Run your event

To run a charity row you need an indoor rower, a JustGiving or GiveWheel page and some time between 2 and 13 November. Schools, clubs, gyms and workplaces all take part the same way: pick a format, work out how far you can get, then register your page, row and share it.

Pick a format

You don’t need a whole day or a hall full of machines, because every idea below works with a single rower and most groups spread the rowing across the fortnight.

Row the Channel relay

Keep one machine going while people take turns, until together you’ve rowed the width of the English Channel, about 33 km (21 miles). A class can get there across a week of PE lessons, and an office can do it in lunch breaks.

Add up everyone’s metres

Give everyone the same short piece and add the metres up at the end of each week. It suits a whole school, a year group or a whole company, and 2,026 metres each makes a good target for the year.

Team against team

Put the staff against the pupils, one department against another, or one gym class against the next. Staff versus pupils is the one parents turn up to watch, so save it for the last afternoon.

12 or 24-hour relay

Clubs and gyms can keep a rower moving all day or through the night in shifts of 20 or 30 minutes. A second machine makes the handovers much easier.

Gym leaderboard challenge

Pick a distance, put a board up by the rowers and let your members chase each other down it for the whole fortnight.

How long will it take?

At a steady beginner’s pace of 2:30 to 3:00 per 500 metres, one person rows 10,000 to 12,000 metres an hour, or about 1,700 to 2,000 metres in a ten-minute turn. Use the table to work out how many turns you need, then share them out. Younger children row slower than this, so give them shorter turns and allow a few more of them.

Borrowing a rower and counting the metres

Most rowing clubs, gyms and secondary schools have a Concept2 rower, and many will lend one for a charity event if you ask a few weeks ahead. If you hire one instead, book early, as some hire companies ask for two or three weeks’ notice.

The monitor on the rower counts the metres. For a relay, keep a sheet and a pen by the machine and have each person write down their distance when they finish, so no turn gets lost at a handover and you always have a running total to post.

Keeping it safe

• Set the damper, the lever on the side of the fan, to between 3 and 5 for adults. Concept2 recommends no higher than 3 for children.
• Strap feet in firmly, with the strap across the widest part of the foot.
• Teach the order before anyone rows hard: legs, then body, then arms, and the same in reverse on the way back.
• Start with a few easy minutes to warm up, and keep turns short for beginners and children.
• Put the handle back in its hook instead of letting go, keep fingers away from the seat rollers and tuck in long shirts.

Run the event under your usual risk assessment. Children in Need’s fundraising FAQs set out its rules for fundraisers under 16, for handling cash and for using Pudsey and the logo.

Getting sponsored

Put your donation page link on every letter, email, newsletter and post about the row. That’s the JustGiving or GiveWheel page you registered with us, and money given there shows up in your total on the campaign leaderboard, usually within 15 minutes.

• Post your running total during the row, since a halfway update gives people a reason to give, or to give again.
• Ask UK taxpayers to tick the Gift Aid box when they donate, which adds 25p to every £1 at no cost to them.
• Many employers match what their staff raise, so ask HR or whoever runs your staff benefits before the row starts.

BBC Children in Need publishes free fundraising kits for primary and secondary schools, and ideas for fundraising at work. Download the kits from the Children in Need schools page rather than from us, so you always get the current versions. The organiser pack we email to every registered team before the row starts adds a sponsor sheet and a poster, along with timings and safety notes.

After the row

The row finishes on Friday 13 November, the night of the Children in Need appeal show on BBC One. Share your final distance with everyone who sponsored you, and use our certificate maker to print one for each person who rowed. The PDF is made in your browser, so we never see or keep the names.