5 charities who saw double the donation with matched giving

Raisely is an online fundraising platform for ambitious charities across the world. This end of financial year, charities doubled their fundraising as they set up a matched giving period.

30 June was a busy time for our Australian charities as they sprinted to the finish line for their End of Financial Year (EOFY) appeals. On this day, we processed 5 x more donations than usual and saw an average conversion rate across the platform of 40%.

Today we’re celebrating the stories of 5 charities who used matched giving to double the donation and smash their fundraising goals.

Here’s more good news. You too can use matched giving to:

• Boost donations
• Energize supporters
• Maximize your campaign’s impact. ✨

But hold up – what is matched giving? 🎁

Every time someone donates to a campaign their contribution gets “matched” by a partner organization – making their impact go further.

Most campaigns tend to double impact dollar-for-dollar, but you can use any multiplier you want – 2x, 3x, 8x – to maximize impact. From our experience, the number of donations increases by roughly the same amount, no matter what the multiplier is.

Why charities should experiment with matched giving 🤝

Psychologically, matched giving works in the same way as “buy one, get one free”. It makes donors feel like they are getting more bang for their buck.

Based on our data, matched giving can help revitalize a lagging campaign – providing a big boost. Normally, we see a spike in donations at the start of a campaign, which then tapers off.

For a 120-day campaign, we’ve found the following benchmarks hold true:

• In the first week, expect 3x as many donations as the second week
• Expect to raise 2x as much money in the first week as the second week
• 60% of fundraising happens in the first month.

Incorporating a matched giving campaign tends to see this happen:

• There is a spike in donations 📈
• Velocity continues even after the matched campaign 🚴
• People give smaller donations, but more money is donated overall 💰.

Side note: if you really want to nerd out on this stuff, check out this free matched giving webinar from our CEO Tom Maitland. It breaks down all the data about matched giving and its impacts.

Time for show and tell 🔍

Let us take you on a tour of some of the big impact matched campaigns we saw on Raisely this year.

1. School for Life🚸

School for Life empowers communities in rural Uganda with education opportunities. Their ‘Buy a Brick’ campaign was launched to help construct a boarding school for 300 boys.

School for Life wanted to raise $160,000 for this project and found a partner who could match each donation 2x. Their social media made it clear to donors that every dollar would be doubled.

The team managed to reach and exceed their goal by 1 July 2021, successfully raising $213,406, of which $45K was matched. This means $90K was a result of matched donations – double the donation.

2. Batyr 🐘

Batyr supports mental health initiatives and ran a matched campaign for their Run for the Herd virtual weekend.

The idea was for participants to engage in a physical challenge and raise money to support youth mental health. When participants reached $300 in donations, they were also sent a running pack including a branded shirt.

Batyr’s campaign managed to double the donation, thanks to the Ethical Partners Tatrai Giving Fund. This was a win-win for runners: They could hit the $300 mark faster, and donors felt their dollar going further.

Batyr had nearly $15K matched, meaning they raised close to $30K from this matched campaign.

Experience has shown that a prominent, simple donation form is key to a high-performing donations page. So is making it crystal clear what the matching offer is.

For Batyr, this included using a graphic with the tagline “Donations will be doubled this weekend”. Clear, simple – and impactful. The detail came below, but even those just skimming would be able to understand the message: donate now for greater impact.

3. Equality Australia 🌈

Equality Australia fights to ensure our laws protect all of us equally. They ran a matched campaign around tax time, capitalising on people making tax-deductible donations before EOFY. They used a fun, bright graphic and launched a social media campaign to boost donations.

This strategy saw them smash their goals, with 471 supporters donating $100,000 with the promise of double the donation. Overall, $200K was raised during this campaign.

4. Oxfam Trailwalker 🥾

Oxfam’s Trailwalker campaign helps people to challenge themselves with long hikes, raising money to fight poverty. While this year’s event was postponed, they still managed to run a successful matched donations campaign.

Oxfam received $40K in donations in one day at EOFY – with the promise that Deloitte would double the donation for a total of $80K.

Their social media campaign helped make it really clear how matching worked.

“Donate now and double your impact” was all potential donors needed to know, underlining the impact they could have. With the added time crunch of “TODAY ONLY”, they could really convert visitors into donors.

5. Beyond Blue 🦋

Following on from the success of their 2020 campaign, Beyond Blue decided to take the same matched giving approach this year.

Their good-looking campaign page helped ensure a high-performing appeal. They also clearly showed the impact of the matched campaign: Almost 40% of their total of $877, 777 came from the matched campaign.

Alongside their corporate partners, they doubled the donation and hit their target of a total of $350K – an incredible result.

Meet your match and double your donations

Matched giving is available now on Raisely and can be easily added to your existing campaign. Capitalize on matched momentum – increasing your impact and hitting ambitious targets. 🎯

Need a hand setting it up? Check out our step-by-step guide and double the donation on your next campaign.