Ask a Fundraiser: What is a Match Campaign?

Your donation will be tripled!

Your donation will be matched!

Your donation is doubled!

1=2, 1:1, 1:2

Have you ever received an email or piece of mail from a charity that referenced a matching challenge like the one above and wondered what it really meant or how it actually worked? Charity Navigator is here to answer all your questions about these special campaigns.
What is a matching campaign?

Tidying Up My Philanthropy

As someone who spends a little too much time on Instagram, I can confidently say minimalism is having a moment. My feed is full of scarcely decorated, white-washed rooms, capsule wardrobes designed to create a season’s worth of outfits with ten pieces of clothing, and five-minute daily beauty routines.

I must say, this trend toward minimalism is refreshing. It inspired me to declutter my home and “Marie Kondo” my closet. And, generally speaking, the process left me feeling more intentional and content. It also prompted me to start thinking about the ways I could use these concepts in my life outside of my apartment. Being a person who spends at least forty hours a week thinking about philanthropy, my charitable giving felt like a natural application.

Here’s an easy way I adopted “philanthropic minimalism” and am doing more by doing less...

Get Smart Fast: 10 Things You Need to Know About Planned Giving

New to planned giving? We can’t make you an expert in the next four minutes, but these facts will get you halfway there in no time at all.

The Do's an Don'ts of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

You absolutely love a charity. We are talking hopelessly smitten.

You donate (or maybe you would, but don’t have the funds). You volunteer. So, what else can you do you to communicate your affection? Enter, peer-to-peer fundraising!

Check out our Do’s and Dont’s for Peer-to-Peer fundraising before you create your next (or very first!) peer-to-peer fundraising campaign!

Is Collaboration the Key to Nonprofit Success?

In Part 1 of this two-part series, we discuss why collaboration among nonprofits is essential to them efficiently achieving their missions. Stay tuned for Part 2 when we highlight a number of highly-rated charities who have identified innovative ways to work together to promote effective solutions to the issues they are addressing. 

We’re often inspired to support a charity based on their vision for a better world--one without hunger, homelessness, or disease. Organizations dare to imagine a day when these problems no longer exist and invite us to be part of the solution through our support.

But, tackling these issues can be difficult, if not impossible, when organizations lack sufficient resources. Many charities are striving to achieve their ambitious missions with limited staff and shoestring budgets. This often leads to splintered programs focused on alleviating symptoms indefinitely, rather than addressing the real root of the problem.

To have a meaningful impact, organizations must embrace collaboration and adopt a comprehensive, focused approach for tackling the issues they set out to address. Here’s why...

Determining if a Charity has Your Best Interest (and the General Public's) in Mind

This guest post was contributed by our friend, James Townsend. He is an avid Charity Navigator user and community leader residing in Kansas City who is passionate about community organizing and inclusion.

The word charity holds high regard in the minds of most. It is associated with selflessness, helping those in need, and improving one’s community. While we'd like to think that every charity has good intentions for humanity, there are organizations that qualify as charities that, from your perspective, may not be inherently “good.” So, how does a discerning donor identify troubling “charities?”