What is a matching gift?

A matching gift is a donation made by a funder who determines an amount to give based on what an organization has successfully raised.

Often, funders match what is given to the nonprofit organization dollar-for-dollar (or a “1:1 match”). For every dollar that is raised, a dollar is given. In this case, when an individual donor makes a gift of $50 to a nonprofit organization, a funder also gives $50 — doubling the donation for a total of $100.

NewsMatch pools gifts from local and national funders to create main fund and partner matches for small-dollar donations made by individuals to nonprofit newsrooms across the country. Local and national foundations provide gifts to the Fund for Nonprofit News, hosted at The Miami Foundation. The Fund then matches every dollar that newsrooms raise from donors during the year-end NewsMatch campaign, up to a predetermined match cap. 

Newsrooms with annual operating expenses under $1 million are eligible for the main fund match, while partner matches are provided to designated newsrooms of any size, determined by region, coverage type, or audience served.