Matched giving is popular corporate response to tsunami appeals
Howard Lake | 10 January 2005 | News
A large number of companies are offering to match their employees’ donations to emergency appeals related to the Asian tsunami disaster.
Matched giving is proving a popular response in many countries for companies wishing to donate to emergency appeals following the Asian tsunami disaster of 26 December 2004. Many of the FTSE 100 companies have announced such systems, but the response has been international.
Publisher Pearson Group will match all donations made by Rough Guides’ readers before 31 January 2005.
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Liverpool-based payroll giving and corporate donation management agency Charities Trust moved quickly to offer an online donation system that enabled companies to track and match employees’ online gifts. The system, created by technology consultancy Chapter Eight Ltd was set up within an hour. Employers simply had to email a Web address to their staff, who could then donate tax-efficiently online. The first company to adopt it was a large multinational which are using it all over the world, to co-ordinate their corporate giving and track payment amounts. Chapter Eight donated their fees to the emergency appeal.
In Canada, aluminium and packaging company Alcan Inc is matching donations by its 88,000 strong worldwide workforce.
In Mexico, cement and ready-mix products producer CEMEX has offered to match two-for-one any contributions made by its employees, with a minimum corporate contribution of $2 million.
In the USA, Starbucks Corp is matching emplyee donations, and expects to make total donations, including a percentage from sales of a Sumatran coffee, of at least $1 million. At Intel Corporation, the response was rapid: after its foundation announced it would match employee donations, employees donated $200,000 within a day.
General Motors, through its foundation, will match up to $1 million in contributions made by GM employees.
Indeed in the USA, it looks likely that the scale of corporate support for the tsunami disaster appeals will be second only to the sector’s donations to the post 11 September 2001 emergency appeals, which totalled $410 million. According to the Associated Press, in just over a week, at least 142 U.S. companies have publicly announced $182.7 million in donations or pledges to assist tsunami victims. This sum consists of $89.9 million in cash, $25.8 million in matched funds, and at least $55 million in products and services.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.