DinoDay Challenge FAQs In this article How does Contact’s DinoDay Challenge work? The DinoDay Challenge is an inclusive and family-friendly fundraising event suitable for children of all ages and abilities. We want as many families as possible to be able to get involved. All you have to do is pick 19 activities to take on throughout June, and then ask your friends and family to sponsor you. This could be anything you’d like — as long as the number 19 is involved! You could walk 19 miles, make 19 visits to the park, do 19 star jumps, try 19 new foods, or just get out of the house 19 times… Big or small, what you choose to do for your challenge is totally up to you. What do I have to do? Joining the DinoDay Challenge couldn’t be easier – here’s how: Register for your FREE DinoDay t-shirt and printed activity tracker. Join our DinoDay Challenge 2025 Facebook group. This is an optional but highly encouraged step: you’ll get to meet other participating families, swap updates and photos, get challenge ideas, download fun dino-themed activities, and get fundraising support from our team. Now it’s time to choose an activity to complete for your challenge! This is totally up to you – scoot 19 miles, draw 19 pictures, learn 19 dance moves, find 19 different animals… Whatever you pick, just make sure the number 19 is involved! Finally, set up your fundraiser and ask your friends and family to sponsor your challenge. After you complete the t-shirt registration form, you will be automatically prompted via email to create your fundraiser on JustGiving. But if you don’t want to do this straight away, you can always set it up later here. During the set-up process, JustGiving may ask you a few questions – here’s how to navigate each one. Just a little heads up – we’ll need to see at least one donation on your fundraiser page before we can ship your child’s free DinoDay t-shirt and activity tracker. We’ll automatically ship them once you receive your first donation (whatever the amount). If you’re fundraising offline, then you will need to email us at [email protected] to let us know so we can ship your t-shirt and tracker to you. We will announce the final fundraiser total on 1 July, but you will still be able to receive donations after this point. Can I get more than one t-shirt and activity tracker? If you have more than one little dino-lover joining the challenge, we’re happy to send additional t-shirts your way once you’ve received at least one donation on your fundraiser. You can order up to three t-shirts through the standard t-shirt registration form. For more than three, please drop us an email at [email protected] and we’ll try our best to organise this for you! I’m having issues setting up my fundraiser on JustGiving. What do I do? Once you complete the t-shirt registration form, you’ll be prompted via email to set up your fundraiser on JustGiving. You can also set it up directly via this link instead. During this process, JustGiving may ask you a few questions. Here’s how to navigate each question: ‘Are you fundraising in memory of someone?’ — select ‘No’ ‘Are you taking part in an activity?’ — select ‘Just fundraising’ ‘Are you fundraising for an occasion?’ — skip this question or select ‘No occasion’ ‘How much would you like to raise?’ — set a personal fundraising target of your choice ‘Personalise your page’ — this should already be pre-filled with text about DinoDay, but feel free to personalise it by adding information about your own challenge or why you’re fundraising! If issues still persist, or if you need any assistance, just drop us an email at [email protected]. I still haven’t received my t-shirt, what do I do? Your t-shirt and activity tracker will be automatically shipped to you once you’ve received at least one donation to your JustGiving page. If you are fundraising offline using our printed sponsorship form, or online via a different fundraising platform, you will need to email us to let us know at [email protected]. Then we’ll get your t-shirt shipped to you. I’ve received a donation to my fundraiser, but I still haven’t received my t-shirt. Please allow up to 14 days for delivery once you’ve received a donation, but you will most likely receive it quicker than this. If you’d like us to check the status of your delivery, please email your name and postcode to [email protected]. What will I get for fundraising? Every child who fundraises will receive a FREE DinoDay t-shirt and a printed activity tracker – we will ship this once you have received at least one donation to your JustGiving page. If you raise over £10 by 30 June, we’ll send you a digital certificate with your child’s name and amount raised on it to mark their achievement. These will be sent after 1 July. And if you raise over £30, you’ll also receive a special DinoDay medal! These will be posted after 1 July. How can my child/children get a DinoDay medal? To be eligible for a DinoDay medal, you’ll need to raise over £30 per family/fundraiser by 30 June. If you have multiple children taking part, and they collectively raise over £30 in your family-wide fundraiser, we’ll send a medal to each participating child. Medals will be shipped after 1 July. However, if you have more than one child taking part, please consider raising over this target to help cover the additional costs involved in creating these fabulous prizes! We want the challenge to be inclusive, so we’re only asking for £30 per family/fundraiser rather than per child. But please do help support our vital services for families by raising as much as you can – thank you. Who can take part? Anyone who would like to – this is an inclusive challenge for children of all ages and abilities. Simply choose 19 activities that work for you and your family, and then ask your friends and family to sponsor you. Can I take part outside the UK? You are welcome to take on the DinoDay Challenge anywhere in the world, but unfortunately we can’t ship any t-shirts or printed activity trackers outside the UK. How does my DinoDay Challenge raise money for Contact? By asking your friends and family to sponsor your challenge, you will be helping to make a huge difference to thousands of families who rely on our advice and support each year. Every donation you raise through your sponsored challenge will go towards funding Contact’s vital support services for families with disabled children. How will Contact help me with my DinoDay Challenge? We’ll send you an activity tracker and a free t-shirt for your child to wear when doing the 19 activities you’ve chosen for your challenge. We’ll also email you some helpful tips and suggestions, and we can help setting up your fundraising page. Our Dinoday Challenge Facebook group is also a great place to meet other participating families, get ideas of challenges to do, swap fundraising tips to help boost donations, and download lots of dinosaur-related activities. Contact’s team will also be active in the group to cheer you on and provide support with your fundraising throughout May and June. Will everyone get a free t-shirt if they sign up to the DinoDay Challenge? Every child who is actively taking part in the challenge will be eligible to receive a free t-shirt and printed activity tracker. However, we will need to see at least one donation on your fundraiser page before we can ship your child’s t-shirt and tracker to you. When does the DinoDay Challenge take place? DinoDay itself is on 19 June, but you can start (and finish) your challenge at any point in June. You will have until 30 June to complete your challenge. It’s also completely up to you how you choose to split things up: some participants do one activity a day, while others prefer to complete them all in one day. We will announce the final fundraiser total on 1 July, but you will still be able to receive donations after this point. What happens if I don’t complete the challenge before the end of June? We’re asking you to choose an activity that you think is manageable for you and your family, but of course something might happen and you might not be able to complete it before the end of June. We’re very happy for you to continue into July if you need some extra time. Where do I send any money I raise if I haven’t set up a JustGiving page? You can also donate online via our website. Please include a note with your donation saying ‘DinoDay 2025’. Or you can send us a cheque (with a note saying ‘DinoDay’) to our offices: Contact, Wenlock Studios, 50-52 Wharf Road, London N1 7EU If you’ve raised money through a different fundraising platform than JustGiving, for example GoFundMe or Facebook, then please let us know by emailing [email protected] so that we can make sure you receive your t-shirt and activity tracker. What will the money I raise be used for? The money you raise through the DinoDay Challenge will help Contact be there for even more UK families who need expert advice, information, and support about any aspect of raising a disabled child – from education, benefits, health, and social care through to work and employment, relationships, accessing practical help, managing common concerns, and much more. We do everything we can to raise funds so we can offer our services free of charge for families with disabled children. But we can’t do it without your help! By taking part in our DinoDay Challenge and raising funds this June, you’ll be helping us continue to change the lives of families with disabled children with our vital services and information. Who is Contact? Contact is the UK national charity that supports families with disabled children, whatever their disability or medical condition. We understand that life with a disabled child brings unique challenges and we exist to help families feel valued, supported, confident and informed. What does Contact do? We support UK families with disabled children in a number of different ways including our website, free national helpline, parent guides and factsheets, workshops and other resources. And we bring families together in local groups and online to support each other by sharing experiences and advice. Find out more about our work. Last year, we supported over 400,000 families with our expert information, advice and support. But we want to be there for every family with a disabled child that needs us now and in the future and we can’t do this without the help of people like you who help raise vital funds and awareness of the work we do. What is DinoDay? DinoDay is Contact’s annual awareness and fundraising day which takes place on 19 June. DinoDay was inspired by a little boy called Cameron Mathieson, who loved dinosaurs – or dowsers, as he called them! Cameron had both cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spent more than two years in hospital before he sadly passed away aged five in 2012. At that time, the main benefit for disabled children – Disability Living Allowance (DLA) – was automatically taken away if a child spent long periods in hospital. Contact supported the Mathieson family’s legal challenge to this unfair rule and in 2015, the Mathiesons made history when they won their landmark case at the Supreme Court. Because of the Mathieson’s determination, hundreds of families with the most disabled and poorly children are no longer denied financial help when they need it most. Why is DinoDay held on 19 June? Cameron Mathieson’s birthday falls on 19 June. We celebrate it with DinoDay to remember Cameron’s legacy and the difference he and his family made for so many of the families we support. How many disabled children are there in the UK? There are 1 million disabled children in the UK, 33% more than a decade ago. A quarter of parents of disabled children provide 100 hours of care a week – equivalent to three full-time jobs and over half (52%) of families with a disabled child are at risk of experiencing poverty, due to the difficulties of working and caring. It costs three times more to raise a disabled child, as it does to raise a child without disabilities. More families than ever before are turning to Contact for information, advice and support.