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Big Give to review match fund after high demand crashed site 1

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 5 Jan 2012

The Big Give is reviewing last December’s match fund challenge, which raised more than £11.5m, after unprecedented levels of demand forced the challenge to be postponed for a day.

The Big Give is today contacting the charities that participated in the challenge, which requires them to secure match funding from their own major donors and trustees, to invite them to air their concerns in a review of the challenge which is due to be held in two weeks.

A number of charities had complained to the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) after the website was forced to close on the first day of the challenge due to high level of demand. While in 2010 the Big Give website had attracted 17,000 donations between 6 December and the end of the month, last year’s challenge saw more than 18,000 donations processed within five days. At its peak, last December’s challenge processed 130 donations per minute.

The Big Give has now instructed an independent qualitative research company, working pro bono, to hold two focus groups with up to 20 charities involved. They will discuss problems, concerns or positive feedback about the challenge and their input will work in addition to the normal email feedback the Big Give solicits from match fund participants.

Ashley Bowe, managing director of the Big Give, told civilsociety.co.uk that there will definitely be changes to the way the programme is run because this high level of demand is likely to continue.

“Without question there will be changes. With the increased demand that there was last year, we can’t run it in the same set-up again, otherwise the same thing will happen again,” he said.

Bowe said that the structure for the focus group has not yet been decided, but he would like the review to focus on the events of the week of the match fund challenge itself.

“But I’m leaving it in the hands of the research group,” he said. “We’re trying to demonstrate to the charities that we’re really trying to take on board what they’ve got to say in as fair a manner as possible.”

FRSB meeting

The Big Give met with the FRSB following complaints by some of its members about the challenge, even though the organisation itself is not a member of the FRSB.

Bowe said that meeting with the FRSB was an efficient way of dealing with the concerns raised by a number of charities at once.

Alistair McLean, chief executive of the FRSB, told civilsociety.co.uk that the regulator was happy with the Big Give’s response to the website crash, and that it will be involved in the review process.

“We’re more than happy for them to be involved,” said Bowe.

Challenge success

In total, last year’s challenge has raised more than £11.5m, with £1.1m raised in gift aid from online donations alone. The average amount raised by charities participating in the event was £25,000, but 13 charities managed to perform significantly above that, each raising more than £100,000 in the five days. WWF UK was the biggest winner, raising a total of £250,375, followed by the Prince’s Trust which raised £217,324. 

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