Did you know that many employers are willing to match charitable donations made by their employees? These matching gifts programs allow you to double the impact of your contributions, all thanks to the generosity of your employer. If you’ve donated to IANDS or if you’re planning to, your gift may be eligible to be matched at no additional cost to you.
Double the Donation is a trusted matching-gift platform that makes it easy to check your eligibility in a matter of seconds. Simply take a look at the box below and follow the instructions, and you’ll find out quickly if your employer is willing to match your charitable contributions. You don’t even need to call anyone.
What are Matching Gifts?
Matching gift programs are philanthropic initiatives where companies match donations their employees make to nonprofit organizations. If their employee is making a donation, the company makes a donation as well.
Some employers match gifts 1:1, dollar-for-dollar, while others may contribute two or three times the original donation amount. It all boils down to the specific employer. Though the employer won’t know to contribute anything if they never learn about your initial donation. This typically involves requesting a matching gift, often through a simple online process that might only take a matter of minutes to complete.
Unfortunately, billions of dollars in matching gifts go unclaimed each year, simply because donors don’t realize their employer offers the program to begin with. And these programs are offered by many employers, too, including 65% of Fortune 500 companies. Roughly 66% of companies overall have some form of matching program that’s open to most non-profits, including IANDS. Over 26 million people work for companies that offer matching gift programs. And you could be one of them!
How Matching Gifts Help IANDS
Matching gifts directly support our mission at IANDS to advance research, education, and the understanding of near-death experiences and related phenomena. When a donation is matched, it allows IANDS to:
- Support scientific research and academic inquiry
- Expand educational resources and public outreach
- Maintain support services for experiencers, families, and more
- Continue and strengthen our conferences, publications, and community programs
In short, matching gifts can double (or even triple) the impact of your support.
How to Check Your Eligibility
Using the simple search tool powered by Double the Donation, you can find out in minutes if you’re eligible. You can use the tool above to search for your employer, review your company’s matching gift guidelines, and even submit a matching gift request. And it normally only takes a few minutes to complete!
Already donated? That’s okay! Even if you’ve already made your donation to IANDS, your gift may still qualify for a match. Many companies allow matching requests to be submitted even months after the original donation was made. It’s still worth checking either way.
A few minutes of your time could significantly increase the impact of your support for IANDS. So please, use that tool shown above and see if your employer is willing to offer matching gifts!