Charity Challenge hits £100 million raised
Howard Lake | 13 November 2026 | News
Charity Challenge, the multi-award-winning adventure travel company that organises overseas treks, cycle rides and expeditions for charity supporters, says its participants have now raised more than £100 million for charities around the world.
The company says tens of thousands of people have taken part in its challenges since it was founded in 1999, benefiting thousands of charities worldwide. It describes the money as helping to house homeless people, find cures for illness and disease, safeguard children and fight climate change.
The milestone arrives after more than 25 years of operation, which Charity Challenge says it has spent “turning its founding belief into reality”: that individuals can push beyond their perceived physical and mental limits to create positive global change.
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A founder who fundraised first
Charity Challenge was founded by Simon Albert and Jeremy Gane. The business grew out of Albert’s own fundraising experience: in the 1990s he trekked to Petra in Jordan and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise money for charity, then turned his passion for travel, endurance and fundraising into a company that helps others do the same. Albert remains managing director.
He called the £100 million milestone “Unbelievable” and said the company’s purpose “has never changed”. Behind the headline figure, he said, are thousands of individual stories of people who have challenged themselves, overcome fears, seen incredible parts of the world and made a difference to causes they care about.
High-profile challenges
The company points to several well-known events it has delivered over the years:
- Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day Kilimanjaro climb, which featured Gary Barlow, Ronan Keating, Denise Van Outen and Fearne Cotton, and raised £3.5 million.
- Jeff Stelling’s March for Men, which raised awareness and funds for Prostate Cancer UK.
- Exotic Cycle Rides, whose list of participants “includes King Charles”.
- CoppaTrek! challenges, which have raised more than £10 million for CoppaFeel!, the breast cancer awareness charity. Celebrity participants have included Giovanna Fletcher, Emma Willis and Sara Davies.
Corporate partnerships and tough times
Corporate partnerships have been a major driver of the total. Charity Challenge says it has brought together thousands of employees, customers and suppliers from organisations including HSBC, Tesco, Boots and Lloyds Banking Group, turning workplace communities into fundraising teams. It credits these long-standing partnerships with a key role in reaching the milestone.
The company’s hardest challenge itself was COVID-19 and the complete shutdown of international travel, when the business was forced to close its UK office and Canadian operation and lose key members of staff.
What comes next
Charity Challenge says it is introducing new ways for people to combine challenge, wellbeing and positive impact. That includes an exclusive corporate wellbeing division of the company, alongside new partnerships and further opportunities to make a difference.
Why it matters for fundraisers
Overseas challenge events have long been a significant income stream for UK charities. UK Fundraising reported in 2005 that more than 8,000 people had taken part in overseas challenge events in 2004, according to the specialist organiser Skyline, and that the number of charities using this type of fundraising had grown from 10 to over 1,000 in a decade.
Charity Challenge’s total suggests the model has kept delivering at scale since, and its celebrity and corporate partnerships show how events can be used to build wider supporter engagement as well as income. The examples also show how pairing a named cause with a recognisable face, or with a workplace team, can help participants recruit sponsors.
- Overseas challenges attracted over 8,000 participants in 2004 (26 June 2005)
- 10 charities benefit from Skyline’s first international multi-charity event (11 June 2004)
- Skyline launches new challenge event listings website (6 July 2006)
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.