Make a pledge this month and double the impact

UPDATE 9th September 2024: We did it! £2,500 was pledged by the 8th September deadline. OTN’s application will now be shared with Big Give Charity Champions – funders who will match up to the same amount we raise in Pledges. We will find out between mid-September and early October if OTN has been awarded Champion funding.

THIS YEAR the Open Table Network [OTN] is taking part in The Big Give Christmas Challenge, the UK’s biggest match-funding campaign.

The first step is to ask our supporters to become Pledgers, whose promise to give after the campaign ends in December will help OTN to attract match-funding and double the impact of donations made during the campaign.

Our goal is to secure £2,500 in Pledges by 11pm on Sunday 8th September 2024.

Achieving this goal will give us a good chance of attracting the support of a Charity Champion – a funder who will match up to the same amount we raise in Pledges. Pledges are promises of funding to double donations made to OTN during the Christmas Challenge campaign in December.

The minimum amount you can pledge is £100 – if you’d like to contribute a smaller amount, we’d love you to make a donation during the campaign week in December instead. Click here to donate instead (we’ll send you a link when the donation window opens).

This year’s Big Give Christmas Challenge will be from midday Tuesday 3rd December to midday Tuesday 10th December 2024.

For those seven days, the general public and our wider network will have the chance to get involved by donating to the campaign. The fact that their donation will be doubled encourages more people to give, (and people often donate a larger amount too)!

Organisations can make pledges but they cannot donate during the campaign week, so, if you’re part of a church or charity who might like to support our campaign, please consider making a Pledge.

Why is this important for Open Table?

Just like the people we support are often rejected due to their faith or LGBTQIA+ identity, as a Christian LGBTQIA+ charity we are often excluded when applying for funding from trusts and foundations.  This means that we’re more reliant on fundraising from our supporters.

Moreover, when we find sympathetic funders, they’re encouraged to see that our work is valued by our supporters (as evidenced by successful fundraising) and this helps us to raise more in grants.  So making a Pledge to this campaign would in effect, more than double our ability as a network to ensure that all are more than welcome.

A Pledge is a promise of funding:

Pledges are key to OTN’s success in the Christmas Challenge – if you can make a Pledge, please click here to make a pledge by 11pm on Sunday 8th September 2024.

Payment of Pledges depends on OTN receiving donations during The Big Give campaign. Therefore, Pledges will be paid after the campaign is completed, on 10th December 2024 at 12 noon and before 17th January 2025 at 6pm.

THANK YOU for your support for OTN, a small charity having a big impact.