Charities can now apply for 2023 Big Give Christmas Challenge
Melanie May | 23 May 2023 | News
The Big Give Christmas Challenge runs from 28 November – 5 December this year, and charities have until 7 July to apply.
The Christmas Challenge doubles the public’s donations by matching them with Big Give ‘Champions’, which are philanthropists, foundations and companies. This year’s Champions include The Reed Foundation, Julia & Hans Rausing Trust, The Childhood Trust, and Candis.
Big Give’s annual flagship event, it accounts for around three quarters of the £240mn the Big Give has raised since 2007. Almost half of the money raised by the Christmas Challenge in 2010–2022 was for small charities with a current annual income of less than £1 million.
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Last year it raised a record £28.6mn for 1,021 charities with 79,000 members of the public donating. 70% of the charities that took part reached their funding target. The campaign was also promoted by a number of celebrities including Dame Judi Dench, Claudia Winkelman, Stephen Fry and Chris Packham.
Big Give has also released other figures on the campaign’s impact.
These include:
- 76% of participating charities say the Christmas Challenge’s match-funding results in more donations being made compared to a non-match funded campaign (a quarter believe significantly more).
- 65% of charities say the Christmas Challenge’s match-funding results in bigger donations being made compared to a non-match funded campaign.
- 56% of charities say their existing supporters give more through the Big Give Christmas Challenge than they would normally donate.
- 94% of the charities received online donations from new donors who had not previously given to their charity. These donations equated to, on average, 28% of the monetary value of all donations made.
- 74% of the charities believe that the Christmas Challenge has helped to raise their profile.
- 9 in 10 of the charities believe the Christmas Challenge helps to develop their relationships with existing and new donors.
- Participating in the Christmas Challenge improves the skills of charities with 88% saying doing so has increased their organisation’s confidence in digital fundraising.
Commenting, Alex Day, Managing Director of Big Give, said:
“The Christmas Challenge is what we are most well-known for and every year it makes a major difference to so many charities. This year we are looking to smash all previous totals with a record amount of matched funds available for the largest number of charities and of course record generosity from the public. Taking part makes so much sense so we encourage any charity to apply and be part of what is a great UK success story.”
Information on eligibility and the application process can be found 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.