What is the BrainWalk challenge?
BrainWalk is a fundraising event which challenges you to complete as many steps as you can throughout the 28 days of February. You can choose to complete 150,000, 280,000 or 500,000 steps, or you can opt for a number of your choice. This is your BrainWalk challenge, you get to do it your way.
Why should you become a BrainWalker?
We all know that keeping our bodies active is good for us both physically and mentally, but sometimes it’s hard to get motivated. By taking part in BrainWalk you are not only improving your own health and wellbeing, but you are also helping to save lives. One person is diagnosed with encephalitis every minute across the world, and life for them and their loved ones will never be the same again. By raising vital funds for the Encephalitis Society, you are helping us to accelerate understanding and awareness of encephalitis and ensuring that those affected by this serious neurological condition get the crucial help and support they need, both today and in the future.
How do I sign up?
Click register and follow the simple instructions to select the challenge level and fundraising target of your choice. Please note – only steps taken from February 1st will count towards the challenge. Any steps recorded before this time will be removed from your step total when the count is reset.
What do I do if my postcode is not recognised at registration?
If the automatic search shows your postcode as not recognised, then select 'enter address manually' next to the box and you will be able to complete the fields.
If you are registering from outside of the UK, you will need to change the 'country' field to the relevant one first before you complete the rest of the address fields.
If you need any futher help then please email fundraising@encephalitis.info
How do I track my steps?
Once you have registered for BrainWalk, selected your challenge and set up your fundraising page, you can connect to your preferred fitness tracker by visiting your Fundraising Dashboard and selecting ‘My Step Count’ where you can connect to your tracker of choice. Currently, you can choose to connect to Fitbit, MapMyFitness or Garmin. Alternatively, you can log your steps manually, by entering your steps, distance or activity from the 'Add Activity' box.
Please note – only steps taken from February 1st will count towards the challenge. Any steps recorded before this time will be removed from your step total when the count is reset.
How do I convert non-step activities into BrainWalk steps?
If you are unable to take part in the step challenge, you can convert other activities you do, into BrainWalk steps, based on the time you spend on that activity. The activity can be anything, puzzles, word games, knitting, or swimming; the list is endless.
All you need to do is use the following conversion: 1000 steps = 10 minutes activity time. For example, if you spend 30 minutes completing a jigsaw puzzle, you would manually log 3000 steps.
To manually log this, go to Your Dashboard, then 'My step count'. Fill in the date, the activity (by selecting 'other' and then the number of steps you have converted it to).
Why aren’t my steps showing on my page?
If you are using a tracking app, it will take 24 hours for your steps to show up on your Fundraising Page.
Important - the tracking apps will only sync ‘activity’ steps OR ‘general’ steps and not both. What this means is, that if your tracker logs a walk or a run, it will pull across the steps from that activity, but not any ‘general’ steps you make during the day. Only if there is no activity logged, will it pull across ‘general’ steps. So, if you find yourself with missing steps, all you need to do is manually add the difference.
If you are manually entering your steps, these too will take a bit of time to sync across. If they are not showing on your page after an hour, please get in touch with us via fundraising@encephalitis.info.
Please note – only steps taken from February 1st will count towards the challenge. Any steps recorded before this time will be removed from your step total when the count is reset.
How do I create a team?
You can create a team when you sign up to take part in BrainWalk. As part of the registration process, just choose a team name and set a team challenge and fundraising target before you continue. You can add a team photo and information about your team at this stage, or you can do that later on through your Fundraising Dashboard.
Can anyone join my team?
When you set up a team, you can choose to allow anyone to join your team, or for new team members to join by invitation only. If you choose to allow anyone to join your team, there will be a ‘join us’ button on the team’s challenge homepage. If not, you can send your link to anyone who wants to join your team, via the Team Dashboard.
How do I invite people to be part of my team?
As team captain, you can invite friends, family members and colleagues to join your BrainWalk team via email or social media. Visit your Team Dashboard where you will find a link you can share. If you have set your team up so anyone can join, there will also be a ‘join us’ button on the team’s challenge homepage.
Can I update our team page and information?
It is really easy to update your team’s information. The team captain can do this through the Team Dashboard when they are logged on to BrainWalk by clicking ‘fundraising page.’ The team captain can also add blogs and photos, record offline donations and change the team’s URL from their dashboard. New members who join the team will automatically be shown on the team’s page and don’t need to be added manually.
Can I change my challenge and/or fundraising level?
You sure can! To change your challenge level, visit your Fundraising Dashboard and select ‘My Fitness Activity.’ From here, you can set or change your step target.
To change your fundraising target, visit your Fundraising Dashboard and select ‘Edit My Page’. From here, you can change the amount of money you are aiming to raise (there is a minimum fundraising target of £10).
You can also change your team fundraising target from your 'Team Dashboard' by selecting 'Team Page Settings'.
If you need to update your team step target,
please email us at fundraising@encephalitis.info and we will be able to update this for you.
How do I share my fundraising page?
You can share your fundraising page via social media, text or email. You can do this by clicking on the social media or email icons at the top of your fundraising page. Or you can click on the social media buttons via your dashboard, by selecting the 'get sponsored' tab. You will then have the option of choosing the relevant social media button, or you can send emails directly by selecting one of the templates. All of the options are pre-written for you with the option to edit, so you can make them as personal as you like.
If you wish to promote your fundraising page 'offline' we have BrainWalk posters available for you to download and print. You can write the link to your page in the white box at the bottom, so people know how to donate.
If you would like any posting out to you, please email fundraising@encephalitis.info
How can I record offline donations?
You can make offline donations via your bank card, by logging into BrainWalk and going to the My Donations section of your Dashboard. You will find an "Add Offline Donation" button there which will take you to a form to record the donation details. Team captains can also do this for team donations through the Team Dashboard.
If you receive any offline donations such as a cheque, which can't be added by making a card payment, please email fundraising@encephalitis.info with the details of the donation and we can manually add this for you.
We also have a sponsorship form which can be downloaded. If you do not wish to make the offline payment via the above methods, please email fundraising@encephalitis.info so that alternative paying in options can be provided to you.
How do I meet other people taking part in BrainWalk?
BrainWalk isn’t just about raising vital funds. It is also a community of people passionate about creating a world where encephalitis matters to everyone. We would love you to join our BrainWalk Facebook group, where you can securely meet others taking the challenge, swap fundraising and fitness tips, and share updates and photos from your own BrainWalk experience.
To join the Facebook group, visit your Fundraising Dashboard and select ‘Join the BrainWalk Facebook Community’ or go there right now using:
