Reed Foundation Wins Third Sector Excellence Award

Reed Foundation, the charitable arm of Reed Recruitment Group, has won this year's Third Sector Excellence Award for Innovation. The award is in recognition of its 2008 matched funding challenge, which raised 2 million for more than 200 charities in just 45 minutes.

The 2008 challenge was the first ever online matched fund of its kind, explained Alec Reed, philanthropist and founder of Reed. Individual donors gave an average of 1,400, which was then doubled by the Reed Foundation on theBigGive.org.uk

The Big Give, which is funded by the Reed Foundation, was launched in October 2007 by Alec Reed to help high-wealth donors find projects of interest. This December, Reed Foundation are launching an even bigger matched funding challenge to raise an estimated 9million.