Alex Day

Spear’s Review

Big Give was launched by Sir Alec Reed as an online portal to help philanthropists discover charities and promote intelligent giving. Fast forward to 2025, and the Big Give has raised more than £350 million for over 17,500 charity projects since 2008.

Managing director Alex Day attributes Big Give’s success to its match-funding model, which allows donors, trusts and foundations to match donations made by the public.

He reports that funders appreciate Big Give’s ability to multiply impact, as well as the fact that the firm carries out due diligence on the causes it supports. It’s also about the opportunity to be part of something bigger. ‘Big Give is a great example of the sum being greater than the individual parts,’ enthuses Day. ‘Everything we do is about bringing charities, philanthropists [and] the public together at a moment in time.

‘It means that, collectively, we create a lot more impact and a lot more value for everyone.’

Adviser Profile

Alex is Managing Director of Big Give, the digital match funding platform which has raised over £350 million for thousands of not-for-profits since being founded in 2008. Alex manages the relationships with Big Give’s match funding ‘Champion’ partners such as Trusts & Foundations, Companies, (U)HNWs and Public Funders. These have included Julia Rausing Trust, The Reed Foundation, The Childhood Trust, DCMS and Garfield Weston Foundation, amongst many others. 

He specialises in supporting philanthropists and funders to maximise their impact through Big Give’s innovative match funding model. ‘Our Champions love partnering with us as we leverage their funding, sometimes more than five times,’ says Alex. ‘We also do all the heavy lifting on the charity due diligence, so we’re a highly impactful vehicle for philanthropists and funders to utilise.’ 

During his tenure, he has led many high-profile match funding campaigns, including trebling the size of its flagship ‘Christmas Challenge’, which raised over £44 million in 2024, and launching a matched appeal for Ukraine, which raised £3.8 million. 

Alex has grown the footprint of Big Give, which now runs many campaigns throughout the year to support best-in-class charities in specific thematic areas, including the environment, women and girls, arts for impact, the cost of living crisis and humanitarian crises, amongst others.

‘Our success really derives from bringing people together. Our Champions, the charities and the public are united through our technology. It’s a true case of the sum being greater than its parts,’ says Alex. 

He has spent most of his career in the not-for-profit sector, holds a BA Hons in Business and Geography from Exeter and an MA in Charity Management from St Mary’s and is Vice-Chair of an international development charity.