If your donors have companies or individuals offering to match their fundraising during a peer-to-peer campaign, the money can be entered as a Matching Gift! When donors (or you!) enter matching donations, they are treated as offline donations.

Bloomerang Fundraising supports matching gift service integrations with Double the Donation and HEPdata, but this article focuses on how to set up Manual Matching, which is exclusive to peer-to-peer forms.

Matching donations entered by donors are considered unverified offline donations, so the settings you configure for offline donations will determine whether or not they'll automatically appear in fundraising thermometers.

Matching donations entered by someone at your organization through the Virtual Terminal are considered verified offline donations and will automatically appear in fundraising thermometers.

To enable matching donations, head to the form-level control panel of the peer-to-peer campaign you're working with and click Donations under Donation Setup.

Select the Settings tab on this screen. Under General Settings, you'll see the Enable Employer Matching Gifts toggle. Matching gifts are enabled on a per-form basis, so be sure you enable it each time you host a peer-to-peer campaign.

Once enabled, there are two tabs. One is for connecting a Matching Integration with Bloomerang Fundraising's service integrations. The other is for Manual Matching. Select Manual Matching to enter matching gifts manually.

When you configure Manual Matching, you can also set the Maximum Matching Amount allowed. Your options here are Equal to donation amount, Up to 2x donation amount, Up to 3x donation amount, and Up to 4x donation amount.

Finally, determine whether to Allow Participants to add unlinked Matching Gifts. If you check this box, your participants will be able to enter matching gifts that are not connected with a specific donation.

Make sure to click Save Donation Settings at the bottom of the page when you’re done.

Matching donations are counted as offline gifts—this means they'll be governed by the setting you choose in the Include Unverified Donations toggle, which can be found under in the Goals and Thermometers section of the Campaign Settings.

If you'd like unverified offline donations and matching donations entered by donors to immediately appear in fundraising thermometers, set the Include Unverified Donations toggle to the "on" position.

If you leave this option toggled off, you'll have to verify any offline donation and/or matching donation entered by a donor before they appear in fundraising thermometers. Remember, matching donations entered through the Virtual Terminal are considered verified offline transactions since they are entered by someone at your organization. They WILL show up in fundraising thermometers without any additional work on your part.

Be sure to scroll all the way down and click Save Campaign Settings when you've made your changes!

Now that you've got matching donations enabled, let's take a look at where they can be entered by donors, participants, and members of your organization.

When a donor visits your peer-to-peer campaign’s donation form, they'll see a matching gift option on the Additional Details step of the form.

When they check the box, they'll see an area to enter the name of the person or company providing a matching gift, as well as a field to enter the amount of the match. Remember that the maximum amount of the match is determined by the setting you selected when enabling Matching Gifts.

The matching donation will NOT appear on the donor’s receipt once they’ve submitted their gift, and they will only be charged the amount of their original donation.

Matching donations can also be entered during registration for a peer-to-peer campaign if you've turned on the optional donation option.

Participants can also add matching gifts from their fundraising dashboards once they've signed up for a peer-to-peer campaign.

When a participant clicks on My Donations in their fundraising dashboard, they'll see that any donations made that are eligible for a matching donation will have a small gift icon next to them in the Donations Received table.

Clicking the gift icon displays an area to enter the matching company name and matching donation amount.

The matching donation will then appear in the Donations Received table with a payment type of Matching, and its status will show as unverified until someone in your organization verifies the donation.

If you've configured the ability for participants to add registrants from their fundraising dashboard, and you have optional donations turned on, matching donations can be added during that process just like during the registration process for primary registrants.

Also, if you've given participants to add unlinked matching gifts, they'll see a button to Add Matching Gift on their My Donations page next to the button for adding an offline donation.

Finally, individuals at your organization can add matching donations through the Virtual Terminal. Make sure that you've granted the correct permissions so the person entering donations can access the Virtual Terminal.

If you're entering a donation and a match at the same time, choose your peer-to-peer event and click the Donations radio button.

In the Donation Details section, simply enter the amount of the donation, check the matching donation box, and then enter the name of the matching company and amount of the matching gift.

Once you've entered all necessary information, process the donation as you normally would in the Virtual Terminal.

If you're entering a matching donation for a donation that has already processed, click the Matching Donations radio button in the Virtual Terminal.

You'll see an area in which you can choose to match the donation to a particular transaction or peer-to-peer entity.

First, enter the amount of the matching donation by using the Donation Amount drop-down. If you choose to match to a Transaction, the Search for a transaction drop-down will populate with a list of your options. You can search by donor name or transaction ID. Choose the transaction you'd like to match.

If you choose to match to an Entity, you'll first need to choose Campaign, Team, or Participant from the drop-down. If you choose team or participant, a search bar will appear so you can locate the entity you'd like to apply the matching gift to.

Once you've directed the donation, enter the matching company's information in the next section.

If there are any notes you'd like to add to the transaction, you can enter them in the Transaction Notes section. These are only visible to admins.

When you're done entering all necessary information, click Process Matching Donation.

If your donor creates a recurring donation and matches the gift, a matching gift record will be created and linked to the donation. This applies to automated and manually matched gifts and will be reflected in the Matching Gifts Report.

Phew! Now that you've seen all of the ways matching donations can be entered, let's see what they look like in your control panel and reports.

In the control panel of your peer-to-peer campaign, you can view matching donations in the Constituents area by clicking Donors.

In the Donors table, matching gifts are denoted by a small present icon next to the name of the original donor, which appears directly below the name of the individual or company making the matching donation.

Remember, since matching donations entered on the front end by donors are considered offline donations, you'll need to go in and verify each one once you receive the funds. You can read more about verified/unverified offline gifts here.

You can also view the transaction to which a matching donation is linked by clicking the transaction ID in the table, and then clicking Edit in the Billed Transaction Details area.

After clicking Edit, scroll down to the Transaction Details section. You'll see the matching donation transaction ID and the ID for the donation to which it is matched.

You can also make edits to matching donations as needed. If the donation amount was entered incorrectly, or your organization received a match larger than the original gift amount, for instance, you can edit the gift amount of the unverified matching donation to reflect the actual amount received.

To edit matching gift details click Edit from the Donors table. Then scroll down to the details you want to change and select Change.

Then, make the necessary changes then scroll down to select Save Donation.

Note that once a matching gift has been verified, you can no longer edit the matching donation amount, but you can make limited changes to other fields. If you need to edit the matching donation amount of a verified donation you must Unverify it first.

In your Peer-to-Peer Donations Report table, the payment method will be listed as Matching and the status will be listed as Matching - Verified once you verify the donation or if it was entered through the Mobile Virtual Terminal, or Matching - Unverified if you have yet to verify it.

In the CSV download, you'll see Matching in the Payment Type column, Offline in the Status column, to whom the donation was matched in the Matched To column, the "matched to" email address in Matched To Email, and whether it is verified or unverified will be listed in the Verification Status column.

Please note: If you want to provide a matching company with a receipt, you'll need to take care of that in-house. Since matching gifts are considered offline, no funds are processed through our system that would cause a receipt to be generated.

If you're looking for where to alter the language on the Matching Donations labels in your peer-to-peer event, head to Campaign Builder.

In the page drop-down, select Donation Form: Additional Details to change the matching donations text that appears on the campaign’s donation form.

Click the gear icon in the Matching Gifts container to access the text for matching donations.

To change the same text outlined above that appears during the registration process, switch to the Registration Checkout page in the drop-down and click the gear icon for the Matching Gift area.

Remember to click Update and then Save Page!

Note that matching donations made on peer-to-peer forms will also be displayed in the Matching Gifts Report.