Technology for Virtual Challenges…

RunSignup’s platform allows you to do more than just register participants for your virtual or hybrid event. We are also here with free technology to help you promote your event, create a race experience (from afar), communicate with your participants, and raise money for a cause.

Registration


Register your virtual participants in minutes with a dynamic, mobile-friendly, and customizable registration platform.

Marketing Tools


Take advantage of free marketing tools like email and websites and prompt work-of-mouth with referral programs and team incentives.

Fundraising


Raise more for your nonprofit, charity partner (or multiple charity partners) with integrated donations and fundraising tools.

RaceDay


Make your virtual RaceDay fun with gamification, RaceJoy for Challenges, self-serve virtual results, participant photos, digital bibs, and more.

Virtual Challenge Planning Document

Just like a physical race, successful virtual challenges require pre-planning and strategy. Download our Virtual Challenge Everything Guide for a comprehensive review of everything you need to know to promote and execute your virtual challenge.

Key Features for Virtual Challenges

Enable Virtual Results

RunSignup’s Virtual Results for Challenges makes it simple for your participants to report their activities and track their results.

  • Participant-submitted activities are displayed within overall and individual results
  • Allow for one or multiple activity types within your challenge, including popular activities (like running, walking, swimming, skiing or paddling) and custom activities (like books read or good deeds done)
  • Fast results submission options without login
  • Configure results based on distance completed, activity tallies, times, or elevation gain

Add Gamification with Milestones & Badges

Increase engagement with virtual rewards throughout your challenge.

  • Add milestones (5 miles, 20 miles, etc) through intermediate goals in your Virtual Results setup
  • Milestones can be set by mileage passed (100 miles), repeating progress (every 1000 feet of elevation) or by the percentage of the total goal of the challenge (10% of books read)
  • Reward participants with default or custom badges that are collected in the virtual trophy case on each participant’s results page
  • Send notifications to participants as they achieve each milestone to congratulate and encourage continued progress
  • Create fun and engaging milestones and badges that relate to the themes and goals of your challenge

Create a Virtual Experience

Just because your event is virtual doesn’t mean it isn’t also real to the people completing it. Add experiential elements to keep participants coming back.

  • Add a map to geographically based challenges to participants can view where they “are” at any point in the challenge
  • Work with a Certified Timer to offer RaceJoy for virtual challenges, allowing participants to auto-submit their activities each day from the app
  • Enable participant-uploaded photos and encourage participants from across the country (and world) to share their experience through shared photos

Raise Money for a Cause

Virtual challenges provide a uniquely flexible opportunity for nonprofits to raise money for their cause with the ability for people to participate from anywhere, on any schedule, and at a variety of levels. Popular nonprofit usages for virtual challenges include:

  • Simple donation asks integrated into the registration process and added to the checkout page
  • No-frills challenges that are free to join, with all focus on donations
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising options for virtual participants

Shipping Management and Fulfillment

Deliver your swag directly to your participant’s door with a thorough plan for swag shipping and fultillment.

  • Require challenge participants to verify their shipping address at registration to limit failed deliveries
  • Allow participants to make updates to their shipping address after registration to reduce customer service
  • Add geographically-based shipping charges to ensure your shipping costs are always covered

Virtual Race or Virtual Challenge?

A Virtual Challenge consists of multiple activities over time, with either an overall goal or a competition to complete the most of each activity, whereas a virtual race is typically a one-goal activity (like a 5K).


Dive Into Virtual Challenges

Customer Spotlight

Virtual Challenges: Built to Last

While events continue to trend back towards in-person (or at least hybrid), don’t neglect the virtual option that’s truly built to last: virtual challenges. A virtual challenge is typically a longer-term event (weeks to months) in which a larger goal is achieved through many days of activity and the winner is the first person to reach the goal, not the one who ran the fastest.

  • $5,928,000 from top 100 Virtual Races

  • $8,203,000 from top 1,000 Virtual Races

All the Latest Blogs on Virtual Challenges

Virtual Results Renewal

We have added the capability of renewing your virtual race setup. This is part of our overall renewed renewal process. When renewing your race, we will also now copy over all of your past setup information like accepted dates, tally type, goals,…

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What Happened with Virtual Events in 2022?

This is one of series of blogs we’ll use to break down key endurance industry trends we saw in 2021, and evaluate what they mean for race directors as you prepare for 2022. You can find the full report (and more resources)…

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Virtual Challenges: Built to Last

While events continue to trend back towards in-person (or at least hybrid), don’t neglect the virtual option that’s truly built to last: virtual challenges. A virtual challenge is typically a longer-term event (weeks to months) in which a larger goal is achieved through…

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Who Are the Virtual Runners?

Anecdotal evidence has long suggested to us that virtual runners are not the same people who show up on race day, but the sudden flood of virtual events in 2020 gave us enough volume (and enough motivation) to pull some new reports…

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What 2020 Success Stories Tell Us About 2021

We recently sent out a survey asking customers to share their experiences and expectations as we move into 2021. We’ll be sharing those in full (and comparing them to the May version), but first, a little bit of sunshine. We asked race directors to share…

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Challenge Events Setup How-To for Timers

As events continue to introduce challenge events as either an add-on or alternative to traditional events, timers are quickly becoming the go-to person for setting up the events on RunSignup’s Challenge Platform. The recorded webinar below, provided by Matt Avery, gives step-by-step…

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Announcing RaceJoy for Virtual Challenge Events!

We are super excited to share that RaceJoy’s is now fully integrated with RunSignup’s virtual Challenge Platform! RunSignup has quickly become the chosen challenge platform provider for fitness and nonprofit communities. The integration of RaceJoy, the industry’s leading race day mobile app, strengthens…

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Advice for First-Time Race/Challenge Directors

Virtual races aren’t really new – but with COVID-19 restrictions turning in-person events into virtual ones, experienced race directors are learning what it’s like to be a rookie director all over again. This episode of talkSIGNUP covers tips for a first-time virtual…

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