Cranbrook.edu

Double Your Impact at Cranbrook Schools with a Corporate Matching Gift

9/22/2026

Hear from Jordan Movinski ’09, Catherine Shoichet ’00, and Michael St. Germain ’10 on maximizing your impact at the Schools with a corporate matching gift.

Cranbrook community members give to the Schools through The Cranbrook Schools Fund in many ways including one-time gifts, recurring gifts, gifts of stock and securities, planned gifts, and gifts through Donor Advised Funds and charitable IRA rollovers. With the opportunity to double or even triple your gift at no additional cost, corporate matching programs are well worth exploring.

Corporate matching gifts are a form of philanthropy in which companies match donations made by their employees to eligible nonprofits. Employees typically make a donation and then submit a matching gift request to their employer. Most companies match gifts dollar for dollar (1:1), though some offer 2:1, 3:1, or even 4:1 matches. Unlike matching gift challenges, which are usually time-limited, matching gift programs are generally ongoing and can be accessed year-round.

As a nonprofit independent school, Cranbrook Schools is eligible to receive matching gifts. Matching gifts count toward your total giving and may help you qualify for The Twenty-First Century Club, the annual leadership giving society of The Cranbrook Schools Fund.

In the 2025-2026 academic year, the Schools Fund received tens of thousands of dollars in matching gifts – support that went directly into the classrooms, studios, fields, and campus spaces that make a Cranbrook education transformative.

We are grateful to all who place Cranbrook Schools among their philanthropic priorities and invite you to meet three alumni who take advantage of their employers’ matching gift programs to maximize their impact at the Schools.

Jordan Movinski ’09 had been giving to Cranbrook before joining Goldman Sachs in 2022. “When I joined Goldman,” he says, “I learned about the matching gifts program during the onboarding process. It was available to all employees, so it was an easy decision – a very simple way to double my philanthropic impact.”

Giving back to Cranbrook and helping sustain the institution for today’s students has long been important to Jordan. “I am immensely grateful for Cranbrook. I was a recipient of a Crane Scholarship, and I feel fortunate that I am now in a position to contribute financially."

In many workplaces, the matching gift program is entirely online. All it takes is a few clicks and entering or uploading basic information; the system routes the request for the required approvals and eventual disbursement to Cranbrook. These portals are often located on company intranet pages and may utilize or link to third-party platforms like Benevity, CyberGrants, or YourCause

“It really helps you maximize your impact,” Jordan says. “It's a powerful tool that employers are increasingly putting into the hands of their employees. They are saying – tell us what's important to you, and we'll help you support it with corporate philanthropic dollars. For me, one of those places is Cranbrook.”

Catherine Shoichet ’00 knew that her company, Warner Bros. Discovery, had a corporate matching program, but for years didn’t take advantage of it. “I was daunted by what I assumed would be a complicated process,” she says. “That changed a few years ago, after a colleague showed me where to find the request form, and I discovered the process was far easier than I’d expected. All I have to do is look up the charity’s name on the platform used by my company, then upload a receipt of my donation and hit submit.”

For Catherine, Cranbrook remains “a place I love so much – the beauty of the campus, the amazing teachers who helped me find myself, and so many friendships I still treasure.” It brought her “so much joy” to reconnect with classmates at her 25^th reunion last year, and one of the best parts was having a chance to introduce her husband and young daughter to Cranbrook.

“I look back with deep gratitude on my years at CK,” she says, and she looks forward to using her matching gift program again this year.

Michael St. Germain ’10 didn’t have to look far for his employer’s matching gift program, as it was actively encouraged and advertised. “Every November, Google has a drive to get employees to fully use their matching benefit, so I checked on the matching platform to see if the Cranbrook Educational Community was a named matching partner and it was! Getting it matched by Google was a no brainer.”

Giving back for Michael is a recognition that Cranbrook is a “truly special place” that has shaped him to this day. “Cranbrook, and my experience as a boarder in the dorms, plays an outsized role in how I am today as an adult. My openness to new ideas, new ways of doing things, self-sufficiency, and much more is directly related to my time at Cranbrook,” he says.

“It feels great to know that by donating with a corporate matching program that I can make a much bigger impact on a community I care deeply about. I was super excited to be able to scale my impact,” he says.

All three emphasize exploring the matching gift program available to you, and in moving quickly to submit matching requests for Cranbrook when the information is fresh and the receipt is handy. Many programs have parameters for a dollar amount that will be matched in a given year, or a window in which requests must be submitted. And if a matching gift program doesn’t yet exist at your company, “encourage them to start one!” says Catherine.

In Jordan’s opinion, “companies have started to treat philanthropic support as an employee benefit – whether it’s matching contributions or providing company time off to volunteer at an organization that you support – companies are realizing that these are real benefits that employees value."

“Take advantage of a benefit that allows you to maximize your impact. Don't leave a match on the table,” he says.

How to:

After making a gift to The Cranbrook Schools Fund, you will receive a Cranbrook gift receipt. The receipt may be electronic or paper based on how you made your gift and will state “Please keep this as your receipt for tax purposes”. Follow the instructions provided by your employer or matching gift platform and select “Cranbrook Educational Community” (EIN: 38-2015048) as the recipient organization. Make a note “for The Cranbrook Schools Fund” if a text field exists. Email schoolsfund@cranbrook.edu or call 248-645-3140 with any questions.

Back

- Jordan Movinski's dog Hark enjoys time at Kingswood.
- Catherine Shoichet '00 at Kingswood during reunion 2025.
- Michael St. Germain '10 (left) and classmates at a CK'10 wedding in 2025.