Sunday, April 02, 2006

Matching Gifts

This past week, our local NPR radio station was having a pledge drive. So, I decided to renew my membership a month earlier than I'd originally intended to. Rather than calling in on my cell phone, I waited until I got home to fill out the pledge form online. At the very bottom of the form, they asked whether my employer provides a matching gift. And then there was a drop down menu of choices of corporate-sponsored foundations. Thankfully, my employer encourages charitable giving, with various pledge drives throughout the year, and they do provide matching gifts. The only catch is that there's a limit of $1,000 per year and your annual salary needs to be below $150,000. Many of my co-workers maxxed out on the matching gift last year, in response to some of the devastating losses suffered by folks around the world as a result of various natural disasters (tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes).

That's my tip for the day. When giving to any nonprofit organization, remember to check and see if your employer will match the gift. All it takes is a few minutes for you to fill out a short form and turn it into your employer, and you've just doubled the impact of your gift.

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