Walk 50 miles FAQs

It's our new Shelter Facebook challenge for you to take on! We’re asking you to make your miles count and walk 50 of them in March to support us.

The challenge is open to everyone. If you are under 18, you will need to sign up with an adult.

You can complete the sit-up challenge anywhere you like. You can stay up to date with the government’s latest coronavirus guidelines at gov.uk/coronavirus.

It’s free to sign up!

There’s no minimum amount you have to raise. We'd just be grateful if you raise what you can.

It’s really easy to sign up – all you need to do is join our Facebook group.

If you’re not on Facebook, then email us and we’ll make sure you’re registered on our system.

You have the whole month of March.

No! You can structure the challenge in whatever way works for you. You might want to do two miles every day, or maybe attempt a long walk at the weekend. You can structure this challenge however works best for you! 

Absolutely. March will be our main challenge month when most people are taking part, but you can take on this challenge when it works for you. The more people sign up, the more impact we can have. 

If you don’t quite manage to hit 50 miles in March, this isn’t a problem! The most important thing is that you’ve challenged yourself. If you want to complete the challenge, you could always give yourself a bit longer to do it. 

No, we trust you. You don’t need to provide evidence that you’ve completed the challenge to us, but updating your friends and family on your fundraising page is important! Make sure you keep them posted on your progress and share videos and photos. The more, the better. 

You can set one up in a few seconds on our  Facebook page. Don’t forget to include 'Walk 50 Miles in March' in the title of your fundraising page and set the end date to 1 April. Otherwise your page will close after just seven days. 

When you log into Facebook and go to your fundraiser page, click the three dots to hide or delete your extra fundraiser. If you close a page which had some donations, don’t worry – the money will still come through to Shelter.

Most donations will show on your fundraiser within about 48 hours (it will take a little longer if the donation was made at the weekend). If it’s still not showing up after this time, there’s a couple of things to check:

• If someone donated from another country, it can take much longer for the donation to come through

• The donation might not have been processed – check if the person who donated has seen the money leave their account

• If someone made a donation through PayPal, it will take a bit longer to show up

• Your sponsor might have clicked the ‘Donate Now’ button, which takes them to donate directly to Shelter rather than to your fundraiser. This means that, although the money has come through to Shelter, it won’t show up on your Facebook Fundraiser. The person who donated can check their donation email receipt which will tell them what happened. We should be able to then credit this to your fundraising.

If you’ve checked all of this but the donation still isn’t showing, drop us an email at facebookchallenge@shelter.org.uk.

It’s really easy to change the end date on your fundraising page, so make sure you do so, if needed – otherwise it will close after seven days!

1. Go to your fundraising page

2. Click edit under the main image and headline

3. Scroll down to the box that says set the end date

4. Select 1 November or later

5. Click save in the top right

No – all money that people donate on Facebook will come through to us automatically, so there’s nothing more you need to do.

The money you raise helps provide support and advice to the millions of people whose jobs and homes are under threat right now. It also helps us campaign for a stronger safety net for everyone – which includes building more social homes and protecting renters from discrimination and eviction.

It was a difficult 2021, and there’s still so much work to be done to keep people safe. With your help, we can make a big difference to people’s lives.

Cash donations should be paid into your own account, then you can make the equivalent donation to your online fundraising page. Alternatively, you can send us a cheque or make a bank transfer.

Here's how to make offline donations via cheque and bank transfer.

The money you raise will go to the areas of our work that need it most. This allows us to be more efficient with your donations meaning we can reach more people that need our help.

We recommend using Facebook, as it means that all your fundraising and challenge information is in one place.

However, if you don’t have Facebook then we recommend using either JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving for online fundraising. Alternatively, you can use our sponsorship forms. Whatever you choose, please let us know by emailing facebookchallenge@shelter.org.uk. Please remember to include your fundraising page link in the email.

The Facebook Group will be monitored on weekdays from 9am-9pm.

Yes – in fact, we’d love you to! Share progress pics of your challenge, ask questions if you’re unsure about anything, and get advice from the rest of Team Shelter about how you can fundraise. The Facebook group is yours to use.

You can request a T-shirt by setting up your fundraising page and completing this form.

You should receive your T-shirt within 7-10 working days of submitting your form.

Unfortunately, we only have a limited stock of sit-up challenge T-shirts so we can only send them out to registered participants.