The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2024 – giving the gift of safer sleep

Between 3rd and 10th December 2024, we participated in our first Big Give Christmas Challenge, the UK’s largest online match funding campaign. With the continued growth of our core services, we’ve seen a significant increase in requests for safe and warm sleep items in Surrey and Croydon, making this the ideal focus for our campaign.

A warm place to sleep is something most of us take for granted: a place of comfort, rest and security. Yet, over a million children in the UK don’t have one – see Barnado’s Report. Through this campaign, our goal was to ensure that every baby and child referred to us in 2025 has access to essential items like cots, toddler beds, Moses baskets, new mattresses, warm bedding, PJs and onesies.

We never want to have to say ‘no’ to requests like these requests we received in 2024:

• A baby sleeping in an Amazon box because there was nowhere else.
• A baby sleeping on a changing mat because Mum couldn’t afford a cot.
• A child’s mattress being stuffed with old clothes to level out the dips.
• A Mum sleeping on a hard bed base after giving up her mattress for her 8-month-old.

So, we set to work.

In the initial stage of the application process we needed to secure the necessary match funding. A huge thank you to The Wisley Foundation and local business Powertutors for each pledging £10,000, enabling us to progress our application with the hope of being matched with a Big Give champion funder. We are incredibly grateful to The Julia Rausing Trust for stepping in as our champion funder and pledging the additional £20,000 needed. With match funding secured, the challenge was officially on.

Next, we reached out to our amazing network of supporters – individuals, local businesses, community groups and schools – hoping to raise the additional £40,000 when the campaign went live and unlock the match funding so we could hit our ambitious £80,000 target.

We knew the best way to convey the importance of providing a safe place to sleep was to share a story from one of those families we had helped. Just weeks before, our team had a powerful reminder of why this campaign matters through an urgent request made by the Children’s Hospital At Home team. Shortly after baby Comfort’s first birthday, her parents received the long-awaited news; she could finally come home after being in hospital since birth. But before that could happen, she needed a safe place to sleep.

Typically, we have a waiting list for cots, but as luck would have it, we had one in stock. By that very evening, Comfort was home, and her family were able to be together like this for the very first time. Comfort’s parents reached out to express their gratitude, and when we shared details about our upcoming campaign and the rising need for such items, they were eager to help.

We are grateful to everyone who featured in the campaign video, helping to bring this story to life – especially Comfort’s family, who bravely shared their journey with us.

As the campaign went live, we watched in wonder as donations poured in. With each screen refresh (of which there were many), we felt an overwhelming sense of pride and gratitude to be part of such a supportive community. In just three days, we had reached our £80,000 target, and by the end of the seven-day challenge, we had raised an astounding £94,343 (not including gift aid and platform fees).

Because of this incredible generosity, we go into 2025 with the confidence that we’ll be able to say ‘yes’ to every request for a safe and warm place to sleep, and make a meaningful difference for so many local families at bedtime.

A huge thank you to the Big Give for this incredible opportunity, to our champion funder and main pledgers for creating the match funding pot, and to every single individual, business, and organisation that supported us.

We look forward to sharing the impact of this campaign and the difference it’s making in the new year.