Minister for civil society Nick Hurd has announced that the government will spend close to £1m match-funding three Christmas charity appeals.

He said the money had been found by cutting admin costs and not running state-funded ad campaigns.  

The three appeals to benefit are ITV’s Text Santa campaign (pictured); Street Smart, a restaurant-based campaign to support homeless people, and localgiving.com, a website recently launched by Secret Millionaire Marcel Speller.

Hurd said: “People up and down the country have always given generously to help children, the elderly and the homeless at Christmas.
 
“The government is determined to do its bit too and that’s why we have worked hard to reduce administration costs and cut back on expensive advertising campaigns so that we can redistribute more money to those who need it.”
 
He said the government deliberately chose projects that offer ‘new’ models of giving.

Text Santa launched last night on ITV with the Prime Minister pledging that if the public donate £250,000, the government will match it with a further £250,000.

In Street Smart, restaurants offer customers the opportunity to add £1 to their bill in support of local charities that support homeless people. The government will match donations up to £220,000.

And at localgiving.com, members of the public can find out about and make donations to small charities in their local community. The government will match funds raised up to £500,000.