Looking for a way to engage donors, find new supporters, and increase donations to your charity? Why not run your own match funding campaign? With match funds secured from your own supporters, a match-funded campaign is a great way to get more people involved and interested in what you’re doing. Plus, it’s a new way to raise money for your cause.

The Brain Tumour Charity – Case Study

The Brain Tumour Charity ran two match-funded campaigns with Big Give between April 2020 and September 2020, raising over £150,000 in total. 

Having a donation doubled is a real incentive, even more so in the current financial climate. We have some donors who have specifically asked to be notified should we host similar campaigns in future as they were so thrilled to have their gift doubled.” – The Brain Tumour Charity- Read more of what The Brain Tumour Trust had to say about working with us.

Stage 1: Initial application

Charities sign up to Big Give and start a campaign. The application involves completing the information for the project charities are seeking to raise funds for.

Stage 2: Pledge collection
Charities that complete the application are automatically enrolled on to the next stage, which involves securing the Pledgers for the campaign. Their pledges make up the full match funding pot. 

Stage 3: Vetting and notification
Big Give completes due diligence checks on all applications and approves the campaign.

 

Stage 4: Marketing
Big Give provides a free suite of resources to help support charities to maximise the opportunity and market the campaign.

Stage 5: Campaign
Learning and impact assessments are sent out, and any charity reporting requirements (if applicable).

 

Stage 6: Post-Campaign
Learning and impact assessments are sent out, along with Champion reports and charity reporting requirements. 

Running your own campaign follows our 1:1 model

Charities


Eligibility criteria:

  1. Be a UK-registered charity with a Charity Commission number or tax-exempt status

 

Sign-up process:

  • Log in or sign up, head to My campaigns, and click on Run your own match funded campaign

Champions


Sign-up process:

  • Get in touch with Big Give. We’ll support you to curate your own bespoke match funded campaign.

Ready to get started today? Join our community of like-minded changemakers

FAQs

Who matches donations?


Pledgers. A Pledger can be anyone in the charity’s network. This may include a trustee, foundation, trust, company, volunteer, high-net-worth individual and others. A Pledger will commit match funds to a charity to support their match funding campaign. These match funds count as promises of funding and can be unlocked by a charity through online donations raised during a campaign. Pledgers are sourced, and relationships are managed by the Charity.

 

What are the benefits of running my own campaign?


Big Give launched a research report, ‘A Great Match: How match-funding incentivises charitable giving in the UK and unites funders and donors in tackling social issues. The report, which was co-commissioned by Charities Trust and RBS and undertaken by The Researchery, is the first in-depth exploration of match-funding in the UK.

Evidence is drawn from a literature review, analysis of one of the UK’s largest online matching facilitators for charitable appeals (Big Give), a survey of donors, and interviews with practitioners and experts in the fields of matching charitable appeals, matching employee engagement and cause marketing (as a special case of matching)

  • With regards to the matching of charitable appeals, the research found:
    • More people give when their donations are match-funded. 84% of respondents felt that they were more likely to give if matching was offered. 
    • Some donors give more when their donations are match-funded. The average matched gift made through Big Give is £333, while the average unmatched gift is £132 and one in three donors said that they gave a larger gift because matching was applied to their donation.

 

Are the funds received during the campaign restricted to the charity’s project?


Funds received during the campaign are restricted to the project the charity has outlined in their application until they hit their target. If a charity receives additional online donations after hitting its target, these funds may be unrestricted.