Christmas Challenge 2024
This winter, as a Champion Funder, we had 113 charity partners participate in The Big Give's Christmas Challenge from 3rd to 10th December and they broke records once again!
In just one week, they raised £6,413,569—a 35% increase from last year—with 109 unlocking matched funding and 73 exceeding their targets. These funds will support vital programmes and services for over 190,000 children living in poverty across London, ensuring they have a happy and healthy childhood.
Applications for our next matched-funding campaign, Champions for Children 2024, open from 3rd January to 7th February next year. Keep reading to find out if you're eligible for funding and how to join our London Charity Partner Network.
What We’re Looking For
We are looking for charities that have an existing supporter base and an appetite to work with us to engage with the general public and existing donors. In order to be successful in our campaigns, it is helpful for charities to have an active trustee board or major donors who are prepared to make donation pledges to kickstart the fundraising for the project.
The Childhood Trust has four priority impact focus areas for children:
- Physical Health
- Mental Wellbeing
- Home & Community Environment
- Learning & Work Readiness.
The Childhood Trust does not fund religious activities or capital costs.
Before applying, please read our Grant Making Policy to ensure you match our eligibility requirements.
The Childhood Trust funds charities across all 33 London boroughs. We offer charities two funding tracks to become either a Grassroots Partner or Synergy Partner.
Applications from charities will be streamed by the following criteria:
Please note that charities cannot apply for a TCT grant which exceeds 10% of their last annual income
To be eligible for funding, all partners must:
- be registered with the Charity Commission
- have one year of filed annual accounts
- be able to demonstrate that they are a going concern
- have strong financial processes and be legally compliant
- have a robust governance structure
- have solid safeguarding processes
The minimum requirements for any project to receive funding are:
- Children (0-17 year olds) will be the primary beneficiaries of the funding;
- Children living in London will be the primary beneficiaries;
- Children experiencing poverty (demonstrated by poverty measures such as IDACI, Free school meals, Pupil premium, low household income) will be the primary beneficiaries.
- Our charity partner must demonstrate outcomes against one of our four impact goals: Physical Health, Mental Wellbeing, Home & Community Environment and Learning & Work Readiness
Why Apply
In addition to offering matched funds, The Childhood Trust builds charities’ capacity to run successful fundraising campaigns with:
- Workshops on how to run a successful fundraising campaign, including topics such as how to formulate your campaign messaging and how to use social media effectively
- One-to-one support on any aspect of the campaign
- Connections with other charities working with children and young people across London
- Raised profile and visibility through broader campaigns, events and other activities to raise awareness of the issues around child poverty and drive traffic to the charities
We also request our charity partners' participation in our other programmes, such as Decorate a Child’s Life, the Bedrooms of London exhibition or The London Child Poverty Summit, amongst others that we are in the process of developing.