What is The Grand Challenge?
The Grand Challenge (previously known as Bnk It!) is a competitive team-building challenge for our corporate supporters running from April till June 2026. It gives staff a unique opportunity to get involved with Money Ready. Teams of participants will compete to turn £100 seed money (sourced from the corporate) into a Grand (£1,000) or more to support financial education. The goal is to make as much money as possible for Money Ready, and the team that banks the most wins!
Why should I get involved?
The Grand Challenge is a fantastic opportunity that offers intensive professional development for staff at all levels. Spanning 3 months, participants will flex their innovation and entrepreneurial abilities, with opportunities to test their problem-solving skills, network with other industry professionals, and build relationships within their team. Time spent on this challenge will contribute to your CSR quota.
This is a great challenge for Graduates to take part in. They will acquire new skills, build relationships with colleagues and help make a difference to your charity partner.
How does it work?
- Put together a team of staff from your organisation (between 4-10 people maximum). You should elect a dedicated Team Leader, Financial Lead, Communications Lead, and any other positions that you feel will be beneficial to the success of your team.
- You can enter multiple teams from you organisation and compete against each other, but to ensure resources aren’t spread to finely we suggest no more than 3 teams per corporate.
- Source an Executive Sponsor from within your organisation. Your sponsor will fund you £100 investment for the challenge.
- Money Ready will provide a bank of mentors on hand to support the team’s efforts throughout the challenge.
- Strategise a way to turn your £100 investment into a minimum of £1,000 for Money Ready.
- How will you raise funds in The Grand Challenge? Teams can raise money for Money Ready in any way they want. You could hold a gala dinner, sell merchandise for your organisation, hold a ticketed panel event, take part in a challenge event, or get creative and come up with something new.
Become a Grand Challenge Mentor
We are looking for people to inspire and support our competing teams by sharing personal experience and the skills needed to successfully complete The Grand Challenge.
Mentors will have the opportunity to make a big impact by supporting our competing teams in their fundraising mission, by sharing their time and skills.
The role will include:
- Delivering a short 15-minute learning session on how to inspire teams and give practical insight on how to rally the troops and get colleagues supporting their fundraising campaign.
- Writing a blog or guide sharing your top tips to be shared throughout the competition.
- Being available to support teams throughout the challenge by offering advice via email or short Teams calls, depending on the needs of the team.
- Being available during launch week to join a kick-off call with the competing teams.
This is a fantastic opportunity to share your knowledge, inspire creativity, and help teams maximise their fundraising impact.
To find out more about becoming a mentor, email us at
How to apply to be a mentor:
Email a cover letter to [email protected] detailing why you would like to get involved with this initiative and what you can offer to perspective corporate teams on their mission to bank as much money as possible for The Grand Challenge.
Details to include:
- Place of work
- Job title
- Previous experience of working in a team towards a target within a tight deadline.
Interested in being a sponsor?
For organisations that would love to get involved but aren’t able to enter a team please consider sponsoring an element of the campaign to ensure its success.
Past events
The Grand Challenge is one of the best corporate challenges I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of. It combines commerciality and fun with raising money and throws in a healthy dose of competition for good measure. It was fantastic to see how well colleagues from all across the business worked together, generating all sorts of ideas, collaborating on making things to sell or organising events. It was an honour to be part of such a great team raising money for such an amazing charity.Andrew Frame, Foresters Financial
Frequently Asked Questions
Money Ready is a charity dedicated to creating a financially fluent population. Everyone needs to be able to manage their money. Yet almost two-thirds of young adults do not recall receiving any financial education at all, and 53 per cent are worried that they will never be financially secure.
We deliver expert-designed, high-impact programmes through schools and communities across the UK, bringing the language of money to life. From early money habits to lifelong financial resilience, we make money make sense. Learn more: www.moneyready.org
The Grand Challenge is a competitive team-building challenge for our corporate supporters. It gives their staff a unique opportunity to get involved with Money Ready. Teams of participants will compete to turn £100 seed money, sourced from within their corporate, into at least a grand- £1,000 to support financial education. The goal is to make as much money as possible for Money Ready, and the team that banks the most wins!
Teams can raise money for Money Ready in any way they like. You could hold a gala dinner, sell merchandise for your organisation, hold a ticketed panel event, take part in a challenge event, or get creative and come up with something new.
Information on how to pay in fundraising is included in the Information pack that teams receive once they have registered to take part in the challenge. There are a number of options including setting up a fundraising page on our fundraising platform enthuse, or direct bank transfer.
There is the expectation that each team will raise at least £1,000 over the 3-month period, and we will support their efforts in doing so. Each team will have access to a mentor to develop ideas and make sure the team is on track to raise the funds, so we are confident that all participants will reach their target. In a worst-case scenario, we would expect that the organisation will make up any shortfall so that all teams can complete the competition.
Yes!
We recommend that your team is based in the same region and/or office for the ease of organising your challenge and meeting with your mentor. However, it is not essential as long as your ability to complete the challenge to its full potential is not hindered. Teams must be made of 4-10 people from your organisation.
We recommend that your team meets at least one hour per month and have open communication in between meetings via Teams/ Wats app or other platforms where you can easily keep on top of plans.