Greenham Trust’s Double Matched Day, hosted on The Good Exchange platform, raised over £180,000 in donations and matched funding in just 24 hours.
The public were donating right up to the last minute of the event at 11.59pm on Friday 24th July With every pound donated on the day up to £5000 being double match funded by Greenham Trust, so each £1 became £3.
Ten local charitable organisations were selected who each had up to £10,000 of double matched funding available from Greenham Trust to double match up to £5,000 of public donations. These charitable organisations fundraised for causes ranging from supporting mothers through postnatal care, a cuddle bed for terminally ill cancer patients to helping children through bereavement and debt, housing and jobs advice for people affected by Covid-19. Eight of the 10 finalists raised over their £5,000 public donations target and each received a £10,000 boost from Greenham Trust. But they kept going, with The Watermill Theatre raising an extraordinary £42,642, Newbury Cancer Care raising £27,747 and Berkshire MS Therapy £20,643 for their Double Matched Day projects demonstrating the strength of community spirit.
There were 1,359 donations on the day reaching a total of £181,926.09, broken down as follows:
- Total amount donated – £84,070.04
- Match funding £87,534.21
- Gift Aid £10,321.84
- Total awarded £181,926.09
The impact that Double Matched Day will have on the community is hugely positive, as these comments from three of finalists illustrate:
Fenella Woods, Clerk at East Ilsley Parish Council, who raised over £5,000 for Double Matched Day, said: “The event you put on with the Greenham Trust was nothing short of fantastic, I’d like to thank you for all your support, guidance and mentoring which was instrumental in us creating such a great campaign. All the councillors are extremely overwhelmed by the response from the villagers and we could not have done it without the support from you, or the use of the platform to do it safely and securely. It was a fantastic initiative, really helped to drive community engagement and people are still discussing it on social media today.”
Samantha Harper, Fundraising Manager, at Berkshire MS Therapy Centre, said, “What an amazing Double Matched Day we have had. I am not sure we have ever raised £5,000 before 9am before! Every time we tried to announce how much we had raised, it had jumped again. It has been a very difficult four months. Without funding from the NHS or larger MS charities, if we can’t raise the funds we need we can’t run our services. The local community has always been so supportive when we have needed their help. We would like to say a huge thank you to the Greenham Trust, the Good Exchange and everyone who has donated. The gift you have given the MS community is completely priceless.’”
Indeed, the buzz created by the day led Berkshire MS Therapy to raise an additional £5,000 for a second project fundraising via The Good Exchange.
Grace Green, Home-Start West Berkshire Manager added: “Thank you so much for creating this fantastic fundraiser. We were astounded to reach our target by breakfast and the money just kept rolling in all day! Funding for a medium sized charity like ours is always a never-ending challenge but this event has meant we have our funding for our Maternal Mental Health Project for the year in one day. It means so much to Home-Start West Berkshire and will have a huge impact on all the mums and children we support.”
Greenham Trust and The Good Exchange have a unique matched funding offering and the success of this day has shown how powerful this really is with the platform raising a record £198,125 in just one day. This innovative method of fundraising is an example of how a new, collaborative approach to charitable funding and donations will help revitalise the charity sector that has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Chris Boulton, Chief Executive, Greenham Trust said, “Double Matched Day was a first for us and we all hoped it would be a success but not in our wildest dreams did we expect it would prove to be so successful in engaging our community in giving to local charities, many of reaching their fundraising targets. We’ll let the dust settle but it could well become an annual event from now on.”
Julian May, Head of Collaborative Funding at Greenham Trust and The Good Exchange added: “The Good Exchange broke all kinds of records on Friday thanks to the generosity of the local community and Greenham Trust’s matched funding via the platform. The whole community got behind the event and the ten finalists were just brilliant thinking up innovative fundraising initiatives. We are looking forward to the next one.”
Off the back of the success of the day, Greenham Trust is looking for funding partners for future ‘Matched Day’ events. If you are interested in working alongside Greenham Trust to support the local community, please contact julian.may@thegoodexchange.com
