SFF’s Matching Pledge Program

Last updated: March 4th, 2025

Matching grants for fundraising outside of the S-Process

SFF Matching Pledges are commitments made by Funders of an S-Process round to match outside donations to a recipient at some rate (e.g. 2-to-1), up to the pledged amount. Matching Pledges are made to S-Process applicants who opt in, as an alternative way of structuring some or all of the funds that would be given in a standard grant recommendation.

The goals of the Matching Pledge Program include:

• Diversify the funding landscape for causes that SFF has traditionally supported
• Create a legible, predictable, and cooperative relationship with other donors
• Provide encouragement to other donors who want to give more
• Defer to other donors to some extent on how much funding a grantee should receive
• Increase the fundraising robustness and independence of S-Process grantees

Why should I want a Matching Pledge?

Applicants who opt in to receiving a Matching Pledge will be given more weight by the S-Process recommendation algorithm. From the perspective of our Funders, a Matching Pledge has higher leverage than a standard grant: a $100,000 Matching Pledge that attracts another $100,000 of funding to the receiving organization has a greater impact than the same $100,000 distributed as a standard grant.

Matching donation challenges are an effective public fundraising approach that can draw in more outside funding. A Matching Pledge provides a clear, immediate reason for supporters to donate, and creates a concrete, bounded fundraising goal for your organization.

How do I get a Matching Pledge?

The process to get a Matching Pledge is very similar to the process for getting a standard S-Process grant recommendation.

1. Submit an application to the SFF Funding Rolling Application. See the SFF homepage for grant round announcements and application information, including the submission deadline.
2. In your application, specify the following:
   • The matching rate to use
   • The baseline amount of funding you’d like as a standard grant
   • The target amount of outside donations that you’d like to have matched
   • The deadline by which you’ll need to raise outside donations
   • Optionally, any donation sources you want to exclude from the Matching Pledge
3. Recommenders will evaluate your proposal as part of the S-Process round. When determining recommendations, the S-Process algorithm will give more weight to proposals that ask for some of their funding as a Matching Pledge.
4. Once the S-Process Grant Round is complete, we’ll announce the list of organizations that received a recommendation. The announcement will include a breakdown showing how much of each recommendation is in the form of a Matching Pledge vs. a standard grant.

Proposed matching rate

You should choose this rate by making a tradeoff between the amount of fundraising required and degree of matching leverage:

• A rate of 0.25x means $0.25 from the S-Process for each $1 you raise. A rate less than 1 will make it somewhat harder to fundraise enough from other donors to claim an entire Matching Pledge, but the pledge will have higher leverage. Higher leverage means more extra weight for your proposal in the S-Process algorithm, and more total outside funding attributable to the Matching Pledge.
• A rate of 1x means $1 from the S-Process for each $1 you raise. This is a balanced approach between the amount of fundraising from other donors that’s required and the degree of matching leverage. This could be thought of as the “default” if you don’t have a strong reason to choose a different ratio.
• A rate of 4x means $4 from the S-Process for each $1 you raise. A rate greater than 1 will make it somewhat easier to fundraise enough from other donors to claim an entire Matching Pledge, but the pledge will have lower leverage. Lower leverage means less extra weight for your proposal in the S-Process algorithm, and less total outside funding attributable to the Matching Pledge.

Baseline standard grant amount

This is the amount of funding you’d like to receive in the form of a standard grant, before being offered a recommendation in the form of a Matching Pledge.

If you set this amount to a value of $0, then any recommended funding you get (up to the maximum matching amount based on your matching rate and target donations amount) will come as a Matching Pledge. If you set this amount to a very high value, then it might be greater than the total recommendation you receive, in which case all of the funding would come as a standard grant.

Target amount of outside donations that you’d like to have matched

You should choose this amount based on how much outside funding you believe you can raise, given a Matching Pledge from our Funders.

The amount of outside donations you decide to target, multiplied by the matching rate you choose, gives the maximum amount of Matching Pledge funding you’ll be offered. If you receive a grant recommendation, we'll structure it as follows, where $S is the baseline standard grant amount you request, and $M is the maximum Matching Pledge you'll be offered:

• The first $S will be a standard grant
• The next $M will be a Matching Pledge
• Any amount above $S+$M will be a standard grant

For example, suppose an organization called the Beta Institute submits an application with an initial standard grant request of $35,000 ($S), a proposed matching rate of 2x, and a target of raising $50,000 of outside donations. Then the maximum Matching Pledge offered would be $50,000 * 2 = $100,000 ($M). Here are three possible funding levels that the S-Process might output as recommendations:

• Total recommendation of $20,000: standard grant of $20,000, no Matching Pledge.
• Total recommendation of $100,000: standard grant of $35,000, Matching Pledge of $65,000.
• Total recommendation of $250,000: standard grant of $150,000 ($35,000 + $115,000), Matching Pledge of $100,000.

Proposed deadline for raising outside donations

You should choose this deadline based on the timeframe during which you want to be raising outside donations.

Having an earlier deadline can provide more urgency for potential donors, while having a later deadline gives you more time to raise enough to meet your target. You may also want to choose a date that lines up with other external deadlines, such as the end of the year.

Your options for deadlines are the following:

• December 31st of the current year (i.e. the year when your Matching Pledge is announced)
• March 31st of the following year
• June 30th of the following year
• September 30th of the following year

(Note that for the 2025 S-Process round, the earliest deadline available is December 31st, since we expect recommendations and Matching Pledges to be announced by the end of September. In future rounds, we may provide different deadline options.)

Donation sources to exclude

There may be donors that you don’t want the Matching Pledge to apply to, for whatever reason, and you can list those in the application.

For instance, if you get regular funding from a particular large donor, but you want to use the Matching Pledge to help expand your donor base, then you can list them in the application as an excluded source. If you get a Matching Pledge, then donations from the large donor won’t be eligible for matching, and you’ll need to get donations from other sources to claim the matching funds.

After I get a Matching Pledge, how do I receive those matching funds?

1. After SFF has announced a Matching Pledge to your organization, you can raise eligible donations from outside donors until the deadline you chose.
2. After the end of each quarter, you can ask to receive matching funds for donations from that quarter by submitting documentation (copies of your donor acknowledgments) to SFF over email.
3. SFF will work with you to conduct due diligence to verify your donations and confirm their eligibility.
4. After SFF has confirmed the amount of eligible donations you’ve received, we’ll work with our Funder(s) to send you the matching grant funds.

What donations are eligible?

For donations to be eligible for claiming matching grant funds, they must meet the following requirements. Eligible donations:

• Must be monetary donations.
• Must come with some form of donor contact info.
• Must be real, bona fide donations, intended to help your project meet its stated goals.
• Must be completed, with the funds received by your organization, during the timeframe after SFF announces your Matching Pledge and before your matching deadline.
• Must be an outside donation – it cannot come from the Survival and Flourishing Fund, or directly or indirectly from any Funders of the S-Process round. (e.g. in the 2024 S-Process round, Jaan Tallinn was the sole Funder, so donations from Jaan Tallinn, or sourced from an entity funded by Jaan Tallinn, wouldn’t be eligible.)
• Cannot be from a source you listed as an excluded source on your application.

On the other hand, here are some ways that SFF’s Matching Pledge Program is flexible. Eligible donations:

• Can come from any type of funding source (e.g. private foundations, corporations, large philanthropists) – donations don’t have to come from small-dollar individual donors.
• Can be planned or promised before the Matching Pledge is made (as long as the funds aren’t transferred until after the Matching Pledge is announced).
• Can be made without knowledge or reference to the Matching Pledge – donations don’t have to state that they were made because of the Matching Pledge.

Disclaimers

Note that all of this describes how we expect things to work “by default”, but like all of SFF’s announcements, none of this description should be taken as binding, and might change considerably if we notice problems with the Matching Pledge process.

Matching Pledges are non-binding and not a legal agreement. Any and all Matching Pledges that SFF announces reflect a strong intention on the part of our Funder(s) to make a matching grant to the recipients, but it remains possible that some of the grants might not happen if there are unexpected logistical difficulties or issues that are surfaced during due diligence.

Matching Pledges are made by a Funder or Funders as the result of an S-Process round, and are not made by SFF itself. SFF intends to facilitate Matching Pledges and verify donations, but all Matching Pledges and resulting matching grants are subject to the final approval of the Funder or Funders making them.

Frequently Asked Questions