Charity Team Building Ideas: 12 Events Where a Charity Keeps What You Build

We ran our first charity team building event in 2011. Thirty four bikes, a room in East London, and a charity van that turned up at the end to take them away. The thing that struck us then still holds now: nobody talked about the challenges afterwards. They talked about the van.

Since then more than 60,000 people have built something with us, and we have learned which events work for which kinds of team, and which ones sound good on paper but die in a room full of accountants. This guide is that experience, written down.

It covers what charity team building actually is and why it works when other team days do not, twelve events we run and who each one suits, how to choose between them, what they cost, and how to get one booked. If you already have a headcount, you can get a price in about a minute and read the rest later.

What is charity team building?

Charity team building is a team event where the output goes to a charity. The team builds bikes, and the bikes go to people who need them. The build itself is the donation, not something added on top.

That is a narrower definition than most companies use. A team day with a raffle for charity at the end is a team day. A volunteering afternoon painting a community centre is volunteering, and worthwhile, but the fence gets painted whether the team worked well together or not. In a build, the bike does not get finished unless the team does.

It is also not a quiz, a cooking class or an escape room with a charity donation attached. Those leave nothing behind. A charity build leaves equipment, a photograph of it changing hands, and a figure you can put in a report.

Why does charity team building work better than a normal team day?

Most team days go wrong in one of two ways. Either the activity only needs a few people at a time, so the rest watch, or there are twenty separate things to do and the room never does anything together.

A build fixes both at once. Every person has a job, because a bike needs hands on the frame, hands fetching parts and hands running the challenges that earn them. And the whole room shares one moment at the end, when the charity collects.

There is a third reason that matters to the person who signed off the budget. A normal team day produces a group photo. A charity build produces five bikes, a named charity and a date, which is a sentence with a number in it. Our guide to CSR team building explains how to put that in an ESG report.

How does a charity team building event run?

Whichever of the twelve you pick, the shape of the day is the same. We turn up before your team with the kit, the tools and the crew, and we set up in a room you already have. Your team builds for one to three hours while our crew runs the session from the front. Then the charity collects, almost always the same day and wherever we can in front of your people, and we send you the photographs and the donation figures afterwards.

Your part is a room, a date and a rough headcount. Nothing else lands back on you, and there is no second supplier to manage. How it works has the full run through.

12 charity team building ideas that work

1. Charity Bike Build

This is the one most teams book, and the one we started with. Teams of about ten do not begin with a full set of parts. They earn them through a series of challenges, some physical and some mental, and then build a complete bike from what they have won. Deciding who builds and who goes for the next part is where the team building actually happens.

Every bike is safety checked by our qualified mechanics before it leaves the room. Then it goes to someone leaving a hostel, a young carer or a family with no car, with a helmet, lock, lights and pump, delivered the same day. More than 3,000 bikes have gone out this way.

It suits almost any group. Competitive teams race the clock, quieter teams settle into the build, and both end up with a bike. Runs for 8 to 2,000 people, indoors or out, about two and a half hours. See the Charity Bike Build.

2. Performance Wheelchair Challenge

The most physical event in the range, and the one with the longest lasting donation. Teams assemble sports wheelchairs, then compete in a series of events using the chairs they built, so the equipment gets tested and so does the team.

The chairs go to grassroots inclusive sports clubs and SEND schools, and each one gives a young person years of access to sport. 346 have been donated so far. They are bought from Motivation, which means 100 percent of that supplier's profit funds wheelchair projects worldwide, so one purchase does two jobs.

It suits energetic groups and sales teams, and it lands especially well with health and pharma audiences, who already understand why equipment matters. Runs for 10 to 300 people, two to three hours. See the Performance Wheelchair Challenge.

3. OnBoard Skateboard Build

The creative one. Each team designs and builds two skateboard decks, one blank for the artists and one templated so that everyone can start straight away. It is absorbing, almost meditative work, and groups regularly surprise each other with design and assembly skills nobody knew were in the building.

The boards go to children and young carers living in poverty, and to youth projects where a skateboard was never going to be bought. Over 1,700 have been donated. A Custom Art Deck option lets one design span every board so the whole group makes a single piece of artwork.

It suits creative teams, tech teams, small groups and anyone who would rather not be timed. Runs for 6 to 500 people, about two hours, indoors. See OnBoard.

4. The Hand Project

The quietest event we run, and the one people bring up months later. Teams assemble mechanical prosthetic hands, and they do it using their non dominant hand, which is slow and quietly humbling. Patience with each other arrives long before patience with the parts.

Each hand goes to an upper limb amputee in a country with no health service to fall back on. Of the world's three million upper limb amputees, 2.4 million live in exactly those countries, and a hand gives someone back the ability to hold their own child. We are The Hand Project's UK partner, and feedback from recipients arrives nine to twelve months later.

It suits reflective teams, healthcare audiences and smaller groups. Runs for 8 to 200 people, two hours, indoors. See the Hand Project.

5. The Great Philanthropic Challenge

The most flexible event, because the outcome can be shaped around a cause you already support. Six Crystal Maze style challenges, some physical and some cerebral, and every win drops another item into a care package. Teams learn quickly that spreading out beats crowding the challenge they like the look of.

The receiving charity writes the list, so the packs go exactly where they are needed, whether that is a refuge, a homeless shelter or a children's cancer ward. 631 have been delivered so far, each arriving on a day somebody badly needed good news.

It suits competitive teams, leadership groups who want a named charity in the report, and large conferences. Runs for 8 to 2,000 people, two to two and a half hours, indoors or out.

6. Scooter Dash

The easiest yes in the range, because it fits inside a meeting. Fifty minutes on the clock, a scooter to build and a safety check to pass. No team finishes in time without dividing up the work in the first two minutes, which is the whole lesson.

The scooters are fully recyclable, with recycled rubber wheels, and they go to a local children's charity the same day. It suits a one hour slot in a conference, a crowded agenda, or the gap before a Christmas dinner. Runs for 10 to 500 people, indoors.

7. Fun House Challenge

Harder than it looks once the brief lands. Teams saw, build and paint a wooden playhouse to instructions written for them by children. Overalls and floor covering are provided, so it runs in a hotel function room without anyone worrying about the carpet.

The finished house goes to a children's centre, hospice or refuge, where staff use it in play therapy as well as play. It suits creative groups and anyone who likes making something you can stand inside. Runs for 8 to 400 people, two to two and a half hours.

8. Get Ahead Challenge

Ten people, ten headboard panels, one design. Each person decorates a panel, then the team assembles a complete bed, frame and mattress included. Every panel has to match its neighbours, so communication is the real test.

The bed goes to a child who has never had one of their own. Barnardo's put that number at 894,000 UK children in 2023, which tends to stop the room for a moment when the crew mentions it. It suits mixed teams and anyone who wants a donation that is easy to picture. Runs for 10 to 300 people, two and a half hours, indoors.

9. Flying Start

The one tech teams pick. Build a drone, write the code that flies it, then race it through an obstacle course with the rest of the room watching. Whether it takes off depends on how well the coders and the assembly crew talk to each other, which is not a bad summary of most software companies.

The drones go to primary, secondary and SEND schools, where they support STEM lessons long after your team has gone home. It suits tech and software teams and any group with a logical streak. Runs for 6 to 300 people, two to two and a half hours, indoors.

10. Adapted Musical Instruments

The rare event that suits creative and logical people equally. Wire it, code it, decorate it, then play it in front of everyone. The build rewards the logical half of the room and the decoration rewards the creative half, and no team reaches a recognisable tune without both.

The instruments go to SEND schools, hospitals and music groups, and give someone who has never played a note the chance to make music of their own. It suits mixed groups where half the room would build and half would paint. Runs for 10 to 250 people, indoors.

11. Make Sense Team Challenge

The event that changes how people listen. Teams build sensory story bags from recycled materials, shaped with Joanna Grace of The Sensory Projects. Along the way the team loses one sense at a time, so they feel the gap they are building for.

The bags are used in play therapy with children and adults living with autism, a learning disability or dementia, where the right texture or sound can bring someone back into the room. It suits healthcare and professional services teams, and any group where empathy is the point. Runs for 10 to 250 people, two and a half to three hours, indoors.

12. Clean Air Machines

The newest event in the range. Teams win our oZone charity currency through climate challenges, then spend it on the parts for a Clean Air Machine. Buying under time pressure on a budget that never quite stretches is where the negotiating starts.

The machines go to local classrooms and community spaces, and pupils can take them apart afterwards as a STEM lesson. They have been tested by the University of Sussex. It suits teams with a sustainability goal and tech teams. Runs for 8 to 200 people, one and a half to two hours, indoors.

How do you choose a charity team building event?

Start with the group, not the activity. After fifteen years we can usually tell within a minute of hearing about a team which two or three events will land, and the pattern is simple.

• Competitive teams want the clock. Bike Build, Wheelchair Challenge, Great Philanthropic Challenge.
• Creative teams want to make something that looks like theirs. OnBoard, Fun House, Adapted Musical Instruments.
• Quiet or reflective teams want meaning over noise. The Hand Project, Make Sense.
• Tech teams want to build and code. Flying Start, Clean Air Machines.
• A one hour slot has one answer. Scooter Dash.
• A cause you already support points at the Great Philanthropic Challenge, because the charity writes the list.
• Six to twenty people suit OnBoard, Flying Start or our Small Group Challenges.
• Two thousand people at once means the Bike Build or the Great Philanthropic Challenge.

If the group is mixed, which most are, the Bike Build is the safe choice. It has enough competition for the loud ones and enough building for the quiet ones.

How much does charity team building cost?

Prices are a total for the group, set by size band, and the band is tied to how much gets built. Up to 16 people on the Bike Build means two bikes and costs £3,388 excluding VAT. Up to 40 people means five bikes and costs £4,703. Two hundred people build 25 bikes for £17,819. OnBoard is the lowest entry point for a facilitated event at £1,779 for up to 12 people.

The price includes the crew, the kit and the equipment that goes to the charity, and it is the same anywhere in the UK on any date. Our guide to what charity team building costs has the full figures for every event. If the budget is tight or the team is spread across offices, a DIY kit posted to you does the same job without the crew, for less.

How to book a charity team building event

1. Decide what the day is for. Engagement, a figure for the CSR report, a slot filled in a conference, a charity supported. Usually it is two of those, and knowing which two narrows the list fast. 2. Count the room. A rough headcount and a rough date is all we need to quote. If you sit just over a size band, say so, because it changes how many bikes get built. 3. Get the three that fit. Use the price tool and you will have three events with prices in about a minute. 4. Name the room. A meeting room, a function room, a conference hall. Tell us the size and we will confirm the fit. 5. Turn up. We bring everything else.

The bottom line

Charity team building is a team day that leaves something behind. The build gives every person a job, the handover gives the whole room one moment, and a charity ends up with equipment it could not otherwise afford.

Pick the event by the team you have and the outcome you want. The rest is ours to organise, and the van at the end is still the part people talk about.