Cabinet Office gives £250k matched funding for Big Give Christmas Challenge

Howard Lake | 20 August 2013 | News

The Cabinet Office will be supporting the 2013 Big Give Christmas Challenge with match funding of £250,000. It joins charities' major donors and other organisations such as the Reed Foundation, ICAP and Candis in pledging to double online donations up to a total amount.

The Big Give Christmas Challenge is an online match funding initiative which has raised over £40 million in the last five years for thousands of charities. Donations from members of the public are matched and thereby doubled from the available match funding.

This is the first time that the Big Give has received Government backing.

Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said: "The Big Give Christmas Challenge is a great match funding initiative which has already made a big difference for thousands of charities. We are proud to support them and the organisations who do such fantastic work."

A petition launched in December 2012, asking the Cabinet Office for matched funding, attracted 3,198 signatures, and reportedly helped in securing the Cabinet Office's support.

How the Christmas Challenge works

Donations will be doubled on a first come first served basis. Funds do run out quickly. In last year's Challenge over 11,000 online donations were made in just three days, raising over £10 million.

This year donations will begin being doubled at 10am on 5 December, with further funds released at 10am on 6 and 7 December.

Sir Alec Reed CBE, Founder of the Big Give, said: "I am delighted that the Cabinet Office have chosen to support the Christmas Challenge. The Challenge brings so many benefits to charities, donors and philanthropists and this has rightly been acknowledged by the Cabinet Office. We look forward to working with them to make the Challenge a success for all involved."

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.