Learn what a matching gift video should say, how long it should run, where to use it and how to measure it, with real examples and a simple script outline.
How Nonprofits Can Make a Matching Gift Video That Works
A matching gift video is a short film that explains a match to your donors and tells them what to do next. It can promote a challenge match from a board member or a corporate employer match program. The best ones name the match, show who benefits, and end with one clear action.
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TL;DR
A matching gift video explains a match in plain words and gives donors one next step.
Keep a challenge match video to roughly 45 to 90 seconds. Keep an event version under 90 seconds.
Put a real beneficiary or donor story in the middle, and state the match amount, the deadline and the cap.
Place the video on your matching gift page, your donation form, your emails and your events.
Measure matching donations, matching revenue and the share of gifts that include a match.
Table of Contents
What is a matching gift video?
Why does a matching gift video help raise more money?
What should a matching gift video explain to donors?
How long should a matching gift video be?
How do you tell a story inside a matching gift video?
Where should a nonprofit use its matching gift video?
How do you promote the video and connect it to the next steps?
How does a video fit into a year-round matching gift strategy?
How do you measure whether a matching gift video works?
What we have learned about filming donor stories
Who can produce a matching gift video for your nonprofit?
FAQ
Sources
What is a matching gift video?
A matching gift video is a donor-facing video that markets and explains matching gift opportunities. Double the Donation describes it as a tool that engages viewers, shares key information in a memorable format, and motivates them to request their employer’s match.
There are two common types, and you should know which one you are making.
Challenge match video. A major donor, board member or company promises to match gifts up to a cap, for a limited time. The video announces it and builds urgency.
Employer match video. Many companies match what their employees give. The video teaches donors how to check and submit a request.
Some nonprofits make one film that covers both. In our experience, two short films work better, because each one has a different job and a different viewer.
Why does a matching gift video help raise more money?
A match gives people a reason to give now, and video makes that reason easy to understand. Give Lively reports that mentioning matching gifts in appeals raises response rates by 71% and average gifts by 51%, citing industry research. Treat those numbers as reported figures, not a promise for your own campaign.
The bigger problem is awareness. 360MatchPro reports that over 26 million employees work for companies with matching gift programs, and 78% of them do not know the programs exist. Your donors may already be eligible. They just do not know it.
A video fixes that in under two minutes. It shows the steps instead of asking people to read a policy page.
What should a matching gift video explain to donors?
A matching gift video should explain what the match is, how much it is worth, when it ends, and how the donor takes part. It should then point to one action. Double the Donation advises explaining the basics of matching gifts, showing how quick the request process can be, and sending viewers to more resources.
For a challenge match, use the same facts every time:
The match. Who is matching, and at what ratio.
The cap. The total amount available.
The deadline. The day the match ends.
The impact. What each dollar does.
The action. One button, one link, one step.
The ASPCA’s tip sheet gives a clean model. It says donors respond to concise messaging such as a $50 gift being matched with another $50, which makes $100 available for a specific, countable result. It also recommends setting deadlines to create urgency.
Notice the pattern. The donor sees the doubling and the thing it buys in the same sentence.
What call to action works best?
Use one call to action and say it out loud and on screen. Trellis recommends ending with a clear next step, such as visiting your website, donating, or checking eligibility with an employer. Pick the one that fits the campaign.
For a challenge match, the action is “give today.” For an employer match, the action is “search your employer on our page.” Do not ask for both in the same ten seconds.
How long should a matching gift video be?
A matching gift video should run about 45 to 90 seconds. Zeffy defines a matching gift challenge video as one that names the match, the deadline and the cap, with an ideal length of 45 to 90 seconds. That fits how people watch: on a phone, between other tasks.
Events are tighter. Trellis suggests a video shown at a fundraising event run no more than a minute and a half. It also recommends large closed captions, since a room is noisy and guests are talking.
Here is how we would split 60 seconds:
Seconds | What happens on screen |
|---|---|
0 to 10 | The problem, shown through one person or one place |
10 to 25 | Your organization and the work it does |
25 to 40 | The match: amount, ratio, cap and deadline |
40 to 52 | What the doubled gift makes possible |
52 to 60 | One call to action with the web address |
This follows the same logic as the PIES framework from CauseMatch: present the problem, introduce the organization, explain the solution, and solve the problem by funding it. The match is the “solve” step.
How do you tell a story inside a matching gift video?
Use one real person and one specific outcome. Double the Donation suggests using constituent or beneficiary stories to show how matching requests help the organization support more people. A number alone does not do that.
There are three story options that work well.
A beneficiary. A student, a patient, a family. Let them speak in their own words.
A past donor. Someone whose gift was matched, explaining why they gave and what happened next.
A staff member. The person who sees the result of a gift every day.
An employee-giving case from Philanthropy.com shows the approach. A company picked four associates from its matching gift program and filmed unscripted testimonial videos, then shared them in the company newsletter. Unscripted is the key word. People can tell when a line is read.
If you want more on building the story itself, our guide to mission story video best practices for nonprofits covers how to choose the right subject. Our article on why cinematic video moves donors to give explains why craft matters at the moment of the ask.
What should you avoid on screen?
Avoid reading a policy aloud. Avoid a long list of participating companies. Avoid three calls to action. And avoid a match that sounds vague, like “gifts may be doubled.” Say the real number.
Where should a nonprofit use its matching gift video?
Put the video where a donor is about to decide. Double the Donation recommends embedding it on your matching gift web page and using it in donor communications and campaign landing pages, such as giving days, peer-to-peer fundraisers and annual fund campaigns.
Here are the placements we would set up first:
The matching gift page. Donors who visit it want to learn, so the video fits.
The donation form. Zeffy advises putting the video link above the donate button so viewers do not need to leave the form.
Email. Link to the video with a thumbnail. Zeffy notes that Gmail and Outlook strip embedded video.
Events. Play the short cut with captions during the program.
Social media. Post a 15 to 30 second cut with captions.
Receipts and thank-you emails. Remind new donors to check for an employer match.
The timing matters too. A case study from Tanager Digital on two public radio stations says a match works as the final nudge after weeks of audience priming. Do not lead with the match on day one if no one knows your cause yet. Build the story first, then use the match to close.
How do you promote the video and connect it to the next steps?
Promote the video across every channel your donors already use, then make sure the video leads somewhere. Givebutter recommends sharing fundraising videos on fundraising pages, email with a linked thumbnail, text messages, social media and board and volunteer networks.
The video is only half the job. The other half is the path after it. 360MatchPro suggests three steps for employer matching:
Add a matching gift database to your giving page so donors can search for their employer.
Send an automated email within 24 hours of a gift with the employer’s guidelines and submission links.
Give part of your Giving Tuesday or year-end appeals to matching gift awareness.
Those steps come from 360MatchPro’s corporate giving strategies. A video that sends viewers to a page with no search tool leaves money behind.
Boys Town shows how to build this into the gift itself. Its Matching Monday effort asked every donor whether they work for a company that matches and gave matching details automatically to those who did.
For a challenge match, Wired Impact’s swipe file lists the full channel mix: a landing page with a donation form, emails, social posts, press releases, newsletters, direct mail and donor follow-up. The video can run through all of them.
How does a video fit into a year-round matching gift strategy?
Treat the video as a set of assets, not a one-time launch. One shoot can give you a main film, short social cuts, an event version and a thank-you message. You can reuse the same interviews across the year.
A simple calendar looks like this:
Moment | Video use |
|---|---|
Spring giving day | Challenge match announcement |
Summer | Employer match explainer on the matching gift page |
Fall events | Short captioned event version |
Giving Tuesday and year-end | Deadline cut with countdown visuals |
Throughout | Thank-you video shown in receipts |
MemoryFox recommends urgency visuals like countdown timers or donation progress bars for limited-time matches. Those are easy to add in editing.
You can also break one long campaign into smaller moments. MissionWired’s food bank strategies include flash matches that last a week and mid-campaign upgrades, such as moving from 3X to 5X for the final week. A short new video for each upgrade keeps the message fresh.
Lehigh University offers a higher education example. It treated matching gifts as a focused campaign month with targeted outreach and reported more than $37,000 in added matching revenue year over year and almost 100 more matching donations. If you work in higher education, our post on video content types that attract and engage college donors pairs well with this approach.
How do you measure whether a matching gift video works?
Track matching revenue and matching participation first, and views second. Double the Donation recommends tracking the number of matching donations, total money raised from matches, the percentage of donations that included a match, and the percentage of total revenue from matching gifts.
Set your baseline before the video launches. Then compare the same period a year later.
Here is a simple scorecard:
Video plays and completion rate. Do people reach the call to action?
Visits to the matching gift page. Did traffic rise after each send?
Employer searches. How many donors used the database?
Submitted match requests. How many donors followed through?
Matching revenue. What did it add to the campaign total?
Be careful with big numbers. Boys Town reported 322,441 video views in its Matching Monday campaign, but views alone do not pay for programs. Tie every view metric back to a gift metric.
Tanager’s case study makes a useful point about budget. The question is where each dollar does the most work, and part of that is knowing when to stop buying reach and start removing friction from the gift itself. A video that explains the match clearly does exactly that.
What we have learned about filming donor stories
We make films for nonprofits, schools, universities and healthcare organizations across New Jersey and the New York area. When a development director asks us about a matching gift video, the first thing we ask is simple: who is the one person your donor will remember?
I see the same mistake often. Teams spend the whole video explaining the match and forget the human being behind the gift. A match is a reason to act. A story is the reason to care. You need both, in that order.
Our approach starts with the audience. We define who is watching, what they already believe, and what we want them to do. Then we build the message around that one action. Strong cinematography and careful editing then raise the emotional weight, so the match lands as a moment that matters and not as a coupon.
If you already have a case for support, you have the raw material. We can turn it into a short, focused film that donors understand in the first ten seconds.
Tzvi Simchon
A matching gift video often grows out of a larger story. If your team is also planning a bigger appeal, see how we approach turning a case for support into a video and capital campaign videos for nonprofits.
Who can produce a matching gift video for your nonprofit?
Simchon Productions is a New Jersey video production company. We make nonprofit videos, donor films, event films and documentary style films for organizations in the New York and New Jersey tri-state area. We can shoot one story session and give you a main match film, social cuts and an event version.
To talk about your next campaign, visit Simchon Productions and tell us your goal, your audience and your deadline. Pricing depends on project scope, so we quote each film after we understand what you need.
FAQ
How long should a matching gift video be?
Aim for 45 to 90 seconds for a challenge match video. Keep event versions to no more than 90 seconds, with large captions. Make 15 to 30 second cuts for social media.
What is the difference between a matching gift challenge and an employer matching gift?
A challenge match comes from a donor, board member or company that promises to match gifts up to a cap during a set period. An employer match comes from a donor’s workplace, which may match what an employee gives. The video for each one has a different call to action.
Do I need a professional crew to make a matching gift video?
Not for every use. A simple phone video can work for a quick update. For a main campaign film, a flagship giving day or a story with several interviews, a professional crew gives you clean audio, steady shots and careful editing that make the message easier to trust.
Where should I put the video on my website?
Place it on your matching gift page and near the donate button on your donation form. Link to it in emails instead of embedding it, since some email apps strip embedded video.
How do I know if the video raised more gifts?
Compare matching donations, matching revenue and the share of gifts that include a match against the same period last year. Use video views only as a supporting number.
Sources
Using Video Storytelling to Strengthen Your Capital Campaign
Hunger Action Month: Growth-Driving Strategies for Food Banks