A win-win-win situation

Opportunity to make your money do more

Marathon Oil Corporation's matching gift program, for example, offers one-to-one matches of unlimited donations to any nonprofit supported by the company.

"Our workplace giving program increases employee awareness of the meaningful work of the organizations the company supports," says Kathy Sauvé, manager of Corporate Communications and Philanthropy at Marathon Oil. "We hope that encourages them to give generously to further the efforts of our nonprofit community partners."

Doug Seaworth, a planning manager in Corporate Development at Marathon Oil, has been donating to MD Anderson through the company's matching gift program for three years.

Although his family has not been directly touched by cancer, he gives to the institution because of its stature as a worldwide leader in cancer treatment and research.

"The matching gift program provides a great way to increase our gifts and double their power to make a difference," he says.

Five years ago, Driver's wife was treated successfully at MD Anderson for pancreatic cancer. Sadly, she died last fall of metastatic breast cancer.

Chairman of the southeast for Goldman Sachs & Co., Driver uses the matching gift program, along with family contributions and memorial gifts, to fund research on pancreatic cancer.

"When I first started giving to MD Anderson, I was trying to save my wife's life," he says. "Now I find the program gives me further incentive to support MD Anderson."

When Schlattman's wife passed away in 2005 of ovarian cancer, he was working as an information technology professional at Chevron. He and his two children decided to access Chevron's matching gift program to establish an endowment in her honor.

"I needed $20,000 to set up the endowment," Schlattman says. "I put in $10,000, and they put in $10,000."

Now retired, Schlattman continues to donate through the program to support the endowment, which helps children whose parents are in the final stages of cancer.

Jennifer Shufelt, a lawyer in the New York office of IBM, says her family can never forget the compassion of MD Anderson's staff and their personalized and attentive treatment of her father's glioblastoma.

"When I started working at IBM, I became aware of the matching gift program right away," she says. "I gave $100 here, $100 there. But after my father died, I began to give to MD Anderson at the maximum limit, earmarking my gifts for glioblastoma research."

Until Phil Parker's family members were treated at MD Anderson, he made occasional gifts when an obituary suggested it. When he decided to increase his giving, he learned his employer, Shell, offered the opportunity to double the impact of his gift.

"I'm not the biggest donor by any means, but it makes my wife and my feel good to know our donations are making more of an impact," says Parker, who retired after 41 years at Shell and continues to participate in its matching gift program.