What it is
Matched giving lets employees ask your company to match a gift they made to an NGO. Volunteer grants let them ask for a grant to an NGO once they have volunteered enough hours with it. You set the rules once: the match ratio, the smallest gift matched, the grant per volunteer hour, the hours needed first and a yearly cap per employee for each.
Requests come to the CSR team with the receipt or the approved hours attached. When you approve one, CorpHands adds a committed donation to your budget. Your company then pays the NGO directly; money never passes through CorpHands. Matched gifts and volunteer grants are employee giving, so they are kept out of statutory CSR figures where a law sets a CSR obligation.
What you can use it for
- Match employees' own gifts one for one (or at any ratio) up to a yearly cap per person.
- Reward volunteering with a grant per hour to the NGO, after a minimum number of approved hours with it.
- Run a relief appeal: during a campaign, match gifts to the relief NGOs you tick at a higher ratio, such as two for one.
- Limit matching to NGOs you have verified, so gifts only go to partners that passed your checks.
- See requests waiting, amounts matched and granted this year, and how many employees were helped.
How to do it
Set the rules (CSR admin)
- Open the pageGo to CSR workspace → Matching and grants.
- Turn on matchingTick Match employees' gifts, then set the Match ratio (1 = one for one), the Most the company matches per employee per year and, if you want, the Smallest gift matched. Keep Only NGOs marked as verified ticked unless you have a reason not to.
- Turn on volunteer grantsTick Give volunteer grants, then set the Grant per volunteer hour, the Hours needed with an NGO first and the yearly cap. Save.
Ask for a match or a grant (employee)
- Open Matched givingIn the employee app, open Matched giving. It shows what is left of this year's caps.
- Ask for a matchChoose the NGO, enter your gift and its date, attach the NGO's receipt and click Ask for a match.
- Ask for a grantUnder Volunteer grants, NGOs where you have enough approved hours show the grant you can ask for. Click Ask for a grant.
Decide a request (CSR admin)
- ReviewUnder Requests to decide, check the receipt or the hours. You can approve less than was asked.
- Approve or rejectApproving checks the NGO's status and sanctions screening, then adds a committed donation. To reject, write a short note; the employee gets an email either way.
- Pay the NGOPay the NGO as you normally do, then mark the donation paid in the budget.
Tips and good practice
- Requests waiting count against an employee's cap, so two requests can't use the same room.
- Only gifts made in the current fiscal year can be matched, and never a future date.
- Put your NGO policy in Settings so employees can read which organisations you fund before they ask.
- For a relief appeal, open the campaign and fill in Relief appeal: boosted matching; the yearly cap still applies.
Questions
Does CorpHands collect or pass on the money?
No. Employees give to the NGO themselves, and your company pays its match or grant to the NGO directly. CorpHands keeps the requests, decisions and records.
Do matched gifts count as our company's CSR spending?
They are recorded as company donations of the kind Matched gift or Volunteer grant. Where a law sets a CSR obligation, they are kept out of it, because they are employee giving rather than your own CSR programmes. Check with your adviser how to treat them.
Can employees give through payroll?
In the UK and the US, you can add your payroll giving agency or partner on the same page. Employees then see a link to sign up, and you can record the yearly total the agency reports.