What is Run for Autism?
Run for Autism is a fundraising challenge to run 40km in October.
Run for Autism is a personal challenge to raise funds and increase autism acceptance and understanding. Wearing your T shirt and sharing your autism story on your fundraising page increases autism acceptance and understanding! Your autism story is unique, and you can use your running challenge as a way of spreading the word and raising funds for charity too!
You can run at a time chosen by you outdoors in the fresh air or run indoors at the gym! Run for Autism can be done at your own pace, in your own time. There are no set events to attend.
It's easy to get involved:
- Click the 'Register' button and sign up to Run for Autism!
- Once you have completed your registration, please personalise your fundraising page with a photo and some personal words about your autism story and why you are taking part. Who are you running for? . Stats prove that personalising your page increases your chance of reaching your fundraising target.
- Share your online fundraising page link with your family, friends and colleagues, on social media, by email or by WhatsApp, your family and friends are sure to support you!
- After registration, you will receive your welcome pack which includes fundraising tips, and a sponsorship form, When you raise your first £20 on your page we will send you a FREE sport T shirt!
- Then plan your running! To run 40km in October is a real challenge! There are 31 days in October - how will you plan your running? Two 5k runs a week? One 10k run every week? Or maybe you will split the kms into smaller achievable runs, maybe 2k five times a week? You could aim to run the 40k in one hit! The choice is yours!
- Sign up here www.runforautism.co.uk
When will I recieve my FREE Run for Autism T-shirt?
Making a personal donation to your page helps towards your T shirt £20 reward target. If you have any cash donations you can pay them into your own bank account and make a personal donation to your page with your own bank card, this will help too.
Run for Autism is a fundraising challenge and we encourage every runner to wear their Run for Autism T-shirt with pride when they are completing their running challenges. So please wear your Run for Autism t shirt to show your community that you are fundraising for autism, that you are taking on this awesome running challenge to raise funds for autism projects across the UK and Ireland!
We also encourage you to take photos and t-shrt selfies to share on social media wearing your Run for Autism t shirt with your online fundraising page link to encourage donations and also increase autism acceptance and understanding across social media too using the hashtag #werunforautism .
Do I have to fundraise?
Yes! Run For Autism is a fundraising challenge! So every run counts.....and so does every donation!
It's important to fundraise no matter how big or small to help us provide the best possible opportunities for autistic people.
There's no minimum sponsorship required but every penny counts so please try your best. You can find lots of ideas and advice on our web page How to Fundraise
You will also be sent a 'Welcome Pack' through the post, which will include a 'Sponsorship Form', a 'Fundraising Guide' and 2 fundraising sheets to get you started. A 'Name the Bear' sheet (you will need to supply the bear) and a 'Treasure Map' fundraiser sheet too. Both are great fun and will get your supporters engaged in your fundraising.
Another idea to kick start your fundraising is by making a personal donation to your page - show everyone you share your page with how much you care and this will encourage them to support you too.
We really appreciate fantastic fundraisers like you! You are raising vital funds for autism projects in the UK and Ireland whilst increasing autism acceptance and understanding.
All funds raised benefits the registered charity Autism Initiatives Group (Registerd charity number 1170634) www.autisminitiatives.org
By taking part in Run for Autism, we will step closer to a world where every person on the autism spectrum has the support they need to thrive, every opportunity to fulfil their potential and a supportive, inclusive community to live in.
By joining our closed Facebook group you can share deas and ask for help too, you can join our closed facebook group here.
You can do this! You can reach your fundraising target! If you need any help please email fundraising@autisminitiatives.org
What do I receive when I sign up?
- When you sign up to Run for Autism you will recieve a confirmation text and email with the link to your unique online fundraising page
- You will then be sent out a 'Welcome Pack' in the post containing a sponsorship form, a 'how to fundraise' leaflet, and 2 fundraising ideas sheets.
- Your FREE Run for Autism T-shirt and another sponsorship form will be sent out as soon as your fundraising page reaches £20.
- You will also receive a text message when you have raised your first £20 with an invitation to join our closed Facebook Group, you will then see a special thank you shout out video
- Run for Autism is a virtual event so keep in touch on social media #werunforautism and on our Closed Facebook group
- We'll keep in touch with a few texts and emails but don't worry, you'll love our inspiring words!
Can I run as a team?
Yes you can run as a team! This is a great way to motivate each other! You can run together or individually, but taking on Run for Autism as a team creates comaradary and you can cheer each other on sharing your run times and your fundraising power!
Creating a team links your individual fundraising pages together and create a team page. All donations made to all the individual pages total automatically and show as a team total on the team page. Your team page can have a cool team name, keep it short and snappy,
The easiest way to create a team page is when you are registering as an individual. At a point in the registration process you will see a prompt 'Do you want to create a team?'. Follow the instructions and invite your friends to join you either by email, SMS or Facebook.
When your friends accept your invitation to join your team they will create their own individual fundraising page too.
Please remember that your Run for Autism T shirt is scheduled to be sent out to you when you hit £20 on your individual page (the team page will not accept direct donations, only donations on individual pages).
If you decide to create a team after you have completed your individual fundraising page, just log in to your page and go into the 'Dashboard' area of your page and select 'Creat a team' and follow the instructions there. Invite people to join your team from your page.
GO TEAM!
You can do this!
How do I track my running km's?
It’s easy! You can add km's manually on to your fundraising page and the km's appear straight away. However, if you sync an app your cycling km's will appear on your page the following day.
To manually add your km's to your page, log in to your page and go to 'My Fitness Activity'. Then scroll down and clisk '+ Add Activity' then enter the date and the number of km's you have run and scroll down and click 'Save'
You can also 'sync' a fitness app to your page if youi wish. MapMyFitness, FitBit or Garmin - you can download these free Apps from your online store of choice to your phone and then sync them to your fundraising page. Please note you need to 'start' and 'finish' your run in the app and then the km's will appear on your page the next day.
You can convert miles to km's on the settings if required. You can also select the 'spinning' option on your FitBit to track you km's while using an exercise bike.
TOP TIP It's much easier to add your km's manually to your fundraising page
How do I add a cash donation?
Let's face it, some people just prefer to deal with cash. If you recieve cash, of course you'll want to add the amount to your page, so the best thing to do is keep the money or bank it and make a personal donation with your own bank card for the same amount to your page.
This means the total showing on the home page as 'raised so far' is accurate. If you are unable to do this, please contact us at fundraising@autisminitiatives.org and we can help you.
Can I make payment in Euros?
Yes you can! So don't forget to send the link to your page to all those long lost relatives who live in other countries! The payment default sign shows as £, no matter what currency, so don't worry about that. Card payments are accepted from 171 countries, likewise with Paypal.
I've shared my page but my achievement badge isn't highlighted.
Make sure you share your page using the share option on your page. This sits just below the donate button. If you copy and paste the url of your fundraising page, you will not trigger the badge. You must share through the website. When you log into your page you will see the option to share via Facebook, X, email, SMS, Linkedin or WhatsApp.
If your badge is still not showing it may be due to the security settings on your device, do not worry, please send us an email and we can help.
How do I add km's to my page?
The activity tracker on the home page will be live from Wednesday 1st October to Friday 31 October. The activity tracker will show your personal km's you have run on your fundraising page and will also combine all our super runners' km's into one grand total that will show on the home page www.runforautism.co.uk
So please make sure you add your km's to your page during the challenge month. If you sync with a fitness app your km's will be automatically added to your page during the running challenge month.
The best way to add km's is to add them manually to your page. To manuall add your km's to your page, log in to your page and go to 'My Fitness Activity'. Then scroll down and clisk '+ Add Activity' then enter the date and the number of km's you have run and scroll down and click 'Save'
