Staff, students, alumni, and supporters have donated more than £116,000 towards scholarships and work placements as part of this year's Big Give Christmas Challenge.

The Big Give Christmas Challenge is the UK’s biggest online matched funding campaign which helps charities raise funds for their cause. The campaign is run by The Big Give, which was founded by Royal Holloway Honorary Fellow, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Sir Alec Reed in 2007.

Between 28 November and 5 December, the campaign raised over £100,000, the first £50,000 of which was matched by our philanthropic champions. In addition, hundreds of students and staff on campus supported the campaign via awareness raising activities.

Over the week a number of fundraising events took place across campus, including the Launch Festival with performances by students groups, festive activities and photo opportunities with the university mascot, Colossus. The festivities continued throughout the week at the College's annual Festive Market and Christmas-themed film screenings organised by the Film Society.

All the donations from the Big Give Christmas Challenge will be used for supporting students through scholarships and employability initiatives, such as work placements and internships.

This is the second year that Royal Holloway has taken part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge. During the Big Give 2016, Royal Holloway raised over £90,000 to support scholarships and work placements in 72 hours.

Since the Big Give launched the campaign in 2008, it has raised over £71 million for more than 2,500 charity projects.

To learn more about this year's Big Give Christmas Challenge at Royal Holloway, listen to this podcast from Insanity Radio, Egham's community radio station based at Royal Holloway.

Learn more about the scholarships and work placements offered by Royal Holloway and find out more about how to donate on our giving pages.