UK Aid Match

[ianr]

Just to draw attention to this, as deadlines are approaching. Briefly, more than twenty selected UK charities doing work overseas run a specific UK Aid Match campaign over a period of not more than three months between September 2016 and March 2017, and the Department for International Development matches contributions to them 100% (but excluding the Gift Aid benefit).

I'd not been aware of this before, even though there seem to have been various rounds of it since 2013. I only learned of it from Sightsavers, whose own campaign runs until 8 January. But they're clearly all of limited duration, and nearing their deadlines if not already there. You can see more details and a list of the charities involved in this round at https://www.gov.uk/international-development-funding/uk-aid-match.

I'm a little annoyed I dodn't know about it earlier. It's a lot more beneficial than the Gift Aid scheme (which I trust also applies). If donating, note that it's only contributions given to an appeal clearly advertised as participating in UK Aid Match that will benefit from the matching.

[ianr]

Here are the few charities whose deadline for their appeal campaign under the UK Aid Match scheme has not yet passed. Any donations made up to the deadline will be augmented by 100% (as should be clearly stated on the webpage).

8 February Practical Action; Safe pair of hands.

15 February Street Child; Right to learn.

3 March Motivation; Ready, willing and able.

10 April Traidcraft Exchange; The hidden entrepreneur.

21 April Care International.

Not found Opportunity International.

Gift Aid (taxpayers only) can also be claimed on your unaugmented donation.

[ianr]

I see that the link above now shows that the management of Match Aid has been outsourced. You can see the charities enrolled and open for donations at https://www.ukaidmatch.org/grants/?search=*&open=Yes. Unfortunately that page doesn't give the closing date for donations to benefit from the 100% Match Aid. (The "End Date" shown there clearly means something else.)

This is just to point out, if you're thinking of donating to Sightsavers, that midnight today 9 January is the deadline for donations to them to be matched: https://www.sightsavers.org/aid-match-explained/.