For the check that arrives from Acme, Inc. three months after Jane's gift
Matching gift acknowledgment letters: the company gets the receipt, the employee gets the thank-you
When an employer matches a donation, two gifts have been made by two different donors. The employee's gift was receipted when it arrived; the match is the company's contribution and needs its own IRS acknowledgment. Mixing them up — receipting the employee for the match, or folding it into their year-end total — hands the employee a deduction they are not entitled to. Below: the company acknowledgment, the employee thank-you (clearly not a receipt), the volunteer-grant letter and a "does your employer match?" insert, plus what to do when the check comes from Benevity or YourCause instead of the company.
Your first batch of letters is free. Donor data never leaves your browser.
Who gets which document
| Money came from | Legal donor | Gets a tax receipt | Gets a thank-you (not a receipt) | Database |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The company's own check or ACH | The company | The company | The employee | Hard credit company, soft credit employee |
| Benevity / American Online Giving Foundation | The foundation | Nobody (foundation already receipted the company and the employee) | Company and employee | Hard credit foundation, soft credit both |
| YourCause / Blackbaud Giving Fund | The fund | Nobody | Company and employee | Hard credit fund, soft credit both |
| Volunteer grant ("Dollars for Doers") | The company (or its foundation) | The company | The volunteer | Hard credit company, soft credit volunteer |
| Employee's own gift | The employee | The employee (when it arrived) | — | Hard credit employee |
Not sure who the payer is? Read the remittance advice or the check itself. The name printed on the check is the donor; the employee's name in the memo line is who to soft-credit.
What the company will ask you to verify
Before releasing a match, most programs ask the charity to confirm, on a portal or a form: your legal name, address and EIN; that you are a 501(c)(3) public charity (they check the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search); the employee's gift date and amount; and that the gift was a contribution rather than a purchase. Certify only the deductible amount — if the employee bought a $200 gala ticket with a $75 dinner, the gift was $125 — and do not certify unpaid pledges, dues, tuition, raffle tickets, or gifts that benefit the employee's family. Getting this right is what keeps you on the company's eligible list.
Matching gift acknowledgment to the company (IRS-compliant)
Amount, date, no goods or services, 501(c)(3) status and EIN — then a sentence naming the employee whose gift was matched.
[Organization legal name] [Mailing address] EIN [00-0000000] [Date] [Company name] Attn: [Matching Gifts Program / Community Relations] [Company address] Dear [Contact name or "Matching Gifts Team"], Thank you for [Company name]'s contribution of $[amount], received on [date received], through your employee matching gift program. No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution. We understand this gift matches a contribution made by your employee, [Employee name]. Programs like yours double the impact of what your people already give: [one sentence about what the combined gifts make possible]. [Organization legal name] is a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (EIN [00-0000000]). Please keep this letter with your tax records. With gratitude, [Signer name] [Title]
Thank-you to the employee (not a tax receipt)
Tells the employee the match arrived, thanks them for requesting it, and says in plain words that the match is the company's gift and their own deductible total is unchanged.
[Organization legal name] [Mailing address] [Date] Dear [Employee first name], Good news: [Company name] has matched your gift of $[employee gift amount] with a contribution of $[match amount], which we received on [date received]. Thank you for taking the time to submit the match request — it turned your gift into $[combined total] for [program or fund]. This note is not a tax receipt. The matching contribution is [Company name]'s gift, and we have acknowledged it to them directly; your own gift was acknowledged in our letter of [date of original acknowledgment]. For your records, your deductible contribution for the year remains $[employee gift amount]. [One sentence about what the combined gift makes possible.] With thanks, [Signer name] [Title]
Volunteer grant acknowledgment to the company
For Dollars-for-Doers grants. Full IRS statement for the company, recognition of the employee's hours, and nothing that calls the hours a contribution.
[Organization legal name] [Mailing address] EIN [00-0000000] [Date] [Company name] Attn: [Volunteer Grants Program] [Company address] Dear [Contact name or "Volunteer Grants Team"], Thank you for [Company name]'s contribution of $[amount], received on [date received], through your volunteer grant program. No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution. We understand this grant recognizes the [number] hours your employee, [Employee name], volunteered with us in [year] as [role, e.g. "a weekly reading tutor"]. We are grateful both for their time and for a program that turns it into support for [what the grant funds]. [Organization legal name] is a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (EIN [00-0000000]). Please keep this letter with your tax records. With gratitude, [Signer name] [Title]
"Does your employer match?" insert
A paragraph for the bottom of every acknowledgment letter or the back of a reply card. Gives donors exactly what the portal will ask for.
Does your employer match gifts? Many companies match employee donations dollar for dollar — some match two or three to one, and many also match gifts by retirees and spouses or make grants for volunteer hours. Matches typically arrive months after your gift and go straight to our programs. To check: ask your HR or benefits portal for "matching gifts" or "charitable giving program", or search your employer's name together with "matching gift". You will usually need our legal name, address and EIN: [Organization legal name] [Mailing address] EIN [00-0000000] Submit the request with the date and amount shown on this letter. We will confirm your gift with your employer when they ask, and we will let you know when the match arrives.
Matching gifts from the spreadsheet
Put the company in the Donor column with Matching gift for Jane Doe in a Notes column: the company's letter gets the full IRS statement plus a sentence recognizing Jane's gift, and a treasurer flag reminds you to send Jane a non-receipt thank-you. Or write matched by Acme Corpon Jane's own row and her receipt gains a "your gift was also matched" sentence that is clearly outside her deductible amounts. Rows naming Benevity, American Online Giving Foundation, YourCause or Blackbaud Giving Fund are handled as DAF grants: a thank-you, not a receipt.
Matching gift questions
Who is the donor when a company matches an employee's gift — the company or the employee?
The company. A charitable deduction belongs to the person or entity that actually transfers the money (IRC §170(a)), and the matching check comes from the company's funds, so the company is the donor and gets the written acknowledgment under §170(f)(8). The employee deducted their own gift when they made it; the match is not theirs to deduct, and nothing on their receipt or year-end statement should suggest otherwise.
Does the employee get a tax receipt for the matching gift?
No. The employee was receipted for their own contribution when it arrived. For the match they get a thank-you note that says the match arrived, how much it was, and — in plain words — that the note is not a tax receipt because the match is the company's gift. Some organizations add "your deductible contribution for the year remains $X" so a preparer is never confused. The employee template above does exactly that.
Does the company need a §170(f)(8) acknowledgment at all?
A corporation claiming a deduction of $250 or more needs a contemporaneous written acknowledgment just as an individual does, with the amount, the date and the statement that no goods or services were provided. In practice, large companies run their programs through a vendor portal (Benevity, YourCause, CyberGrants/Bonterra, Double the Donation) and the portal's disbursement records serve as their acknowledgment. Send the letter anyway: it costs a stamp, it keeps the relationship warm, and if the check came directly from the company it is the only acknowledgment they have.
The check came from "American Online Giving Foundation" or "Blackbaud Giving Fund", not from the company. Who do we thank?
Those are the public charities behind Benevity and YourCause. Companies and employees donate to the foundation (and are receipted by it); the foundation then grants the money to you. Legally the foundation is the donor, exactly like a donor-advised fund sponsor, so nobody gets a tax receipt from you: the foundation does not want one, the company already has its receipt from the foundation, and the employee has theirs. Record a hard credit to the foundation, soft credits to the company and the employee, and send thank-you notes (not receipts) to both. The generator treats those foundation names as DAF grants automatically. The DAF page covers the legal reasoning.
The employee bought a $200 gala ticket and the company offered to match it. What do we verify?
Only the deductible portion. If the dinner was worth $75, the employee's contribution was $125 — that is the figure on their quid-pro-quo disclosure and the figure you certify to the company. Most programs refuse to match payments for goods or services, tuition, dues, raffle tickets, political gifts, pledges not yet paid, and gifts that benefit the employee or their family. Certifying the full $200 is a misstatement to the company and can get your organization removed from its eligible list. The auction and gala page explains how to compute the deductible amount.
Can a matching gift pay down an employee's pledge?
Treat the match as the company's gift, never as a payment on the employee's personal pledge. Many programs will not match a gift that satisfies a legally binding pledge at all, for the same reason a donor-advised fund cannot (the employee would receive the benefit of having their obligation paid). If your pledge agreement allows it, you may count the match toward the employee's recognition total — their name on the donor wall — while leaving the legal pledge balance untouched. Say so on the pledge card so expectations are clear. See the pledge page.
What is a volunteer grant ("Dollars for Doers") and how do we acknowledge it?
A grant the company makes because an employee volunteered a certain number of hours with you, often $10–$25 per hour or a flat $250–$500 after a threshold. The company is the donor and gets a normal acknowledgment with the no-goods-or-services statement; the employee gets a thank-you. The employee's time is never deductible (Treas. Reg. §1.170A-1(g)), so make sure the grant letter does not describe the hours as the employee's contribution. You will usually be asked to confirm the hours on the company's portal, so keep a sign-in sheet or volunteer log.
The match arrived in March for a gift made in November. Which year does it belong to?
The company's year: the match is the company's contribution on the date it was paid (for a mailed check, the mailing date; for an electronic payment, the date it was made). It belongs on your March deposit and in the company's acknowledgment with the March date. The employee's November gift stays on the employee's prior-year statement; the match does not appear there except, optionally, as a non-receipt "your gift was also matched" sentence.
Should the matching gift show up on the employee's year-end statement?
Not in the totals. The statement lists what the employee contributed, with dates and amounts and the goods-or-services statement. A sentence outside the table — "your gift was also matched by Acme, Inc.; the match is Acme's gift and is acknowledged to them separately" — is a nice touch and harmless because it does not add to the deductible figure. The generator adds that sentence when a Notes column says "matched by Acme".
How do we list matching gifts on Form 990 Schedule B?
Under the payer's name. A direct match is a contribution from the company; a match routed through a workplace-giving foundation is a contribution from the foundation. If one company's matches across the year reach the Schedule B threshold (generally $5,000; charities using the special rule list contributors at the greater of $5,000 or 2% of total contributions), the company is listed; employees' individual gifts stay under the employees' own names. Soft credits are a fundraising-database concept and never appear on the 990.
Is there anything new in 2026 for corporate donors?
Yes. Under the 2025 tax law (OBBBA), beginning with tax years after December 31, 2025, a corporation can deduct charitable contributions only to the extent they exceed 1% of its taxable income, and the long-standing 10% ceiling still applies (IRC §170(b)(2)(A)). Amounts lost to the 1% floor do not carry forward. None of this changes your letter — you still state the amount, the date and no goods or services — but it is one more reason companies will want their acknowledgments in order.
How do we handle matching gifts in the generator?
Two layouts work. One row per payment, with the company as the Donor and "Matching gift for Jane Doe" in a Notes column: the company's letter gets the full IRS statement plus a sentence recognizing Jane's gift, and the treasurer flag reminds you to send Jane a non-receipt thank-you. Or add "matched by Acme Corp" to Jane's own row: her receipt gains a sentence that her gift was matched, clearly marked as not included in her amounts. Rows whose donor or notes name a workplace-giving foundation (Benevity, American Online Giving Foundation, YourCause, Blackbaud Giving Fund) are treated as DAF grants.
General information based on Internal Revenue Code §170(a), §170(b)(2)(A) as amended by P.L. 119-21, §170(f)(8) and §6115, Treas. Reg. §1.170A-1(g), IRS Publication 1771 and the Form 990 Schedule B instructions. Company program rules vary; read the program's own guidelines. Not legal or tax advice.