How to double your impact: a donor's guide to matching gifts

A lot of donors give to United Way of Pekin once a year and never think about it again until the next ask comes around. But there's a quiet way many of those same donors could be giving twice as much without spending another dollar, and most of them don't know it exists.

It's called a matching gift program, and it works like this. Many employers, especially mid-sized and large companies in the Pekin area, will match a portion or all of a charitable donation their employees make. You give a hundred dollars to United Way of Pekin. Your employer gives another hundred. Suddenly your gift just doubled, and it didn't cost you a thing extra.

The catch is that almost nobody asks. Studies on workplace giving consistently find that a large share of matching gift funds go unclaimed every year simply because the donor never submitted the paperwork or didn't realize their employer offered the benefit at all.

Here's how to find out if you're one of those people. Start with your HR department or your employee benefits portal and search for "matching gifts" or "charitable match." If your company uses a giving platform, it may already have United Way of Pekin listed. If you can't find anything, a quick email to HR asking whether the company has a matching gift program is usually all it takes.

Once you confirm a match is available, the process is typically simple. Most employers ask for the donation amount, the date, and the name of the organization, which for us is United Way of Pekin, serving Pekin, North Pekin, South Pekin, Tremont, Hopedale, and Marquette Heights. Some companies handle the whole thing online in a few minutes. Others ask you to submit a short form alongside your gift receipt.

If your employer doesn't currently offer a matching program, you're not out of options. Many companies are open to starting one if an employee asks, and we're glad to provide whatever documentation a company needs to get a program off the ground.

A dollar-for-dollar match is one of the simplest ways to deepen the impact of a gift you were already planning to make. If you have questions about whether your gift qualifies, or you'd like help navigating your employer's process, reach out to us directly. We're happy to walk through it with you.