your grantor you let them know hey the match has been met you can go online you can make your gift. Once they go and make that gift you are then going to see that $1,000 reflected immediately on your page because that grantor made the online gift. If you keep this enabled, and then your grantor goes and also makes the gift online you're there by basically doubling the match so it's going to reflect an additional $1,000 so you'll actually see $2,000 in your page metrics. If you happen to have this happen, and you see too much reflected on your organization's metrics that's totally fine. This happens you can go to your matches page and you can go to the closed match. And next to each of the matches that have closed you'll see a little eyeball with a kind of a cross out icon. So that means when you click that it is basically going to uncheck that box on that match. So you'll no longer see that additional kind of we call it fake money, because then you know the grantor hasn't actually paid it yet, you will no longer see that match reflected. So that's the way to fix that. If your grantor plans have filled their match offline then you can choose to either keep it enabled or disabled depending on the condition of your match and the conditions on your page setting so you have an option within your organization metrics display to decide if you want to show offline and offline gifts. If you're not showing offline gifts, then you can keep this enabled because you're not going to see it reflected when you add the donors gift as an offline donation. Same thing if you decided to keep this checked in your donor, the grantor says okay the match has been fulfilled. Here's a check for you know the $1,000 match, you're going to want to go to your page and add that offline gift and so that it doesn't get doubled so you're getting that $2,000 situation with $1,000 reflected. You can still go to that little match and cross out to the icon there by unchecking the box so that all you see on your page is the actual real money that has been submitted as an offline donation. I want to address this to a couple more additional settings I wanted to touch on. So setting up match notifications. So, once you've entered all your match parameters, you also have the option to enter the contact information or the email address for the grantor or the person at your nonprofit who should be notified when the grant is fulfilled. This email is going to go out and it's going to include a link where the donor the grantor can make their gift online to fulfill the match. So if your grantor has already communicated to you that they're going to give you a check, then they, you might want to have the grantor in that email you can, you know, disregard it and you can put whatever person at your nonprofit should be notified. Maybe you have special outreach already in place for the grantor. You can be notified and then you can let the grantor know and whatever whatever way that you need. If you're comfortable and you want the grantor to get the email. It's a really great email. And it just says, you know, it gives like an option for them to click and complete payment and let some know that the grant has been fulfilled. So, moving into editing a matching grant so if at any point you need to edit your matching grant while it is live or if it's still upcoming you can head back to your matching grants area that dashboard and you can select the pencil icon on the right side of the corresponding match. Once a match has been closed you can no longer edit it just so that you know. And then of course reviewing your matches. You can also always access match history through your matching grants area that dashboard that you keep talking about. If you'd like to download a full report of your past matches you can simply select download full report at the top right corner of your past matches section. You can also download kind of a singular report on the past match by just selecting the download icon next to the specific match that you want to pull that data from. And then of course like we keep talking about if you need to hide a match amount from your page totals, maybe you're reflecting too much. Maybe the grantor is about to go make their gifts so you want to cross off the value that is already being reflected on the page you can click that little eyeball icon next to the match that has already closed. So coming into promoting your matching grant. You should definitely start to plan kind of how you're going to market your match because it is a really great marketing strategy when you have a live match. You don't want it to go to waste you need to make sure people know about it so you should start to plan at least one email announcing the matching grant, and then you can follow up with reminders and any emails that are going out about your campaign. You can also include it in monthly e-newsletters if you have one. You know as you're hearing up for the campaign if you've already secured a match and you want people to know, you know, during the day from this hour to this hour going to have a match so if you want to give during that time you can double your gift. But basically repetition is going to make sure it sticks in people's minds. And it also gives people lots of opportunities to learn about the matching grant in case they don't click and read every email from you. So definitely plan on sending an email reminder once the grant becomes active, you'll want to send out, you know, a note to everybody if your grantor wants to be acknowledged you can also make sure to link to their business if they are, you know, a corporate kind of sponsored match or their website and then definitely thank them for their generosity and providing the grant in your emails. And for social media you should also plan kind of the same kind of route with email for social media. Announce the match on social media reminder followers about the match and create a graphic or do a short quick video let them know this is, you know, live it's happening now. Let them know when it begins and you can also post updates on how much you've raised from the match how much of the matches left. So something that you talk about might feel like a little bit too much about a match but everybody is not online at the same time. And people are only going to see it when they go on so they need to hear about it so you need to post about it, give them status updates you know $100 left of the match. 20 minutes left of the match that type of thing is going to really kick people into gear and help them, you know, give them the momentum to go make a gift. And then, as we kind of wrap up a little bit. Once your match is met and your campaign is over you're definitely going to want to close the loop with your grantor. So if you included the grantor's email address when you set up the match, which we talked about on another slide. Mighty Cause is going to automatically send the grantor a notification email letting them know that their match has been met once it's complete so that's exciting. The email is going to have a button for them where they can make their match as an online gift if they would like. They can either make their gifts through that button, or they can totally disregard it if you and your grantor have already made plans for how they will fulfill their match, whether it's an offline donation like a check. And they don't have to make it through that button if they want to make it at another time online during the day. So that's totally fine as well. But when it comes to thank you on post match make sure you share the stats with them so whatever that looks like, however much you raise in total for the day, maybe how much you raise from the match while it was active how many donors engage and use the match. That's all very exciting reporting and news for your grantor. I'm enjoying the impact that the matching grants had is a really great way to motivate your grantor to do it again to provide another match in the future during another give big campaign. And then you'll want to make sure you tie up any loose ends with the grantor quickly post event. So whether that's you know sending a letter thinking them acknowledging your donation whatever you do, kind of on your end to close the loop with the grantor to make them feel appreciated. Make sure you want to, you know, do that pretty quickly and follow up. Here's an example of the automatic email. This one is for a different giving event, but this is kind of an example of what it looks like. You can see the stat how much of the grant was completed and how much was raised by how many people so two donors made use of the grant. So, very cool stuff. I hope all of you will take some time after reviewing this webinar and start to think about ways that you can use your match. And one thing I always like to stress, when I talk about matches is that it doesn't have to be a huge match. It just has to, you know, be something that is enough that people can take advantage of it. So if you don't have a large donor, if you don't have $1,000, if you don't have $500, think about what you do have. Maybe that's $200. Maybe you can get two people to give $100 each for your matching grant for give big and then you have $200 that people can take advantage of. Every amount is going to help. And it's a cool way to kind of like dip your toes in and see what matches are all about if you're brand new. So that's a match. That's a wrap on our matching grants webinar. Thank you for taking the time to check it out. We have a ton of resources on matching grants and our mighty cause support library and our research center. So be sure to check that out. Thank you everyone and happy fundraising.