Givematcher - Open Matched Giving

A ground-breaking online donation matching marketplace called Givematcher allows any Australian donor to donate to charities and, in real-time, to have their donations matched by a choice of socially-minded companies that have allocated budgets to support the same charities.

Although this makes good sense, Givematcher is first to bring Open Matched Giving, not only to Australia, but to the world, generating substantial national media attention.

Givematcher also has a great ambassador in Simon McKeon, who is a recent Australian of the year, Chairperson of AMP, Chairperson of Melbourne Office of Macquarie Group, Chairperson of CSIRO, and chairperson or director of a number of charities and Not for Profits.

Givematcher launched in mid-Feb 2014.

“The first phase – to sign up charities – has been a great success, with more than 150 charities registering, including some of Australia's largest,” according to founder Sydney-based social entrepreneur and former banking executive Franck Demoiseau.

“The second phase has now started and Givematcher is currently bringing on board companies.

“Givematcher is coming at a perfect time for companies; CSR is high on the agenda with research showing that companies' support for social causes has become a key deciding factor for brand selection.

“Givematcher is a tremendous enabler for companies that are looking to build goodwill, to be more visible in their community support, and to advance their CSR.”

Givematcher’s strength is that it makes full use of the power of Open Matched Giving to bring great new value to companies, donors and charities, triggering a tremendous win-win-win scenario.

“Companies get to help charities more than ever before, by matching donations instead of just donating cash or just giving in-kind services/goods, which leverages their social impact: for example, a company with a charitable budget of $10,000 knows that its matching donation leads to the charity receiving $20,000, doubling its social impact, and providing a good news story to share with its constituents (staff, customers, shareholders, etc.)

“Supporting charities in this way is more visible, raising brand awareness, increasing social recognition, attracting new customers, and deepening customer/staff loyalty. Many companies opt to make this even more visible and derive a strong marketing benefit by offering to match the donations of their customers as well as their other constituents.

“This turns out to be very cost-effective, as everyone sees and appreciates this fantastic gesture, and not everyone will donate. So, this does not require a big budget, and full discretion is maintained about the extent of companies’ financial support,” Demoiseau says.

“Donors greatly appreciate the leveraging benefit and the support of the companies that match their donations. Workplace giving has long shown this appreciation, which leads to higher staff engagement / retention. Until Givematcher though, it had not been possible to get these benefits with customers.

“The goodwill and the marketing collateral Givematcher offers companies wanting to engage customers in their community support and CSR has the potential to provide any company with an important edge.

“Charities also love that they get new donors and that the leveraging effect from the matching donation allows them to attract higher donations, at an industry-low cost.”

There are no sign up or annual costs for the charities or companies. Givematcher retains an admin fee of 7.5 per cent from individual donations, and a 0 per cent fee from the matching company donation.

How It Works for Matching Companies

Companies simply allocate a charitable donation budget without actually wiring the funds to Givematcher. This allocated budget is then used by Givematcher to match donations from those individual donors that select your company as their matcher.

Companies just pre-configure the system with the charities and campaigns they want to support, and set dynamic matching parameters including overall donation budget, charity/campaign level budgets, matching percentages, and maximum individual match, allowing companies to retain control over their donations.

Givematcher sends companies a monthly summary of donations matched to various charities so that they can wire the money directly to the charities or provide the in-kind services/goods to that value.

Givematcher positions companies as caring and wanting to match donations to their preferred charities. It provides them the independent reliable data to be able to substantiate the extent of their sustained contribution to the charitable sector, lets them maintain their own customised Givematcher page, and gives them the freedom to tailor their communications to donors.

They can then capitalise on the exposure generated by Givematcher by giving further visibility in emails to their customers, on their website, on customer receipts and invoices, and their other existing communication channels and contact points.

They will be rewarded with positive public relations, marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility exposure and authenticity.

When it comes to benefits, there is only upside for companies. They get to:

• advance and showcase their Corporate Social leadership;
• drive more donations to their chosen charities by incentivising individual donors with their matching donation;
• build loyalty with existing and potential customers, employees, shareholders and the greater community;
• adjust their allocations at any time;
• improve the efficiency of charitable spend based on valuable real-time feedback;
• access an indispensable vehicle for enabling and financing cross-sector shared value social initiatives and collective impact;
• increase the exposure of their company through Givematcher’s website, Givematcher emails to donors, and Facebook / Twitter traffic amongst donors;
• enjoy all this free of charge.

Gain at No Cost

Givematcher delivers companies a compelling value proposition at no cost to them. They do not even need to allocate their full charitable budget to Givematcher. They are welcome to allocate as little or as much as they want.

For more information, visit https://www.givematcher.com.au/information-for-companies