How To Get a Charity Challenge Event Signed Off Internally

When a challenge event doesn't go ahead, it's rarely because supporters wouldn't take part.

More often, the blocker sits internally, with hesitation coming from these understandable questions:

• Is it safe?

• Do we have the resource to run it?

• Can we justify the cost?

• Will trustees and stakeholders support it?

• Is the potential return worth the operational complexity?

Until those questions are answered clearly, even strong fundraising ideas can quietly stall before they ever reach supporters.

The Real Barrier Isn't Usually Recruitment

In many cases, supporter appetite isn't the issue. Challenge events that feel genuinely exciting, visible, and outside everyday experiences often generate strong engagement from fundraisers. The hesitation usually comes internally - particularly around delivery, governance, safety, and resource allocation.

This tends to happen more frequently when the event is something new to the charity, or slightly outside the 'traditional' fundraising space, such as a zip wire, abseil, or bungee jump.

While these formats can deliver exceptionally strong fundraising performance, they can also attract greater scrutiny upfront. These events are highly visible, involve specialist equipment and technical delivery, and often take place at major public venues or live operational sites.

As a result, fundraising managers can find themselves navigating questions from senior leadership, trustees, venues, advisory groups, and operational stakeholders around areas such as:

• Safety systems and procedures

• Qualified instructors and operational teams

• Risk assessments and compliance documentation

• Venue permissions and stakeholder coordination

• Insurance and governance considerations

• Impact on internal workload and staffing

Often, the deciding factor is not whether the event is exciting and marketable - it's whether the practical and reputational concerns feel properly managed.

What Actually Helps Internal Approval for Charity Challenge Events

From our experience supporting challenge events over the past 30 years, internal approval tends to become far simpler when three areas are clearly covered.

1. Confidence in External Delivery

Working with an experienced delivery partner significantly reduces perceived risk.

Clear operational processes, qualified teams, established safety systems, and a proven delivery track record make it much easier for fundraising teams to reassure senior stakeholders and trustees.

This becomes especially important when events are taking place at complex venues, public locations, hospitals, or large stadium environments.

2. Low Internal Delivery Burden

If an event requires substantial internal planning and operational coordination from the charity itself, it naturally becomes a harder sell.

Well-managed challenge events remove much of that friction by covering the logistics, staffing, safety management, infrastructure, and on-site delivery.

This allows fundraising teams to stay focused on the areas where they create the most value: supporter recruitment, stewardship, and fundraising engagement.

3. Clear, Proven ROI

Internal conversations become much easier when fundraising potential is supported by realistic benchmarks and previous results.

For example, across similar height-based challenge events, we regularly see fundraising averages around £425 raised per participant.

That level of return changes the conversation quickly. Rather than focusing purely on event cost, discussions shift toward overall fundraising potential and net income generation.

Read about recent fundraising results here.

Why These Formats Often Perform So Strongly

The strongest-performing fundraising challenges tend to combine several things at once:

• A genuine sense of personal challenge

• Strong storytelling potential

• High social visibility

• Memorable or iconic locations

• A feeling of achievement participants want to share

Height-based formats naturally deliver many of these factors together and create fundraising moments that supporters actively talk about, photograph, share, and seek sponsorship for.

Supporting Charities Through the Entire Process

At Big Bang Experiences, we work alongside charities to support both the operational delivery and the internal planning process behind challenge events.

This includes coordination with venues, local authorities, advisory groups and key stakeholders, helping guide events from early feasibility discussions through to safe, successful delivery.

Our role is not to simply run the activity itself, but to help charities feel confident in the viability, practicality, and fundraising potential of the event - from the beginning.

Considering a Challenge Event?

If your charity is exploring a challenge event - whether for this year or further ahead - we're always happy to have a no-obligation conversation.

We can talk through delivery models and common stakeholder concerns to ensure you have clear answers from the outset.

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