How To Create A Workplace Challenge For Charity

A workplace challenge can turn your charity fundraising into something your colleagues can actively take part in rather than simply support with a donation. Instead of asking people to sponsor your running challenge from the sidelines, you can give them a challenge of their own and use it to raise additional money for your charity.

It could be a walking or running challenge, a collective distance target, a competition between departments or something completely unrelated to exercise. The best workplace challenges are simple enough for plenty of people to join, easy to follow and designed around the people you actually work with.

Decide What Your Workplace Challenge For Charity Will Be

Start with something that suits your colleagues and your workplace. A step or distance challenge is an obvious option because people can participate wherever they are, but there are plenty of other possibilities if an active challenge is unlikely to appeal to your team.

You could challenge colleagues to collectively walk or run a particular distance, see which department can record the most steps or create teams that compete against each other over a week or a month. Another option is to choose a target connected with your own running event, such as challenging the workplace to collectively cover the distance of your marathon several times over.

Keep the idea straightforward. If you need several paragraphs to explain how somebody participates or how the winner is decided, the challenge is probably too complicated.

Give The Challenge A Clear Target

A good workplace challenge needs something everyone can work towards. That could be a collective target, such as completing a certain number of miles or kilometres, or a competitive target where individuals or teams try to record the highest total.

Collective challenges can work particularly well when your objective is to bring the workplace together. Instead of colleagues competing against each other, everyone contributes towards the same total and every walk, run or other activity moves the group closer to completing the challenge.

You can also connect the target with your charity or running event. If you are preparing for a marathon, for example, colleagues could work together to complete a multiple of the marathon distance during your final month of training.

Decide How The Challenge Will Raise Money

Taking part in a workplace challenge does not automatically generate donations, so decide how the fundraising will work before you launch it. Participants might make a contribution to enter, ask friends and family to sponsor their efforts or combine both approaches.

Another option is to ask your employer whether it will make a contribution when the team reaches its target. The company might donate a fixed amount, contribute for every mile or kilometre completed, or add to the total if employees achieve a particular milestone.

Whatever approach you choose, make the fundraising mechanism clear from the beginning. Colleagues should understand both what they are being challenged to do and how taking part will help the charity you are supporting. Another option might be to share the funds raised with a charity the company supports, if there is one.

Make It Easy For People To Participate

The more accessible the challenge is, the more colleagues you are likely to involve. Think carefully before setting targets that only your fittest or most active colleagues have a realistic chance of achieving.

If you are organising a step challenge, for example, consider whether people with different abilities or circumstances need alternative ways to participate. You might use a team format where everybody contributes what they can rather than expecting every individual to achieve the same total.

Participation should also be voluntary and enjoyable. The purpose is to bring people into your fundraising campaign, not to make colleagues feel uncomfortable because they cannot or do not want to take part in a particular activity.

Read more about how to get your work colleagues involved in your charity fundraising here.

Make It Work For Remote And Hybrid Colleagues

One of the advantages of many workplace challenges is that colleagues do not necessarily need to be in the same building. Walking, running and other distance based challenges can work particularly well across hybrid teams, different offices or even employees based in different countries.

Choose a simple way for people to report their progress. Depending on the challenge, that might be an activity tracking app, screenshots from a sports watch or phone, or simply a shared spreadsheet where participants add their totals.

Do not make the tracking process more complicated than the challenge itself. Unless accurate measurement is essential to a competition, a straightforward system based on people reporting their progress may be all you need.

Create Teams And Some Friendly Competition

Dividing colleagues into teams can make a workplace challenge more engaging. Departments could compete against each other, different locations could have their own teams or you could mix people together to encourage colleagues who do not normally work closely to participate together.

A simple leaderboard can help maintain interest as the challenge progresses. Share occasional updates showing how teams are doing, celebrate milestones and give people something to chase without turning the competition into something overly serious.

If you use teams, think about how to make the competition reasonably fair. A department with 50 people will have an obvious advantage over one with five if you simply add everybody's totals together, so averages or appropriately adjusted targets may work better.

It doesn't have to be complicated. A steps challenge always works well.

Choose The Right Length

A workplace challenge needs enough time to build momentum but should not go on for so long that people lose interest. A week can work for a simple challenge, while something involving a larger collective target might run for several weeks.

Think about your own fundraising timetable as well. Running the challenge during the build up to your marathon, half marathon or other event can connect what your colleagues are doing with your own training journey.

Set a clear start and finish date and tell everyone what they are working towards. Having a defined finish also gives you an opportunity to announce the result, celebrate what everyone achieved and tell colleagues how much money was raised.

Keep Everyone Updated

Do not launch the challenge and then disappear until the final day. Regular updates can keep people interested and encourage participants who may have started enthusiastically but allowed their involvement to slip.

Share the overall progress, highlight teams or individuals who have reached milestones and remind everyone what their efforts are supporting. If you have a fundraising target connected with the challenge, update colleagues on that progress as well.

Keep the frequency sensible. The challenge should provide a fun talking point around the workplace rather than becoming another stream of messages that colleagues start ignoring.

Ask Your Employer To Support The Challenge

Your employer may be able to do more than simply give you permission to organise the activity. Ask whether the company can promote the challenge through internal communications, provide prizes, allow some time for a group activity or make a financial contribution towards the fundraising.

You could also ask whether the company offers matched giving. If money raised through the workplace challenge qualifies, employer matching could significantly increase the value of the activity without requiring colleagues to raise any additional money themselves.

Senior colleagues can help too. A manager joining a team, appearing on the leaderboard or encouraging their department to participate can give the challenge additional visibility and help bring more people into it.

Read more about company match giving here.

Celebrate The Finish

When the challenge ends, make something of the result. Announce the winning individual or team if it was competitive, or celebrate the final total if everyone was working towards a collective goal.

Tell colleagues how much money the challenge generated and thank everyone who participated, donated, promoted it or helped with the organisation. If your employer provided support or funding, acknowledge that contribution as part of the final update too.

You can then bring the story back to your own charity challenge. Let colleagues know how their efforts have helped your fundraising and keep them updated as your event approaches.

Turn Your Individual Challenge Into A Team Effort

You may be the person running the marathon, half marathon or other event, but a workplace challenge gives your colleagues an opportunity to take on something alongside you. It can bring different teams together, create some friendly competition and introduce your fundraising to people who might otherwise have had little involvement.

Choose something that suits your workplace, give it a clear target and make participation as easy as possible. Then connect the challenge directly with your charity fundraising so colleagues can see that every step, mile, kilometre or contribution is helping you move closer to your fundraising target.

Read more about how to close the gap if you're short of your charity fundraising target.