Campaign FAQs

If you have received an offer of funding, you will be invited to an event to help you prepare for your campaign – details will be sent to you in an email. If you have any questions whilst preparing for or during the campaign, read the FAQs below or contact us on campaigns@childhoodtrust.org.uk. For queries about the Big Give platform or pledges, contact hello@biggive.org.

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We are taking part in the pledge model campaign and are confused about how exactly funding is unlocked during the campaign.

Funds from your pledge(s) and The Childhood Trust are unlocked based on your success with fundraising during the campaign period.

Example: Campaign target of £8,000

If your overall campaign target is £8,000, then £2,000 (25%) needs to be secured in pledges. These pledges must be confirmed by the pledge deadline, but the funds should not be sent to you by your pledgers until after the campaign, as receiving them depends on your campaign performance.

£2,000 (25%) in match-funding will be offered to your charity by The Childhood Trust.

£4,000 (50%) will need to be raised during the campaign week in donations from the general public.

This totals a campaign target of £8,000.

During the campaign period, funding is unlocked and matched first by your pledge(s), and then by The Childhood Trust:

The first 25% of public donations you receive during the campaign will be matched by your pledge/s. This would bring you to 50% of your campaign target.

The next 25% of public donations you receive during the campaign will be matched by The Childhood Trust. This would bring you to 100% of your campaign target.

During the campaign, you can check on the progress of unlocked funds through your dashboard on the Big Give portal.

What if my charity does not raise enough donations from the public to unlock matched funding from our pledger(s)?

You may wish to discuss with your pledge donor(s) if they would still be willing to donate their pledge to you in the event you do not fully unlock it.

What if my charity raises enough donations from the public to unlock match funding from our pledger, but not enough to unlock matched funding from The Childhood Trust?

If you do not exceed the 50% mark of your overall campaign target, then you will not unlock any funding from The Childhood Trust. The amount offered from The Childhood Trust is contingent on you unlocking more than 50% of your overall campaign target.

What if my charity exceeds our campaign target during the campaign fortnight?

Any donations above the campaign target will not be matched. Your charity can use donations above the campaign target as it wishes, and this does not have to be reported on.

We have a donor who would like to donate to our campaign, however, they are unable to use a credit or debit card to make their donation. Is there any other method they can use to make their donation?

The Big Give’s Donation Funds process may be a suitable option for donors who are unable to use a credit or debit card to make their donation. This process allows donations to be made via bank transfer. Read more about this in questions below and on the Big Give’s website.

What is the Big Give’s Donation Funds process and how does it work?

This service was introduced by the Big Give for donors who are unable to make donations using any of the following payment methods:

Mastercard

Visa

Maestro

Switch

Solo

Delta

American Express

To use the Donation Funds process, donors transfer funds via BACs to a ‘holding’ account on the Big Give platform. Funds can take up to five working days to transfer to the Big Give account. Once funds are transferred, donors can then click on the campaign of their choice and donate funds accordingly.

To learn more, read the Big Give’s instructions here, and watch a video tutorial of the full process here.

What are the benefits of the Donation Funds process for donors who cannot make donations by debit/credit card?

Donors can prepare in advance of the actual campaign period. Donation fund accounts can be set up at any time of the year on the Big Give’s website, and your donors can top up their account with funds within 60 days of the campaign starting. Funds will be safely held until the campaign starts. When the campaign is live, your donor can click on your campaign page and donate using the pre-transferred funds. Any funds not used within 60 days will be refunded back to the donor. 
Donors can track the movement of their funds from start to finish. They will receive email notifications for all activities and transfers linked to their Big Give account.
The process is highly secure. Funds are held safely in the donor’s Big Give account until the donor is ready to donate them to a charity of their choice. All payments are processed by Stripe.

Our donors have concerns that this process may not be secure or reliable. How can I reassure them that it is?

Since being launched in 2022, the Big Give’s Donation Funds system has successfully facilitated the transfer of over £2.5m in donations. Through this process, donors can fully track where their funds are going. All funds held in the donor’s Donation Funds account legally belong to the donor. Payments are processed by Stripe, and any funds that are not used to donate are automatically refunded to the donor right after the campaign ends, or within 60 days. 

Can donors outside the UK use the Donation Funds process?

No, this service is only available for donors with UK bank accounts.

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