Charlotte Foster

I work with charities to reduce avoidable dropouts, protect fundraising income, and strengthen supporter relationships in challenge events.

About

Challenge events raise serious money for UK charities. JustGiving reported that £235m was raised through events on its platform in 2025 alone.

I work alongside your fundraising and events teams to:

• Reduce avoidable dropout, so more of the places you’ve paid for generate fundraising income instead of costing you time and money.
• Help runners feel confident they can complete the challenge, so they feel confident asking for sponsorship and keep working toward their target.
• Keep runners engaged with training and fundraising, so a rough training block doesn’t turn into disengagement from the whole event.
• Take the training-support burden off your fundraising and events staff, so they can spend their time on stewardship and income-generating work instead of answering running questions.
• Build a better participant experience, one that doesn’t end at the finish line, so you get more repeat fundraising and ongoing support.

But the people who sign up for these events often have a deep connection to the charity and bucket loads of enthusiasm to raise money. They don’t necessarily have a running, hiking, or gym-going background.

When training goes wrong, or never really gets going, dropouts follow. Sometimes it’s injury. Sometimes it’s a runner losing confidence they’ll finish the event, or hit their fundraising target.

Dropouts cost your charity money: unused event places, lost fundraising income, and a missed chance to build awareness for your cause.

Your fundraising team is great at supporter stewardship. But they’re not running and fitness coaches, and they shouldn’t have to be.

That’s where I come in. I support the stewardship experience and protect the fundraising opportunity in your challenge events.

I’m an England Athletics qualified running and fitness coach, and I work specifically with charity challenge event participants, especially the beginners and “ordinary” people who don’t see themselves as runners.

Most charity runners aren’t athletes. They’re supporters taking on something hard because they have a story to tell and a cause to champion. Their story matters more than their PB.

The 2026 Mass Participation Pulse Report found that confidence in fitness and ability is a key driver for people who expect to take part in more events: 39% of men and 35% of women gave this as a reason. The same report points to retaining existing participants, and moving them into higher-value events, as a major opportunity for growth.

So confidence matters twice over. It affects this year’s event, and whether that runner signs up again next year.

A runner who stays engaged with training stays engaged with their event. That gives your fundraising team more room to build the relationship, encourage long-term giving, and keep that person connected to your cause.

My support includes group and 1:1 running and fitness coaching, in-person training days, and charity-branded resources runners can use while they train, including private podcasts.

If you run your charity’s Challenge Events programme and you’re worried about dropouts, supporters missing fundraising targets, or participants drifting away after the event, get in touch through the contact form below.