The Big Give

The Big Give is a non-profit, charitable website that enables donors to find and support charity projects in their field of interest. Its main activity is online match funding campaigns, where public donations are matched by donations from notable philanthropists; these donors are referred to as "Champions" and include The Reed Foundation, The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust and The Waterloo Foundation. The Big Give's campaigns have been promoted by celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio, Emilia Fox and David Walliams among others. 
Since fundraising began in 2008, The Big Give has raised over £156 million for thousands of charity projects, including £5.5 million for Covid-19 relief efforts and over £2 million for those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. It is registered with the Fundraising Regulator.
The Big Give was founded in October 2007 by Sir Alec Reed CBE. The charity is now chaired by James Reed. 
History.
Alec Reed established The Big Give after growing frustrated at the process of finding and assessing charities of interest to him. He used his experience of compiling searchable websites to create an online database of charities, browsable by sector and including detailed information about their structure and accounts.
The organisation's initial aim was to connect charities with wealthy individuals seeking to donate £100,000 or more, but charities found that donors were deterred by the high minimum donation, so Reed experimented with time-limited match funding, saying: "There is nothing like a deadline to bring out people's competitive nature."
In 2008, The Big Give launched its flagship online match funding campaign, the "Christmas Challenge". Reed put up £1 million of his own money in match funding. It was matched by other donors within 45 minutes. Since then the Christmas Challenge format has been refined and, along with an increase in the number of philanthropist 'Champions' and the amount of match funds available, the Challenge has become the UK's largest online match funding campaign.
Fundraising activities.
The Big Give Christmas Challenge.
The Big Give Christmas Challenge runs annually for seven days from #GivingTuesday, during which time donations to participating charities are doubled. The match funding used to double donations comes from both philanthropic partners of The Big Give ('Champions') and a charity's own major supporters ('Pledgers'). Champions include The Reed Foundation, The Childhood Trust, Candis, The Garfield Weston Foundation, The People's Postcode Lottery and The Waterloo Foundation.
Each charity has a ring-fenced matching pot used to double public donations until the pot is empty or until the Christmas Challenge ends, whichever is sooner. 
The Christmas Challenge has run every year since 2008. It provides special awards for the best performing charities; in 2017 the overall winner was Aurora Orchestra.
Covid-19 response.
The Big Give has raised over £5.5m through various Covid-19 relief campaigns, including £1.36m for the National Emergencies Trust COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, with donations from 1,900 individuals. The appeal funded food and sanitation supplies to support the elderly and vulnerable across the UK. Co-funders included the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust, the Reed family, Reed Foundation and Cazenove Capital (Schroders). In July 2020 The Big Give raised £3.2m for "Champions for Children", a joint campaign with The Childhood Trust to match fund 94 charities working in support of vulnerable children in London affected by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. 
In April 2021 Management Today gave its Special Recognition Award to Reed for the firm's Covid-19 relief efforts. 
Grenfell Tower fire.
The charity raised over £2.6m in an online match funding campaign for those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. The appeal raised £1 million in the first 48 hours and £2m a week later. In total the appeal raised £2,612,646. The Charity reported funding from the Reed Foundation, The Cadogan Estate, Julia and Hans Rausing and The Bjorgolfsson Family among others.
Emergency Appeals.
The Big Give has adapted its match funding model to emergency appeals, which are launched quickly and in co-ordination with the Disasters Emergency Committee to raise money. Emergency Challenge Funds have been launched in response to the Syria Crisis, typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal, and other international emergencies. In October 2017 £232,446 was raised for Rohingya refugees escaping violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State. The funds were distributed to seven charities working directly with Rohingya refugees, including the British Red Cross and UNICEF UK.
The Summer Give.
Since 2015, The Big Give has used its match funding model to run an annual Summer Give campaign in partnership with The Childhood Trust. The Summer Give offers match funding to charities alleviating child poverty in London, specifically aiming to keep children well-fed, safe and productively engaged during the summer holidays. It has helped over 87,658 children through partnerships with over 150 projects throughout London. In 2017, the Summer Give raised £778,680 for 36 participating charities.
The Green Match Fund.
In April 2021, The Big Give and partner organisation Environmental Funders Network raised £1.76m for The Green Match Fund, supporting charities working on environmental issues as part of their core mission.
Other activities.
Philanthropy in Schools.
The Big Give's 'Philanthropy in Schools' programme seeks to encourage the next generation of philanthropists by promoting research into charities and charitable donations. Participating schools partner with a sponsor who funds Big Give vouchers which students donate to their chosen charities. Students compete to make the best presentation on their preferred charities; the winning team receives an additional donation to its chosen charity.
The Big Give Trustee Finder.
The Big Give Trustee Finder advertises vacancies for charitable trusts, organised by skill, interest and location. In 2013 the service was extended to feature vacancies on the Reed website for six weeks.
The Big Advice Column.
In 2012 The Big Give introduced an online advice column, The Big Advice Column, where a team of experts answer questions posed by charities.