Over the last 25 years, Charity Challenge have worked with hundreds of businesses to provide innovative and dynamic solutions for employee engagement, and corporate social responsibility. Our exclusive corporate challenges help companies develop stronger team bonds, demonstrate corporate responsibility and have amazing experiences, all whilst supporting their charity partnerships.
We spoke to Dave Richards (Head of Corporate Social Responsibility & Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Capital One) about how their exclusive Lake District Triple Challenge went…
Please introduce yourself…
I’m Dave Richards, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility & Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Capital One and in July 2024, 41 of our employees took on the Lake District Triple Challenge, raising over £28,300 for BRACE Dementia Research charity.
Why did you choose Charity Challenge to run your challenge?
We’ve been working with Charity Challenge since 2017 to help us run our annual fundraising outdoors events. We return year after year due to the level of service we receive and the positive experience our challenge participants consistently have. The level of detail in the operations planning and the execution of the challenge itself is another factor. There’s also a real alignment in values between us as a business and Charity Challenge as an organisation.
What were you hoping to achieve?
For this year’s challenge, we wanted something new and fresh to the engage staff within our business that possibly haven’t signed up to one of our annual events before. I really liked the variety of activity within the Lake District Triple challenge and that it was still contained within one challenge day. It felt inclusive and accessible, whilst still being a challenge that would push people. Also, it wasn’t a challenge that required months of training, and it felt like it was something you could visualise yourself completing.
How did it go?
Overall, it was one of the most successful challenges we’ve run in terms of the positive sentiment toward the challenge once completed. Every participant had completed the elements they had committed to doing – which was a first! Naturally, with challenge events there can be dropouts during a challenge, so to have a 100% completion rate was a real success. Including Gift Aid, together we raised just over £28,300 for Brace Dementia Research charity. This was the first year of our three-year partnership with them and to kick start our fundraising partnership with them so successfully felt great.
What were your highlights?
It felt like every single element of the challenge all went in our favour. The things we were in control of, such as preparing the team, organising the logistics and communicating any information all went seamlessly. Then, even the things you can’t control, such as the weather conditions and how participants will feel during their physically tiring challenge went well – the weather was perfect, and everyone remained upbeat and positive the whole day! I have run enough challenges to know that participants can have moments of real struggle or losing motivation – but that didn’t happen on this event. Everyone remained super upbeat through to the end!
The participants loved the multi-activity aspect of the challenge (kayaking, biking and trekking) and the accessibility and inclusivity of it. They were deeply impressed by how well organised and smoothly it ran.
What did Charity Challenge do well?
Pre-challenge: All of the logistical elements, from agreeing on a challenge to working on the contract all happens in the simplest and most seamless way possible. Once you’re into the planning stage, we communicated and worked with Charity Challenge on things like registering our participants, preparing them for the event, dealing with team changes. Charity Challenge are always really quick with responses, and nothing seems too much trouble.
What really impressed me was Simon (Charity Challenge Founder and Director) and Tilly (Account Manager) delivering a presentation to the group about how the event would run, giving a full overview and understanding, as well as answering any questions. Everything they do to set you up for success is worth its weight in gold.
During the challenge: The Charity Challenge leaders are, again, worth their weight in gold! They know how to reassure participants who are new to challenge experiences, and they have lots of patience and support to offer the groups, regardless of your ability. The leaders almost become like your best friend in the way that they can really quickly connect with you, pick you up when you’re feeling low, whilst making sure the event runs safely and accessibly. The leaders are what makes the challenge!
Post-challenge: Having the opportunity to have a debrief and give feedback that was responded to in a positive way was a great way to wrap up the event and bring closure in a corporate and teamwork respective.
Testimonial
I will always recommend the great service that Charity Challenge offer to corporates!
Dave Richards, Head of Corporate Social Responsibly & Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Capital One
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If you’re interested in engaging your employees with a challenge event – book your free initial consultation now!
During our consultation, we will discuss your business needs, goals and values, provide you with options aligned to your objectives, and then of course, answer any questions that you might have. We’ll also discuss what support we offer and how we will work together throughout your challenge journey. You can expect this call to last about 30 minutes.
We look forward to speaking with you soon!
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