Our Big Give Christmas Challenge is back! We’re raising vital funds for Fine Cell Work’s rehabilitation programmes in prison.

As a charity and social enterprise, we are unique in that our programmes result in beautiful high quality handmade products for sale. Sales of products provide 25% of the funds we need to deliver our programmes. We rely on donations from individuals and grant making organisations to provide the remaining 75% needed.

Your support is critical for rehabilitation, lowering recidivism rates, enhancing prisoner well-being, and creating a safer environment both within and outside prison.

Your impact will be doubled at no extra cost to you.*

We have a matched funding pot of £35,000 thanks to pledges made by our de Laszlo Foundation and the Monday Charitable Trust making our campaign target an amazing £70,000!

We need your support to continue our work with people in prison – never more so than now, when prisons are in crisis.

*Donations will be doubled until we reach our campaign target of £35,000.

Why the Big Give Christmas Challenge is important for us

“I know that for many that this (making that first stitch) is the first step to learn that they can do something of value … to show that there is life beyond crime.” - a FCW stitcher

The purpose of prison is to safeguard the public and lower recidivism. Public safety depends on reducing crime, yet punishment is insufficient to achieve this goal. The fact that 78% of people cautioned or found guilty of a crime in 2024 had a prior criminal record makes this failure clear.

Access to purposeful activities, such as education and skills training, has proven to be vital to prisoners’ personal development and reducing reoffending. However, the lamentable lack of purposeful activity in prison has resulted in increasing demand for our programmes from prisons. Prisoners are becoming increasingly isolated in their cells with little to do due to overcrowding and staff shortages.

Our evidenced-based solution of meaningful employment, therapeutic craft, and development of emotional and financial resilience has never been more crucial.

We are the only charity in the UK providing regular, meaningful, paid activity for prisoners to do in their cells.

“The charity Fine Cell Work … teaches prisoners … to do tapestry in their cells. They learn to make cushion covers and quilts for sale to high-end shops, while increasing their earnings, which they then receive on leaving prison.

A night in a cell costs as much as one in an average London hotel so there is a clear economic case, let alone a philanthropic one, for helping inmates learn new skills so they can stay out of prison. “ - Prue Leith in the Spectator, 2025.

You can watch official campaign video here which features Prue Leith, Gary Lineker and Imelda Staunton

What is the Big Give Christmas Challenge?

In 2007, the founder, Sir Alec Reed, had a big, pioneering idea: that whatever cause you support, your donation is doubled if you give through Big Give, enabling thousands of charities to make an even bigger difference. It’s an idea that has already raised over £365m for thousands of charities.

Campaign rules & pledge reminders

• Only donations via BigGive.org will be doubled: They can only match fund donations made through our Christmas Challenge campaign page on the Big Give website using a valid debit or credit card from midday Tuesday 2nd December to midday Tuesday 9th December.
• They can only accept donations via debit card, credit card or Apple or Google Pay, BACS, and Pay by Bank: They cannot match fund donations on other websites or donations made offline, eg. cheques, CAF payments, etc.

• For donations of £500 or more, donors can also choose to use the BACS donation option (please ask donors to set this up as soon as possible if they want to use it as BACS transfers can sometimes take a few days to reach us. We will not match any BACS transfers that reach us after the end of the campaign) - or they can still use a card to make a donation.

• Donations are first doubled by Pledge funds: We have £20,000 pledged by the de Laszlo Foundation. Once these have been exhausted, donations are doubled by £15,000 Champion funds from the Reed Foundation assigned to our campaign until these have been used up or the Christmas Challenge ends.

• Match funds for donations are reserved for 25 minutes: Donors must complete their donation within this time for their donation to be matched. If this time expires, a pop-up will appear notifying the donor and letting them know they can continue with an unmatched donation or start again to make a matched donation (we cannot guarantee there will be match funds available if they start again). Please don’t leave it to the very last minute for them to make a donation; allow a couple of hours of buffer time in case they experience any issues when trying to make a donation.

• The minimum donation amount is £1, and the maximum size of an individual donation is £25,000 by card, £10,000 by Pay by Bank, £50,000 by Donation Funds (BACS) .