Matching Gift Tax Info

Former Member
Former Member $organization

Hi there,

I’m hoping to get in touch with anyone that can help give me some information on how you communicate to donors on tax information, in regards to matching gifts.

When processing a matching gift:

  • Are acknowledgements issued to individuals/donors? And if so, how often? 
  • Are acknowledgements issued to the company that is matching the gift? And if so, how often? 
  • We have a letter specifically for the donor and another letter for the matching company -- do you use different tax language for different companies and their donors for their specific needs? For example, if a matching company has indicated that they give tax receipts instantly to the donor via email, do you send an acknowledgement without the tax information? 

We are reevaluating how we communicate legally to our donors and if I could get an example or template of what the donor receives or an example of a process that really works for others---that would be much appreciated! 

Thank you! 

  • This is my process for when I receive a matching gift. I hope that the answer to your question is somewhere in here:

    When a matching gift payment arrives, from the 3rd party, the gift is entered. I also assign a soft credit, so that my Ack Letter pulls TWO instances of the letter.

    The individual person receives an organizational letter thanking them for the matching gift of $xx from XYZ company received on xx/xx/xxxx - tax information IS NOT included.

    The matching gift entity receives an organizational letter thanking them for supporting their employees passions, yadda, yadda - tax information IS included.

    Two copies of ALL paperwork are made so that the individual and matching gift entity have paper records of the gift.

    If a matching gift clearing house is issuing the gifts, then a couple different things happen.

    1. Org thank you letter with no mention of tax information is issued to individual.

    2. If we know, who the REAL company is, then we issue an org thank you to our contact at the company, again, without tax information.

    3. If the REAL company cannot be identified, we only issue #1 above.

    Thanks,

    Marie F. Kocher

    Development Operations & Data Specialist

    Kansas City Ballet