Who are Charity Challenge?
Charity Challenge is a multi-award-winning adventure travel company, operating a wide range of physical outdoor challenges across the world since 1999!
We specialise in partnering with thousands of UK and Irish registered charities, allowing both our individual participants and corporate clients to raise money for causes close to their hearts, by committing to completing an exciting-yet-demanding outdoor challenge. Over the years, our participants have helped raise over £83,000,000 for thousands of good causes.
Read our Why Book a Challenge with Charity Challenge? blog to learn more reasons to book with us.
Choosing a Challenge
There are multiple factors that make each of our challenges – and your journey – different. From choosing the activity type, the country, the duration, challenge grading, payment options and which charity to support. You can search our website for hundreds of challenges across the world, with something to suit everyone.
To make things simple, this blog will break down the key considerations when choosing your challenge with us…
Open vs. Exclusive Charity Challenges
At Charity Challenge, we offer a range of open and exclusive challenges all year round for individuals to join – making supporting the charity you care about easy!
- Open Challenges – any available challenge date indicated with ‘Any Charity‘ underneath the date. On open challenges, you are free to choose a charity of your choice to support.
- Exclusive Challenges – any available challenge date indicated with a ‘specific named charity’ underneath the date. If you choose one of these, you can only raise money for the named charity.
Choose an Activity to Suit You
We offer a range of dynamic challenges to test your physical abilities in exhilarating ways. Top Tip: If you’re new to an activity, make sure you also consider the challenge’s difficulty grading – and read the ‘Fitness & Training’ tab under the ‘Essential Information’ section of a challenge page to familiarise yourself with it’s demands.
Activity types include: Trekking, Mountain Trekking (including some at high altitude), Biking, Paddling and Snow & Ice challenges (for example, the Dog Sledding Challenge in Sweden!). Some of our challenges combine two or more of these, such as the Lake District Triple Challenge.
Difficulty Gradings
The clues in our name – a challenges is never easy! All of our challenges require some level of training to be completed in the best and safest way. Whether you’re a seasoned cyclist or just starting out with hiking, we offer challenges that range in difficulty level. (More detailed grading information can be found in our FAQs.)
Challenging (1/3): For those with a good level of fitness and adventurous spirit! Previous experience not necessary as long as correct training is undertaking to prepare. On UK trips, terrain will physically test you but is on well-established routes. Overseas, any altitude will be compensated by easier terrain and conditions.
Tough (2/3): For those with previous experience/interest in the activity. Usually involves camping, in more remote environments with reduced facilities. Training is always essential as terrains will be more hilly. On UK challenges, expect 10+ hours of exertion daily.
Extreme (3/3): For those with previous mountain experience looking to test themselves to the next level. Extreme challenges will typically involve altitude, and a great deal of endurance. These trips are not to be taken lightly, and will take place in extreme environments, without home comforts. Thorough training is a must!
When you book with us, you’ll gain access to a wealth of tailored training and advice resources through your Participant Account Area. From Snowdon to Kilimanjaro, every summit counts – and we’re here to support you every step of the way!
When and Where To Do Your Challenge
Destinations – We run challenges in some of the most breath-taking and inspiring destinations, both in the UK and overseas. Overseas challenges include short and long-haul locations. From trekking the volcanic scenes of Iceland, to journeying through tropical Sumatran jungles or white-water-rafting the rapids of Costa Rica – which adventure will you choose?
Durations – Our challenges also vary widely in duration to suit various needs. We offer many one-day UK challenges, perfect for fitting into your busy schedules – and our overseas challenges can be up to 14 days, if you’re after an even more memorable challenge of a lifetime!
Dates – On our Choose Your Challenge page, when you select a challenge, you will then see all available open and exclusive dates that you can book. Top Tip: When deciding a date, always read the itinerary details to check if you might need to accommodate for extra travel or stop-over time before or after your challenge.
Selecting a Payment Option and a Charity to Support
We understand that helping the causes closest to your heart is the most important part of your challenge journey. Our various payment options and charity partnerships help make this part of your journey as smooth as possible!
Payment Options – We offer Self-Funding, Minimum Sponsorship and Flexi payment options. Put simply, to cover the challenge costs; you can either choose to pay for your place yourself (Self-Funding), or raise an agreed amount of fundraising for your charity by a set date (Minimum Sponsorship) – or do a mixture of both (Flexi). Top Tip: read the ‘Costs’ tab to see a specific breakdown of payment options, costs and deadlines for any specific challenge you’re interested in.
Read the ‘Finance’ section of our FAQs – or watch our video – for a full explanation of payment options.
Charities – On open challenges, you are free to choose any UK or Irish registered charity of your choice. The good news is, we are already partnered with thousands to choose from – and if you can’t see your preference on our site, we get in touch with them after you book to let them know you wish to fundraise for them. Once your chosen charity as authorised you as a supporter, you’re then free to start fundraising!
So, now you know the key things to consider when deciding which challenge is right for you. We strongly advise you always read through the challenge specific itinerary and Q&As thoroughly to ensure you fully appreciate what is involved in the challenge.
If you have any further questions about a challenge that you can’t find on our website, please get in touch at info@charitychallenge.com or call +44 (0)20 8346 0500.
Your Charity Challenge adventure is just a few clicks away!
1 Comment
Choosing the right charity is just as important as the challenge itself. I love that there’s a clear distinction between open and exclusive challenges, so you can really focus your fundraising efforts where your heart lies.