The Cabinet Office has put money behind two match funding initiatives in a bid to attract more giving both to small charities and larger ones.

The Big Give has for the first time attracted government sponsorship of its annual Big Give Christmas Challenge, with Cabinet Office stumping up £250,000 to offer as a pound-for-pound match. Meanwhile the same government office has put forward £500,000 for the Grow Your Tenner match fund being run by small charity fundraising platform, Localgiving.com.

The Big Give Challenge is now in its fifth year and, after a few teething problems which saw the site crash under the weight of visits, has raised £40m for charities. It works by having charities raise a match fund from major donors, and then on 5 December, will open up a website facility which will enable other supporters to give, knowing that their donation will be doubled as a result of the match. Last year £10m was raised within three days through 11,000 donations. Some 50 charities are due to take part this year.

On his support for this challenge, minister for civil society Nick Hurd said it was a “great” initiative. “We are proud to support them and the organisations who do such fantastic work,” he said.

Localgiving.com is a platform for small, community organisations and has raised nearly £4m for these charities since its launching in 2010. Alongside the Cabinet Office’s offer to match donations of up to £10 during the Grow Your Tenner campaign, which kicks off on 15 October, Localgiving.com is offering to match monthly donations of up to £10 for a six-month period.

In a separate announcement Hurd declared his government proud to also be supporting this match fund initiative. “Localgiving.com is a great example of how technology can connect people with local causes they really care about,” he said.

Localgiving.com founder and executive chair Marcelle Speller said the match fund approach is a tried and tested means of incentivising giving.

“Using match funds to double donations to double donations is a proven way to motivate giving,” she said. “People can immediately see the benefits that even a small donation can have when they know it’s being doubled.”

This government support for match funding follows the report by civilsociety.co.uk last week that the ‘Community First Endowment Match Fund’, created by government, had failed to get the public giving, and had resulted in the majority of a £8.1m under-spend by the Office for Civil Society in the last financial year.