Conference 7.286::digital

    Try the Corporate Community Relations Manager at MSO/K10.
    DTN: 223-2221

First of all, you are not supposed to send the matching gift form to Digital.
You send it along with your contribution to whoever you are giving money to.
They then fill out their part of the form and send it in to Digital, who
presumably will then pay them.  Instructions are on the form.

    I realize I misphrased the base note.  I did send it to the
    beneficiary organization as instructed.
    
    -Richard-
    
    re: .1 Thanks!

I have tried to use The Matching Gifts program since I joined the company
in '87. To date, they have yet to match any of my gifts. Part of the
problem is that while the folks I am donating to have the right IRS
status, they are new to DEC and must go through a great deal of red
tape to be recognized.

Also in addition to Neil's pointer in .1, the DEC directory lists 223-7256
as a direct # to the person working on the Matching Gifts program in Corporate
Community relations.

-Jack

    I believe that the department must be understaffed. They told me
    they are still working on 1987's....I donated in Nov of '88 and
    my form has not been acted upon yet.

    Re .6:
    
    Is this really the case that the Program office is behind in processing
    gift forms?  I find that embarrassing, particularly when I gave to
    charity a number of times during 1988 and made a point to enclose the
    Digital matching gift form.
    
    --Lynn
    

	They can't be too far behind.  I recently received an acknowledgemnt
	from my Alma Mater that they had received my donation which
	I sent on 12/30/88 (nothing like waiting till the end for a tax
	deduction).  The form also acknowledged the matching gift from
	Digital.

Frank

	A couple of months ago I received a nice form letter from the
	Gift Matchers telling me their directory didn't list my recipient,
	and would I please send them a copy of the IRS 501(c) letter.
	I phoned the Gift Matchers:

		Me:  Hello.
		GM (very nice lady): Hello.
		Me:  Is there a mistake?  This gift is from 1986.
		GM:  That's right.  Listed recipients take two or three months...
		Me:  Oh.
		GM:  ... and we're a little slower on unlisted ones.
		Me:  Oh.  Uh, when was your directory published?
		GM:  Nineteen-fifty-something.
		Me:  Oh.  Thanks.

	Better late than never.

	Regards, Robert.

	PS  Just to make you mad:  IBM matches 2-for-1.

    I have also recieved indirect notification in the form of thank you
    notes (plural) from magching contributions recieved from Digital and
    the fact that I had included the matching forms.  It does work.
    
    			Bill

    My alma mater recently thanked me for my annual contribution and
    the matching gift FORM from Digital.  I, too, am embarrassed to
    think that the school is not receiving the money promised them.
    

For the past 5 years I have been giving contributions to a local non-profit
educational foundation.  On an average it has taken from 9-12 months to
get processed through the matching fund folks at Digital.  They claim the
problem is understaffing, as the organization is on their list (I also have
them include a copy of their 501(c) stuff also and every gift that is matched),

    Should we make a distinction here? 
    
    Filing for Matching Gift status for the first time  > 12 months
    
    Processing a match for an organization already on the "accepted"
    list < 6 months, usually 2-3 months.

    Sorry fella, but your first mistake was to send the form to Digital.
    Send it to the agency you are giving to.  They have a section to
    fill out, and then THEY send it to Digital.  I give in New Hampshire,
    and Digital payments are made on a very regular basis.  There's
    never been a problem.

    This is the non-profit agency sending the forms to Digital, not
    the employee. During the recent backlog, it took over a year once
    the group filing for Matching Gift status mailed in the paperwork.
    The community relations dept appears to be shorthanded.

        RE: .15 (RE: .14) -- The original topic note was written in
        a way that suggested that the author had sent the forms to
        Digital directly, instead of to the non-profit agency.  This
        was clarified in a later reply, but apparently the author of
        .14 didn't bother to read all the replies before writing yet
        another reply to the topic note.  I suspect that .14 is not
        a reply to your .13, but rather to the topic note.
        
        Tom

The following is a very helpful response to my base note.  Thank you all
who have contributed to the input of this note.  Richard

From:	NAME: Joanne Urgotis @MSO           
	FUNC: Corp. Comm. Relations   
	TEL: 223-6083             <URGOTIS.JOANNE AT A1 AT WITNES AT PKO>

Richard -

Your NOTE was brought to my attention, so I thought I would answer you 
directly (I would have called but there are a few Richard Jones' in 
the book!).

First, you're correct - there is no payroll deduction for the Matching 
Gift program.  If you feel strongly about wanting to go that route, 
you can give to any United Way (who then distributes to their 
agencies) during the United Way campaign (starts in September, runs 
through November), or see your PSA - this program does have the 
payroll deduction option.

Perhaps a quick outline of how the MG program works would help you 
out.  An employee fills out the card, sends it with their gift to the 
organization, who fills in the bottom half of the card to acknowledge 
receipt.  The card is then sent back to us - if they've received money 
from Digital's MG before, they will be in our database; the card is 
processed and the check is sent out at the beginning of the following 
quarter (please note this:  checks are sent on a quarterly basis).  If 
an organization has never received MG money, we request additional 
information (guidelines/charter, copy of IRS tax exempt 501(c)3 
letter), if they meet our requirements (501(c)3, not political or 
religious in nature), we send a request to Vendor Coding to have them 
added to the database.  Once this is done, they're there to stay and 
any additional gifts can be processed immediately.

If you need more information, feel free to call me, or Celia Therrien 
(DTN 223-7256), Matching Gift Coordinator.

Joanne Urgotis
Employee Programs Coordinator
(DTN 223-6083)

    re: < Note 779.17 by BSS::RJONES "Rising from the ashes" >

    Thanks for posting this info, and much thanks to Joanne Urgotis
    for explaining the process.  Understanding how these things work
    can relieve a lot of worry and frustration;  I just wish more of
    the people at Corporate understood ...
    
    Geoff Unland

	I did  something  once  when  seeking  matching  gifts  for a new
	organization not in Digital's database:    i enclosed a note with
	the  matching  gift  form  i sent to  the  representative  of  my
	charity.  I suggested she send a copy  of  the  charity's 501(c)3
	notice from the IRS at the same time they  send the matching gift
	form  to  Digital.  This appeared to have shortened the  approval
	cycle.
	
	If  it  could  possibly   be  ambiguous  that  your  organization
	qualifies for matching funds, you  may  also suggest they enclose
	any supporting evidence, such as a  formal  statement of purpose,
	with their form.

    A contribution I made last year took five months to be matched.  The
    charity was already in DEC's database.  I find this delay, as has
    been pointed out by other people, embarrassing;  the matching gifts
    office should be properly staffed.  In other replies, people
    have mentioned getting letters from organizations thanking them for the
    matching gift as well as their own contribution; I think these
    letters do not necessarily mean that the DEC funds have been
    received, just that the charity has applied for them and, in 
    its innocence, expects to receive them promptly.
    

Well, I think I have the record for slow responses in matching funds.  A non-
profit group I do volunteer work for just recieved a matching gift than was
submitted 18 months ago (Nov '87).  According to the dates on the letter it
took 12 months to get in out of the "in basket" and 6 months to cut the check.
(This organization has had a vendor id for the last 5 years so verification
was not the problem).

Good Grief!!!

The Matching Gift department is doing their best.  They have added 
significantly more personnel to clear the backlog (you wouldn't believe
the volume!).

Also, you may want to consider that the organization you donated to may
be part of the problem.  I know for a fact (personal experience) that some
organizations do not bother to send in the form and that some have have
a considerable delay before sending it in (I've personally seen greater
than 6 months).

Jean Fullerton

I want to alert people that there are still problems with Matching
Gifts (MG).  I have had three cards returned to me recently, two of
them for organizations previously matched by Digital.  I called the
Matching Gift Coordinator, Celia Therrien, today.  She gave me a long
list of things that can go wrong when an application is processed.
She went on to observe that phone calls delay the processing.  I
pointed out that if people had this information ahead of time, they
would then not need to call.  Furthermore, the application would go
through the first time, saving the MG office much processing time and
getting the money to the charities much faster.  She said it would
take months to get out this information.  I said i could do it today. 


Here are just some things that can go wrong in processing your MG.
As is usually the case, some are simple common sense, others are less
obvious.

			Donor Section

1.  Did you write your name _EXACTLY_ as it appears in their database
(which i hope is the same as the master Digital employee database)? 
If not, forget it. 

2.  Is your badge number correct?  If not, forget it.

3.  Is the name of the organization _EXACTLY_ as it appears in the MG 
database (if this is a repeat)?  If not, forget it.  They do not look up
the organization by its unique IRS code number; they use the name --
very disconcerting.

4.  If the organization address ever changes, God help you!

5.  Be sure to fill out the remainder of this section properly and
sign it.


			Institution Section


6.  The name of the organization must appear _EXACTLY_ as it appears in
the MG database.  (See #3.)

7.  Please supply the phone number in case something goes wrong, which
it often does.

8.  The tax exempt no. must be the Federal number (some were supplying
the state number) and must be correct.

9.  Be sure to fill out the remainder of this section properly and
sign it.


			Misc.

10.  Do not submit a form for an organization that is not Federal tax
exempt specifically under IRS paragraph 501(c)3.  The organization needs
to know if they are so exempt.  They must have an official letter from
the IRS notifying them of this status and assigning them a unique 501(c)3
id code.

11.  Even if you do everything correctly, that is still sometimes not enough.
In addition to all the above, however embarrassing this may be, you
should attach a note to the card when you send it to your organization
asking them to include another copy of their Federal 501(c)3 letter form
the IRS and another copy of their statement of purpose when they send
the card to MG.  I had one sent back apparently because they "could not
find" these items from last year.


My discourse here of course is not official.  Unfortunately, it may be
months before this useful information is communicated officially.

Now, i do want to give credit where credit is due.  Things are better
than a few years ago.  Overall processing is faster.  Supposedly, they
will be coming out with a new form in a couple months that will somehow
improve things further.  I hope that happens.  However, as of today, the
system still has problems.  Cards correctly filled out are not getting
through.  If you want your card to go through, you still have to be very
meticulous and very industrious.  It's very frustrating.  There is so
much they are not telling you.  With this note, i am trying to fill in
some of that gap.

Good luck with your donations.  Keep those cards and [IRS and purpose]
letters coming in.