When the public donates to a charity through a Big Give campaign, we ask funders (philanthropists, foundations or corporates) to match that donation. So £50 from a member of the public, becomes £100 for a good cause.
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Our match funding can work differently depending on the model, and each has been designed to cater to the range of charities we support. Click below to navigate through our match funding models and see how they work.
Pledge Model
The Pledge model offers supporters of participating charities the opportunity to have their donations doubled from a combined match funding pot. This pot comprises pledges, which the charity secures, and Champion funds from Big Give’s funding partners. This innovative way of match funding ensures Big Give can support a large variety of charities in a single campaign.
Here’s how it works. Charities apply to a campaign and have their application assessed by Big Give. Successful charities are awarded a sum of match funding, which is ring-fenced for their organisation. Charities receive up to 25% of their match funding amount from a Big Give Champion funder, provided they have another 25% in ‘Pledges’ secured from their own major donors. This 50% is then unlocked by public donations given through Big Give’s online fundraising platform during the campaign week.
1:1 Model
In the 1:1 model, charities receive a set amount of money from a funder that matches all of their donations. This is generosity multiplying at its simplest — a funder matches every donation made to the campaign up to an agreed amount.
Charities apply to a campaign and their application is assessed by Big Give. Successful charities are awarded a sum of match funding which is ring-fenced for their organisation. This match funding is unlocked by public donations given through Big Give’s online fundraising platform during the week of the campaign.
Collective Model
The Collective model is where a set amount of match funding is shared on a first-come, first-serve basis between multiple charities. By pooling match funds, every charity benefits from having their online donations matched until the match funding pot is exhausted.
Big Give reaches out to selected charity partners. These charities will share a combined match funding pot with all other charities taking part. Once the campaign is live, the match funding pot is used to match all of the charities’ online donations until it has been exhausted.
Multi Model
The Multi Model allows participating charities to choose between the 1:1 or Pledge Model of match funding, depending on their fundraising goals. Charities that choose the 1:1 model will have all their match funding provided by a Big Give Champion partner up to an agreed amount. This is most suited to smaller charities or charities who would struggle to secure pledges. Charities who choose the pledge model will have a combined match funding pot made up of pledges, which they’ve secured, and Big Give Champion funds. This is most suited to charities with a strong pool of major donors
Charities apply to the campaign and choose their match funding model. For the 1:1 model, all match funding is provided by Big Give’s Champions (up to £10,000).
For the pledge model, charities must source some of their own match funding from their pool of major donors, “Pledgers”. The deal is that whatever a charity raises in pledges, they can receive up to the same amount (to a threshold of £50,000) of additional match funding from a Big Give Champion. The combined amount of pledges and Champion funds make up the charity’s match funding pot.
Once the campaign goes live, the match funding pot is used to double public donations — first from the charity’s Pledgers (if following the Pledge Model), followed by the Champions.
A Pledger can be anyone in a charity’s network — trustees, foundations, trusts, companies, volunteers, high-net-worth individuals and others — who commit match funds to a charity to support their match funding campaign. These pledges count as promises of funding and can be unlocked by a charity through online donations raised during a campaign. Pledgers are sourced and relationships managed by the Charity.
Champions are Big Give’s partners. A Champion can include high-net-worth individuals, foundations, philanthropists, trusts, statutory bodies, companies and corporations. A Champion will commit match funds to support one or multiple charities in a given match funding campaign. A charity can unlock the Champions’ match funds through online donations raised during a campaign. Champions are sourced and relationships managed by Big Give.
Big Give completes due diligence on all charity applications and works with our partner Champions to ensure that selected charities meet our criteria. We also conduct due diligence on pledges secured by charities to ensure that these have been paid after the campaign ends. The public has made donations on the basis that they are being matched, so we ensure that all match funds are received to honour this commitment to donors.
Charities may use our platform to raise unrestricted funds if they meet our campaign eligibility requirements. If a charity is raising funds for a specific project, in that case, any funds received during a Big Give match funding campaign are restricted to the information outlined in the application until the charity has hit their target. If a charity receives additional online donations after hitting its target, these funds may be unrestricted.
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