Everything you need to know about Step Up 2021

Step Up is a virtual fundraising event powered by Refuge. We are challenging you to do what you love this January to raise £156 or more to help provide a woman escaping domestic abuse three nights’ safety in a Refuge shelter.

Whatever you choose to do, Step Up runs from 1-31 January. As you hit key fundraising milestones, you’ll unlock rewards (including something very exciting when you reach your goal). 

• Choose your activity and register to take part in Step Up. 
• Follow the tips to create your Step Up JustGiving supporter page where your friends and family can view your progress and sponsor you. 
• Join our closed Step Up Facebook group to connect with our likeminded community of fundraisers.
• Keep your friends and family updated on your fundraising progress towards our suggested target of £156.

Step Up is different from many other virtual fundraising events because you choose what you want to do. You could run a marathon in a month, wash ten cars a week, paint portraits of your friends and family, swim 50 kilometres, learn to play a piece of Mozart, knit a blanket, cycle, bake or master five yoga positions. Anything goes!

No! Step Up is free to enter, we just ask you to challenge yourself and raise as much as you can so we can continue to provide our life-saving services and specialist support.

Absolutely. If you want to do Step Up with your friends, family, work or sporting colleagues, then you can set up a team when you register and invite people to join. Alternatively, you can join a friend’s team if you search for the team name when you register.

You can create a team upon completing registration, just click the 'Create Team' button to do this. Alternatively, if you want to create a team later on, click on the icon in the bottom left corner of your fundraising page and you can create a team here.

You will receive a free Refuge T-shirt as a thank you from us for registering for Step Up. If you want to purchase more after registration, please email us at stepup@refuge.org.uk.

The first batch of T-shirts will be sent out at the beginning of December, with T-shirts sent out within 14 working days for registering thereafter.

When you register for Step Up, an online JustGiving fundraising page will be automatically be created for you. To make the most of your page, we recommend you:

• Add a profile photo so it’s friendlier and more ‘you’.
• Complete your story so people know why you are challenging yourself for Refuge.
• Share your page through email and social media.

Keep your page updated and keep sharing it throughout your Step Up journey. We’ll provide you with downloadable graphics to share as you hit key milestones in your fundraising journey.

We have a Step Up closed Facebook group where you can connect with others taking part in Step Up, share your progress, get advice from others and together, motivate each other to raise as much money as possible for Refuge.

We’re hoping to raise £150,000 from Step Up to enable Refuge to continue to deliver life-saving services to women and children experiencing domestic abuse. The money you raise will help us achieve this goal, thank you.

We're sorry you can no longer take part in Step Up. If you would like to delete your account you can do so through your fundraising page . Click on 'Edit this Supporter Page' under your profile picture. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click 'Disable this Page'.

If you click on the icon in the bottom left corner of your page (the one which shows your fundraising page display picture), this will take you through to edit your page. Make sure you're logged in first!