Donations doubled in The Big Give Christmas Challenge

For one week in December 2025, our Big Give Christmas Challenge doubled donations towards The Future of Folk – funding bursaries and other support of the National Youth Folk Ensemble and London Youth Folk Ensemble.  

We’re committed to making sure that talented, aspirational and creative performers are able to join these Ensembles, whatever their financial circumstances.

This year’s Christmas Big Give campaign reached target a few hours before the deadline. It raised slightly over £14,000, including Gift Aid 

We are grateful to our generous pledgers, along with the Reed Foundation as Big Give champion funder, who have donated the match funding which meant that donations have twice the impact.

Outside of The Big Give we are always delighted to accept donations, of course, which can if you choose be allocated to specific areas – including to youth activities. 

Regular donations of any size are particularly valuable, as they help us to plan longer-term at a time when funding from government and from trusts and foundations is increasingly being squeezed for cultural and heritage charities.

 
Our 2024 Christmas Big Give campaign raised essential funds for archiving and cataloging of important collections which had generously been donated to our Library. Donors to our 2023 Christmas Big Give supported our Folk Rising programme, which seeks to re-define English folk music and dance for the 21st century by supporting a greater diversity of artists to explore and work with folk. Please help us make this year’s Big Give Christmas Challenge even more successful!