Company match for charitable donations?

csuave · February 2016

Does your company do a donation match? If yes how much and do you take advantage of it?

I am currently at my third employer since entering the FT workforce. This company matches $500 a year and I do the entire amount. Previous company did $1,000 per year and before that my first company (pharmaceuticals) did $5,000 a year! I'm very happy to have the $500 I currently get but I miss those higher numbers! However, I suspect $500 is inline with other companies and maybe even higher than average.

cbee817 · February 2016

My company doesn't do anything unless you give to the United Way- don't really like being forced to donate to one particular charity so I don't participate in that. They do give us 8 hours of volunteer time per year which is nice.

jessica490 · February 2016

My company matches from $10-$2500 per year on charity giving until their budget is depleted. We have a few different programs that we cando it for. I mainly donate to Giving Comfort for jeans days every quarter and that's usually $50.

als1982 · February 2016

cbee817 said:

My company doesn't do anything unless you give to the United Way- don't really like being forced to donate to one particular charity so I don't participate in that. They do give us 8 hours of volunteer time per year which is nice.

You should see if your local United Way will let you designate your gifts to your charity of choice (they should - most do), and then if so, if your company will match that. We restrict our UW pledge to have half go to UW for their distribution and the other half is divided equally to go to five other nonprofit organizations that are close to our hearts. I love UW as an easy 'set it and forget it' approach to giving. ETA: I'm a nonprofit fundraiser, so no match here!

julieanne912 · February 2016

I'm honestly not sure if we have a match program, but we do have a pay for jeans program, and they sponsor events throughout the year, like serving meals at Ronald McDonald house, or working with a local organization that fixes up houses for seniors or disabled.

hoffse · February 2016

Ours matches the United Way - and I agree with PP, I hate having to donate to that, but I'm basically forced into it each year. I pulled our local UW's 990 this past year, and their overhead was appalling. Multiple people in that office make 2-3x what I make as an attorney at a biglaw firm.

But in addition to the UW match, the firm sometimes matches for other things. The most recent match was for breast cancer awareness.

My firm also sets aside a big pot of money for independent firm donations, and every year we submit sponsorship requests for events, etc. I'm happy to say that even lower level associates can get their sponsorship requests approved because they set aside enough money for it.

Every year my firm builds a house for Habitat.

Every time we open an office, my firm makes a major donation to a visual art institution in that city. When we opened in Birmingham, they donated $50K to the Bham Museum of Art. My firm actually has its own art collection, and the art committee sources pieces from local artists.

Finally, my firm actually runs its own foundation. About 20 years ago a grateful client gave my firm the money to get it started, and now it's a fully functioning, separate entity that makes grants every year to local charities. Whenever we don't enter our billable hours on time, we make a "voluntary" donation to the foundation.

brij2006 · February 2016

My employer doesn't offer anything, but we're an office of 13 people, including the owners.

Mustard76 · February 2016

My company will match an aggregate of $1000/eligible employee/calendar year to almost any 501(c)(3). We also partner with the United Way and receive an extra vacation day if we donate at least 1% of our gross pay thrpugh the United Way campaign. Like @cbee817 we also get 8 PTO to volunteer in the community, and after 5 years, that increases to 16 hours to volunteer. I work for a great company that is very conscious of community involvement.

labro · February 2016

I'm not sure if my company will match just any charity. We have a volunteer program through work and there will be various activities and events throughout the year. Some involve a company match of dollars donated, and sometimes it's just volunteer time. They're very open to employees arranging volunteer events with various charitable groups in our area but I'm not sure how it works in regards to getting real funding.

short+sassy · February 2016

My company only does a donation match with United Way, up to $50K total for all employees combined. But I think their match is only to the local United Way office, not the charities employees specify.

Like @hoffse was talking about, I checked the finances for the local United Way office and about 80% of their donations go to overhead. Disgusting! However, if I donate at least $26, I'm still part of the company's United Way drive, but can designate my money go to a specific charity.

dragonstarjk · February 2016

My company will match up to $2000 per employee, per year, with a $25 minimum donation to be matched. This is good for any 501C-3 charities. They will also match our volunteer time with a donation--I think it's $10 per hour or something like that.

We also have a company foundation that makes large contributions, and a family foundation.

They also strongly encourage volunteerism and community involvement; it's part of the expectations of employment if you want to advance in your career.

It's a regional bank that's extremely well known in the community and they are very, very heavily interested in donations, sponsorships, giving back to the communities we are located in. It's awesome! It's my favorite part about where I work

emily1004 · February 2016

The firm matches up to $1500, a year, to any charity we want.

short+sassy · February 2016

I am actually totally shocked at all the PPs whose companies give them hours to work at charities and/or will match money for charitable contributions!

I've worked for a lot of companies in my time (large, medium, and small) and NONE of them have done any of that...other than to United Way.

Is it regional? Do I just pick sucky companies to work for? I'm leaning toward both, lol.

Mustard76 · February 2016

short+sassy said:

I am actually totally shocked at all the PPs whose companies give them hours to work at charities and/or will match money for charitable contributions!
I've worked for a lot of companies in my time (large, medium, and small) and NONE of them have done any of that...other than to United Way.
Is it regional? Do I just pick sucky companies to work for? I'm leaning toward both, lol.

I've worked for the same company in three states, but we're headquartered in the Midwest. The last large company I worked for was headquartered in NY and offered no volunteer time. They did match charitable gifts, though. So maybe regional...?

Xstatic3333 · February 2016

That's great that so many companies do that! I'm at a nonprofit myself so no such luck here, but what a nice benefit.

hoffse · February 2016

short+sassy said:

I am actually totally shocked at all the PPs whose companies give them hours to work at charities and/or will match money for charitable contributions!
I've worked for a lot of companies in my time (large, medium, and small) and NONE of them have done any of that...other than to United Way.
Is it regional? Do I just pick sucky companies to work for? I'm leaning toward both, lol.

Not regional. My firm has an office in NOLA, and it's SE-based.

For the legal practice, at least some of it is trying to attract large clients. Companies like GE, Apple, etc. will have guidelines for things like diversity and pro bono work that they require their firms to adhere to.

Another part of it is good PR in the community.

And finally, a big chunk of it is that service-based industries have human capital. I think that tends to yield a higher priority on charitable giving.

short+sassy · February 2016

hoffse said:

short+sassy said:

I am actually totally shocked at all the PPs whose companies give them hours to work at charities and/or will match money for charitable contributions!
I've worked for a lot of companies in my time (large, medium, and small) and NONE of them have done any of that...other than to United Way.
Is it regional? Do I just pick sucky companies to work for? I'm leaning toward both, lol.

Not regional. My firm has an office in NOLA, and it's SE-based.

For the legal practice, at least some of it is trying to attract large clients. Companies like GE, Apple, etc. will have guidelines for things like diversity and pro bono work that they require their firms to adhere to.

Another part of it is good PR in the community.

And finally, a big chunk of it is that service-based industries have human capital. I think that tends to yield a higher priority on charitable giving.

Hmmm...for the green bolded, most of the companies I've worked for have business/government clients...not general public/community clients.

Black bolded -- that reminds me when I worked for Lockheed Martin. The world's largest defense contractor. They did the annoying United Way drive also. But the charities the, as a company made large donations to, were soldiers/military related.

They also had a VERY generous policy with employee reservists who were called back into active duty. They would pay the difference in their salary for up to one year. We even had a two-star Army general visit our worksite to give an award to my boss because one of our employees who had been called back, was in his command.

I escorted the general and his entourage...yes, entourage...to my boss' office and it was heads swiveling and people stopping in mid conversation to stare. Fun! I wouldn't have had that reaction, but then I am not former military, whereas most of my coworkers were.

At any rate, another example of a company using their corporate donations for what will look most advantageous to their particular clients.

jessica490 · February 2016

short+sassy said:

I am actually totally shocked at all the PPs whose companies give them hours to work at charities and/or will match money for charitable contributions!
I've worked for a lot of companies in my time (large, medium, and small) and NONE of them have done any of that...other than to United Way.
Is it regional? Do I just pick sucky companies to work for? I'm leaning toward both, lol.

I work for a Fortune 500 company so maybe that's why??

Erikan73 · February 2016

Yes my company does it, how much they match can vary. The past few years it's been 100%. The reason it can vary is that they put aside a set amount to do donation matching. Based how much people submit for matching depends on how much they match. If we put in less then what they budget for, they can match 100%. If we submit more then what they have budgeted for, they spread the wealth fairly among all the different organizations that we donated to personally.

Company match for charitable donations?

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