Ey foundation

EY Foundation Enterprise Challenge FAQ's

Signing up

Do I have to pay anything to take part?

No! It is free to take part in the Enterprise Challenge. Your team will be allocated £200 seed funding to help make your fundraising plans happen. It is a key part of the challenge to try and see what you can achieve within this limited budget. 

Who can take part / Who will be in my team?

The competition is open to : 

New graduates joiners starting with  EY UK&I September 24, any service line, any UK&I location. 

UK&I year 1 EY graduates, who started with EY September 23, March 23, any service line, any UK&I location.

Your team will be made up of mixture of new and year 1 graduates, from across UK&I and across service lines. 

Do I need to already have a team to join?

No! We want you to use this as an opportunity to network with your peers within EY. Therefore we will allocate everyone who signs up to their team. We will roughly try and ensure a mix of service lines and balance of genders, and EY start dates in each group. These will be the only criteria.

How big will my team be?

We aim for teams to be between 8-10 people

How do I sign up?

Click here to sign up. We will confirm your place in late August

What info will I need to provide when I sign up?

When signing up you will be asked to provide your contact details, details of your EY team, t-shirt size, agree to abide by EY Foundation’s volunteer policy and to reviewing the fundraisers code of conduct. That’s it!

Do I need any previous experience or specific skills to take part?

No! All participants will be early careerists. Previous experience of fundraising, for example getting sponsorship for a challenge you have taken part in would be helpful but not needed. We hope you will develop lots of skills whilst you are taking part – including around project management, negotiation, business development, leadership, teaming and communication. 

Logistics

When is the competition running?

The competition will launch on 6 September over Teams

The competition will close at midnight on the 6 December, winners will be announced at our event finale, on 11 December 5-6pm.

How much time will I need to take part?

The competition takes place over three months. You will need to commit to joining : 

  • 1 x 1 hour launch event, 6 September, 2-3pm, Teams

  • 3 x 1 hour monthly sessions with your mentor, Teams. To be arranged at a mutually agreed time (it is not anticipated that every team member will manage to attend every meeting), 

  • 1 x finale event, 11 December, 5-6pm, Teams

  • Regular check-ins with your team. We anticipate teams meeting for circa 1 x 45 mins per week to plan and implement their events. You plan when to have these. But how much more time you take is up to you / your capacity / your plans and ambitions

Can I take part wherever I am based?

Yes. Participants will be recruited from across UK&I and you will work together virtually. You may choose for some of your events activities to be delivered in person and can work across your team and other volunteers you recruit to manage this.

The competition

The rules

Detailed competition rules will be provided in the Challenge Pack to competition participants

The prizes

  • The team that raises the most money – based on pounds raised and shown on your team Enthuse fundraising page at midnight 6 December.

  • Winning team receives gift voucher of £50 per person, up to ten team members.

  • The most innovative fundraising idea – to be selected by a panel of two judges – you will need to email us details of your ideas in order to be considered.

  • Winning team receives a gift voucher  £25 per person, up to ten team members

EY Foundation’s support

What resources will we have?

Each team will have £200 seed funding to help make their fundraising plans a reality. As well as seed funding some basic fundraising resources will be provided to each team as well as a Challenge Pack with helpful information.

How is the seed funding to be paid?

More details will be shared about this with participants in your Challenge Pack

Getting in touch with the EY Foundation team

If you want any additional information about the challenge in advance of the competition starting please contact: EYFEnterpriseChallenge@eyfoundation.ey.com

Once the competition has started, to ensure we are fair to in the amount of support available to all teams we will run fortnightly drop in calls. You can get in contact with us, but to be fair to all participants we will provide limited support outside of drop-in calls. 

The role of your Enterprise Challenge Business Mentor

Each team will be allocated an Enterprise Challenge Business Mentor.

Business mentors will be recruited from senior EY people and some of EY Foundation’s employer partners. They will be there to help steer you through the competition. 

They have agreed to provide 3 x 1 hour mentoring sessions plus supporting the intro meeting on 6 September. Any other time outside that is at their discretion. 

The role of the Enterprise Challenge Business Mentor is to: 

  • Help their team create a business plan to turn £200 seed investment into as much money for the EY Foundation as possible

  • Guide on creating a strong team leveraging their skills

  • Help with ambition and accountability

  • Test plans for viability

  • Sense check timeframes

  • Check in monthly to problem solve, ensure plans are on track and provide guidance

 

Fundraising

Fundraising accelerator challenges like EY Foundation’s Enterprise Challenge are well established. However this is our pilot year – than you for supporting us!

We aspire to each team raising £2,500 - £5,000. How you do this is up to you (as long as it is legal and compliant). You may choose to run a series of small events like bake sales, sweepstakes etc. See our fundraising pack for ideas. You may also try and increase your seed funding to reinvest in a more expensive event / activity which will raise even more money. Or you may go all out for one event / activity. You may try and amplify your seed funding by negotiating additional support and donations for example in order to run a raffle.

Tracking your fundraising

The first action for each team is to set up a fundraising page linked to the EY Foundation’s Enterprise Challenge Enthuse fundraising page. You can create this on Enthuse and then create a QR code which can be used across your fundraising efforts. You can also add offline donations to your Enthuse fundraising page if you do receive any cash (though we strongly recommend you steer clear of cash). 

There is guidance on setting up your fundraising page in the Challenge Pack.

What if our team does not achieve our fundraising target?

There is no penalty for not achieving your target. If your team drops out without raising any money we will ask you to return your seed funding and any resources. 

Hear from our fantastic fundraisers and why they chose to support EY Foundation.

Sao Miguel island in the Azores from viewpoint with the Cete Cidades volcano crater and lagoon inside.