How to raise donations free and avoid the pitfalls of charity challenges

Time and again we are told by climbers of problems they experienced setting up a charity climb on Kilimanjaro. These are the main things they have complained about.

  • You have to pay a big up front deposit yourself – up to £500 before you can even register and if you are unable to climb for any reason you lose all this.

  • The total amount you are required to raise can be huge, often well over £4000pp when the cost of the climb and flight is no more than £2000.

  • If you don't raise the full amount then you either lose the deposit and cannot do the climb or you have to make up all of the difference yourself.

  • You cannot decide for yourself how much of the cost you self fund-each charity challenge company has slightly different rules but the bottom line is you do not get to decide.

  • The total cost built into the "charity climb" that you end up paying is often way over the top, generally you find the cost is about £500 more than a fair price.

  • If you do not raise the full amount or are unable to climb for any reason, donations that have already been passed onto the charity by your friends cannot be returned - this has proven to be very embarrassing in a number of cases!

  • Also if you use justgiving they charge you 5% of everything you raise which again is a lot of money.

What do we recommend for Charity Climb Kilimanjaro?

  • Book with us and only pay a deposit of £200pp
  • Benefit from our lowest price so more goes to your charity
  • Decide for yourself how much you want to self fund
  • Relax knowing that if you cannot climb your deposit will be returned
  • And to avoid paying commission on the money you raise try this: -
    • Set up an email address for your charity climb e.g. Jane's_Kilimanjaro_climb@gmail.com

    • Set up a paypal account with this email and get your friends and family to send donations to this account as gifts - paypal charge you nothing for this.

When you have raised all the funds you can pay for the climb from the paypal account directly and send all the rest of the money direct to the charity. If you do not go ahead for any reason you simply refund the donations and that is that.