Green Match Fund raises £1.7m to combat environmental threats

The past week has seen the UK’s largest coordinated environmental fundraising campaign. The Green Match Fund aimed to raise over £1 million for 113 environmental charities and ended yesterday having raised ££1,760,769, including Gift Aid.

Donations made to participating charities were matched by “Champion” funders, sourced by the Big Give and The Environmental Funders Network.

The Big Give runs matched giving campaigns, most notably its annual Christmas campaign. These are short, usually week-long, campaigns in which donors’ money can be matched or doubled by ‘Champion’ funders that The Big Give secures. These can be individuals or grant-making bodies. So far it has raised over £156 million for charities.

The money raised by The Green Match Fund will help the environmental sector at the end of a challenging year for many charities.

A recent report by the Big Give found that 63% of environmental charities reported a decrease in income in 2020 because of Covid-19. According to the same report, one in five environmental charities were planning to reduce service delivery as a result.

And this at a time when we are in the midst of ecological collapse.

The Green Match Fund ran from 22 to 29 April 2021. Successes include:

96% of all the match funds were utilised
106/112 charities hit their fundraising target
Over 11,000 people from 59 different countries donated to the campaign, with an average donation of £74.
Celebrities, including Lorraine Kelly, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Kate Humble all got behind the campaign