Script for Getting Matching Funds

After a month of big-picture, more thought-provoking posts, let’s get tactical.

If you’ve ever had to ask major donors to provide matching or challenge funds, I have something for you today that I think you’ll like.

Here’s the brief “case” to make to your major donors.  After you ask them if they’ll provide a gift to be used as challenge funds, tell them the following:

• It’s well–documented that challenge funds increase how much a fundraising campaign will raise, so by doing this your gift will have a greater impact than it normally does.
• Here’s how that happens.  When a fundraising campaign has challenge funds, more people give to the campaign than if the campaign didn’t have them.  So your gift will cause more people to give.
• Additionally, when a fundraising campaign has challenge funds, people give larger gifts than they do when campaigns don’t have them.  So your gift will cause people to give more.
• So by making a leadership gift and allowing us to use it as challenge funds to inspire other donors to give, you’ll have more of an impact, and you’re helping our organization and beneficiaries more than you normally do.
• And, if you give your gift now and allow us to use it as challenge funds, you also get to enjoy watching the campaign unfold while knowing that your generosity is inspiring more giving to happen than would have happened without you!

Combine the “script” above with the info in this post (one of our most popular posts ever) and you’re on your way to having multiple campaigns with matching or challenge funds this year!