Aaron Barbour, one of our Fundraising Consultants, reflects on his most recent Big Give!
Last month, on Tuesday 9th December 2025, at 7.31am, after 7 full-on days, I breathed a sigh of relief and felt that fundraising buzz. We’d done it. Achieved our Big Give target.
People often ask me whether match giving still works. Whether it’s worth the effort in a crowded fundraising landscape. My answer is always yes, but not for the reasons you might think.
It works because it’s honest. Match giving doesn’t manipulate people. It just acknowledges how we actually make decisions as donors.
We procrastinate. We want to know our money will make a real difference. We respond to deadlines. We like knowing that other people, serious people with money, have already backed something before we commit.
A £50 donation becoming £100 isn’t a gimmick. It’s genuinely twice as useful to the charity and donors know it. That matters to them.
The psychology is simple: people don’t want match funding to go unused. It feels wasteful. And if their donation is making twice the impact then so much the better. So, they act.
But let’s be honest about what it actually takes
As a colleague keeps reminding me. It’s called work for a reason. (Thank you Christine.)
The Big Give looks like a few intense days in December. In reality, it’s nine months of planning and hard work. Getting the match funding lined up. Building the case for support. Cleaning your data. Writing and rewriting the copy. Filming the short video. Working out who’s going to ask whom. Warming up your supporters (and potential supporters) well in advance.
And then during the campaign itself, you’re writing updates at speed, watching the dashboard (every 5 minutes😉), responding to and thanking supporters in real time and trying to keep momentum going with more emails and phone calls when things go quiet. All the while not trying to worry too much (understatement) whether you’re actually going to do it. Keep your team going. Oh yeah and you’re having to run your actual organisation too.
It exposes everything. Whether your Case for Support is actually clear. Whether people trust you and want to support you. Whether your team can work together under pressure. Whether your data is any good.
The Big Give doesn’t just test whether you can raise money
It tests whether you know what you’re doing.
One of the things I love most about match giving is how it pulls people in. It’s a team effort. Trustees are thinking about who they know (or doing that challenge event to raise loadsamoney, inspiring other and raising the profile of your charity). Staff are sharing appeals on their personal social media. Volunteers are texting their friends and sharing on WhatsApp groups. Someone’s cousin knows someone who works for a company with a matched giving scheme.
Handled well, a Big Give campaign doesn’t just raise money. It builds a culture where asking for support feels normal. Where people across the organisation realise they have something to contribute.
The work doesn’t stop when the money comes in
This is where a lot of organisations go wrong. You’ve just asked people for money. They’ve responded. Some of them have given to you for the first time. And now what?
Thank them. Thank them again. Then thank them properly.
Have actual conversations. Ask them why they gave. What made them say yes? What’s the connection? What do they think you do well? Where could you improve?
You get better by doing it
The truth is, fundraising requires those 10,000 hours. You learn by trying things, getting some of it wrong and trying again.
Each campaign teaches you something. About your audience. About what messages land and which ones don’t. About your own capacity and nerve.
And sometimes you learn that you could have been braver. That you hit your target too quickly. That people wanted to give more than you asked for. But those are good problems to have. Next time you’ll stretch yourself that little bit more.
It still matters
As Big Give fundraising is more crowded than it used to be. Attention spans are shorter. People are being asked constantly by everyone.
But the fundamentals haven’t changed.
If you’re doing genuinely good work, if you can explain clearly why it matters and if you ask people who already know and trust you – personally, specifically, confidently – then good things still happen.
Match giving won’t solve all your problems. But it’s one of the best training grounds we have for learning how to ask well. And mostly importantly, build that amazing group of people around to you support your charity for years to come.
And that’s why I still love it.
