Charity Through Your Work
Many employers offer the opportunity and incentive for workers to participate in charitable giving through employer matching programs. By matching funds that employees donate towards charities, many corporations create a win-win situation. They receive a chance to make charitable deductions (though many gift levels will exceed deductable levels), and employees get the opportunity to make a difference in the world around them knowing that their contributions have become even more potent through the process. Best of all, worthwhile causes receive higher levels of funding than they would simply through employee donations, creating a circle of benefit from such initiatives.
Here at The Orchid Recovery Center, we’re encouraged by employers’ willingness to support their employees’ charitable efforts. View our Orchid Recovery Center Charity page.
Donating to Charity Through Your Work
Most employer matching programs have a one-to-one ratio of giving involved; that is, each dollar an employee donates to the charity becomes “matched” by a dollar donated by the corporation itself. However, some companies will go even further, donating on a two-to-one or three-to-one ratio, enabling the tripling or quadrupling of employee gifts.
Protocols for each company’s donations matching program tend to vary by corporation, so it’s important to first check your employee handbook or talk to your human resources professional to become clear on the rules and regulations of your particular initiative. Many times, employees will have to do more than simply self-report charitable donations, such as complete company forms to obtain matching funds. Some companies may even “match” employee volunteer efforts or time investments with a monetary value, though verification procedures vary by corporation.
Some companies only provide matching gifts for those donations that are considered tax deductible. This sometimes means that even large-scale donations are not completely matched by a company if they exceed limitations on deductions according to IRS rules. In some cases, donations of the employee’s family will be also matched, though it’s increasingly common for donations restrictions to be limited to the employee alone.
