Get involved in our Fundraising Challenge and raise vital funds to support your BB group!

Covid-19 will have had an impact on your ability to secure funds for your Company; subs may not have been paid and fundraising events such as jumble sales, bazaars, car washes, collections and coffee mornings will have been cancelled. Based on this we would like to invite you to look at your fundraising needs, and what you need to support your Company over the coming weeks and months. We have launched a Fundraising Challenge that is designed to be run remotely/virtually or even face-to-face (socially distanced) and something that every Company can get involved with.

The Fundraising Challenge will be a great opportunity to bring your group together (either virtually or socially distanced face-to-face). Groups could encourage not just children and young people to take part, but leaders, parents/carers, Church members and the wider community. We hope it will not just raise vital funds, but also help to raise the profile of your group in the local community.

Taking on the Fundraising Challenge collectively as a group will be a lot of fun and a great addition to your programme at this time. In planning this we would encourage you to get creative and to consult with children and young people and leaders to see what they would like to do.

Fundraising Challenge Ideas

To help support you in getting going we have put together a range of ideas…

Walking or Running

Take on a Marathon (26.2 miles), Belfast to Dublin (104 miles), Edinburgh to Aberdeen (121 miles), London to Cardiff (150 miles), Birmingham to Newcastle (206 miles), Glasgow to Thurso (276 miles).

Danceathon/Singathon

Take on a continuous danceathon or singathon and get young people, leaders and supporters joining in a continuous session on Zoom or a similar platform – keep it going for 1/2/3 hours or whatever suits your group.

Climbing 3 Peaks

Taking on the 3 biggest peaks in England (Scafell Pike), Scotland (Ben Nevis) and Wales (Snowdon) by collectively climbing the same height – all participants need is access to a staircase. Climb (going up) a huge 16,965 steps to reach equivalent height of the 3 highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales, an incredible 3,393 metres – and that’s just the way up! (Steps calculated based on each step being average of 20cm in height).

• Snowdon
  1,085 metres elevation or 5,425 steps up
• Scafell Pike
  964 metres elevation or 4,820 steps up
• Ben Nevis
  1,344 metres elevation or 6,720 steps up

Climbing 4 Peaks

Taking on the 3 biggest peaks in England (Scafell Pike), Northern Ireland (Slieve Donard), Scotland (Ben Nevis) and Wales (Snowdon) by collectively climbing the same height – all participants need is access to a staircase. Climb a huge 21,215 steps to reach equivalent height of all four of the UK’s best known highest peaks, an incredible 4,243 metres – and that’s just the way up! (Steps calculated based on each step being average of 20cm in height).

• Snowdon
  1,085 metres elevation or 5,425 steps up
• Scafell Pike
  964 metres elevation or 4,820 steps up
• Ben Nevis
  1,344 metres elevation or 6,720 steps up
• Slieve Donard
  850 metres elevation or 4,250 steps up

Bounceathon

Think big like 10k, 50k or even 100k – it’s a simple challenge that is accessible to all age groups to bounce a ball off the wall and catch it. What number will you go for?

Triathlon

Create your own triathlon by encouraging people of all ages to take on one of or all 3 sports. Traditionally the sports are running, cycling and swimming – but you can change these up – whilst running and cycling will both be possible, swimming will be a challenge, but consider replacing this with rowing (you don’t need a rowing machine – you could use exercise bands or no equipment at all) or another sport or specific exercise for your own unique triathlon.

Resources to support you

To help with the Fundraising Challenge, we’ve created a range of resources including social media graphics, a template sponsor form, template press release and editable certificates for you to use. We have also provided a template email that you can use to engage with parents/careers. In addition to the above, we would encourage you all to share your experiences (challenges, difficul- ties and successes) on the Leaders group on Facebook (facebook.com/groups/thebbleaders/).

Use of online fundraising pages through JustGiving, Virgin Money Giving and others would be encouraged, and will make it easy for groups to encourage sponsorship and do so without physically collecting money etc. You can now setup ‘Crowdfunding’ pages on these sites and do not have to be a registered charity to be able to do so. Young people through their parents/carers can then share the link to your fundraising page with family and friends so all the money can be collected in one place making it very easy to man- age, and if you are a registered charity you can even collect and manage Gift Aid easily through these platforms. Alternatively, more traditional methods could be used with sponsorship forms and money collected via bank transfer etc, with individuals collecting sponsorship and transferring through online bank transfers.

Please do share what you are planning and let us know how you get on by getting in touch with us at bbathome@boys-brigade.org.uk or sharing on our Leaders group on Facebook.

Check out all the resources and support at boys-brigade.org.uk/fundraising-challenge/