UK Aid Match was a £119 million Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) fund managed for the UK government by MannionDaniels, in partnership with the Social Change Agency, Oxford Policy Management, KIT, and the Education Development Trust.
It brought charities, the British public and the UK government together to improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable and marginalised people. The programme enabled the public to have a say in how UK aid was spent, while engaging them with international development issues and boosting the impact of high-quality civil society projects reaching the poorest communities.
How charities communicate their work is vital to encouraging public engagement with international development work and support for it. This should go beyond simply promoting donations. UK Aid Match aimed to support charities to demonstrate the impact and effectiveness of their work, working together to deliver creative, positive, solutions-focused messaging, and to showcase the benefits of UK Aid Match-funded projects to the UK public.
For every £1 donated to a UK Aid Match charity appeal by an individual living in the UK, the UK government contributed £1 of UK aid, up to £2 million, to support these projects to go further in changing and saving lives.
UK Aid Match has now ended as a grant-making programme. The UK Aid Match brand may continue to be used where the UK government matches public donations to rapid-onset humanitarian appeals, including through the Disasters Emergency Committee.
101
fundraising appeals
£119m
in match funding
35,800
new donors
UWS (United World Schools)
About UK Aid Match grants
UK Aid Match invited funding applications from charities and not-for-profit organisations for projects reaching the most vulnerable populations, with a particular focus on women and girls.
Funded projects were required to contribute to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, in UK government-eligible countries and align with broader UK priorities:
- Strengthen global peace, security and governance
- Strengthen resilience and response to crisis
- Promote global prosperity
- Tackle extreme poverty.
450,000+
children supported to learn
2,642,732
women and girls reached
488,541
people with
disabilities supported
Application process
The UK Aid Match application process had two stages: a concept note followed by a full application.
Eligibility
Applicants had to be UK-registered, non-governmental, not-for-profit organisations, with an independent board of trustees and at least three years of published audited accounts or financial statements. Projects had to be delivered in eligible low-income or fragile countries (as defined by the Human Development Index or UK government criteria), in no more than two countries, and demonstrate a clear contribution towards the Global Goals.
Appeal
Appeals needed to raise a minimum of £100,000 from UK individuals within three-months, with support from a pro bono communications partnership delivering a minimum of 400,000 unique opportunities to view (OTVs) across multiple channels.
