The Big Give Christmas Challenge raised £2.5m in its first five minutes after launching this morning, and doubled the match fund total to £4.9m in its first hour. 

By 11am today, an hour after launching, 3,281 donations had been received via the Big Give website and the total, including matching funds and gift aid, stood £4.9m. Further match funding will be made available tomorrow and Saturday morning. The initiative aims to generate £10m in total donations. 

The match fund works by the Big Give securing major donors, ranging from Cabinet Office to the Childhood Trust, who  pledge to match online donations from the public during the period of the Big  Give Christmas Challenge. Each of the funders choose specific charities and projects they want to make their match funding pledge available to. The 387 charities participating then rally their supporters to donate once the challenge goes live, with match funding available on a first come, first served basis. 

The Big Give was founded by Sir Alec Reed in 2007 and is supported by the Reed Foundation. This is the sixth year of the Christmas Challenge and previous campaigns have raised a total of £42m.