testimonials
Please read below to see what a few of our charity partners have to say about us:
Lydia Rose Bright, Start of The Only Way is Essex
“What an experience! It was truly magical and unforgettable, from beginning to end. Cycling gave us the chance to see the real India: the more we saw it, the more we wanted to see.”
Lydia Bright, Star of The Only Way is Essex - The Rajasthan Tiger Challenge
Laura Felstead, Participent
"The Charity Challenge experience is flawless from start to finish. The team and leaders became like family, and you can have the time of your life while raising thousands of pounds for charity."
Laura Felstead, Great Wall Discovery
Lisa Jackson, Chief Executive, The Body Shop Foundation
“When it came to choosing the right challenge organisation to work with, it was VITAL for The Body Shop Foundation to find a highly professional, experienced group to work with. Challenge Charity is exactly that.
From the minute we started; the advice, help and support given at every step has 
been exceptional. And its the little things that count – the level of attention with the website for members, the updates and emails from group leaders and doctors to reassure our trekkers. All these small but vital drops of encouragement, helped, aided and reassured all those fundraising like mad to complete the trek, all for WaterAid.
Special praise must be given to the team on the trek itself who went out of their way to make the trek as smooth as possible so our trekkers could focus on the challenge itself. We simply can’t thank everyone at Charity Challenge enough for their part in making our event such a success. We simply can not wait for the next one; here's to the next incredible adventure for The Body Shop Foundation and Charity Challenge!"
Lisa Jackson,Chief Executive, The Body Shop Foundation
Lindsay Seeger, Community Engagement Specialist
Working with Charity Challenge in Canada has been great. The workshop about using their back-end system made everything so much easier and we were able to get our page ready to go live quickly. The resources available, the website and the support from the charity challenge team has been fantastic and they have helped every step of the way in this process.
Lindsay Seeger, Community Engagement Specialist at UNICEF Canada
Ali Hutchison - Kilimanjaro
"I cannot thank you or your company enough my Kilimanjaro Trek was unbelievably amazing (whilst also being horrific at the same time if you are talking specifically about summit night). I signed up for Kili with you guys about 18 months ago because I needed to get out of a very dark place in my life. At the time I held the trek as a stepping stone to being able to achieve something by myself, I believed then that if I could climb the mountain I could cope with anything, and it really was about the climb, but the truth is the entire experience has given me 100 times more than I ever expected." Click here to read the full testimonial.
Ali Hutchison - Kilimanjaro Summit Climb
Matt Holdsworth, Everest Base Camp Challenger
"If you ever dreamt of what it might be like to walk amongst the world’s tallest mountains, make it reality and book the Everest Trek through Charity Challenge"
Matt Holdsworth, Everest Base Camp
Simone Rogers
Thank you Charity Challenge for everything, from pre trip to looking after us whilst we were there. I had such a brilliant and life changing time. I can honestly say that this experience has changed me for the better. I am so much more positive and I believe in myself!I am recommending Charity Challenge to everyone and I will be taking part in a challenge in the near future!
Simone Rogers, Great Wall Discovery
Jennifer Chow, Community Events Coordinator
I think once we get this program up and running off it’s feet, our partnership with Charity Challenge will be truly valuable. Because of this partnership, Second Harvest will be able to offer experiences of a lifetime all in support of our organization. Since this is a new concept in our community, I believe the response will be well received.
The support you receive from the organizers at Charity Challenge is outstanding. Simon and his team are quick to respond and always willing to go the extra mile to help your charity. They are interested in knowing more about you so that they are able to accommodate your needs and guide you every step of the way. Having this support truly gives the charity a better direction on how to work with your donors and promote this fabulous opportunity.
Attending the seminars are very valuable as Simon and his team are very thorough and explain all the finer details that your charity needs to know. Since Charity Challenge offers you so much guidance, support and materials that you can use at your disposal, it is very beneficial that your charity knows how to work through the website and understand the concept of it all from start to finish. The team will also walk you through important questions regarding tax receipting, laws, contracts, etc. that are vital to know.
Jennifer Chow, Community Events Coordinator at Second Harvest Canada
Breast Cancer Care, Fundraising Team
“Charity Challenge organised a fantastic bespoke trek for us to Peru. Their attention to detail, professionalism and willingness to go the extra mile really sets them apart from their competitors. No stone is left unturned in the planning and their team on the ground in Peru were just as brilliant. We would recommend them to anyone considering taking part in a trek.”
Dr Hilary Jones
“I recently 
travelled to Haiti with a GMTV camera crew, six months after the earthquake that devastated the island. It was clear from the minute we landed in Port au Prince that the conditions in country were still incredibly tough going, but Charity Challenge handled the logistics with professionalism, flexibility and a great deal of enthusiasm. Our plans changed daily but Charity Challenge and their team on the ground managed our needs and requirements with good humour and attention to detail. It was clear that a lot of hard work had gone into the preparation of the challenge, which went a long way towards ensuring the trip was a big success.”
Dr Hilary Jones, Haiti Community Challenge
Comic Relief
Amount Raised on Charity Challenge Expeditions for Comic Relief: £3,326,142!
"We have worked very closely with Charity Challenge over the past year to organise the BT Red Nose Climb for Red Nose Day 2009 and have valued their expertise and experience in organising events of this kind to ensure its smooth and successful operation. They managed the incredibly complex logistics and their itinerary enabled plenty of acclimatisation resulting in 100% of the group reaching the summit. This has become one of the UK's most successful fundraising ventures, and we recognise Charity Challenge's part in helping make this such a success."
Barnardo's, Kirsty Low, Challenge Events Coordinator, Barnardo's
“The tools available for charities on the charity challenge website are fantastic. Not only can you send out a response to an enquiry in seconds, that response email links directly to everything a future participant would want to know about the challenge. The marketing tools are a great resource; being able to produce charity branded brochure in minutes, analyse all of your previous participants in a click, and the constant offer of experience and help on offer.”
Breast Cancer Campaign, Fundraising Manager
Amount Raised on Charity Challenge Expeditions for Breast Cancer Campaign: £81,000
Case Study: In 2005 Breast Cancer Campaign launched an exclusive overseas challenge programme in conjunction with Charity Challenge. In October 2006 Breast Cancer Awareness Month was celebrated with over 25 trekkers taking on the Inca Trail challenge.
Breast Cancer Campaign continues to promote the wide variety of open treks which Charity Challenge has to offer. This gives all our supporters a great choice of destinations, challenge types and experiences. The working relationship we have enables us to concentrate on supporting our fundraisers to raise above and beyond their minimum sponsorship, as we can rely on Charity Challenge to look after the logistics of the trip and always be available to answer any queries we may have.
Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Events Executive
Amount Raised on Charity Challenge Expeditions for Breakthrough: Over £750,000
Case Study: Breakthrough Breast Cancer is the UK's leading charity committed to fighting breast cancer on three fronts; research, campaigning and education. Sadly one in nine women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point of their lives, with over 46,000 women diagnosed each year. These women are our mothers, daughters, friends and loved ones. By taking on one of these treks or challenges you will be helping raise vital funds so that we can continue to work towards our goal of a future free from the fear of breast cancer. Breakthrough's trekking team are on hand to support you every step of the way. We can help with fundraising ideas and guidance, provide free fundraising materials and much more! We help to make reaching your fundraising target as easy and enjoyable as possible.
Katie Arkle, Events Executive
ActionAid, Supporter Events Manager
Case Study: "We have enjoyed working with Charity Challenge since we launched overseas challenges to our supporters in 2001. Since then we have raised over £2 million in sposnorship for ActionAid's work through overseas challenges.
Charity Challenge worked closely with us to develop a bespoke overseas challenge portfolio tailored to our unique charity brand and experience. Together we have developed and continue to offer inclusive, engaging and life-changing experiences for the benefit of our supporters and the people we work with all over the world.
We would recommend Charity Challenge to any charity looking to work with a tour operator offering a professional service, years of experience, and good quality tour arrangements using experienced ground staff."
Maria Georgiou, Supporter Events Manager
NSPCC
Case Study: We are constantly approached by tour operators eager for our business but no one matches Charity Challenge for their ethical approach and charitable ethos. They strike a harmonious balance between running a successful, thriving business and providing charities of all sizes with opportunities to raise much needed funds. The fact that they donate $20 (US) per participant to a local community project in the challenge area is the icing on the cake.
The staff are always available, friendly and knowledgeable whether they are based in the London office or in situ on a trek. We’ve had people trek with other tour operators but they say Charity Challenge got them nearer to experiencing life in distant communities. I have no doubt that these are the attributes that bring in repeat business both for them and us.
Action for Children, Mass Participation Events Manager
"Charity Challenge expeditions provide us with a very successful and attractive fundraising tool to offer our supporters. They're a fantastic company to work with, nothing is too much trouble for them and they've given us some fantastic marketing ideas. Over the last 5 years we have raised thousands of pounds through our supporters' participation on open Charity Challenge expeditions, including treks to Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China and the Kilimanjaro challenge."
Jenna Watkins, Mass Participation Events Manager
CLIC - Cancer & Leukaemia In Children, Beverley Mackenzie, Challenge Events Manager, CLIC Sargent,
“CLIC Sargent has worked with Charity Challenge for many years to organise and run both exclusive and open challenge events for our corporate teams, major donor teams, committees, community and regional fundraisers.
We have worked with Charity Challenge in the past and will continue to work with them in the future, because the service we receive from them is very professional and of a continuously high standard. They are always improving their level of service with new administrative developments, making our life and our challengers’ lives much much easier. The feedback from our challengers is consistently positive and we have a large amount of repeat business, specifically within our corporate, major donor and community teams.
Charity Challenge offer professional booking facilities, a unique members area with tons of information and support materials and we genuinely know that our clients will have their tour operation enquiries dealt with in an efficient manner. If ever we have cause to enquire about an issue or matter raised by a client, it is always dealt with efficiently and professionally and to ours and our challengers’ satisfaction. I’m confident that my challengers are in safe, experienced hands during an event with Charity Challenge and should anything go wrong or someone need medical treatment, I trust the Charity Challenge team 100% to give the best standard of care and support.
Charity Challenge understand the constraints we work within (fundraising ratios / budgets / red tape etc) and are constantly working with us to improve the way in which we operate, to help reduce costs and streamline wherever possible.
As a close partner of Charity Challenge, they also help bring speculative business to us, including recently for example a group of 100 professional women wanting to do a Sahara Desert Trek. Through their introduction, the group are now supporting CLIC Sargent and bringing awareness of how we support children and young people with cancer to a new audience within the UK.
When one of our regional fundraisers has some interest in a specific destination or type of event, Charity Challenge will speak directly to our staff and if needs be the supporters themselves, to help transform the interest into bookings. Recently, it took just a matter of days to get a group from Scotland who were interested in climbing Kilimanjaro to being able to book online through Charity Challenge on an exclusive CLIC Sargent group fully branded and marketed for this individual group’s very specific and personal needs.
They have worked with our major donors, corporate clients, and community fundraisers and we are confident that they will be handled with the same attention to detail as if we were to be dealing with them ourselves.”
Diabetes UK, Events Manager
Case Study: We have worked with Charity Challenge for 10 years and have been very happy with the service we have received. More than that though we always receive excellent feedback from our supporters and this is the most important thing. Each year we aim to run a couple of exclusive challenges and the organisation of these is always excellent. In addition to this we also have a number of supporters who choose to join open challenges and it is great to have this flexibility.
One of the things we find most invaluable about Charity Challenge is the excellent support you receive from the staff. This is in addition to the fantastic website which includes an excellent range of marketing materials that make life a lot easier when it comes to promoting challenges to our supporters.
Diabetes UK really encourages a healthy and active lifestyle and this ties in very well with the events that Charity Challenge run. The range of challenges is great and it means that we can reach a wide audience because there is something to suit everyone.
Hannah Mullervy, Events Manager
Meningitis Research Foundation
"Charity Challenges are an increasingly popular way of raising vital funds for Meningitis Research Foundation. We have found that working with Charity Challenge has given us the professional support and enthusiasm we needed to launch and develop our programme and offer our members and supporters exciting adventures. In the words of one of our members 'I didn't want the adventure to end’."
Sarah Campbell - Community Fundraising Officer
Corporate and Pax Testimonials
Click here for participant testimonials
Click here for corporate testimonials
