Yeah, you read that right. We have case study upon case study where organizations just like yours had a large donation and instead of just putting that bad boy in as an individual donation, they actually used it as leverage to create even more donation volume. More on those case studies in a minute...but first, let's do a little word problem. Bob is your best donor. He hears about the Challenge and reaches out to let you know he wants to give your organization a $10,000 donation. Awesome. Here's the thing though...if, instead of him just doing a direct donation to your page, you ask Bob if you can use his donation as a match, you now have something to message about to your community that brings a sense of urgency and a tangible goal to shoot for. Your donors will want to help you hit that goal to unlock the match and therefore will give..a lot. So now, you're asking your supporters to give and once you raise $10,000, the $10,000 match will get released. Kind of like magic, your awesome $10k gift turned into a $20k really awesome gift. Thanks Bob. You've got a match, now what? Timing - Take a look at the Challenge calendar and decide when this match will work the hardest for the best return. Do you want to win a big Bonus Challenge? Do you want to try to jump from 4th to 3rd late in the game? Do you want to take advantage of an event you have planned during the Challenge? Plan it carefully and thoughtfully to maximize its impact and consider limiting your matching campaign to just a few days to capture the excitement. Spread the word - As soon as you've planned the dates of your matching campaign, make sure you're all set to go with multiple emails, social posts, calls, and newsletter inclusions to spread the word that you want as many donations as possible to reach your match goal. Let them know the deadline and keep the urgency going throughout the entire timeframe. Tangible Storytelling - Use your match to tell your story. Connect the match dollar total to a tangible use of the money. Let them know what this could mean to your organization and reinforce the important work your organization does to make it even more impactful. Back to those case studies Match dollars have been used by so many organizations to really create momentum, urgency and raise lots of money for their cause. Here are two examples of how nonprofits have turned match dollars into huge mini campaigns within their Challenge. Cure JM Foundation’s $25,000 Match The Story: Cure JM secured a $25,000 match during the CrowdRise Holiday Charity Challenge and leveraged it to win a $25,000 Bonus Challenge. The Message: Cure JM emailed their entire database, shared on their website and posted on social media too. They created urgency and let their donors know that they needed to raise the most by midnight on November 29th to secure the $25,000 match and $25,000 donation from CrowdRise. The Result: That $25,000 match had a hand in them winning the $25,000 Bonus Challenge prize money by rallying their community to raise over $168k from over 1,400 donors during the match duration. That's a leverage of over 7:1 on the initial $25,000 match. Cure JM continued that momentum and went on to place 1st in the CrowdRise Holiday Charity Challenge and won the $100k grand prize. The Multiple System Atrophy Coalition’s $235,000 Match The Story: The MSA Coalition received a $235,000 match for their CrowdRise Holiday Charity Challenge campaign and turned it into leverage to help raise an additional $243k throughout the entire Challenge. The Message: The MSA Coalition got the word out on their website, through email, on social media and made it a point to let everyone know that their donation would be matched dollar for dollar. The Result: The MSA Coalition raised over $243k from over 1,700 donors. They placed 3rd in the CrowdRise Holiday Charity Challenge and took home an additional $25k Grand Prize. Back |