Matching Gift PTO Fundraising Checklist

Did you know you may be able to significantly increase your PTO fundraising donations without asking your school community for a single extra cent? Matching gifts are a form of corporate philanthropy in which companies match charitable contributions their employees make to eligible nonprofits and schools.

Effectively, this means a donation of $50 from a parent could turn into $100, or even $150, depending on their employer’s ratio. Despite the immense potential of these programs, billions of dollars in matching gift revenue go unclaimed every year simply because donors are unaware of their existence.

Here’s a step-by-step checklist on how to increase donations with matching gifts for your next school fundraiser.

Phase 1: Laying the Foundation for Matching Gifts

Before you launch a full-scale marketing campaign, first ensure that your internal teams understand the corporate giving (and matching gift) landscape. This preparation phase is critical for long-term success.

☐ Step 1: Educate Your Board on the Financial Potential

Get started by presenting the data to your board: an estimated $2 to $3 billion is donated through matching gift programs annually, while an additional $4 to $7 billion goes unclaimed. When you frame it as “free money” that is currently being left on the table, it becomes a priority rather than an afterthought.

☐ Step 2: Appoint a Matching Gift Coordinator

Your school will be better served by appointing one person as an expert matching gift coordinator. Therefore, assign a specific volunteer or committee member to own this initiative. This person does not need to be a corporate fundraising expert immediately, but having a designated point person ensures the initiative does not fall through the cracks.

☐ Step 3: Verify Your School’s Eligibility

Not all organizations automatically qualify for every program, though most K-12 institutions and educational organizations do. Your coordinator should confirm that your PTO or school foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) organization, as this is a standard requirement for most corporate giving platforms.

Phase 2: Optimizing Your School’s Digital Presence

Once your PTO fundraising team is aligned, ensure your digital infrastructure is set up to capture matching gifts. If the process is difficult or confusing, busy donors will likely abandon the effort.

☐ Step 4: Audit Your Donation Forms

The most critical moment to capture a matching gift is during the online donation process itself. Ideally, your giving form should include a simple company search field or a checkbox asking, “Does your employer match gifts?”

If you use a tool like Double the Donation, this search field can automatically provide donors with company-specific forms and guidelines immediately after they give.

☐ Step 5: Create a Dedicated Matching Gifts Page

Your website is the central hub for information about your cause. For the best results, create a dedicated “Matching Gifts” page on your school or PTO website. This page should serve as a permanent resource for educating supporters, explaining the benefits to your school, and providing enrollment links or instructions. This is also the perfect place to list major employers that are known to match gifts, such as Home Depot, Verizon, or Microsoft.

☐ Step 6: Simplify the Submission Process

The easier you make it to get a gift matched, the more revenue you will raise. If possible, you can even use software that offers auto-submission capabilities, like Double the Donation. This allows qualifying donors to submit their matching gift request directly from the donation thank-you page, without logging in to a separate corporate portal, reducing significant friction in the process.

Phase 3: Marketing Matching Gifts to Donors

You cannot rely on a single matching gift mention in a single newsletter to drive results. To truly increase matching gift donations, you must integrate the message into every communication channel your PTO uses.

☐ Step 7: Launch an Email Awareness Campaign

Email has the highest ROI of any marketing platform. Therefore, incorporate matching gifts into your regular email flows to keep the opportunity top of mind. Send a dedicated email blast explaining how matching gifts work for school fundraising, and include a “P.S.” in every standard fundraising appeal that reminds parents and other donors to check their eligibility. For example, “Did you know your gift of $25 could become $50? Check if your employer matches donations here.”

☐ Step 8: Leverage Social Media

Social media is an ideal channel for raising awareness and normalizing matching gifts as part of everyday generosity. For the best results, share graphics that visually demonstrate the impact of a matched gift (e.g., “Your $50 + Employer Match = $100 for our Library”). You can also use social media to publicly thank companies that offer matching gifts, encouraging other donors to participate as well.

☐ Step 9: Utilize Diverse Marketing Channels

Don’t limit yourself to digital alone. Include matching gift information in direct mailings, postcards, event flyers, and more. If you produce a printed directory or a welcome packet for new families, ensure a section on corporate matching is prominently featured. The goal is to cast a wide net and ensure every parent knows that their employer might be willing to support their child’s education.

☐ Step 10: Implement a Follow-Up Strategy

Donors often intend to submit a match but forget in the busyness of life. Implementing a strong follow-up strategy is essential for maximizing workplace giving. After a donation is made, follow up with a reminder encouraging the donor to submit a matching gift request to their employer. Automated email streams can handle this for you, sending a reminder a few days after the gift is made to ensure the opportunity isn’t lost.

Phase 4: Advanced Strategies for Maximum Revenue

Once you’ve mastered the basics, use these advanced PTO fundraising matching gift strategies to squeeze every possible dollar out of your fundraising efforts.

☐ Step 11: Activate the Double the Donation Integration

All organizations using Boosterthon’s online fundraising platform, MyBooster, can access the Double the Donation integration during a Boosterthon fundraiser to raise more through corporate matching. This powerful integration seamlessly incorporates matching gifts into the donation flow. When a donor pledges a donation per lap or a flat amount on the Booster platform, they can be prompted to search for their employer.

The tool then identifies their eligibility and provides the necessary forms or links to submit the match request immediately. By leveraging this integration, you significantly increase the likelihood of a submitted match.

☐ Step 12: Promote Volunteer Grants

Financial donations aren’t the only thing companies match. Thousands of companies offer volunteer grant programs where they provide monetary donations to nonprofits and schools based on the number of hours their employees volunteer. Since PTOs often rely heavily on volunteers, this is a massive untapped revenue source. Encourage your volunteers to log their hours and check whether their employer offers “Dollars for Doers” grants. 

☐ Step 13: Track Your Results

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. To understand the overall effectiveness of your workplace giving strategy, you need to track key performance indicators (KPIs). Monitor the number of matching gift submissions, the total revenue generated, and the percentage of donors who engage with your matching gift appeals. This data will help you refine your approach and demonstrate the value of these efforts to your school board.