Big Give Pledge Information for Churches

Nearly 1 in 5 children in England have an additional need that impacts their daily lives – including neurodivergence (e.g. autism, ADHD), disabilities, and mental health conditions. As NHS therapeutic provision is limited across the country, there’s a risk that children aren’t getting timely support to reach their potential, leaving families to feel isolated.

It’s likely there is at least one child in your congregation who has an additional need, or whose family is considering visiting your church in the future. Children with additional needs can find church services challenging as they might experience it as a series of overwhelming barriers, including sensory issues around loud music and the social expectation of sitting still.

Since 2017, Growing Hope has been helping churches and communities better welcome and support children and young people with additional needs, and their families. We do this mainly by:

• Setting up free therapy clinics for children and young people with additional needs, like Aaron, in partnership with local churches. All our therapists are Christians and offer optional prayer at the end of every therapy session. So far in 2026, 90% of families who attended our clinics accepted our offer, saying it brought a great sense of comfort during difficult circumstances. They also give families invitations to church where appropriate.
• Guiding churches on how to be more accessible – we have a practical plan in place to support 800 churches over the next three years, to know how to effectively cater for the needs of people with additional needs in their congregation.

The Big Give is an online platform that enables charities to run match-funded campaigns free of charge. This is more effective than Growing Hope running its own Christmas appeal as the Big Give can offer our supporters the opportunity to see their donations ‘doubled’ during early December. Research shows that supporters are more likely to be generous when they know their donation will be matched by another source.

The Big Give explains how match-funding works in the following video.

Pledges that are collected from individual donors or organisations will provide half of the match-funding pot we’ll have available. This will make it possible for us to be able to offer our supporters the opportunity for their donation during the campaign week to be doubled.

We do not require an immediate payment, as the Big Give will collate payments once the campaign has finished.

The minimum pledge amount allowed by Big Give is £100. If your church wants to pledge to our Big Give campaign but you can’t afford this amount, please consider donating to our campaign in December instead.

If Growing Hope doesn’t meet its campaign week target the Big Give will calculate how much your church would need to pay based on how much is raised. For example, if Growing Hope aims to raise £10k during the week, but in reality only raises £7.5k, your church would only be expected to pay 75% of the original pledge amount.

The deadline to make a pledge is Friday 28^th August 2026, though we would be so grateful if you could contact us before the deadline to ensure we reach our overall pledges target.

To register your pledge you can simply click here, and you will be directed to the Big Give Website.

In the meantime, if you have further questions please contact our Fundraising Manager, Becki Hurdle, via becki.hurdle@growinghope.org.uk.