why work with Charity Challenge?

Charity Challenge is the UK’s leading charity adventure tour operator. However if you need further encouragement as to why you should work with us, please read on.

the team

Charity Challenge is managed by a team of dedicated and experienced people who have been participants, fundraisers, tour leaders, charity executives and tour operators. Even our shareholders have participated in numerous challenges before becoming involved in the business. We have all raised funds, got fit, and spent nights in a cold tent with aching muscles wandering just what we were doing. Throughout the business, there is a genuine understanding of what participants are putting themselves through and a real enthusiasm to help them get the best out of their experience. For more information on the team, click here.

in the beginning…

When we set up the company just over a decade ago, we started by consulting the Charities Commission, the Institute of Charity Fundraising Managers (as it was then), the Civil Aviation Authority, the Centre for Environmentally Responsible Tourism, and many other industry bodies to determine how these challenges should be ethically operated. The market may have changed with different destinations, itineraries and even payment options coming in and out of fashion, but throughout, our commitment to operating the challenges to the highest possible standards, remains at our core. Designing, organising and running overseas fundraising challenges is all we do, and we have become the specialists in our field.

continuous improvement

We have made great efforts over the past 24months to develop and improve the challenges that we operate both on the ground in country and behind the scenes.  We have and are continuing to improve the administration and range of services for our clients.  Here are some of the things that we feel make us special in this competitive market place:

widest range of open challenges

We have the widest range of open challenges in the market place. In fact we have more open challenges than the rest of the entire market put together! We go to 26 different countries and have over 130 open challenge dates listed on our website. This means that your supporters have the widest range of challenges to choose from. People are used to and have come to expect choice and flexibility, especially when it comes to travel, and there is no reason why overseas challenges should be any different. For more information, please click here.

market leading administration

We carry out all of the administration for the challenges so that the charity doesn’t have to. From the moment a participant makes a booking through to returning to Heathrow after their challenge, we provide full administrative support. We have a unique database which allows all of the administration to take place over the internet. This has the benefit of speeding everything up, making sure that information is totally up to date the minute it is accessed, and reducing the usage of paper which helps us to reduce the carbon footprint of our UK operations.

members area

There is now an online charities’ section and a members’ area for challenge participants, where either charities or participants can find absolutely everything they need to recruit supporters and manage the process (from the charity’s point of view) or prepare for the challenge ahead including fitness training and fundraising (from the participant’s point of view).

payment options

The flexibility we offer extends to the ways a participant can fund the challenge – i.e. the payment options. Participants can either fund the challenges themselves and 100% of fundraising is retained by the charity or they can commit to raising a minimum sponsorship (typically £2600) of which a percentage pays for the balance of costs. We even recently launched a third payment option, the Flexi payment option, which is half way between and allows people to commit more towards challenge costs and therefore lowers the minimum sponsorship required. We believe this will allow more people to commit during these economically difficult times to taken on a fundraising challenge. For more information, please click here.

marketing tools

The marketing section of our website includes a whole range of free, easy to use, charity branded marketing tools. The tools ensure that your supporters receive the most up to date information, with your charity branding. The idea behind the whole section is to make your life a lot easier by providing marketing tools which will help you recruit a lot more fundraisers for your cause. The tools include posters, e-newsletters, e-brochures and an image library. For more information, please click here.

responsible tourism

The respect we have for the communities and peoples with whom we interact on our challenges began ten years ago when we were founded. It is at the very centre of everything that we do. Responsible Tourism is becoming a buzz word in the industry and tour operators are being forced to change their ways through pressure and a greater awareness of developing country issues. This is of course a good thing, but we have always been, and will continue to be leaders in the field of responsible tourism. As most of the millions of pounds raised for charity through these challenges ends up back in the UK, we believe that everyone involved should do their utmost to ensure all parties, including the local communities, environments, and economies benefits as much as possible. For more information, please click here.

carbon offseting

We offset the equivalent carbon emissions generated through the flights undertaken to reach the challenge destination, for every client, staff member and charity rep who travels through the company. This is major step in the right direction as far as managing the impacts of our business. Travel and tourism accounts for 10% of employment throughout the world, and tourism is essential in developing countries. In 50% of the developing world, tourism is one of the top 3 exports. Stopping flying is not really a viable option, so we will do all we can to minimise or neutralise its impact.

small groups

Our groups are amongst the smallest in the sector. Smaller groups usually facilitate stronger group dynamics and make less environmental impact. A large group also can be a drain on local resources, especially in remote parts of Africa, for example, where water shortages are frequent. A large group also demands a sizeable support team of cooks, porters, drivers and camp crew, which can make up a third if not half of the total expedition size. The support team’s needs must be taken into consideration as they too must eat, wash, and have a place to sleep, thus place further demands on local resources. A group of 30+ participants have much less likelihood of experiencing the real destination. Participants usually want to experience the destination country as much as possible, but if surrounded by dozens of other British people and accompanied by an army of support crew, it is highly unlikely that the participant will ever get to meet anyone apart from those with whom they are travelling. A small group has the opportunity to be flexible and versatile, allowing participants to visit local market places not overpriced tourist sites; eat in local eateries not international chain restaurants; and on occasion sleep in the heart of communities, whether it is the church hall, or the village camp site, instead of chain owned faceless hotels.