£24.1m raised in 2021 Big Give Christmas Challenge
Melanie May | 10 December 2021 | News
The record-breaking amount is a 20% increase on last year’s Big Give Christmas Challenge total of £20.1m.
This year’s Challenge ran from Giving Tuesday (30 November) to 7 December, and saw more than 900 charities take part. 79,054 donations were made via the Big Give Christmas Challenge site, an increase of 7,854 on last year, and came from 118 different countries.
Lots of celebrities also took part by promoting the campaign and encouraging donations. Stephen Fry, Dame Judi Dench, Jonny Wilkinson and Dame Helen Mirren all featured in the official campaign video, while throughout the week, celebrities including Bear Grylls, Leona Lewis, Graham Norton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Jon Snow took to social media to ask the public to donate.
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Commenting on this year’s results, Alex Day, Director of the Big Give, said:
“The public has once again stepped up to the plate. We were blown away by the levels of generosity; to raise over £24m in one week for so many amazing charities is astonishing. At a time where the work of charities has never been more needed, we are so proud to support the 928 charities participating in the campaign. As a sector, we’re much stronger when we work together and the Big Give Christmas Challenge is one of the best examples of that.’
The Brain Tumour Society was one of the participating charities. Sally Williams, its Gifts and Partnerships Manager, said:
“This year we set our highest target to date for the Christmas Challenge with a matched pot of £65,000 to be doubled to £130,000. We have been blown away that in just 5 days we raised over £148,000 (including gift aid) from our generous Charity Champion (The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust), our brilliant pledgers and all those that donated during the appeal. Having the Christmas Challenge matched funding appeal is a real boost to our income at Christmas and we know that our donors love to give in this way, making a real impact to the work that we do.”
More on last year’s campaign, which saw 764 charities participate, can be read here.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.