Top Tips for Leveraging Year-End Donation Match Challenges

Year-end is already one of the biggest giving moments of the year. Add a donation match, and you give supporters an even stronger reason to act.

By combining traditional corporate donation matching with broader challenge match campaigns, your nonprofit can make year-end gifts go further while creating more momentum around your campaign.

Let’s dive in with a few expert-proven practices for doing so!

Make the most of donation matching at year-end.

A strong year-end matching campaign starts with understanding the different ways a gift can be matched. Two of the biggest opportunities are corporate matching gifts and broader challenge matches. Corporate matching gifts are powered by individual employers, allowing donors to double their contributions by submitting a request through their workplace giving programs. Meanwhile, broader challenge matches are funded by major donors to create time-bound matching pools or milestone grants that all donors can partake in (e.g., "Every gift made in the next 24 hours will be doubled, up to $10,000").

According to Double the Donation’s research…

• 84% of individuals say they’re more likely to donate if a match is offered.
• 1 in 3 indicate they’d give a larger gift if matching is applied to their donation.
• 36% of donors say they would not have given if a match had not been offered.
• Mentioning matching gifts increases donation response rates by 71% and average donation amounts by 51%.
• 64% of surveyed nonprofits conduct year-end challenge match campaigns.

And since 31% of total giving occurs in the last month of each year, tying matching gift opportunities to year-end fundraising can go a long way.

Pinpoint major donors willing to fill your matching gift pool.

A strong challenge match starts with finding supporters who are willing to fund the match.  Start those conversations  as early as possible so your team has time to build a meaningful matching pool before year-end.

Here are a few top recommendations for spotting the potential matching partners:

• Existing major donors ⁠— These individuals already have a strong connection  to your mission and a history of generous support. .
• Major donor prospects ⁠— Supporters with the capacity to give more may be excited by the chance to make their gift go further through a challenge match. It can be a meaningful way to invite them into a larger role in your mission. 
• Board members ⁠— Your board of directors is already invested in your financial health and organizational success. Pooling board member gifts into a unified challenge match creates an achievable milestone to work toward.
• Corporate partners ⁠— Businesses often seek opportunities for brand visibility and community goodwill during year-end giving. Sponsoring a matching challenge provides them with prominent exposure while supporting their community impact goals. .
• Local businesses ⁠— Regional companies can be eager to support the communities where their employees and customers live. Approaching local firms to fund smaller, time-bound micro-challenges allows them to drive tangible impact without a massive philanthropic budget.
• Foundations ⁠— Some foundations may be interested in funding a challenge match because their support can encourage additional giving and extend the impact of the original grant. 

Top tip: The better you know your supporters, the easier it is to spot potential  challenge match partners. Keep your donor contact profiles up to date so your team can quickly identify the right people to reach out to.

Promote corporate matching gifts throughout your campaign.

In today’s fundraising landscape, one of the easiest ways to increase corporate support is through employee matching gift programs. However, many supporters simply do not know that their companies match gifts or that their recent donations may be eligible for a match. A few reminders can go a long way: 

• Mention corporate matching in donation appeals. Weave employee match opportunities directly into your fundraising outreach so supporters know from the start that their gift may be eligible to go even further.
• Embed search tools directly on donation forms. Include an easy employer lookup tool on your year-end giving forms (and other donation pages) so supporters can quickly provide employment information and verify their workplace giving eligibility.
• Keep  the momentum going on the confirmation page. Present clear, direct steps on the post-donation thank-you screen so donors can complete their match requests immediately. Framing a match submission as a direct extension of the giving process can go a long way!

Incorporating corporate match messaging into every touchpoint ensures that no available dollars go unclaimed. And promoting employer matching on top of an existing challenge match is one of the best ways for organizations to leverage the combined match effect.

One leading matching gift expert, Alix Samuel (Doctors Without Borders), recently spoke about what she calls the "Double-Match Stacking" method. When promoting a major donor challenge match, donors frequently ask whether they can participate in the campaign while also requesting a match from their employer.

Alix urges organizations to actively encourage this behavior by having donors give directly to fulfill the challenge match criteria, then immediately submit the receipt to their employer for a secondary company match.

In other words, layering workplace matching on top of a challenge grant allows supporters to triple their impact, creating a powerful incentive to get involved.

Promote your match across multiple channels.  

Your supporters are not all paying attention in the same place, so share your matching opportunity across more than one channel. 

Here are a few easy steps to get started.

1. Equip your internal team: Make sure your organizational champions, including staff, board members, and key volunteers, are familiar with and knowledgeable about matching gifts of all kinds! Then provide them with resources, such as prewritten call scripts or plug-and-play email templates, so they can effectively promote matching to anyone they engage with.
2. Optimize your website for matching: Establish a dedicated corporate matching gift web page on your site to act as a permanent, searchable hub for supporters exploring workplace giving. Additionally, launch separate landing pages or donation forms for each challenge match you run, making it easy to track and report on campaign contributions.
3. Send automated emails: Reach supporters directly by highlighting match opportunities within your email strategy. Prominently feature challenge matches in fundraising appeals to drive urgency, and offer reminders about corporate matching in both general appeals and post-donation follow-ups.
4. Repurpose impact stories on social media: Share real-world donor profiles and beneficiary impact graphics on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to demonstrate how matched funds drive meaningful results.

Consistent messaging helps keep the match top of mind, gives supporters more chances to participate, and makes it easier to remind eligible donors about employer matching. The more clearly you communicate the opportunity, the easier it is for supporters to take the next step. 

Use clear deadlines to create urgency.

Giving supporters an extended window to donate often leads to procrastination. While it may seem counterproductive, compressing challenge matches into defined timeframes gives supporters a reason to act while the campaign is still top of mind. Short, focused matching campaigns can create helpful momentum around year-end giving. 

Therefore, consider launching a flash-match initiative! Organizing a 24- or 48-hour matching gift push on key dates, such as Giving Tuesday, the final days of December, or an affinity celebration centered around your cause, can be a compelling way to drive hesitant donors to act.

Corporate matching gift programs have strict request deadlines, too, though they’re typically open for longer post-donation windows. Still, many companies require match requests to be submitted by the end of the calendar year in which the initial gift was made, so following up on unclaimed matches in December is essential.

For the best results, be sure to visualize campaign progress in real time. Live goal trackers and countdown timers integrated into landing pages and social content can build donor excitement as matching deadlines (and year-end) approach.

Final Thoughts

Combining corporate donation matching with broader challenge matches gives development teams a practical way to increase  participation and raise  more at year-end.

By securing matching pools early, promoting matching opportunities across your outreach, and creating clear campaign deadlines, your organization can help more supporters take part and make their gifts go further.  As you prepare to close out 2026, take a look at your existing network and start identifying key supporters who may be interested in funding your next challenge.

Looking for even more matching gift best practices? Check out this helpful guide!