The applications for Christmas Challenge 2021 are now open! The Christmas Challenge is the UK’s biggest online match funding campaign. It launches on #GivingTuesday (this year that’s 30th November) and brings together hundreds of charities in one high profile campaign to raise millions of pounds for amazing causes.
The Christmas Challenge gives your donors the chance to double their donations as you raise vital funds for your work. This year it will run from midday Tuesday 30th November to midday Tuesday 7th December. Last year, the Christmas Challenge raised a record-breaking £20.1m for 764 charities! To apply for Christmas Challenge 2021:
1. Log in or sign up for the Big Give account
2. Click on Big Give Campaigns
3. Click Apply now for Christmas Challenge 2021Up to £25,000 of match funding is available per charity.
There are millions of pounds of match funding available for a wide range of charities and causes. As well as accessing Champion funds, evidence shows that donors are more likely to give and to give more in match funding campaigns. The Big Give also offers a free suite of resources, training and guidance for all participating charities. The deadline for applications is 5 pm Friday 2nd July. For more information, the eligibility criteria and to apply visit: go.thebiggive.org.uk
If you would like to find out further information about the Christmas Challenge, the Big Give is hosting two webinars on Thursday 27th May from 12 pm – 1 pm and Monday 7th June from 12 pm – 1 pm to give further details on how the Christmas Challenge works and the opportunity for you to ask the Big Give team your questions. Can charities apply for unrestricted funding? We understand how badly the Coronavirus has affected charity’s day to day activities. In short, whether funding can be unrestricted depends on the Champion: some Champions are open to being flexible for funding for unrestricted projects, such as core costs, but most Champions still prefer to fund specific projects – as indeed do donors. If you do need to raise unrestricted funds, be as detailed as possible in your application on how you expect to use any funds raised. We are going to find it difficult to secure pledges – can we just be allocated Champion funding without securing pledges?
Champions like to see that charities are able to raise pledges to sit alongside Champion funding – and so although we hope to be able to be more flexible this year around how much pledge funding charities will need to raise, it’s likely that you’ll have a better chance of getting Champion funding if you can raise pledges.
Please contact us if you have any questions and we would be happy to help.
Best,
The Big Give team