Photo courtesy James Reed

There’s little doubt that James Reed (MBA 1990) loves his job. After all, he’s the chairman and CEO of Reed—the United Kingdom’s first and largest jobs website—and he takes the company’s slogan, “Love Mondays,” to heart.

Even so, Reed admits he has a side hustle: When he’s not running the wildly successful recruitment firm, Reed is deeply involved with the Big Give, an innovative match-funding platform that hosts online fundraising appeals for charities. By engaging philanthropists and companies to match donations made by the public, the platform effectively multiplies the gifts’ impact. The Reed Foundation launched the Big Give in 2007, and since then, it has raised nearly £200 million for 10,000 charities that address a range of causes, from climate change and cancer research to food insecurity and humanitarian disasters, to name but a few.

“The Big Give is a wonderful thing, and it’s become extremely effective at fundraising for lots of good causes,” says Reed, who cofounded the charity with his father, Sir Alec Reed (OPM 17, 1991). It was his father’s idea to take the technology used for the jobs website and create a similar digital experience for charities. “He wanted to create something where charities could post their appeals for free, and where philanthropists could choose what causes to support with large donations—hence the name, the Big Give,” explains Reed.

In the first year, however, the giving—while generous—wasn’t as substantial as the Reeds had hoped. “The idea then had been to donate £1 million from our Reed Foundation to the Big Give, and tell all the charities listed, ‘We will match every pound donated to you, up to £1 million,’” says Reed. “This was switched on in November 2008, and the funds were matched in 45 minutes. That was the beginning of what we realized was a very powerful way of fundraising. When donations are matched, people give more money, and they give more often.”

The Big Give now works by asking big donors—referred to as champions—to put money in a match fund set up for a cause they wish to support. That sets in motion an opportunity to potentially increase the original contribution by as much as five times. “For example,” notes Reed, “if the Reed Foundation, which is a champion, commits £10,000 to the match fund for Save the Children, then that charity also has to get another supporter to match the £10,000. So when the campaign goes live, there’s £20,000 in the pot to match public donations. Hopefully they’ll raise the full amount, for a total of £40,000.” There’s another bonus: a UK tax rebate called Gift Aid, which adds another 25 percent to the public donations. In this case, if all donations were eligible, that would add an extra £5,000 for the cause.

“We call this the ‘generosity multiplier,’” says Reed. “It’s very attractive to donors. They can give £100,000 or £20. By donating through the Big Give, they know they’ll help raise a lot more money for the causes they care about.”

Each campaign runs on a specific time line, since a bit of tension motivates concerned donors to act. Perhaps the best-known of these drives is the annual Christmas Challenge, which opens on Giving Tuesday and lasts for one week. Last year’s campaign raised £24 million for 900 participating charities. More recent campaigns include the Green Match Fund, which has raised more than £2.8 million to benefit 146 environmental charities, and the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, which has raised £3.9 million.

“It’s amazing how many different things we’re able to impact,” says Reed. “It’s this rich ecosystem that one might never know existed if it wasn’t all already here on the platform. We’ve created a really good marketplace, and match funding is the key that unlocks a lot of the potential.”

Now Reed wants to share the platform’s design—what he calls “phil-tech” for philanthropy technology—with philanthropic organizations around the world. “I have this ambition to raise a billion pounds for good causes, and we’re close to £200 million now,” he adds. “We’ve really improved the technology. It’s very easy to make donations, and donors can offer a tip to the Big Give to support the running costs. We’ve created a totally self-sustaining platform—you can run it with two or three people—and it’s the only one of its kind that I’m aware of. The Big Give could be the vehicle for all kinds of global appeals. It’s very much underway, and we’re well positioned to do that.”

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