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theBigGive Blog
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keeping you up-to-date with all the latest news and developments from theBigGive.org.uk
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Wealthy buyers go online
"Luxury brands and retailers have recognised that their most affluent customers are enthusiastically using the internet", reports the Financial Times today.
The report from the US ties in with anecdotal evidence in the UK that high-wealth individuals are increasingly confident in using the web to inform their philanthropic decisions.
Oxfam are leading the high-end charity development with their Projects Direct site, which expands on the project outlines available on The Big Give. I spoke to another top UK charity that has recently received a substantial gift through their major donor page on their own website.
As these donors continue to develop their online research into charities and projects, charities can look forward to an increasing number of unsolicited approaches from some very exciting individuals.
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Golden Age of Philanthropy Articles
There was a fantastic section in the New York Times Magazine (free registration) this weekend on philanthropy. I recommend making time to read What Makes People Give? - where Freakonomics meets charity - and For Good, Measure.
As the economy continues to slip and slide, I noticed a positive message from the latter article:
"...many billions of dollars, earned during the recent boom in the hedge-fund
and private-equity markets, will soon pour into the social sector. At a moment
of widespread economic distress, philanthropy is a growth industry, its golden
age, at least in terms of dollars spent, almost certainly yet to come."
Let's hope this forecast is mirrored this side of the pond...
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The future is now?
A very interesting article in the US Financial Times - Sean Stannard-Scott looking forward to 2033, where "social stock exchanges" help donors find charities that they are interested in.
"While the cost to non-profits of conforming to the exchanges' information
disclosure requirements is steep, once listed they find grant dollars come
looking for them rather than the other way round." The Big Give may not quite mirror the financial stock exchanges, but we do believe in a system that helps donors intelligently search for their ideal charity. We are also working hard to ensure that the cost of entry for charities is anything but steep.
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Introducing £5k projects!
Following feedback from charities and philanthropists, we have expanded The Big Give to include charity projects seeking £5k to £50k in funding. This move means The Big Give will better reflect major donor department targets and help increase funding opportunities for charites.
The new funding amounts are £5k, £10k, £25k and £50k, and charities can upload their projects for these values now. The website will retain its current look and functionality, and the new donation amounts (including changes to the 'thermometer') will be promoted to donors in March.
Let us know what you think of the new amounts by adding a comment below.
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Board of Philanthropists
Alec Reed has announced the The Big Give Board of Philanthropists. The Board comprises a group of twenty highly-experienced individuals, offering their exceptional talents from the private, public and charitable sectors.
Members of the Board include Lord Salisbury, former leader of the House of Lords; Lord Joffe, chair of the Government's Giving Campaign; and Simon Murdoch, who launched Amazon's online bookstore in the UK.
Their role will be to encourage other major donors to give intelligently and provide expert feedback on theBigGive.org.uk.
We ask that charities do not send unsolicited requests to Board members.
The full list is:
Lord Salisbury PC DL
- Leader of the House of Lords from 1994-7
Lord Joffe CBE
- represented Nelson Mandela at trial, 1963-4
- Chair of the Government's Giving Campaign, 2001-4
Lord Haskins
- Chairman, Northern Foods 1986-2002
- New Deal Task Force 1997 -2001
Lord Rana MBE JP
- Founder & Managing Director, Andras House
Lord Gavron CBE
- Chair, Guardian Media Group 1997-2000
- Director, Royal Opera House 1992-8
Lord Bell
- Chair, Bell Pottinger Communications
- MD, Saatchi & Saatchi 1970-85
Sir Peter Mason, KBE CBE DL
- Chief Exec AMEC 1996-2006
Sir Sigmund Sternberg KCSG JP
- Founder, Three Faiths Forum
- Chairman, Martin Slowe Estates
Peter Bottomley MP
- MP for Worthing West, 1997-
Simon Murdoch
- Founder, friendsabroad.com
- First head of amazon.co.uk
Martyn Lewis CBE
- Chair of Beacon Fellowship
- Co-founder & Chairman, Teliris
- Chair & Founder, YouthNet UK
Fred Mulder, Dr
- Founder of The Funding Network
- Beacon Fellow
Stuart Wallis FCA CTA
- Chairman, Protherics
John Spiers
- Founder, BestInvest
Frank Kirwan
- OSCR
- former trustee of Oxfam
- director of RBS; Grahma Tech
Larry Sullivan
- Chair and co-founder, COINS software house
- Founder, Stepping Stones school for children with hemiplegia
Trevor Yang
- Group Director
- Trustee of WWF Hong Kong
Bruce Jobling LLB
- Solicitor
Tim Partington
- Director, Chapman Taylor LLP
John Blaxland, Dr
Ian Watson
Alec Reed CBE
- Founder, Reed Specialist Recruitment
- Founder, The Big Give
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New PR agency for The Big Give
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Carte Blanche Communications as PR agency for theBigGive.org.uk.
Carte Blanche are experts in the high-net-worth sector, and will help to drive awareness and increase the profile of high-level philanthropy on theBigGive.org.uk.
Look out for coverage of theBigGive.org.uk in the press over the coming weeks, or check back here to see the latest press updates and links to articles.
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Dragon in the den
 Duncan Bannatyne, star of BBC's Dragons' Den, popped into the office last week with his TV crew to have a look at theBigGive.org.uk and talk philanthropy with Alec Reed.
Duncan is presenting a documentary about giving amongst the rich for ITV1, and was very excited by the number and range of projects on the site. This is yet more great exposure - and high wealth feedback - for the website, and we look forward to seeing the full programme soon.
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America's top donors
An interesting web discussion featuring Lorry Lokey, who has appeared on The Chronicle of Philanthropy's list of America's top donors every year since 2000.
Two of Mr Lokey's comments stood out for me:
"I am not impressed with fancy huge brochures, publications, CDs, and especially gifts. A one page letter will do along with a one or two page flyer."
"At least 99% of request made to me by mail or phone are not answered because I don't know them."
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Magic Wand funding
I read an interesting article in the New York Times this Sunday discussing the balance between funding short-term projects and longer term operating support.
This ties in very neatly with the news that charities can now upload a "Magic Wand" funding proposal on theBigGive.org.uk. We define the Magic Wand as "the one greatest thing that would help support each charity".
While theBigGive.org.uk began by promoting discrete projects, we hope the Magic Wand section will give donors a chance to fund the long term operational support that can be so vital to the continuing success of the charity.
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Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to everyone. 2007 proved to be a huge year for philanthropy (and, coincidentally, the year of our launch!) and we are looking forward to an even more philanthropic 2008.
We have had some great feedback from high-wealth donors over the Christmas period, and a number have agreed to become Advisory Philanthropists to theBigGive.org.uk. I will have more information on this - and our first site improvements of 2008 - in later posts.
Good luck with your New Year resolutions, and all the best with your fundraising and philanthropy over the coming year!
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£1 billion of projects!
Today we passed £1 billion of projects on theBigGive.org.uk. To have acheived this milestone in under 3 months (2 months and 19 days, to be precise) is an amazing acheivement, and hope the scale of interest in the site is a sign of many successes to come.
I would like to thank every charity (all 3,500 of you!) that has helped theBigGive.org.uk grow into such a useful tool for high wealth donors in such a short space of time.
As we continue to grow and develop, I look forward to working with our registered charities to improve the opportunities available to high wealth donors. If you have any comments or thoughts on the site, the project format or how your supporters react to your projects, please let us know by posting a comment on this blog.
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First donations through theBigGive.org.uk!
This week we were delighted to hear that a multi-million pound grant-making organisation has used theBigGive.org.uk to successfully identify £500,000 of projects to fund.
It is fantastic that grant-making organisations are already using the website to inform their funding decisions, and we would like to thank our charities for making theBigGive.org.uk such an useful destination for high wealth donors.
The organisation, which wishes to remain anonymous, commented, "Rather than going through the traditional project proposal process, it was good to proactively select the shortlist. We managed to find projects in our very specific field, and had drawn up a shortlist of projects in 5 minutes."
With our first mailing to over 15,000 high wealth individuals landing this week, we are confident that these donations will be the first of many. If you have had success with theBigGive.org.uk, either as a charity or a donor, please let us know. With our ever-growing PR contacts, we can make sure that the charity enjoys maximum leverage from the donation, and of course the donor can remain completely anonymous if they wish.
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Philanthropy UK Newsletter
Today sees the publication of the quarterly Philanthropy UK newsletter December edition, with features on theBigGive.org.uk and Top 5 giving tips from Alec Reed.
Philanthropy UK is a highly respected philanthropy resource and their newsletter is read by established philanthropists, high wealth individuals looking to give for the first time, and wealth advisors from some of the top private banks.
We are very pleased to be making such an impact in this sector after only 2 months, and I will keep posting our articles on the blog to let you know how we are going!
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"Going Stellar"
I was pleasantly surprised by the headline of our article on Wealth Bulletin today. "New philanthropy website going stellar" couldn't be a more positive start for our coverage on the website that is read by thousands of wealth managers each week.
A recent survey (subscription required) suggested that wealth managers need more support when advising on philanthropy, and we will be pushing theBigGive.org.uk as the best place to find high wealth projects.
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DEC Bangladesh Appeal
You may have noticed that theBigGive.org.uk is supporting the Disasters Emergency Committee Bangladesh Cyclone Appeal on our homepage.
The DEC is made up of 13 member agencies who provide the humanitarian aid needed in a time of disaster, and I am delighted that we are able to give them another platform on which to raise funds.
While the DEC have an impressive network of media partners (BBC, ITN, the Post Office, BT and many banks), theBigGive.org.uk carries a message specifically aimed towards high wealth donors.
We hope that this niche promotion will help raise vital funds for those whose lives have been devastated by the effects of the cyclone.
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The Big Four - our target markets
As you may have read in other media, the Reed Foundation is donating a £1 million promotional budget to theBigGive.org.uk.
We have broken our target market down into four sectors (worth well over £7 billion annually):
1. High Net Worth Individuals & Advisors
- The UK's top 30 philanthropists gave or pledged £1.2 billion last year, double last year's amount (Sunday Times Rich List 2007)
We are aiming to attract far more than just the top 30 donors, through mailing campaigns, targeted PR, and exclusive events.
2. Trusts & Foundations
- the Top 500 grant-making trusts gave £3.3 billion (Charity Trends 2007)
Whether a great historical trust or a founder-run foundation, we will communicate the benefits of using theBigGive.org.uk to find new funding opportunities and keep a check on the existing field. Mailings, conferences and our friends at the ACF will help to acheive this.
3. Corporate Giving
- CAF's Top 500 corporate donors gave over £1.1 billion in 2005/6
Working with some of the most philanthropically engaged companies and organisations, our goal is to help corporate donors find projects that really deliver value.
4. Legacies
- the 2007 legacy market is worth £1.6bn (Legacy Foresight)
Many high wealth individuals don't worry about legacy planning, as they know they are invincible! Working with legal experts (including the one who told us this 'fact') we will use theBigGive.org.uk to showcase what UK charities can do with those resources that can't be taken beyond the grave.
We will post our promotional successes in these four markets on this website, so keep checking to see how we are doing!
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Tell a friend (or client)
theBigGive.org.uk promotion push began this month, and we have already had some great feedback from the donor side.
One dotcom millionaire (anonymity rules here, I'm afraid!) is a huge fan of the site, giving us a list of ideas for the future and letting us know that they will be telling their friends about theBigGive.org.uk.
I have also spoken to three wealth managers/advisors who told me that they would be talking to their high net worth clients about theBigGive.org.uk and how they can benefit.
We have been delighted by the charity response to theBigGive.org.uk, and these early 'Tell a friend/client' stories suggest that theBigGive.org.uk has a strong potential for word of mouth success.
Look our for more promotion news on the blog in the coming months...
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Top 5 questions from charities
We've had lots of comments (mostly very kind!) and questions from charities signing up on theBigGive.org.uk. A number follow the same theme, so here are our top 5 questions - and answers - about theBigGive.org.uk.
1. Why can't I find my charity in the sector/location/beneficiary search?
theBigGive.org.uk helps donors to search for projects rather than charities. Many charities cover a range of sectors - by displaying individual projects, we let donors know exactly what is available to them in their area of interest.
2. Can I enter a Magic Wand proposal for my charity?
The Magic Wand area will allow you to present a core funding proposal on the site (because we know how important core funding is!). This is currently in development - the 3 projects on the site now help us to illustrate how the section will appear.
3. I uploaded a project but it seems to be lost
As with all web forms, we recommend copying or saving your projects in a Word document (or similar) before submitting. Unfortunately Internet connections can time out - especially if you have spent a long time on a single page - causing you to lose the project.
We appreciate your patience (we've lost things too) and hope that you will try again - after a few deep breaths...!
4. Do I need to be a registered charity to join theBigGive.org.uk?
Yes, in a word. In order to protect our donors from unregulated fundraising organisations, we can currently only accept UK-regulated charities on theBigGive.org.uk.
We are talking to a number of experts about ways to get social enterprises and CICs on the site. If you have any suggestions, why not leave a comment using the form below?
5. How much does it cost?
We are very pleased to say that theBigGive.org.uk is free to all users! As we don't take a cut, either from the charity or the donors, we believe that theBigGive.org.uk really is helping big donations go further.
This is possible thanks to generous funding from the Reed Foundation (who, incidentally, make all their grants through theBigGive.org.uk).
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Welcome to theBigGive blog!
theBigGive.org.uk helps high wealth individuals to quickly and discreetly find charitable projects - from £100k to £10m - in their field of interest. In the first two months, we have had 3,000 charities register on the site and post projects worth over £800,000,000.
This blog is our way of communicating with these charities and donors. We will keep you up-to-date with the latest news and developments at theBigGive.org.uk. In return, we hope that you will use the site to give us comments and feedback about the website, and share your ideas and thoughts about philanthropy and fundraising.
Let the conversation begin!
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