One donation, twice the impact

children picking up logs in woodland setting

children exploring soil on farm discovery visit

children picking fresh carrots from the soil

20 November 2023

The Big Give Christmas Challenge is the UK’s biggest match-funded campaign. For seven days, the challenge offers supporters of participating charities the opportunity to double their donations.

It’s a simple idea - when the public donates to a charity through a Big Give campaign, a generous philanthropic funder matches that donation. So, a £50 donation to us during the Christmas Challenge week, becomes £100.

This campaign, The Country Trust aims to raise £10,000 in seven days and thanks to the Dulverton Trust for their pledge to provide match funding, each donation will have twice the impact.

A gift of £400 will enable a whole class of children to access a farm visit.
A gift of £1000 will provide a residential visit for up to 30 children.
A gift of £2000, a year-long Food Discovery programme can give a class of children the opportunity to cook, grow and develop enterprise skills.

Money raised will support our four key programmes: Farm Discovery Day Visits, Countryside Discovery Residentials, Food Discovery programmes teaching children to grow, cook and explore food, and Farm in a Box, bringing the farm to the classroom.

Sue Thompson, Fundraising Manager at The Country Trust said:

“As a nation we’ve lost connection with the land that sustains us. The problem is most of us don’t realise it, and yet, this disconnect has big, urgent ramifications for health, sustainability and equality. Through our work we’re changing this by providing tens of thousands of disadvantaged children each year the opportunity to build that vital and life-long connection. Latest figures show that 4.2 million children in the UK are now living in poverty, that is one in three children – these children are most likely to be affected by the issues our work seeks to solve, like poor diet, physical and mental health issues, pollution and lack of access to the outdoors. The need for our work is growing and urgent. We’re incredibly grateful for every donation received.”.