How to Launch a Matching Gift Program in Under 2 Hours

Matching gift programs shouldn’t take six months, three vendors, queue of support tickets, and a stack of approval emails to launch.

And yet, that’s exactly what many CSR teams have been led to believe. 

If you work in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), you’re already juggling engagement goals, impact reporting, leadership expectations, and a workforce that wants their giving experience to feel as seamless as everything else in their lives. You don’t have time for clunky systems or quarter-end disbursement delays.

But here’s the good news: launching a matching gift program doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right structure—and the right technology—you can design and roll out a program in under two hours.

Here’s how to do it the smart way.

Table of Contents:

• What Is a Matching Gift Program?
• Before You Start: Things to Consider
• Designing Your Matching Gift Program: What to Know
• How to Build a Matching Gift Program with Groundswell
• Ready to Bring Your Gift Matching Program to Life?

What Is a Matching Gift Program?

A matching gift program (also called a gift matching program or corporate matching gift program) is when a company matches donations made by employees to eligible nonprofits.

In most cases, it works alongside an employee giving program:

1. An employee donates to a nonprofit.
2. The company matches the donation at a predetermined ratio (e.g., 1:1, 2:1).
3. The nonprofit receives both donations.

Simple in theory. Less simple in execution, depending on your platform.

Matching gift programs are popular for a reason. They increase employee participation in giving, boost total funds directed to nonprofits, and reinforce company values in a visible way. 

It’s a powerful incentive for impact, with 84% of donors reporting that they are more likely to give when they know their donation will be matched.

Plus, when done well, they create a powerful feedback loop: employees see their company step up in real time, which makes their own participation feel more meaningful.

Before You Start: Things to Consider

Before jumping into setup mode, take a step back. A thoughtful design upfront makes launching fast, and scaling even easier!

Types of Gift Matching

Not all corporate matching gift programs look the same. How your employees give should influence how you match.

Common structures include:

• Payroll giving with automatic match
• One-time donations with manual match requests
• Donor Advised Fund (DAF) donations
• Stock or appreciated asset donations
• Volunteer grant matching

Many legacy platforms treat these as separate modules (and sometimes separate contracts), which can inflate costs and slow your implementation. When treated separately, it's also complicated to combine programs and offer a mix of donation match types.

A modern gift-matching platform should automatically match donations in real time and support multiple giving methods without adding friction. It should also be able to send out donations without waiting for a minimum threshold or donation minimum.

If your current corporate gift matching software requires minimum thresholds before funds are disbursed or processes matches in bulk at the end of a quarter, that’s worth reconsidering. Employees shouldn’t have to wait months to see their impact doubled.

Goals & Expected Outcomes

Before asking “how to set up a matching gift program,” ask: What do we want this to achieve?

Are you trying to:

• Increase employee participation rates?
• Support a company-wide campaign?
• Drive engagement among frontline or deskless employees?
• Align giving with corporate values?
• Improve CSR reporting metrics?

If engagement is the goal, speed and visibility matter. Real-time matching and instant fund disbursement reinforce impact. If reporting and oversight are key, your CSR reporting software needs to provide clean, exportable data without manual wrangling.

Program design should serve strategy, not the other way around.

Securing Buy-In from Key Stakeholders

Matching programs are typically greenlit by Finance, Legal, HR departments, and executive leadership.

To move quickly, frame your proposal around:

• Budget predictability (set caps per employee or annually)
• Clear guardrails for nonprofit eligibility
• Automation that reduces admin overhead
• Reporting that supports ESG or CSR disclosures

Executives don’t want complexity. They want clarity, accountability, and measurable impact.

Designing Your Matching Gift Program: What to Know

You’re trying to get things done well—and fast. So let’s get tactical.

Audience

Consider: Who is this program for?

Corporate matching gift programs often underperform because they’re built for desk employees and unintentionally exclude frontline workers, hourly teams, and distributed or remote employees.

Look for a platform that:

• Works seamlessly on mobile
• Doesn’t require lengthy approvals
• Makes participation intuitive
• Can segment programs for different audiences (desked vs deskless, retirees vs employees, etc.)

If your matching process requires employees to upload receipts, submit forms, and wait for manual review, engagement will stall, especially among busy teams.

Budget

Establish guardrails early:

• Match ratio (1:1 is common)
• Annual cap per employee
• Overall program cap
• Additional budget for launch or giving season campaigns
• Eligible nonprofit categories (if applicable)

A modern enterprise matching gift program should let you easily configure these parameters and adjust them as your program evolves. A modern program will also allow you to set different budgets for different segments of your employees. Board members or directors often require higher match limits or donation credits.

Technology

This is where things can either stay simple…or spiral.

Ask:

• Are matches automatic or manual?
• Does every donation require a manual charity verificaiton process?
• Are funds disbursed individually in real time or batched quarterly?
• Is there a minimum donation threshold?
• Does the platform integrate with payroll? Does payroll intetgration require bringing in the accounts payable team?
• Are reporting tools built in?

Many legacy corporate matching gift programs rely on aggregate batching. That means donations sit until they hit a minimum threshold or a quarterly deadline. It’s administratively convenient, but not impact-forward. Donations can take months or even years to be distributed. And some will never make it (donations that don't meet the threshold are often donated to a pre-chosen nonprofit).

Groundswell matches donations individually and disburses funds quickly, without requiring a minimum donation amount. That means nonprofits receive funds faster, and employees see their impact doubled almost immediately.

That difference matters.

Admin Burden

You know your time is valuable.

Some corporate gift matching software platforms require:

• Manual approvals
• Spreadsheet exports
• Monthly reconciliations
• Third-party disbursement vendors
• Extra fees for support

If your matching gift program creates more operational work than it solves, it’s not doing its job. A strong gift matching platform should reduce admin workload, not increase it.

How to Build a Matching Gift Program with Groundswell

Here’s the part most CSR leaders care about: how fast can we actually do this?

With Groundswell, you can set up and launch a matching gift program in just a few steps:

• Define Your Match Parameters: Inside the platform, you can configure match ratios, annual employee caps, total company budget, segmentation, and more. This takes minutes, not weeks.
• Enable Automatic Matching: Groundswell provides real-time matching, so when employees donate, the match is triggered automatically, and funds are dispersed without delay. No quarterly batching. No waiting for thresholds. 
• Customize Employee Experience: Brand your giving portal, add messaging, and don’t forget to highlight campaign themes, priority causes, and upcoming initiatives. The more visible your corporate matching gift program is, the more likely employees are to participate.
• Launch & Communicate: Send a simple internal announcement explaining what gift matching is, how the company will match, and provide a direct link to sign up. Because the system is automated, you don’t need a long lead time. Once your parameters are set, you’re ready to go!
• Monitor & Report: Groundswell provides built-in reporting so you can track participation rates, distributions, total matched dollars, cause distribution, and engagement trends over time. No separate CSR reporting software required.

Groundswell makes it easy to design, launch, and track gift matching programs that are intuitive, efficient, and built for the way you like to give.

Ready to Bring Your Gift Matching Program to Life?

Matching gift programs shouldn’t feel like enterprise software from 2008. They should be fast, intuitive, and built around impact. If you’re evaluating corporate matching gift programs or wondering what’s the best software for CSR reporting and gift matching, look for a solution that:

• Automates matches in real time
• Disburses funds quickly
• Eliminates minimum thresholds
• Reduces admin burden
• Supports enterprise-scale reporting

CSR leaders are being asked to do more with less: more engagement, more transparency, more measurable impact. You don’t need more complexity. You need better infrastructure. 

Groundswell helps you launch a matching gift program in hours, and scale it as your impact grows.

Ready to get started? Let’s build it. Request a personalized demo today.