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Match Funding Scheme

The Coalition Government is committed to creating a mechanism to give the British people a say in how part of the aid budget is spent. The Government is considering fulfilling this commitment by creating a scheme to match fund public donations to development appeals.

Every day, people demonstrate their commitment to reducing poverty in the developing world by donating their money to appeals and charities. By matching pound for pound the money that people give, the Government would be supporting their choice and contributing to poverty reduction in the poor countries.

We would pilot such a scheme in 2011/12 and envisage it would work as set out below.

 

Value of scheme £30m in 2011/12.
Definition of an ‘appeal’ A call to the public over a maximum period of three months to donate funds to a specific organisation or project.
Duration of scheme Pilot scheme to run for one year from March 2011.
Eligibility to apply for match funding

Open to any organisation running an appeal in the UK for public donations from the UK public for poverty reduction projects in develping countries.

Organisations in receipt of Programme Partnership Arrangements (PPAs) from DFID or other DFID funding would be able to apply. However, in making decisions, DFID would reserve the right to take into account the level of funding already provided by DFID to the applicant.

What can be match funded Public donations for charitable organisations or for specific projects run by charitable organisations to reduce poverty in developing countries.
Geographic scope Encourage projects in these countries, but match funding for work in any poor country would be eligible.
Thematic scope Encourage requests for match funding for appeals in DFID’s priority areas in our Business Plan: Millennium Development Goals; boosting wealth creation; strengthening security in conflict-affected countries; improving the lives of women and girls; combating climate change.
Grant size DFID to provide £1 for every £1 donated by the public up to a maximum of £5m for any single appeal. However, if evidence suggests an appeal would be likely to raise more than £5m, DFID would consider requests for a larger match funding grant.
Time period for use of match funding Charity receiving the match funding must be able to disburse and spend the match funds over two calendar years from the close of the appeal.
Application procedure Applications could be made at any time from March 2011 – March 2012. DFID would review these every quarter and provide a response within six weeks of the review date. When the £30m pot is committed, no further new applications would be accepted.
Decision making By DFID.
Selection criteria
  • Match funding to go to registered charity able to provide audited accounts for the last three years. NB: the organisation running the appeal would not need to be a registered charity, but would need to be a reputable, legally registered organisation. So eg a newspaper running an appeal could apply to have their appeal match funded. The match funding provided by DFID would then be disbursed directly to the charity for whom the newspaper were running the appeal.
  • Assured and significant reach of appeal to UK public eg through partnership with national / regional media. Applications for match funding for appeals through direct mail shots only would not be eligible.
  • Appeals for projects or organisations with demonstrable impact on poverty, clarity of output and outcomes, value for money.
  • Organisation running appeal committed and able to feed back to the public and to DFID on what happened to public donations and the Government match funds within 1 year of the close of the appeal.
  • Match funding must not constitute more than 40% of the annual income of the recipient organisation, calculating this by taking the average annual income of the intended recipient over the last 3 years.

If deemed necessary, we would arrange a due diligence assessment of the organisation applying for or due to receive the match funding prior to approving a match funding grant.

Communicating the match funding Appeal publicity would carry the UKaid logo, a link to the DFID website and the wording ‘For every £1 you give, the Government will add another £1’ (or a modified version of this, as agreed with DFID).

Appeals for the following would not be eligible for match funding:

  • Disaster or humanitarian relief projects
  • Research work
  • Funding to government or for-profit businesses (although the appeal might be run by a for-profit business e.g. a newspaper)
  • Religious evangelising or proselytising
  • Projects which involve direct lobbying of the UK government or of international organisations of which the UK is a member, or which involve lobbying for or against activities of particular companies, individuals or institutions
  • Any project that discriminates between individuals or groups because of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion or disability
  • Scholarships
  • Projects comprised mainly of shipping or transport cost, including shipping used technology, vehicles or books
  • Land purchase or purchase of buildings
  • Surgical procedures which do not have a direct impact on poverty
  • Child sponsorship.

We welcome your views and ideas to help develop the new scheme. The consultation questions are as follows:

  • What are your views on the overall design and scope of the Match Funding Scheme?
  • What are your comments on any particular elements of the design?

Please send your views and comments to: matchfundconsultation@dfid.gov.uk

In order to move forward quickly to establish this scheme, the consultation period will be six weeks from 12 January 2010 to 25 February 2011. We will consider carefully all comments received – however we are unable to acknowledge individual responses.

Last updated: 12 Jan 2011

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