Localgiving has raised £1.3m for local charities so far from its Grow Your Tenner match fund campaign, and expects this to rise to £1.6m once all the money has been collected.
The Grow Your Tenner campaign ran from 14th October to 21st November 2014 and doubled the first £10 of all online donations.
The scheme was open to local charities and community groups and was run by Localgiving. It was funded by the Office for Civil Society and a private philanthropist.
Over 16,000 people donated to 1,200 charities during the campaign. Some 81 per cent of charities involved said they received donations from new donors and 88 per cent said they achieved some or all of their fundraising goals.
Rob Wilson, minister for civil society said: “Local charities are hugely important to communities across the UK and are well placed to understand and react to the needs of local people. The government’s matched fund grant for Localgiving’s Grow Your Tenner campaign enabled donations from the public to go even further and support these organisations in the fantastic work that they do.”
As part of the campaign, Localgiving encouraged more than 4,000 people to set-up direct debits, providing the charities with regular future support. The network organisation also said it has saved charities 150 working days of administrative time by processing gift aid on their behalf.
Stephen Mallinson, chief executive of Localgiving described match funding as a “viable solution to a very real social problem”.
“The fact is that currently only seven per cent of all donations go to small charities, despite the fact that they are in need of real financial support,” he said. “With funding streams drying up, matching online donations through campaigns such as Grow Your Tenner maximises people’s giving and helps small charities to fundraise effectively.
“The legacy of the project is to ensure that these groups continue to make the most of their fundraising efforts, reach out to new donors online and develop a robust and sustainable funding model so that they may continue to provide their services in the future.”
The Grow Your Tenner campaign raised a total of £1.2m in 2012 and £1.6m in 2013.
