Cabinet Office contributes to Grow Your Tenner matched fund for small charities
Howard Lake | 8 September 2014 | News
The Office for Civil Society, part of the Cabinet Office, has contributed £250,000 to the matched giving fund for this year’s Grow Your Tenner campaign from Localgiving. Launching next month, the campaign aims to double all donations through Localgiving.com up to £10, with the aim of raising £4 million for small local charities.
Small and local charities make up 50% of the UK’s voluntary sector by number of organisations, yet they receive only 0.6% of the funding. Localgiving is working to turn this around, throughout the year, and with this annual campaign.
According to Localgiving.com, “through a combination of Gift Aid, tax relief, smaller local match funds and online donations, a single donation of £100,000 from a generous individual could facilitate up to £650,000 worth of donations to thousands of local charities across the country, at a cost of just £68,750 to that person”.
£3m raised since 2012
Grow Your Tenner was first run in 2012. In its first two years it has raised £3 million for small local charities.
More matched funding sought
The not-for-profit social enterprise is inviting other philanthropists to add to the matched giving fund, to boost the impact of donations to small charities. One philanthropist has already donated £250,000.
It argues that it “would be near impossible for a philanthropist to personally identify thousands of local charities to donate to, but through match funding, a large donation is easily and democratically spread across multiple groups”.
Brooks Newmark, Minister for Civil Society, said:
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“Whether it is supporting children with Down’s syndrome, helping trafficked women or supporting community arts projects, local charities provide valuable services within communities across the UK. The Government’s matched fund grant for Localgiving’s Grow Your Tenner campaign is an effective way to make donations go further and help small charities thrive. We want as many donors as possible to help increase this fund and see the difference it can make.”
Marcelle Speller, chairman and founder of Localgiving, added:
“Small, local charities make an incredible difference to the communities they work in but, sadly, many are struggling and in great need of our support. Grow Your Tenner is a fantastic opportunity for philanthropists to maximise the effect of their giving – a single and simple donation will have a widespread effect, making a huge difference to potentially thousands of small charities, which simply isn’t possible any other way”.
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.