There are now less than two months to go until the launch of the 2021 Christmas Challenge, and here at the Big Give, we couldn’t be more excited!
Offers to all charities who completed an application for this year’s challenge have been sent out – which means we’ll soon have the complete list of charities taking part this year shown on our website.
Every year the Christmas Challenge gets bigger and better. We have more charities applying, more pledge funds being received, and an increased number of Champions joining us. Therefore, we’re pleased to share some of the top statistics we’ve found from applications this year.
1. We received 1,204 applications from charities, a 17% increase compared to last year.
2. Of those applications, 964 charities (80% of applicants) raised over £1,000 in pledges and were eligible to potentially receive additional Champion funding.
3. The median annual income for charities that completed an application was £426,1182.
4. The total amount of pledges secured by all charities was an incredible £6.4m.
5. Of the charities eligible to receive Champion funding, 710 charities (74%) received an offer of Champion funding, either full or partial, compared to 80% of charities in the 2020 Christmas Challenge.
6. There was an impressive 15% increase in the amount of pledges raised altogether by charities compared to the 2020 Christmas campaign. The average total amount pledged for this year equalling £5,329.
7. There was a 14.3% increase in the amount of Champion funding available for the 2021 Christmas Challenge compared to 2020. The average total amount of Champion funding offered to charities was £5,647.
8. Of the charities offered Champion funding, 58% included ‘Health and Wellbeing’ as a category for their application. Education/training and employment being second with 37%.
9. Of the charities offered Champion funding, 55% included children (3-18) as a beneficiary of their campaign, young people (18-30) coming up second in 29% of applications.
For us here at Big Give HQ, we couldn’t be more proud to see how the campaign continues to grow and develop each year. From a humble £2m raised in the first Christmas Challenge in 2008 to a staggering £20m in 2020, we’re aiming for even better results this year!
Offer week is always exciting and bittersweet for the team, as all of the applications were amazing, but understandably, not all charities can receive the Champion funding. However, we couldn’t be more grateful to the wonderful Champions who have generously provided funds to support hundreds of charities this year. As we grow, we’re hopeful that more philanthropists will partner with us to ensure more charities are supported through the challenge.
A big thank you to all the charities who took the time to apply and we can’t wait until Christmas!
Until next time,
The Big Give Team