The 2025 fundraising challenge in aid of The Light Fund has been completed – and it has been one of the licensing industry charity’s biggest successes to date, reports Samantha Loveday, Licensing Source.
Not only did the challenge – to scale some of the UK and Ireland’s most iconic peaks between the 25-28 September – attract an astonishing number of participants, but it has raised £205,000 so far, with many more donations expected in the coming weeks.
The amount donated so far takes the total raised since the inception of The Light Fund in 2004 to over £2.5 million.
“This really is an extraordinary amount to have raised – and donations are still coming in,” commented Ian Hyder, ceo at Max Publishing and member of The Light Fund. “A lot of charities and people are going to get the help they need and lives are going to be changed because of this challenge and what’s been raised. Thank you to everybody – it was an amazing challenge with amazing people.”
Mark Kingston, ceo at Libertas Brands and part of the organising committee for the epic challenge, along with Jonathan Baker (Fabacus), Anne Bradford (Difuzed), Ashley Holman (ToyTopic) and Ian Hyder, continued: “This has been an absolutely amazing achievement for everyone involved; I know that everyone had dark moments, enjoyable moments, funny moments… thank you so much to all of the trekkers for putting their heart and soul into the challenge. And to have raised over £200,000 for some amazing charities is just incredible. Thank you also to headline sponsor Brand Licensing Europe and all of our sponsors, to Diageo for their generous hospitality in Dublin and to everyone at [adventure travel business] Adventurous Ewe who got us up and down the mountains safely.”
But it’s not over yet! Don’t forget you can still donate, either to individuals via their own pages or via the main Light Fund page.
The figure was reached thanks to many generous individual donations, headline sponsorship from Brand Licensing Europe, and the amazing 36 companies that supported various different elements of the challenge through sponsorship of clothing or equipment.
They included Licensing International, Rainbow Productions, Playmates Toys, Fabacus, Mercis, Libertas Brands, Difuzed, WOW Stuff!, PMI Toys, Pink Key Licensing, ToyTopic, Max Publishing, Aykroyds, Brand Alliance, TDP, Hasbro, Audit 360, Penguin Ventures, Van De Evre, Zuru Toys, WildBrain CPLG, Expression for Growth, Lowes, Hunter Price International, H&A, Rainbow Designs, KidsKnowBest, Character.com, Poetic Brands, Reemsborko, The Entertainer, Kilogrammedia, Danilo, Nowicki Productions, John McInnerny and Edward Kingston Ltd.
The 5-3-1 Challenge offered the choice of scaling the heights of the UK & Ireland 5 Peaks Challenge, or the UK 3 Peaks Challenge, or the singular glory of the Snowdon 1 Peak Challenge. Specialist industry PR agency, Kilogrammedia was the official PR agency to help spread word of the challenge far and wide, while social media strategist, Nicola Webster brought the fundraiser to life on platforms including Instagram and LinkedIn.
