Track an employer match as a separate pending gift

If you are deciding how to track employer matching gifts, record the donor's original gift as complete. Then create a separate linked employer-match record, move it through explicit request and payment states, and mark the corporate gift received only when the company or its giving platform actually sends the money.

That separation keeps a promising match visible without turning it into cash too early. It also gives your team somewhere to store a verification request, a portal reference, and the next follow-up without reopening or rewriting the donor's completed gift.

Keep the original gift complete

An employer match begins with an individual gift, but the match is a later company donation. Salesforce's current matching-gift process starts with the employee's donation, marks that gift as potentially matched or submitted, and creates a separate company gift when the payment arrives. The two records are then linked.

Use the same distinction even if your fundraising system uses different names. The donor's $100 online gift can be complete today while the possible $100 employer match is still waiting on the donor, a verification step, or company payment.

Do not add the possible match to the original transaction, change the original payer to the employer, or mark both gifts received because the donor submitted a form. Those shortcuts erase which money arrived, who sent it, and which action remains open.

Move the match through five states

Use a short state list that names the next owner. The labels below are an operator-neutral adaptation; your employer portals and matching software may use different terms.

1. Expected: The donor says a match may be available, but there is no submitted request yet. Record the employer and original gift ID. The next action belongs to the donor unless the company's process says otherwise.
2. Submitted: The donor says the request was sent. Save the submission date and any confirmation or reference they provide. The original gift stays complete; the match remains unreceived.
3. Verification needed: An employer or giving platform asks the nonprofit to confirm the gift. Attach the request to the match record, assign one staff owner, and answer from the original gift evidence.
4. Pending payment: The match has cleared the known verification step and is awaiting approval or disbursement. Set a next-check date. Do not mark it received.
5. Received: The company payment or remittance record has arrived and can be matched with enough evidence. Create the corporate gift, link it to the employee's original gift, and close the pending record.

This structure follows the real breakpoints in current vendor workflows. Double the Donation's tracking guide separates donor submission, company or corporate-giving-platform processing, pending payment, and match completion. It also notes that some status changes are automatic while others require the nonprofit to update them.

Give every open match one next check

A status without an owner becomes a parking lot. Keep the record small, but require these facts:

• original gift ID and completed-gift date;
• donor and employer names as supplied by the available evidence;
• current match state and the date it changed;
• portal, request, or confirmation reference when available;
• next owner and next-check date; and
• eventual company payment or remittance reference.

Do not invent an expected payment date when the company has not supplied one. A next-check date controls your team's work; it does not predict when the employer will pay.

Your gift intake packet can hold the source evidence and stable identifier. The employer-match record adds the second payer, the waiting states, and the link to the later corporate gift.

Put unmatched company money in an exception queue

Sometimes the payment arrives before the team can identify the employee gift. A corporate-giving report may omit donor contact details, combine several matches, or use a reference your database does not recognize.

Do not force the deposit onto the most plausible donor. Create an unmatched employer-payment exception and record what you actually know: company or platform, amount, received date, remittance reference, and any employee or gift details supplied in the file.

Then compare those facts with open match records. Link the payment only when the evidence is sufficient. If one company payment covers several employees, preserve the payment as one source record and allocate the supported links without pretending it was one donor's gift. Salesforce's matching-gift process explicitly supports connecting one company gift to multiple matched donor gifts.

Your accountant or adviser should define accounting presentation, acknowledgment rules, and internal controls. The operational rule is narrower: uncertainty stays visible until the records agree.

Keep pipeline and received money separate

For an internal matching-gift view, report at least two different numbers:

• open match records by state and next owner; and
• employer matching gifts actually received during the period.

An optional expected-amount field can help staff prioritize work, but label it as an estimate and keep it out of a received-cash total. Employer rules, donor follow-through, verification, and disbursement can still change the outcome.

Close the loop with a small monthly review. Find records whose next-check date has passed, verification requests with no owner, pending payments with no recent evidence, and received company gifts that remain unlinked.

Test the handoff with three records

Before adopting the workflow, run three realistic cases:

1. A donor mentions an employer but never confirms submission. The record should remain Expected without changing the completed gift.
2. A portal requests verification. A teammate should reach the original gift evidence, answer the request, and move the match forward without duplicating the donor payment.
3. A company payment arrives with an incomplete donor reference. The team should hold it as an exception until the evidence supports a link.

When you evaluate fundraising operations software, check whether contacts, payments, evidence, ownership, and exceptions can stay connected without turning an expected match into a completed transaction.