Should we be running our donations through some type of "match" fund??

In My Humble Opinion
1

Anyone have any details they could pass along to help the rest of us maximise our contributions? A lot of extra money could be put in the hat. (Not sure how these match funds work or how much they match, or if there is an upper limit on some of them.)
From what I gather there are people and organizations out there that are willing to match the funds of those that donate “through” them, correct? Should we go out of our way to see that all funds are routed through someone that will match the donation?
Same goes for the SDMB thread which is keeping a running tally of SDMB donations. Should all that ($8,000+) have been collected by one person and then routed through some type of match fund so that the collection could have been doubled to $16,000? Seems like the right thing to do.

Any thoughts or info would be greatly appreciated.

2

I know some of the donataions in the Running Tally thread counted their matched donations, but I like your thinking.

I know that Best Buy is currently offering to match donations made at their registers. This could be an option for folks like me who work for small companies or are self-employed. If anyone finds more organizations that are willing to match funds, let us know.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat52100050011&type=category

3

Thanks AndyPolley,

I’m almost thinking that a direct donation to the ARC or some other charity might (almost) be a foolish thing if you can double your money via such routes as BestBuy, et.al.

4

I started this thread on sunday after I donated some money then noticed Sears was matching and all I can think of are Best Buy, Kmart & Sears right now.

I’d be open to someone here starting a matching fund for all of us to donate to if anyone thinks they can get corporate sponsorship.

5

Running your donation through someone who will match offers two benefits.

The first and obvious one is your donation is doubled. Of course, who’s to say that Sears, your local radio station, grocery store, whatever, wasn’t already going to make a sizeable donation, and they use the doubling as free advertising?

Second is that if you donate through one of these channels, your donation gets lumped into one big check or wire transfer. If everyone sent their own check to the Red Cross, salvation Army, etc., these agencies would have no time to do anything except count and process thousands of checks.