Want to support CSUEB? Make your gift twice as nice with a match from your employer

December 16, 2010 11:00am

If you’re making a charitable gift to Cal State East Bay this season, don’t forget two important things: make your donation by Friday, December 31 to be eligible for a 2010 tax deduction — and find out if your employer has a corporate matching program for charitable contributions. You could double or even triple the impact of your gift at no extra cost.

Many U.S. companies will make additional contributions to the organizations their employees support. Specific requirements, match percentages, and dollar limits do vary, so we encourage all donors to contact their human resources representatives to learn about their companies’ policies.

“With matching gifts, employees can help their companies support the causes that are important to them personally,” says Anne Harris, AVP of development, “and the corporations can leverage employee gifts as well as support the communities where their employees are located.”

With each additional gift, the University gains the means to help more students reach their full potential. A gift matched at 100% might make a scholarship available to additional deserving students or help pay for twice as many books. In recent years Cal State East Bay has received more than $50,000 annually from corporate matching gift programs.

Employer matches this year came from some of the Bay Area’s most recognizable companies, like Wells Fargo, Oracle, and Google. Wells Fargo is also one of the corporations that provided $5,000 or more in matches, along with AT&T, Electronic Arts, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Matching gifts support the Cal State East Bay Leadership Fund, scholarships, student support programs, colleges, and academic departments. Many of CSUEB’s special events and publications have been expanded or made possible by generous initial gifts that were further augmented with corporate matches.

Make a gift online today — and contact your employer tomorrow to double the support for CSUEB.