FAQs

Walk for Autism is a virtual fundraising challenge to walk 10,000 steps every day for eight days. This year’s event is taking place from Tuesday 26th March to Tuesday 2nd April 2024 (inclusive). We encourage anyone and everyone to sign up, get active and raise funds to support autism!

It's easy to get involved:

• Click the 'Register' button above
• Once you have completed your registration, personalise your fundraising page
• Share your page with your family, friends and colleagues
• Get Walking!

We choose these dates because 2nd April is 'World Autism Acceptance Day'.  We are aware that this year these dates fall in the school Easter holidays and also cover the Easter weekend. 

This may mean you have more free time to get your steps in, but also please feel free to adapt the days of your walking challenge to fit in with your holidays.  Let your supporters know and keep sharing your progress especially on 2nd April.

Let's light up social media with posts that shout about autism acceptance and understanding!   

Walk for Autism is a fundraising challenge. So as soon as you receive donations of £20 or 20 euro to your online fundraising page, we will send you a Walk for Autism T-shirt to say keep up the good work and thank you!  We are sending your t-shirt to you by Royal Mail.

Pop your T-shirt on and take that all important T-shirt selfie and share it with friends and family with your page link and let's see how much money you can raise.  This year we would love to light up social media with #selfiesunday - so please join in and post a selfie photo of you in your T-shirt on social media and use the hashtag #selfiesunday and also the tag @wewalkforautism.

We aim to get your T-shirt to you within 7 days of your fundraising page hitting £20 or 20 euro. So let us know if this isn't the case and we can check up on it. Email hello@walkforautism.co.uk

The Walk for Autism campaign has been so super successful this year so we had to put a deadline of raising £20 or 20 euro by 18 March to get your T-shirt in time for the walking week.

So if you started fundraising after this date and are still waiting for your T-shirt, do not worry, we will get one to you as soon as we can and you will still be able to wear it with pride albeit after the walking week.

YES! Every step counts.....and so does every penny.

It's important to fundraise no matter how big or small to help us provide the best possible opportunities for autistic people.  

Aim for at least £10 or €10 euro per day of the walking week, so £80 or €80 in total.  You may raise less than that, but perhaps you can raise much more.  There's no minimum sponsorship required but every penny or cent counts so please try your best.  

Start by making a personal donation to your page -  show everyone as you share your page, how much you care and this will encourage them to support you too.  

When you hit £20 or €20 you receive a tremendous T shirt to wear with pride as you Walk for Autism.

You receive rewards for the amount of funds you raise.

When you raise £20 or €20 we send you your Walk for Autism T-shirt, this arrives within 7 days of your page hitting your first £20 or €20 

The rest of the rewards are sent out in May and reflect the total raised on your page. 

For total raised up to £50 or €50 you receive an email thank you with certificate and 'cut and stick trophy' attached to the email.

Total raised £125 or €125 you receive a wicked Walk for Autism wristband with a printed thank you certificate.

Total raised £250 or €250 you receive a marvelous Walk for Autism medal, a wristband and a printed thank You certificate.

If you hit £500 or €500 you will become one of our Fundraising Legends and will appear on our Fundraising Legends wall and celebration confetti will fly on your fundraising page! You will also receive a marvelous Walk for Autism legend medal, a wristband, a printed thank you certificate and a hand written thank you card.

You will have been sent a cut and stick Collection Box in your welcome pack


Follow the folding and sticking instructions on the back of the A4 sheet to create a snall charity collection box that can be used for saving small change or asking for small donations from friends and family.

Every penny and every pound really counts in your Walk for Autism fundraising challenge!!  

This is an easy way to collect your first £20 so you can then donate it to your online fundraising page which will trigger the despatch of your Walk for Autism T-Shirt ! 

• You will receive a confirmation text and email
• Your Welcome Pack will be sent to you within a week or so of registering to take part
• Your Welcome Pack contains The Essential Guide to Fundraising, a sponsorship form, a collection box to make, and a card explaining how you get your T-shirt
• Your T-shirt will be sent out as soon as your online fundraising page hits £20
• It's a virtual event so keep in touch on social media @wewalkforautism and use #wewalkforautism
• We'll keep in touch with a few texts and emails but don't worry, you'll love our inspiring words!
• You can also join our Closed Facebook Group too - look out for invites via text and email

You can walk solo or as a team with friends, family or work colleagues.

You can Walk for Autism in groups together in parks or favourite walking routes. Or you can walk 'together' in different areas, beacuse Walk for Autism is virtual, you can connect with Team members virtually and you can walk at the same time and 'walk together' no matter where they are. So if you live in Exeter and your sister lives in Edinburgh you can still arrange your lunchtime walk together virtually. 

Even if you are walking solo you can be assured that many thousands of like minded people are walking 'with' you.  You will be invited to join our closed Facebook 'Walk for Autism Community Group' , because this is a great way to see other peoples photos and stories and you can share yours too - this is an amazing way to cheer each other on! 

Look out for the link to our closed Facebook Group sent by text message when your page hits £20

We would like everyone taking part to do so during this week. Tuesday 2nd April is World Autism Acceptance Day too so it's great timing. However that said, this is a virtual event and you can choose to walk any time that suits you. You may wish to walk before the dates or after them. But whatever you do, please tell us so we can cheer you all the way!

We are aware that the dates this year fall in the school Easter holidays and actually span the Easter weekend.  This may mean you have more free time to get your steps in so it is better for you, but we understand if you need to adapt your walking challenge days around arranged holiday plans.  Please remember to let your supporters know when you are walking so they can cheer you on and sponsor your challenge! 

It’s easy!

Use your phone to count your steps or search 'free steps tracker' in your app store so you can use your phone to count your steps.

You can record your steps on your online fundraising page, this is easy too ...
Log on to your fundraising page, go to 'My Fitness Activity' via your Dashboard, and enter the date and the number of steps - then press SAVE. This logs your steps immediately and it will show the number of steps logged on your fundraising page.

You can also 'sync' your fitness device to your page too if you wish, This logs your steps the next day.
Fitbit, 'MapMyFitness' and Garmin can be connected to your fundraising page so you can sync the app you choose on to your 'My Fitness Activity' page. Remember to 'start' your walking activity and 'end' it on your app. Also please note, your steps will only register on your fundraising page the following day.

During the walking week 26 March to 2 April, everyone's steps will be shown on the home page as an awesome 'totalizer', showing the grand total number of steps totalled from everyon's individual pages!  WOW!  We wonder how many million steps we can step together?!

We hope we have everything covered so whoever you are and wherever you are in the UK and Ireland you can take part easily!

Let's face it, some people just prefer to deal with cash. If you receive 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 of the same amount with your own bank card to your page. This means the total showing on the home page as 'raised so far' is accurate. If you are unsure how to do this, please contact the Walking Buddies at hello@walkforautism.co.uk and we can help you.

Yes you can make a payment with Euros!
Walk For Autism is taking place in the UK and Ireland, and online payments from Irish bank cards and credit cards are of course accepted on our website. 

However, the payment default sign on the amount box shows as £, no matter what currency is being donated unfortunately, but please don't worry, the donation will be automatically calculated at the current exchange rate and will appear as Euros on your bank statement. 

Card payments are accepted from 171 countries and all currencies, likewise with Paypal.

Make sure you share your page using the share options on your fundraising page.  These sit 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 from your fundraising page link options. When you log into your page you will see the options to share via Facebook, Twitter, email, SMS, Linkedin or WhatsApp under the donate button. These then connect to the appropriate app in the device you are using.  

Depending on what device you are using (mobile, desktop, iPad, tablet etc.) it may take from between a few moments to a number of hours to highlight the share achievement badge. 

If it hasn't highlighted in 24 hours please email hello@walkforautism.co.uk and we can ask our tech team to help you.

The steps tracker on the home page will be live from 26th March to 2nd April. The steps tracker will combine all our wonderful walkers' steps into one grand total. So please make sure you add the steps to your page during the walking week. You can sync FitBit and 'MapMyFitness' to your page.

If you are using another steps counter or pedometer you can also add the steps to your page manually. To manually add steps to your page just click on your profile pic which is in the top right corner of your page and then click on My Fitness Activity. Choose the date and add the number of steps then click +Activity then SAVE. Your steps will immediately appear on your page with this method.

You can change your steps target here too - so if 80,000 steps is too many or not enough for you, simply amend the target and then add your daily steps and it will all be counted on the Steps Tracker on the home page in the walking week.

Please note that your synced app will add steps to your page the following day

When using Fitbit, you must ‘start’ an activity and 'save' it or your daily steps will not automatically add to your page. If you are having issues, try syncing through BOTH your Fitbit and the Fitbit app on your smartphone.

When using MapMyFitness, you must ‘start’ your workout, ‘stop’ your workout and then ‘SAVE’ your workout.

Your tally will be updated each day with the previous day’s distances.

The steps achievement badges are only activated during the walking week 26th March to 2nd April. So make sure to log your steps this week. You can sync with Fitbit, Garmin or 'MapMyFitness' during this week too. Please remember that your daily steps appear on your page the following day when using a synced app) If you are doing your steps early, late or a bit at a time, just make a note of your steps and add them to your page manually from the 26th March to trigger your achievement badge so you can show all your supporters that you have completed the challenge. To add steps to your page manually simply log in and click on your profile pic top right, then click on My Fitness Activity. Add the date and the number of steps and then SAVE. Please note the steps achievement badges will be highlighted on all pages on the 2nd April.

When adding your steps manually on your page in 'My Fitness Activity' please ensure you press SAVE after entering the date and the number of steps.

If using a synced app, please remember to 'start' your walking activity on your app and also 'finish' your walking activity and then SAVE. Please note your steps will not immediately appear on your page when using a synced app, they appear on your page the following day.

Yes you can.  All our walkers may set their steps target as part of the registration process.  The target is set at 10.000 steps a day but you may increase or decrease this target, whatever works best for you.  Perhaps 5,000 steps a day is best for you or maybe 20,000 steps are!  It's your challenge!