SFF’s Matching Pledge Program

Last updated: March 4th, 2026

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

Matching Pledge Incentives

Applicants who opt in to receiving a Matching Pledge become eligible for an additional pool of funding. The Funder determines a fixed portion of the overall funding to be distributed in the form of Matching Pledges, and only organizations that requested a Matching Pledge are eligible for that portion. 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 to receive 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 deadlines.
2. In your application, specify the following:
   • The matching rate to use
   • The maximum amount of funding you’re electing to receive as a standard grant
   • 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. For each proposal, Recommenders assess both a standard (non-matching) value curve and a matching value curve.
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 Recommenders in the S-Process may set your proposal’s matching value more highly, and that more total outside funding is 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 Recommenders in the S-Process may value your proposal’s matching funds less highly, and that less total outside funding is attributable to the Matching Pledge.

Maximum Standard Grant Amount

This is the maximum amount of funding you’re electing to receive as a standard (non-matching) grant.

The S-Process assigns standard funds first, then assigns matching funds from a separate pool. Standard funding your organization receives is taken into account when determining the marginal value of matching funds — so standard funds can “crowd out” matching funds if your organization would be in a position to receive either.

By setting a lower Maximum Standard Grant Amount, you can elect for more of your recommendation to come in the form of a Matching Pledge. If you set this amount to $0, then your organization would only receive matching funds (which you’d then need to claim by raising outside donations). If you set it very high, you might receive your entire recommendation as a standard grant, with no matching component.

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 2026 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.

How to Receive Matching Pledge 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.

Eligible Donations

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

• 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.

• 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