The Department for International Development (DfID) has today opened the first round of bidding for its UK Aid Match fund, which is targeting a £120m boost for British aid charities over the next three years.

The fund has been set up for DfID to match, pound-for-pound, public donations to appeals for development activities focused on poverty reduction in developing countries. DfID is seeking submissions by 1 November by organisations that wish to launch public appeals between 1 March and 30 September 2014.

DfID will consider an appeal on the basis of its public reach; the capacity and track record in managing development activities; commitment transparency; clarity of goals and outcomes; consistency with DfID’s objectives and values; and whether DfID considers the activities to represent value for money.

There will be two funding rounds in each of the next three years, with up to £20m available in each round and any uncommitted funding rolled forward to future rounds.

At least £1m per funding round will be reserved by DfID for matching appeals run by small organisations which have an annual income of less than £1m (averaged out over the past three years).

The first step interested parties must take is to submit their ‘concept notes’ to [email protected]. There is a full How to Apply section on DfID’s website here.

A pilot phase of the scheme ran successfully between summer 2011 and spring 2013, when 17 charities received match-funding – including appeals by newspapers City AM and the Financial Times and ActionAid – to the tune of £42m.