Pledge to the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2026 by Friday 28th August — double the donations for STARS Dorset

This year, for the first time ever, STARS Dorset has applied to take part in Big Give’s Christmas Challenge to raise a total of £5,000 in order to continue our mission of supporting survivors across the county.

The Big Give Christmas Challenge is the UK’s biggest match-funded campaign, meaning everyone who donates via our Big Give page during the week of Tuesday 1st – Tuesday 8th December at 12pm (midday) will have their gift doubled thanks to Big Give’s Champion funders and STARS Dorset’s Pledgers — our supporters who promise to donate to provide a portion of the campaign’s match funding.

Pledgers are crucial to ensure we can take part in this fantastic opportunity to double the value of our supporters’ donations. Not only will your pledge enable STARS Dorset to participate in the Christmas Challenge, it will also encourage further donations from others looking to multiply their giving, and may even attract further funding from Big Give’s Champion funders, helping us to secure even more doubled donations to maximise the Christmas Challenge’s impact.

The minimum pledge amount permitted by Big Give is £100 and must be agreed to by the pledge deadline, Friday 28th August.

Pledgers will then be expected to fulfil their promise between Tuesday 8th December at 12pm — the end of the campaign week — and the deadline of Friday 15th January at 5pm; this fulfilment is conditional on us receiving the appropriate amount of online donations during the campaign, so you would only be required to pay a pro-rata amount of your pledge if we didn’t hit the target (e.g., if you pledged £200 and we only received £150 in donations, you would just be required to give £150).

In order to take part in the campaign, we need our supporters to pledge a total of £1,250 altogether to reach 25% of our overall target of £5,000. Can you pledge to double the donations of STARS’ supporters this Christmas and help us to guide survivors on their journey of recovery from trauma?

Click here to pledge to the STARS Dorset Christmas Challenge campaign on the Big Give website →

We appreciate that £100 is a significant sum of money but these pledges are crucial for the success of the campaign, which will enable us to continue providing specialist, trauma-informed support for free to nearly 3,000 adult and child survivors annually.

You can be a Pledger as an individual or on behalf of an organisation, such as a business or charitable foundation. If you would like to make a pledge but can’t meet the £100 minimum alone, why not start a collection or organise a fundraising event like a festive bake sale (or even take part in the Bournemouth Inflatable 5k?), ask your friends, family, colleagues, and/or community group, and make a collective pledge?

Please note that if you pledge to the Christmas Challenge this year, you will not be able to donate to STARS Dorset during the campaign week (1st-8th December), otherwise you will be doubling your own donation — though you are more than welcome to donate to other charities’ Big Give campaigns.

For all pledge terms and conditions, please visit the Big Give website.

All funds raised through the Christmas Challenge will go directly into our service delivery, ensuring that we can keep offering our counselling, Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA), group work, and Children and Young People (CYP) support free-of-charge to survivors of sexual violence and domestic abuse in Dorset. We are incredibly grateful for gifts and donations of all kinds and sizes as they all bring us closer to our ultimate vision of a society free from abuse.