Donations: Matched Giving

Donations: Matched Giving

Matched Giving is one of the most effective ways to drive urgency and increase donations. When supporters know their gift will be doubled or multiplied, they are more likely to give — and often give more.

It is also a powerful way to engage corporate partners or major sponsors, offering them meaningful visibility while demonstrating their impact in real time. Matched campaigns create shared momentum between donors, fundraisers, and partners.

Whether running a dedicated matched campaign day, partnering with a sponsor, or unlocking a limited matching fund, Matched Giving helps boost totals quickly and energize your community.

This article explains how to set up a Matched Giver, enable matching across events or pages, track matched donations, and manage reporting.

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What is Matched Giving?

Matched Giving allows a sponsor, partner, or the charity itself to match donations made by supporters.

When a supporter makes a donation, an additional donation is automatically created from the Matched Giver. For example, if a supporter donates $10, a second $10 donation can be generated, increasing the total raised to $20.

Matched Giving can be used on:

• Online event fundraising profiles
• Appeal and donation pages

When enabled on fundraising profiles, the matched amount contributes to the total raised and can optionally appear as a separate donation tile.

Matched Giving can be configured with:

• A total amount available to match
• A defined start and expiry date and time
• A multiplier (1x, 2x, 3x, etc.)
• An optional maximum amount matched per individual donation
• Overage Handling, which controls whether matching can exceed the allocated total (coming soon)

While a Matched Giver is live, matching happens automatically. Matching will continue until the expiry date and time is reached, or the allocated amount is used, whichever occurs first.

Each matched amount appears as a separate donation record within the platform and is clearly identified as a matched donation. This ensures matched funds are tracked and reported independently from supporter donations.

Creating a Matched Giver

Before enabling Matched Giving on an event or donation page, a Matched Giver must first be created.

To create a new Matched Giver, navigate to Fundraising, the select Matched Giving.

Within the Matched Giving module, click New Matched Giver

Then configure the Matched Giver Settings:

• Status
  • Not Live: The matched giver is inactive.
  • Live: The matched giver is active and will begin matching donations based on the configured start date and time.
  • It is recommended to keep the status set to Not Live while configuring settings.

• Entity Name: Internal name used to identify the matched giver.
• Description On Page (Optional): This message appears at the bottom of the donation panel and can be used to explain how Matched Giving works.
• Total Amount To Match: The maximum amount the Matched Giver will contribute. Whether matching stops exactly at this amount or can exceed it is controlled by the Overage Handling setting.
• Overage Handling: Determines what happens when a donation would cause the matched total to exceed the Total Amount To Match. You can choose between two options:
  • Strict Matching: Matching will never exceed the allocated total. If a donation exceeds the remaining matched balance, only the remaining amount will be matched.
    Example: If $100,000 is allocated and $99,950 has already been matched, a $100 donation will result in only $50 being matched. Matching will then stop.
  • Allow Overage: Matching will continue at the full multiplier, even if it causes the matched total to exceed the allocated amount. Once a donation causes the allocated amount to be exceeded, matched giving will stop, and no further donations will be matched.
    Example: If $100,000 is allocated and $99,950 has already been matched, a $100 donation will still receive the full matched amount, even though this exceeds the original allocation. After this donation is matched, no additional matched giving will occur.
• Multiplier: Defines how much is matched per donation.
  • 1x: $10 donation → $10 matched ($20 total donation)
  • 2x: $10 donation → $20 matched ($30 total donation)
  • 3x: $10 donation → $30 matched ($40 total donation)
• Max Donation (Optional): Sets the maximum amount that can be matched per individual donation. Example: If the max donation is $500 and a supporter donates $2,000, only $500 will be matched.
• Start: The date and time matching begins.
• Expiry: The date and time matching ends. Matching will also stop automatically if the total amount to match is reached before this date.
• Prefix: A donation prefix applied to matched donation records, making them easy to identify in reporting.

Next, add the Donation Record Details. These details will be used to generate the matched donation records:

• First Name: First Name of Matched Giver
• Last Name: Last Name of Matched Giver
• Email: Email of Matched Giver
• Display On Page (Sponsored Donations Only): If enabled, matched donations will appear as a separate donation tile on fundraising profiles. If disabled, the matched amount will still contribute to the total raised but will not display as a separate tile.
• Display Name (Optional): Overrides the default donor name shown on the fundraising page.
• Message (Optional): A custom message that is displayed on the matched donation tile.
• Upload Logo (PNG/JPG): Logo or image that is displayed within the donation panel while Matched Giving is active. The matched giver image should be loaded in a square format, with 400 x 400px image dimensions to ensure it's optimal display across both the donation form and donation tiles.

Click save to create the Matched Giver

Enabling matched giving

Once a Matched Giver has been created, it can be enabled at Platform, Online Event, or donation page level, depending on where you want the matching to apply.

Settings explained

The following settings may appear depending on where the Matched Giving is enabled:

• Receiver Name: This name appears on the donation panel. When a supporter selects an amount, a message will display, such as: “With matched giving, {Receiver Name} receives $50.” This is usually the Charity's name.
• Display Countdown On Page (Optional): Displays a countdown clock on the donation form based on the expiry date and time set for the Matched Giver.
• Logo & Description (Optional): Displays the logo (or image) and description added when setting up the Matched Giver in the donation panel while Matched Giving is active.

Additional platform level settings

The following settings are available when enabling Matched Giving at Platform level:

• Collapse Form (Crowdfunding pages only): Hides the donation form on crowdfunding pages and replaces it with a Donate button.
• Form Top Button Color (Crowdfunding pages only): Sets the style of the Donate button displayed when the form is hidden.
• Matched Giving Background Color: Sets the background color of the Matched Giving section on the donation panel.
• Matched Giving Foreground Color: Sets the text color for the Description on Page and the countdown clock.
• Matched Giving Icon Background Color: Sets the color of the Matched Giving label displayed in the top left corner of the donation panel.

Platform level

When enabled at Platform level, Matched Giving applies to all live Online Event fundraising pages and Crowdfunding Pages across the platform.

It does not apply to standalone donation or appeal pages. Those must be enabled separately.

To enable Matched Giving platform-wide:

1

In the side navigation, go to Admin, then select Platform Setup

2

Select Fundraising Options

3

Under Fundraising Page Options, select Matched Giving

4

Tick Enable Matched Giving

5

Select a Matched Giver from the Choose Giver dropdown

6

Next, configure the following settings:

• Receiver Name
• Display Countdown On Page (Optional)
• Collapse Form (Crowdfunding Pages Only)
• Form Top Button color (Crowdfunding Pages Only)
• Matched Giving Background color
• Matched Giving Foreground color
• Matched Giving Icon Background color

7

Click Save to apply the changes.

Online event level

Matched Giving can be enabled for a specific Online Event, allowing matching to apply only to sponsored donation forms (fundraising profiles) within that event.

To enable Matched Giving for a specific event:

1

Navigate to Fundraising, then select Events, and choose View Online Events.

2

Locate the event to update and click the Edit icon to open the event settings.

3

Under Online Event Options, select Donation Defaults.

4

From the tabs at the top of the page, select Matched Giving.

5

Tick Enable Matched Giving.

6

Select a Matched Giver from the Choose Giver dropdown.

7

Configure the settings (see Settings Explained above).

• Receiver Name
• Display Countdown On Page (Optional).

8

Click Save.

Donation and appeal page level

Matched Giving can be enabled at an individual Donation or Appeal page level. This allows matching to apply specifically to general donations or campaign appeals, without affecting other events or pages.

Matched Giving can be enabled using either the Classic Builder or the Visual Builder.

Classic Builder

To enable Matched Giving for a page using Classic Builder:

1

Navigate to Content, then select Pages.

2

Locate the Donation or Appeal page to update and click the Edit icon or select Edit Page.

3

Under Page Options, go to Donation Settings, then select the Matched Giving tab.

4

Tick Enable Matched Giving.

5

Select a Matched Giver from the Choose Giver dropdown.

6

Configure the settings (see Settings Explained above).

• Receiver Name
• Display Countdown On Page (Optional)

7

Click Save, then Publish.

Visual Builder

To enable Matched Giving for a page using Visual Builder:

1

Navigate to Content, then select Pages.

2

Locate the Donation or Appeal page to update, click the row, then select Visual Builder.

3

In Visual Builder, hover over the donation block and click the Heart icon to open the donation block settings.

4

Select Matched Giving.

5

Tick Enable Matched Giving.

6

Select a Matched Giver from the Choose Giver dropdown. Only Matched Givers that are live and within the active date range will appear as options.

7

Configure the settings (see Settings Explained above).

• Receiver Name
• Display Countdown On Page (Optional)
• Logo & Description (Optional)

8

Click Save, then Publish.

To view which events or pages a specific Matched Giver has been enabled on:

1

In the side navigation, go to Fundraising, then select Matched Giving.

2

Click the Edit icon next to the Matched Giver.

3

Review the Donation Pages and Online Events tabs to see where the Matched Giver is currently enabled

Viewing matched donations

Matched donations can be viewed and managed from either the Matched Giving module or the Donations module, depending on whether you want a giver-specific view or a full donation search.

Matched donation record details

When a donation is matched, two separate donation records are created:

• Original Donation: Usually recorded with the donation type Online (or the applicable original type). The original donation will use the receipt prefix configured for the event or page. 
• Matched Donation: Recorded with the donation type Matched Giving. The matched donation will use the prefix assigned when the Matched Giver was created, if a prefix was set.

When viewing either record, additional fields are shown in the Personal Details section. These fields link the two together:

• Matched: Displays the name of the Matched Giver associated with the donation.
• Related Donation: Links the two donation records together.

Clicking the name in the Related Donation field will take you directly to the linked record. 

Viewing matched donations in the matched giving module

The Matched Giving module provides a snapshot of each Matched Giver’s activity, including the donations associated with that giver and how much has been matched so far.

To view matched donations from the Matched Giving module:

1

In the side navigation, go to Fundraising, then select Matched Giving. This will show a list of Matched Givers. Each will display:

• Total Amount To Match: Shows the maximum available.
• Donations: Shows how much has already been matched.

To view the donations for a specific Matched Giver:

1

Locate the Matched Giver in the list.

2

Click the Edit icon next to the Matched Giver.

3

Under Matched Giving Options, select Browse Donations. From here, you can:

• Click the Edit icon to view individual matched donation details.
• Click Download All to export all matched donations for that giver.

Viewing matched donations in the Donations Module

Matched donations can also be viewed using the Donations module.

To search for matched donations:

1

In the side navigation, go to Fundraising, then select Donations.

2

Under Donation Options, select Search Donations.

3

Click the + to expand the Donor Details section.

4

Scroll to the Type field and select Matched.

5

Click Search at the top of the page. This will display all donations with the type Matched Giving. From here, you can:

• Click the Edit icon to view individual donation details.
• Click Download All to export the results.
• Select specific records and click Download Selected.

Reporting on matched giving

Matched donations are included in your standard donation data export and can be exported like any other donation record.

Data Source: When setting up a new data export, select Data Source type: Donations.

The simplest way to identify matched donations is by including the export field Donation Type. All matched donations will display with the donation type Matched.

Manually matching donations

There may be situations where a donation falls outside the matched giving timeframe, but you still want to allocate matched funds. In these cases, a matched donation can be added manually, either individually or in bulk.

Individual matched donation

A manual matched donation is added in the same way as an offline donation, with two key differences:

• The Donation Type must be set to Matched Giving
• The donation must be assigned to a Matched Giver

To add an individual matched donation:

1

In the side navigation, go to Fundraising, then select Donations.

2

Click New Donation.

3

Complete the donation details. Pay attention to the following fields:

• Amount: Enter the matched donation amount.
• Sponsored: If the matched amount should appear on a fundraiser’s page, assign it to the relevant fundraiser.
• Mark As Paid: The donation must be marked as paid for it to display on a fundraiser’s page.
• Donation Type: Select Matched Giving.
• Donor Details: Use the same First Name, Last Name, and Email Address configured for the Matched Giver. An email address is required.

4

Click Save.

For more information on adding offline donations, see the support article: Donations: Offline Donations.

Assigning the matched giver

After saving the donation:

1

After saving in Step 4 above, you should still be in the donation record. If you’re not, open the donation record.

2

Under Donation Options, select Donation Details.

3

Scroll to the Matched Giving section.

4

Use the dropdown to select the appropriate Matched Giver.

5

Click Save.

The matched donations will be created, and the corresponding amounts will be deducted from the Matched Giver’s remaining balance.

Bulk upload of matched donations

If multiple matched donations need to be added, using the bulk import tool is recommended.

To bulk upload matched donations:

1

In the side navigation, go to Fundraising, then select Donations.

2

Under Advanced Options, select Import Donations.

3

Click Download Template to access the formatted spreadsheet.

Required fields for matched donations

Populate the following fields:

• First Name: Use the first name configured for the Matched Giver.
• Last Name: Use the last name configured for the Matched Giver.
• Email Address: Use the email address configured for the Matched Giver.
• Donation Amount: Enter the matched donation amount.
• Receipt Type: Enter personal or business (all lowercase).
• Donation Type: Enter matched (all lowercase).
• Matched Giver ID: Enter the ID of the relevant Matched Giver.

Optional Fields:

• Member ID: If the matched donation relates to a fundraiser, enter the fundraiser’s Member ID (Funraisin ID).
• Display On: Enter Y if a donation tile should appear on the fundraiser’s page.
• Comments: Add a message to display on the donation tile.
• Related Donation ID: Enter the ID of the related donation. This will link the matched donation to the fundraisers original donation.

After preparing the file:

1

Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.

2

Return to the Import Donations screen and upload the file.

3

Set Import Into to Donations.

4

Tick Mark as Paid.

5

Click Save.

The matched donations will be created, and the corresponding amounts will be deducted from the Matched Giver’s remaining balance.