Poole and Ireland Challenger Abseil, Sunday, 4th March - £27,500 raised!!

On Sunday, 4^th March 60 Challengers braved the rain to take part in the Challenger Abseil at the Water Tower in Mannings Heath.  This abseil is an impressive 100ft high and their first challenge is climbing up the many stairs to the top! Check out some photos from the day and a big congratulations to the Challengers who raised over £14,000 toward their expeditions. 

….Mean while, on the same day across the Irish Sea, 67 Challengers from both the Republic and Northern Ireland took part in the Challenger Abseil at the Dromore viaduct County Down. Although bitterly cold, with the sun shining and clear blue skies, Challengers couldn't have asked for better conditions to abseil down the 74ft disused railway line.

The viaduct certainly looks impressive yet daunting as it appeared in the distance when walking through the park to reach the site. There seemed to be a running theme of nervousness with every Challenger who registered, however it seems that this was later replaced by adrenaline once each Challenger landed back safely to earth. Some Challengers even commented on how they wanted to do it again!

The events team were rather impressed with the amount of support each Challenger had brought with them on the day, parents, siblings, aunts & uncles and grandparents all cheered every Challenger as they made their way down creating a great atmosphere of support.

At the end of the day Challengers managed to raise an impressive £13,500 towards their expeditions. 

                          

             

The Christmas period is a great time for fundraising!

We have been chatting to you over the last few weeks about fundraising ideas for Christmas and you have been sending in some great ideas. For those of you that need some last minute ideas for the festive period, you have come to the right place!

Here are a few festive ideas which don't need much preparation.

• Carol singing- Get your World Challenge t-shirts on, Christmas hats and buckets........ and a singing voice!
• Christmas cake decorating competition- Get some posters outm charge £5 to enter and aplit the profit with the winner.
• Sell Christmas cards at school- Get crafty this weekend! go and buy some card making materials and create some lovely homemade cards to sell. You could even charge to deliver them to your friends classmates at School.
• Christmas odd-job service- Christmas party baby-sitting service, wrappnig presents, and (if there is snow) cleariong paths, are all small jobs which you could complere in return for a donation.

Many of you have told us that you have organsed some bag packing at your local supermarkets. We've included our top tips for bag packing below:

A Challenger's Christmas fete last year

• Make sure you let people know what you are raising money for, they may be more likely to donate.
• Do some research on your destination, including what you will be doing in-country and take it with you.
• Remember to have fun and smile,everyone loves a friendly bag packer!

Christmas prize draw

Please remember to bring your account up to date by the 16th December 2011 to be entered in our Christmas prize draw and be in for a chance to wion £500 off your final balance! check out the next blog to see details of this years winners.

We'd love to hear what you will be doing for your Christmas fundraising so email us at the usual address: fundraisingsupport@world-challenge.co.uk. We love to hear your stories!

Hosting a music gig

As we get into the long and cold winter nights, we understand that fundraising can become more of a challenge. It needn’t be though; we hear so many great fundraising ideas we thought we would share with you all a series of fundraising case studies. I’m sure they will inspire you as much as they did us!

 Have you ever thought about hosting a music gig to raise funds for your expedition? We spoke to Jordan, who organised an amazing gig night and raised £600 towards his expedition in the process.

What made you choose a music gig?

It was mostly due to personal preference, I have been to a lot of music gigs in the past and I wanted to have a go at doing one myself and raising lots of money in the process!

What steps did you have to take to achieve it?

I was lucky enough to be friends with a talented performer in school who had a lot of contacts, so it was fairly easy to get people to play along, they also were very happy with doing it for free. 

I then got in contact with a few local venues and asked them how much they would charge for hire, I was lucky enough to find one who was happy to let me hire it for free.

After I had a line-up of acts and a venue I had to publicise the event. Facebook was key in advertising and we also printed flyers that we distributed in town and schools that not only advertised the event but directed them to the Facebook page. I think using Facebook was a good idea because it relates to the target audience of the gig  :)    Also handing out flyers and most of all pestering as many people as you can to come along and spread the word!

Did anyone help out and if so what roles did they have?

There was one friend in particular that helped me out a lot by keeping in contact with the acts, advertising heavily and doing as much as she can really. There was also about 10 friends spread around the area at different schools and with different friendship groups selling tickets, this was a good idea because it brought a big mixture of people along!

Did you provide refreshments or any other ways to aid with the fundraising?

No we didn't. The venue had a bar which they kept all the profits from but that would be to compensate for the free venue hire, in the future I may look at paying for the venue for a cut of the refreshments too.

What feedback did you receive?

Very positive feedback; everybody had an amazing time and a lot of people were encouraging me to do it again.. I definitely will be!

What would be your top tip for organising a music gig?

Biggest tip would be to always have a backup plan! Always have reserves in place for your acts because our biggest problem was that two of the five acts dropped out, one of which was the morning of the gig! But we were lucky to be able to find replacements last minute.

Also don't be afraid to annoy people with advertising! It really pays off and get as many people to help out from different places, it’s much easier to make people pay attention to it if it’s coming from a number of people and not just yourself.


Would you do it again?

I would definitely do it again! Not only did I raise lots of money I had a really good night out! :)

Did you have fun?

Yessss! It was very stressful and busy to begin with but was definitely worth while!

Well there you have it!, well done Jordan! :D

Have you got a fundraising success story you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you and feature you in our next case study. Please send details of your fundraising idea/event along with photos to our email address:

 fundraisingsupoprt@world-challenge.co.uk

Halloween in the office!

On Thursday 27th October 2011 the World Challenge office got spooky for charity! Many of the team dressed up for a £1, brought in cakes and treats to sell and took part in the Halloween quiz.

Have a look at some photos of what we got up to in the office.





The Canteen was dressed up for the occasion and was the haunting location for our Halloween quiz.

We even had a pumpkin carving competition, although we discovered we were not very good at this!

All in all we had a fantastic day and managed to raise £135.00 for our charities.

In the coming weeks we will be posting up your fundraising events and activities as case studies to help inspire other Challengers with your great ideas. Please drop us an email with details of your fundraising event or idea, along with photographs, to fundraisingsupport@world-challenge.co.uk and we might feature your idea in our next post!

Halloween

Halloween is a perfect excuse to have a party and why not try and fundraise while having a good time!

Many Challengers have been telling us this month they will be holding Halloween parties but how can they make more money than the ticket price.

Here are a few tips to gain extra funds during your party:

1. Your ticket price needs to include something- make sure all your Halloween games are free.
2. Earn extra funds by charging for refreshments e.g. toffee apples.
3. Put on a raffle and sell the tickets- get prizes from local businesses, you can find letters for these on the My World Challenge Website.

At School or at a local youth club you could charge people to enter a pumpkin carving competition. You could even collect the spare pumpkin and make pumpkin pie or soup to sell at the event!

Here in the office the charity committee has bee planning a Halloween day at work; everyone who wants to dress up for the day will pay a £1. All monies raised will go to the Thomas Ball Children’s Cancer fund and save the children.

                                                     Set sail with World Challenge

We have just announced the launch of our 25^th anniversary expedition, World Challenge are looking for two teams of students and teachers to join us on the voyage of a lifetime, sailing the T.S. Pelican, between Weymouth and Morocco. You can find out more information here!

Also don't for get about our....

Challenger events- you can find out more information on the My World Challenge website, make sure you sign up, abseil places are filling fast!

Set sail with World Challenge in 2012

We’re looking for two teams of students and teachers to join us on the voyage of a lifetime, sailing a historic tall ship, the T.S. Pelican, between Weymouth and Morocco.

To add to the adventure, the teams will also complete a rewarding project in the beautiful Rif Mountains in Morocco. This one of a kind expedition will be complemented by our World Challenge ethos as you overcome all the usual expedition obstacles, but on the open seas


The details...
We’re looking for 48 students and 4 teachers to create our two teams.

The expedition is three weeks long with one team setting sail from Weymouth to Morocco and flying home three weeks later and the second team flying out to Morocco then sailing back to Weymouth in time for the opening ceremony of the Olympics!


Find out more here www.world-challenge.co.uk/pages/25-years.asp

Sponsorship and Hooty Owls!

Well it has been a very busy month for the Fundraising Support Team and all the Challengers out there! 

Most Challengers are now back at School and College and are getting back into their fundraising. We have spoken to lots of Challengers who have already held meetings and are halfway through planning there first round of events.

We heard that four crafty Year 8 girls from South Hampstead High School ran their second successful Hooty Owl cushion stall today. Alice, Molly, Riya and Alex - all of whom are going to Romania in 2012, sold Hooty Owls, Hooty Owl bags, baby Hooty Owls cushions and cats to an enthusiastic audience of mothers and children alike.

The girls have now sewn over 100 Hooty Owl Cushions and these, in addition to knitted teddy bears and massive cup cakes have assisted their fundraising efforts. They are running several more stalls before Christmas, and even have to take orders from customers as their stock runs out!

They all managed to earn £210 each from this event, well done!

Fundraising in the office is at a high, Will Green from the Customer Support Team completed his cycle from Lands End to John O’Groats in only 8 days, and he expected it would take the trio 10 days, what a result! They have raised £18,500 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. Well done Will!

Ishia from the Business Support Team has just completed her very first Marathon this month raising money for the South Bucks hospice.

It was a particularly tough marathon with mixed terrain and very steep hills. She was also required to navigate her way round, which she found extremely difficult but in the end Ishia managed to raise over £300!

Last year over £270,000 was raised by Challengers completing Challenger events!

The dates for the Challenger events were released last week. This is a great opportunity for you all to raise money, get fit and meet other Challengers.

 

What’s on offer?

You can either sign up to the Challenger abseils and/or the Challenger runs. This year we have tried to add a few more venues to get you involved and raising money.

You can find out how you can sign up, where the venues are and when they are to take place on the My World Challenge website https://expedition.world-challenge.co.uk/login.asp.

Fundraising ideas for October

It’s obvious isn’t it… Halloween! Its great excuse to have a party but also to raise some money! Hold a Halloween party and charge entry, or charge to take part in apple bobbing or pin the head on the zombie.

Harvest festival

This time of year local towns and villages may be holding small events where there will be stalls available, how about baking bread and selling it on a stall or selling crafts.

It is good to get the majority of your fundraising completed in the next few months before all of your exams start, it’ll save you stress and you will have less to worry about.

If you need any more ideas or hints and tips please feel free to call the Fundraising Support Team on 01494 427 601 or email us at fundraisingsupport@world-challenge.co.uk.