Matches and Challenges

Everything you ever wanted to know about how matches and challenges work on GiveCampus!

Matches and Challenges represent an incredible opportunity for donors to leverage their own giving to encourage others to join them in making a meaningful contribution. This powerful type of gift helps advocates and generous donors tools effectively solicit their peers and use their donations to motivate additional support.

About Matches & Challenges

What is the difference between a Match and a Challenge?

• Match dollars are added to your campaign totals incrementally as donors / dollars apply towards the match. 
• Challenges dollars are added to the campaign total in one lump sum ONLY once a certain threshold is reached. 

A Match can be set up with two different parameters: 

• $X per donor
• $X per $1 donated.
  • For example, "Albus Dumbledore will match $2 per $1 donated up to $5,000" OR “Professor Trelawney will match $50 per donor up to $5,000” 

How do Match Donors & Dollars Count towards campaigns and leaderboards? 

• The donor will be counted in the over total and the associated leaderboards as soon as they set up the Match
• No dollars are associated with this donor until other gifts start applying towards the match and unlocking match dollars.
• Dollars will be unlocked from the match, and added to the campaign totals and leaderboards, incrementally as gifts start applying towards the match. 

Challenge Parameters

A Challenge can be set up in two ways:

• The Challenge donor will give $X if Y number of donors give 
  • For example, “Hermione Granger will give $1,000 if 50 donors give”
• The Challenge donor will give $X if $Y is donated.
  • For example, Harry Potter will give $1,000 if $1,000 is donated”

How do Challenge Donors & Dollars Count towards campaigns and leaderboards? 

• Challenges are all-or-nothing -- meaning the dollars are not released unless the threshold specified in the terms of the Challenge is met.

• The donor and their challenge dollars will be counted in the over total and the associated leaderboards only once the threshold is met and the Challenge is unlocked.

*New* Match/Challenge Custom Headers & Description

• Custom Headers and Custom Descriptions are optional for each match or challenge.
• You can add headers and descriptions to Offline Matches/Challenges during set up or add them to Online Matches/Challenge once they have been established

Directing Matches or Challenges

Both matches and challenges can be restricted to specific groups (e.g. affiliation, class year, designation, or a list of donor names). 

• By Affiliation
  • Ex: Parents
• By Affiliation + Class Year
  • Ex: Parents of the Class of 2024
• By Class Year
  • Ex: Class of 2024 (From any affiliation -- Parents and Students)
• By Designation
  • Ex: Donors who give to Soccer
• By Designation Group
  • Ex: Donors who give to Athletics (Any Sports Team)
• Combo Designation + Affiliation
• Ex: Parents who give to Athletics

Designating Matches or Challenges

In addition to deciding who to match, donors can decide where their match dollars will go by designating their Match or Challenge Gift. For example: 

• Donor restricts their match to parents, and designates their gift to Financial Aid. All Parents will be matched with a gift to financial aid. 
• Donor restricted their match to Soccer, and designates their gift to the general athletics fund. All Soccer gifts will be matched with a gift to the General Athletics Fund.

Additional Options for Matches and Challenges:

• Campaign Settings > Campaign Forms > Match Options > Enable Minimum gift amount option
• Once toggled on, donors and admins will see an option to set a minimum match amount when establishing a match/challenge
• Create new match / challenge > Check to Only match gifts above a certain donation amount

Limit Match Amount per Donor

• Add new Match/Challenge
• Check to Limit Amount Matched per Donor
• Enter Maximum amount donated per match

Creating Matches/Challenges for a Range of Classes

• Set up a new Match/Challenge and restrict to a single class year
• Head to the 'Manage Gifts' tab of your campaign > Find the Match/Challenge
• Click into the Donation ID
• Under 'Directed Years,' add additional years until the full range is reflected!

Recurring Giving Matches/Challenges

• Set up new Match/Challenge
• When determining 'who this match is for,' select 'Donors that make a recurring gift.'

First-Time Donor Matches/Challenges

• Load in gift data via the Data Importer
• Configure donor statuses'
• Set up Match/Challenge, and see new option to restrict only to first-time donors

Frequently Asked Questions about Matches and Challenges:

Q: Does GiveCampus support offline matches or challenges?
A: Yes! Our Social Fundraising solution supports both offline matches and offline challenges! Check out this article that goes through all things offline matches/challenges. 

Q: When is the donor charged?
A: The donor will be charged when the terms of their Match or Challenge are achieved.

Q: How and when will this be reflected in the overall numbers and leaderboards?
A: Match dollars will be added to the overall dollar count and the leaderboards as the matches accrue.  Challenges will be added to the over dollar amount and leaderboards once they have have achieved their terms and been unlocked.

Q: Will offline gifts count against a Match or Challenge?
A: Yes! Offline gift data that you enter/upload while there is an active Matching Donation or Challenge will have the same effect on the Match or Challenge as online gift data. As such, while there is an active Match or Challenge, please only enter/upload data for offline gifts that should be counted toward the Match or Challenge. 

Q: Can a Matcher or Challenger pick a designation for their donation and require all matching donations are for the same designation?
A: Yes! The donor can decide and do this on their own! We can also do it on our backend if the donor forgot to set their gift up this way. You can send a quick email to support@givecampus.com if you need us to edit any parameters of a match or a challenge!

Q: Can a donor elect to give the entirety of their match or challenge even if the terms are not met?
A: YES! This is an option that your donors will see as they are setting up their match or challenge, and is a great way to ensure you do not leave money on the table while giving your donors the opportunity to leverage their gift to encourage others to give.  At the end of a campaign, the total match/challenge amount will be charged even if the terms were not met during the campaign.  A new field, "give_full_match_challenge_amount", has been added to your reporting options and we would encourage you to include it in your standard report so that you can see which of your donors have elected to give the full amount.  This column will populate with either "true" or "false."  

Q: When sending a match/challenge to a specific group of people, what does the email look like?

Happy matching and challenging! Here's to increasing donors and dollars!!!