theBigGive.org.uk is a non-profit, charitable website which enables donors to find and support charity projects in their field of interest. All UK registered charities can sign up for free and the site currently showcases the projects of nearly 8,000 charities.
Contents |
The Big Give was founded in October 2007 by Sir Alec Reed CBE. Reed is the founder of Reed (Company) along with several international charities. He is chairman of the Reed Foundation and over the years he became increasingly frustrated by the endless number of unsolicited charity appeals which he received. Reed founded The Big Give to solve this problem; to allow philanthropists to search proactively and save charities' resources.
The Big Give is free for all users and allows philanthropists and donors to support their favourite charitable projects, or discover new charities working in their preferred area. The site's successes include a small charity working in North East England, which received a grant of £175,000 from a philanthropist who found the charity on The Big Give.
Since its launch, The Big Give has raised over £20 million. The majority of this has been raised through Challenge Funding.
In December 2008, Sir Alec launched his pilot Matched Fund by offering to match online donations up to a total of £1 million. The public response was such that £1 million was donated online in 45 minutes, benefiting 250 charities. The average donation was £1,400 and £44,000 was raised every minute. The Reed Foundation was awarded a Third Sector Award for Innovation in Fundraising in recognition of the success of this challenge.
In the 2009 Christmas Challenge, The Big Give raised £8.5 million, beating its £6m target. This was leveraged from an initial £1.5m donation from the Reed Foundation. The Challenge was launched on 7th December and donations to the 174 participating charities were doubled by a fund created by Reed Foundation, along with charities' trustees and major donors. The fund doubled over 7,500 donations, this time raising the first £1 million in 25 minutes and the first £3 million in under 2 hours.
The Big Give 2010 Christmas Challenge doubled over 15,000 donations and raised £9.3 million. Donations from the public were doubled by a number of sponsors, including Arts & Business, Reed Specialist Recruitment, Garfield Weston Foundation, Candis Magazine and Ethiopiaid. The Challenge supported 323 charities which spanned all sectors, from children and health to environment and arts. Participating charities ranged from international aid agencies, such as Oxfam, to small, local hospices.
The organisers stated that the 2011 Christmas Challenge would be their biggest yet, doubling thousands of donations to hundreds of selected charities. The public stage of the Challenge, when a donation could be doubled, ran from 5 to 9 December 2011.
The 2011 Christmas Challenge upset some charities when the website failed to keep up with demand, and promised matched funding was exhausted very rapidly.[1] The Chairman of the Fundraising Standards Board was reported to have sought a meeting with The Big Give to discuss the problems reported by a number of charities.[2]
Challenge Funds can be easily adapted to raise funds for emergency appeals, due to the urgency that they create. The most recent of these emergency funds was for the 2011 East Africa drought, which saw Reed Foundation join with other philanthropists to double donations to 13 aid agencies. The appeal raised £175,000.
The Big Give has developed a programme which they intend to inspire the next generation of philanthropists, providing the first step towards a lifetime of charitable activity.
Each participating student is given a charity voucher. Students then conduct research into charities of interest to them and answer online questions which help them to evaluate their chosen charities. Each student then donates their voucher online, before discussing their choice with a small group of their peers. As a group, they then choose one of the charities which has already received a voucher to give a presentation on, with the winning presentation earning an extra donation.
The programme has been running for three years and has already been featured in both the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Twenty schools are estimated to take part in 2011, with over 600 pupils (generally years 8 and 9) benefiting from the project.
The Big Give also allows charities to advertise Trustee vacancies. Donors interested in giving their time can search on the site for charities that are keen to receive trustee applications. The Big Give has already helped a charity fighting poverty in Africa to benefit from a businessman who was keen to get involved. As well as sharing his skills as a Trustee, he travelled with them to Ghana to see the projects in action and offer direct help and advice.