Fundraising ideas for charity challenges: The ultimate guide

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| 18 min read Fundraising Strategy

Charity challenges are events where individuals or groups take on physically or mentally taxing tasks to raise money for charity. They’ve become a popular way to support good causes because they can be fun and engaging, often involve a group or team effort, and they help people gain an immediate sense of achievement while raising money for a great cause. 

They are also a popular way of fundraising because they can help get people fit along the way or simply better connect with their local community. There’s also great value in engaging in personal challenges such as shaving your head for a cancer charity or running a marathon to raise money for a loved one because it creates a deep connection between you and the cause you care about. 

In this article you’ll find out who can participate in charity challenges, why charity challenges matter, and how you can raise funds by taking on a challenge of your own or within a group. There’s also a list of fun and effective charity challenge ideas. 

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What Are Charity Challenges?

Charity challenges, which are also known as fundraising challenges and donation challenges, are events where a person or a group takes on a difficult task, whether that’s a physical challenge like a 24-hour run, or a mental challenge like a read-a-thon to raise money for a personal cause or a charity. Popular challenges for charity include achieving great feats like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, running the Boston Marathon, or taking on a personal vow of silence to raise money and awareness for a great cause. 

Charity challenges can also capture the zeitgeist and become viral sensations when they harness the power of social media. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 helped to tell the world about Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and the devastating effects of this neurodegenerative disease. The charity challenge itself got so big that more than 17 million videos were made of people pouring ice water over their heads to raise money for ALS, with celebrities including Taylor Swift and Oprah taking part. Overall the fundraiser raised $220 million.  

Who Participates in Charity Challenges?

Anyone can take part in charity challenges! From individuals like students, athletes, and influencers to everyday heroes, there is nothing stopping someone from wanting to make a difference by putting their own physical or mental strength to the test.


If you don’t want to do it alone there are a number of ways that groups can take on a challenge together, from school clubs and community groups like book clubs or sports clubs to corporate teams at work. These initiatives help to promote team building and collaboration while also raising money for a good cause. But this kind of charity challenge doesn’t have to be done through a specific club or group, it can also be done by family or friends who want to come together to honour a loved one by supporting a shared cause. 

Why Fundraise for a Charity Challenge?

Charity challenges help to raise money for vital ongoing causes like cancer research, or emergency disaster relief after a devastating event such as a hurricane, earthquake or wildfire, to help people who have lost their homes or belongings. They can also help support schools in need with supplies or money for educational trips, or even local libraries with buying in new books.  

This type of fundraising helps to increase public awareness around important issues because fundraisers talk about why they’re taking on a difficult task. Those who take part in a charity challenge in turn become motivated through community support and working toward a shared purpose. Groups that take on fundraising challenges together are able to support each other as they take on difficult physical tasks like a long cycle ride or a tough hike. 

Shared experiences not only help to drive collective motivation towards a common goal, but they also help build long-term advocacy for a good cause. And by letting donors join you on your journey as you strive to complete a challenging task you will increase their engagement with your cause and hopefully their donations. 

What Do Charity Challenge Participants Need to Fundraise For?

People taking part in charity challenges often need to fundraise not only for donations to be made directly to the charitable organization they are supporting or their fundraiser, but also to support the trip they are taking to complete the challenge.


Fundraisers undertaking a serious climb up some of the world’s tallest mountains like Mount Everest or Kilimanjaro will need to travel as part of a specialist group and pay for specialist equipment and hiking gear such as boots and trekking poles, waterproof gloves and sleeping bags that can withstand temperatures down to -20 degrees. They will also need to pay for plane tickets, accommodation, and hire guides and other support crew who can help them on the dangerous journey up and down the mountain. 

People who are training for a marathon, a cycling challenge or sporting event will need to pay an entry fee for the competition, injury or first aid support, and help with training. And those who want to professionally document what they have achieved may also need to pay for professional photography or filming support. This footage will be important to keep donors updated with their efforts, and will be especially helpful for the charity they are fundraising for to use in any marketing materials.  

Where Can You Donate to Charity Challenge Fundraisers?

Anyone who wants to support your fundraiser can donate directly to your or your team’s charity challenge fundraising page through online donation platforms like GoFundMe. Many participants create a GoFundMe to easily accept donations and share their stories with others. Fundraisers are a helpful way for people to raise awareness about the challenge they’re taking and the cause they’re supporting. 

Supporters can also make donations at in-person fundraising events that have been hosted before or during the challenge, such as a movie night, a trivia night, a yard sale or a gala. You can share links to your fundraising page across your social media networks or in email campaigns and newsletters, and make flyers with QR codes that can take new donors straight to your fundraising page. 

Where Can You Fundraise for Charity Challenges?

When you want to start up your own fundraiser, online platforms like GoFundMe are simple and easy to use to get your own charity challenge going. It’s easy to share a link to your GoFundMe page with friends and family and your personal networks to reach as many potential donors as possible. 

You can also easily share information about your fundraiser and a link to your charity challenge across a number of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Use Instagram reels or start a livestream to give donors updates about your progress, whether you’re training for a challenge or already with your team and on your way to the finish line. Ask people to donate as you progress towards your goal and to share the link to your fundraiser in their own networks. 

You can also ask your school to include a link to the fundraiser in any newsletters that are sent out to families or to their alumni networks, and reach out to local community centres or places of worship to see if they can include information about the fundraiser in their outreach materials, or put up posters in their community spaces. See if you can host in-person fundraising events at local community centres or places of worship to reach as many members of your local community as possible, too. 

Getting in touch with local newspapers, blogs and radio stations to ask them to showcase your fundraising efforts for your own charity challenge can help raise awareness of your work, too. They may want to interview you if you or your team is doing a particularly tough challenge, so be ready with a press release that includes all the information of what and who you’re raising money for with any high res images and videos they may want to include.  

If your employer is part of a corporate gift matching programme you can ask any colleague who donates to your fundraiser to fill in the necessary forms to ensure that their gift is matched through the corporate programme, which will instantly double it. It will turn a $5, $10 or $20 gift into a $10, $20 or $40 gift. Be sure to ask donors outside of work to check if their employer is part of a gift matching program, too.

How to Organize a Successful Fundraising Challenge

Picking the right fundraising challenge for charity can be a tough task, so choose a meaningful challenge for charity that has significance for you or the cause you’re supporting.


Set a clear fundraising goal and timeline and let people know why you need to reach that target. Tell people exactly what the funds will be spent on, for example if you need to buy specific gear for the challenge or whether it will all go towards a particular campaign a charity is running, and let people know how long it will take to complete your task. 

Write a compelling story around your personal motivation for taking on this task. Whether you’re doing a challenge alone or in a group, make sure the story behind your charity challenge is clear and emotive, and tell people what you hope to achieve by completing it. 

Be sure to pick the right crowdfunding platform for you such as GoFundMe, which allows you to set up and share your fundraiser with ease. Once you’re up and running, promote your fundraiser consistently and regularly to friends and family, across your social media networks, and in any email lists that you can be included in. Be sure to post regular updates for your donors on your progress and achievements during your challenge, using strong images and videos that demonstrate how much you’re preparing for your challenge or how far you’ve progressed with your task, and remember to thank your supporters regularly for their ongoing care and support. 


22 Fundraising Challenge Ideas for Charity

4 Classic Charity Challenge Ideas

  1. Sponsored walk: Take on a sponsored walk for your charity or cause of choice. Tell people how far you aim to walk and get people to sponsor you for different milestones that you reach, whether you’re doing a hike or racking up the miles by walking round your yard. If walking isn’t energetic enough you can also do a sponsored run, a sponsored bike ride, or even a sponsored swim.
  2. Give-it-up challenge: Choose something you do every day like buying a cup of coffee and pledge to give it up for 30 days. Ask supporters to donate the cost of a cup of coffee while you give up caffeine to show their support.
  3. Bold makeover challenge: Bold makeovers or dramatic hair changes like shaving at your head for charity are popular ways to show your dedication and commitment to a good cause. Ask people to sponsor you by the date you plan to do your big reveal and be sure to upload before and after pictures.
  4. Physical endurance challenge: Test your physical endurance by doing 100 push-ups a day, walking 20,000 steps a day, or swim 100 laps a day for a full month. Get people to sponsor you for every day that you complete the challenge or for every major milestone you hit.

4 Creative and Fun Fundraiser Challenge Ideas

  1. Costume challenge: Think up a series of silly outfits to wear in public like a tiger costume or a clown costume, and get friends, family, colleagues and neighbors to sponsor you for each one you wear in the space of a month.
  2. Baking marathon: See how much money you can raise for your chosen cause by setting up a cooking or baking marathon. Get a group of friends together, as many ingredients as you can, and see how long you can continuously bake for together. Decide what you’re going to make beforehand and get people to sponsor you for every hour you keep making delicious baked goods. Everything you make you can sell off at a bake sale the next day and raise extra funds for charity.
  3. Do a “Yes Day” for donations: Say yes to any safe challenges from donors for an entire day in exchange for donations for your charity of choice. You can set a budget and say yes to anything your children want to do for the day from baking a huge chocolate cake to pretending to be a dinosaur all day. Adults can sponsor you to have fun too, such as for eating breakfast food for every meal for a full day or setting up a spontaneous dance party. Take lots of pictures and videos to show your donors that you completed all the challenges and how fun it was!
  4. Karaoke challenge: Hire a karaoke machine and pledge to sing for as long as you can in the name of your chosen cause. Live stream your karaoke challenge on YouTube or Instagram and get people to sponsor you for every hour you keep going.

4 24-Hour Challenge Ideas

  1. 24-hour silence: Do you have the gift of the gab? Take a vow of silence for 24 hours and get people to sponsor you for every hour you manage to not speak. Influencers could turn this into a 24 hour social media backout where they do not post anything to raise awareness and money for any charity or cause.
Influencers can also pledge to donate a portion of their income from any videos or posts that followers interact with during their 24 hour blackout. 
  2. 24-hour dance-a-thon: Love dancing? Enter your local dance-a-thon with a partner and get sponsored for every hour you manage to stay on the dance floor. 
  3. 24-hour-game-a-thon: If dancing isn’t your thing then host a 24 hour game-a-thon. Find a venue, get people to donate video games and board games to take part, and to get sponsorship for however long they last. 
  4. 24-hour creative challenge: Are you a budding artist? See how many creative works or paintings you could get done in a 24 hour period. If painting isn’t your thing, you could see how much music you can make and record in 24 hours or how many stories you could write.


3 Challenges for Charity Ideas at Home

  1. 40-hour home lockdown challenge: Remember how inventive everyone got at home during the Pandemic? Bring that sense of entrepreneurialism back by attempting to climb the distance it takes to get to Everest basecamp on your stairs or trek the length of the Pacific Coast Highway by walking around your yard. See how much you can accomplish in a 40 hour window.
  2. Home-based obstacle course: Pull out the couch cushions, any tents or air mattresses you have, tables, and chairs, and create a fun obstacle course for you and the family to complete that could end in a pool if you have one out back. Be sure to film your efforts and get sponsorship for every elaborate new course you create. 
  3. Read-a-thon or learn-a-skill marathon: Get sponsored for how many books you can read in a set period of time, or decide to learn a crafty new skill like knitting, crochet, or basket weaving and see what you can make in a certain period of time. Update your supporters regularly so they can track your progress and keep donating to spur you on. 

7 Challenges to Raise Money for Specific Causes

Cancer: 

1. Shave your head: Many people choose to shave off all of their hair as a cancer charity challenge to show solidarity with a loved one who has lost their hair from radiotherapy or chemotherapy. See if you can donate your hair after you’ve shaved it off to have it made into a wig for a child or adult in need.

2. Walk 60 miles: Many cancer charities will host a walk 60 miles challenge that supporters can sign up to. The challenge is usually expected to be completed within a month and those taking part can get sponsorship for completing the challenge. 

3. Host a survivor talk: One cancer charity fundraiser idea is to host an event where a cancer survivor is invited to speak to the audience about their experience. Sell tickets to the event and collect donations to raise money for a cancer charity that helped to support the person who has been invited to speak. 

Mental Health: 

1. Mindfulness challenge: Take on a mindfulness challenge to raise money for a mental health charity by doing 30 mindfulness techniques in 30 days, from getting out into nature to meditating, expressing gratitude and journaling. 

2. Journaling challenge: Take on a journaling challenge where you are given a new prompt every day for a month to help raise money and awareness for a mental health charity. You can journal in any form, from videos to writing and making art. Share the work you feel comfortable with on social media to tap into the charity’s community and help show people they are not alone. 

Environment: 

1. Go plastic-free: Try going for a full month without using single-use plastics to raise money and awareness for an environmental charity. Take a water bottle with you to fill up at public taps instead of buying a bottle of water, keep a reusable coffee cup in your bag and take reusable shopping bags with you to the store instead of packing your groceries into a plastic bag. 

2. Zero-waste challenge: See how much you can reduce your waste by recycling, reusing and composting as much of your usual food waste such as scraps and leftovers as possible instead of sending everything to landfill. 

Examples of Charity Challenges That Made an Impact

There are so many people doing charity challenges on GoFundMe and making a difference for their community:

Tips for Maximizing Your Fundraising Success

Maximize the success of your fundraiser by engaging donors through strong storytelling, shoutouts, and progress updates. And don’t forget to thank them! 

Use videos: Make your storytelling as personal as you can through the use of video. You can upload videos to your fundraising page showing you speaking straight to camera to tell donors how far you’ve got with a challenge or why you’ve decided to do it, or simply post an Instagram reel or TikTok video to get straight to your followers. 

Shout out top donors: Highlight the impact that people who have contributed to your charity challenge fundraiser by giving them a shout out on social media or in one of your updates.

Post updates regularly: Show donors exactly how their money is helping you during your challenge by posting frequent updates to your fundraising page. Include pictures and videos showing the progress of your challenge or the team you’re doing the challenge with.

Collaborate: Team up with social media influencers to share your charity challenge content across their channels or speak to local media outlets like a local paper or blog to see if they will feature your challenge to help spread the word. 

Say thank you: Don’t forget to follow up with your donors and supporters after you’ve completed the challenge to let them know how much money they helped raise. You can make some gratitude posts to say thank you, too.

Whether you want to be part of the next team that climbs Mount Kilimanjaro for charity or you want to walk 60 miles by making laps around your back yard, charity challenges and fundraiser challenges have the power to create a huge impact for a good cause. They help raise awareness of a charity or cause through a tough but inspiring challenge while building a community of people who are ready to support you and cheer you on. 

So pick a cause you care about today and take on the right challenge for you to help raise awareness of those in need. Start your own charity challenge fundraiser today with GoFundMe and make a difference.

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Written by Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith