Bacs' Big Break offers £5,000 a month in online charity vote
Howard Lake | 4 February 2013 | News
Bacs Payment Schemes Ltd, the organisation behind Direct Debit, have announced The Big Break, a campaign that aims to benefit 100 good causes with cash prizes this year.
From March until June 2013, the most popular causes nominated to win a Big Break will share in a £5,000 monthly pot. Each month, the organisation with the highest number of votes will receive £2,000, with second place receiving £1,000 and the rest shared out among the other runners up.
Anyone can nominate a cause to win and any cause can be nominated, provided they are a registered charity or have an account with JustGiving, Virgin Money Giving, Charity Giving or BT’s MyDonate.
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So far only eight of the 100 charity places have been filled. Nominations are open now.
Big Break for Business
Businesses can win as well simply by switching to paying one or more bills by Direct Debit. One business will win £2,000.
Individual prize of £12,000
Individuals that switch to paying by Direct Debit will also be entered into a draw to win £12,000.
Donations for new Direct Debits
Some of the participating utilities and companies are also pledging to make a donation for each new Direct Debit payer who signs up during the campaign. For example, Anglian Water will donate 10p to WaterAid for each new Direct Debit. Swale Council will doante 10p to Age UK, and Eazipay will donate 6p to Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Mike Hutchinson, head of marketing for Bacs, said: "As well as the monthly prize fund, we’ve engineered the campaign so that billers taking part in the Big Break will make a donation to charity for everyone who switches to Direct Debit. If your corporate supporters join in, those donations could be yours."
Voting opens on 1 March 2013.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.