DONATE Team Challenges
Run a team fundraising challenge
Supporters fundraise together as a team, and every member gets their own dedicated donation page and link to share with their sponsors.
Getting started
Team challenges live under Challenges in your DONATE portal. Each challenge is a team, such as a group running a Santa Dash, that raises money for one of your campaigns. Every member gets their own page and link, and everything they raise counts towards the campaign total.
Every challenge in one place
The Challenges page lists every team challenge with the campaign it raises for, its status, team members and the amount raised.
Live, not live or ended
A challenge is Live when it and its campaign are published. Ended is a label after the end date, and donations are still accepted.
Creating a challenge
Every challenge raises for one of your campaigns, so you choose the campaign first. Make a campaign for the event, such as Santa Dash 2026, and then add a challenge for each team taking part.
Choose the campaign first
Click New team challenge and pick the campaign it raises for. Campaigns that are not published yet are marked Not live.
Name it and set a target
Give the challenge a name, and a team name if a group is fundraising together. The target is optional.
Tell the team's story
The Settings tab holds the challenge name, team name and description, with a Cover image and a Route / venue map beside them.
Dates, target and logistics
Set the start and end dates and check the fundraising target. Team logistics, such as the meeting point, go to team members by email. The team page shows them too for now, so leave out anything private.
Name each team's challenge clearly
- On the campaign page, supporters see each challenge by its challenge name. Give each team a name they will recognise, such as Jingle Belles 5k.
- The team name shows at the top of the team's own page and in your portal.
Joining and join fees
Decide how people get onto a team. You can add everyone yourself, let people ask to join and approve them, let them join straight away, or ask them to pay a join fee.
Choose how people join
Allow people to request to join and choose whether you approve them. Paid joining does not work yet: the payment form does not load. Do not add an entry with a fee, and collect any entry fee another way until DONATE confirms it is fixed.
Join fees and Gift Aid, in plain words
- A join fee buys a place on the team. It is not a donation. Your portal totals, the team page and members' own dashboards leave join fees out.
- A fee people must pay to join is not a gift, so Gift Aid cannot be claimed on it. Entry fees are never Gift Aided.
- Sponsorship given to members is a donation, and supporters can add Gift Aid to it when they get nothing back for it.
- Gift Aid cannot be claimed on money participants put towards their own place or costs, including sponsoring themselves to reach a minimum.
- Fees are set in Entries, below Joining. Each entry has an entry fee and a sponsorship target. With no entries, anyone can join free.
Building your team
Add the people you already know are taking part, and pick a captain. The first person you add becomes the team captain.
Your team at a glance
The Members tab shows each member's total, number of donations, any join fee paid and whether they are a member or still invited.
Invite or add members
Type a name and email, then send an invitation they accept themselves, or add them straight away with a welcome email.
Make someone team captain
A captain can manage the team from their own DONATE account, where they are shown as Admin.
Try it before you go live
While a campaign has never been published, its challenges run in Preview. The pages work, so you can try joining and giving before anyone pays. While in Preview, people who join from the team page get no email and pay nothing. Members you add, approve or email from the portal do get real emails.
Your preview link
A campaign that has never been published shows a preview link and QR code, marked Preview, for trying its challenges out.
Practise joining the team
In Preview, joining a paid team takes no fee. The page shows the fee and says no joining fee is taken yet.
What Preview does
- People can join a team in Preview without paying the join fee. The page says this is where members will pay.
- Donations in Preview complete without payment, and nothing is recorded.
- People who joined from the team page in Preview are removed when the campaign is first published. Members you added from the portal stay. Your challenges and their settings are kept.
- Approving a supporter's suggested challenge publishes its campaign if it is not live, which ends Preview. See Challenges suggested by supporters.
- Preview ends for good once the campaign has gone live, even if you take it off live later.
Going live and sharing
Challenges go live with their campaign. When the campaign is published, every approved challenge under it is public and can take real donations and join fees.
Publish the campaign
Switch the campaign's Live switch on and tick the promotion rules. Its challenges go live with it, and people who joined from the team page in Preview are removed.
Share the campaign link
The campaign page lists every team with its total, so supporters can choose a team to sponsor or join. These totals leave out Gift Aid, and the team's own page includes it.
What supporters and team members see
Each team has its own page, and each member has a personal page and link. A donation made through a member's link is credited to that member and counts towards the team and the campaign.
The team's own page
The team page lists everyone taking part, each with their total against their own target. Donate to the team shows the team total, including Gift Aid, against the team target.
A page for every member
A member's page shows why they are fundraising and the team they are part of. Sponsor Holly shows what Holly has raised against her own target.
Sponsoring a team member
Sponsors choose an amount on the member's page, and the gift is credited to that member. Their donors are listed underneath, with any Gift Aid.
Asking to join a team
Supporters tap Join in on the team page, fill in their details and motivation, and agree to share their details with your organisation.
Members run their own page
In their DONATE account, members see their total, the team's progress and every team member's total. The captain is labelled Admin here.
Personal and team links
Members share a group link for the whole team or their personal link, each with a QR code to download.
Challenges suggested by supporters
Supporters can suggest their own challenge for a campaign, such as a Christmas Day dip. Nothing they suggest is public until you approve it.
Let supporters suggest challenges
Switch on Let supporters suggest their own challenges to add a Suggest option to the campaign page. Suggestions appear here for approval.
Approve or decline a suggestion
A suggestion shows Awaiting approval in the Challenges list and a pending badge on its own page. Approving it also publishes its campaign if it is not live, skipping the publish ticks and ending Preview.
Managing the team while it runs
Keep an eye on join requests, keep the team informed, and look after members from the Members tab.
Approve people asking to join
Join requests wait at the top of the Members tab, marked Awaiting approval. Approving someone sends them a real welcome email with the team logistics, even in Preview.
Email the whole team
Notify team emails your saved team logistics to every member who has joined. Save the logistics first.
Look after each member
Edit a member, see their donations, upload their photo until they first log in, refund their join fee or remove them. Removing a member never refunds their fee.
Every donation, by member
Open a member to see each donation credited to them, with the Gift Aid and total.
Results and payouts
See how each team did, then export the team list. The money is paid out to you with the rest of your campaign.
The team's donations
The Donations tab on a challenge shows a chart and every donation to the team, including join fees marked Join-Fee.
Compare teams on the campaign
The campaign's Donations tab has a Challenge column, and filters by challenge and team member.
Good to know
- The amount raised in your portal is donations only. It leaves join fees out, and so do the team page and members' own dashboards.
- Online, the team page shows the total with Gift Aid added, and the campaign page shows team totals without it.
- Join fees are listed with your donations with the channel Join-Fee, so you can see who paid and when.
- Export on the Members tab downloads a CSV of each member's email, role, status, amount raised, donations and personal target.
- The end date is a label. Donations are still accepted after it.
- Deleting a challenge removes it from your public pages. Donations already made are kept.
Fees and Gift Aid
Challenge donations and join fees are paid out with your other income, through your usual DONATE payouts. There are no setup fees.
Fees
- Organisations on charity rates: 4.5 per cent plus 22p on a donation or join fee without Gift Aid, and 40 per cent of the Gift Aid plus 22p on a donation with Gift Aid, with no percentage taken from the donation itself.
- Organisations that are not charities pay 5 per cent plus 22p. Gift Aid is only claimed for charities.
- A small VAT amount on the fee is also deducted. Every payment in your portal shows its fee and the net amount to you.
- Charges on each payout: a usage fee of £3 for each week (Monday to Sunday) in which your organisation receives £10 or more, and a transfer charge of 0.5 per cent of the payout (at least £3) plus £7.50. Organisations without charity rates pay 1.5 per cent plus £7.50.
Gift Aid
- Sponsorship donations can carry Gift Aid when the sponsor gets nothing back. DONATE claims it and pays it to you with your payout. Do not claim Gift Aid on these payments yourself as well.
- Gift Aid cannot be claimed on money participants put towards their own place or costs, including sponsoring themselves to reach a minimum.
- A fee people must pay to join is not a gift, so Gift Aid cannot be claimed on it. Entry fees are never Gift Aided.
Refunds
- Refund a join fee from the three dots menu on the member.
- Declining a paid request to join tries to refund the fee and shows Any join fee has been refunded. A refund that fails is not shown to you, so check the refund in your donations list.
- Removing a member never refunds their join fee.
Settings reference
New team challenge
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign | The campaign the challenge raises for. Everything the team raises counts towards it. | Required |
| Challenge name | Shown on the team page and on the campaign page. Up to 150 characters. | Required |
| Team name | Optional. Shown at the top of the team page and in your portal. | Empty |
| Target | Optional. Shown on the team page. | None |
Settings, Challenge details
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Challenge name | Shown on the team page and the campaign page. | Required |
| Team name | Shown to donors. Your portal falls back to the challenge name when it is empty. | Empty |
| Description | What the challenge is and why it matters. Shown on the team page. | Empty |
| Starts and Ends | Shown on the team page. After the end date the challenge is labelled Ended, but donations are still accepted. | Empty |
| Fundraising target | The team's target, shown on the team page. | 0 |
| Team logistics | Meeting point, what to bring and timings. Emailed to members. The team page shows it too for now, so keep it free of anything private. | Empty |
| Cover image | Shown on the team page. JPG or PNG, 5MB at most. | None |
| Route / venue map | Shown on the team page and linked in the welcome email. 10MB at most. | None |
Settings, Joining
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Allow people to request to join | Shows Join in on the team page. | Off from Challenges, on from the campaign page |
| Approval not required | People who ask to join are let straight in. Off means you approve each one. | Off |
| Entries | What people pay to take part and the sponsorship target they start with. Entry fees are never Gift Aided. Paid joining does not work yet, so do not add an entry with a fee. | None: anyone can join free |
| Registration | What people are asked when they sign up: Date of birth, Emergency contact, Medical notes and your own questions. Holds the Registration link. Changes save automatically. | All off |
Members
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| How should they join | Send an email invitation they accept, or add them straight away with a welcome email. | Email invitation |
| Role | Captain can manage the team from their DONATE account, where it is shown as Admin. The first member added is captain. | Team member |
| Personal fundraising target | Kept with the member and included in the Export. | 0 |
| Profile visibility | Public or Internal. Internal is not honoured yet: the team page lists every member who has joined either way. | Internal when you add them |
| Bio or note | Shown on the member's own page. | Empty |
Campaign, Challenges section
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Let supporters suggest their own challenges | Adds a Suggest option to the campaign page. Supporters can suggest a challenge either way, and each one waits for your approval. | Off |
Emails DONATE sends for you
| When | Who gets it | |
|---|---|---|
| Invitation | When you add a member with an email invitation, or click Resend invitation. | The member |
| Welcome | When you add a member straight away, approve a request, or someone joins a team that needs no approval. Includes the team logistics and map. | The member |
| Join request | When someone asks to join a team that needs approval. | Team captains, and a browser alert to your portal users |
| Team update | When you click Notify team. Includes the team logistics. | Every member who has joined |
| New suggestion | When a supporter suggests a challenge. | Your organisation's main contact |
| In Preview | People who join from the team page get no email. Members you add, approve or email from the portal do get real emails. |
Questions
- How are Team challenges different from Events?
- Team challenges are team focused: supporters fundraise together, and each member gets their own dedicated donation page and link. Events sell entry tickets to a dinner, show or open day, with a QR code that is scanned to let each guest in at the door.
- How do I set up a team fundraising challenge?
- In your DONATE portal, click Challenges, then New team challenge. Choose the campaign it raises for, give it a name, a team name and a target, then add the details, joining rules and members on the challenge's own page.
- Does every team member get their own fundraising page?
- Yes. Every member has their own page and personal link, with a QR code. Donations made through their link are credited to them and count towards the team and the campaign.
- Can we charge an entry fee to join a team?
- Not yet. Paid joining does not work yet: the payment form does not load. Do not add an entry with a fee, and collect any entry fee another way until DONATE confirms it is fixed. Gift Aid can never be claimed on a join fee.
- Can we claim Gift Aid on a challenge entry fee?
- No. A fee people must pay to join is not a gift, so Gift Aid cannot be claimed on it, and entry fees are never Gift Aided. Sponsorship donations can carry Gift Aid when the sponsor gets nothing back, but not money participants put towards their own place or costs, including sponsoring themselves to reach a minimum.
- Do join fees count towards our fundraising total?
- No. Your portal totals, the team page and members' own dashboards leave join fees out. Join fees are listed with your donations with the channel Join-Fee and paid out to you.
- How do I refund a join fee?
- On the challenge's Members tab, click the three dots on the member and choose Refund join fee. Declining a paid request to join also tries to refund the fee, but a failed refund is not shown to you, so check it in your donations list. Removing a member never refunds their fee.
- Can supporters set up their own challenge for our charity?
- Supporters can always suggest a challenge, and each suggestion waits for your approval. Switching on Let supporters suggest their own challenges adds a Suggest option to the campaign page. Approving a suggestion also publishes its campaign if it is not live, which skips the publish ticks and ends Preview, so publish the campaign yourself first.
- Do team captains need access to our portal?
- No. Make a member Captain and they manage the team from their own DONATE account. Your portal stays yours.
- How do I send the team the meeting point and timings?
- Type them in Team logistics and save. New members get them in their welcome email. To update everyone, click Notify team on the Members tab.
- Can I try a team challenge before it goes live?
- Yes. While its campaign has never been published, a challenge runs in Preview. Use the preview link to join and give. While in Preview, people who join from the team page get no email and pay nothing. Members you add, approve or email from the portal do get real emails. People who joined from the team page are removed when you go live, and members you added from the portal stay.
- How do I make a team challenge live?
- Publish the campaign it raises for. Switch the campaign's Live switch on and confirm the promotion rules. Its approved challenges go live with it.
- Where do I find the link for a team?
- Share your campaign link. The campaign page lists every team so supporters can choose one. Team members can share their own personal link and team link from their DONATE account.
- What happens when the challenge end date passes?
- The challenge is labelled Ended in your portal. Donations are still accepted, so late sponsorship still reaches you.
- How do I see how much each team member has raised?
- Open the challenge and click Members. Each member shows their total and number of donations. Open a member to see each donation, or click Export for a CSV.
- How much does it cost to run a team challenge?
- There are no setup fees. For organisations on charity rates, a donation or join fee without Gift Aid costs 4.5 per cent plus 22p, and a donation with Gift Aid costs 40 per cent of the Gift Aid plus 22p. Without charity rates it is 5 per cent plus 22p, and no Gift Aid is claimed. Gift Aid is only for charities. Each payout also carries a weekly usage fee and a transfer charge, set out in Fees and Gift Aid.