FAQ

We are challenging you to cover 50, 100, 150 or more kilometres throughout the month of August to raise funds to help restore sight to needlessly blind. Right now, over 43 million people in the world are blind, but 9 out of 10 don’t need to be! A simple procedure costing as little as $25 can help restore sight to these people. Fred’s Big Run is a fitness and fundraising challenge for everyone, supporting the sight-restoring work of The Fred Hollows Foundation.

Fred’s Big Run is a virtual online fitness challenge running for one month from 1^st August to 31^st August each year. You decide each day where and when to start and finish your challenge and how far you will go to help restore sight.

Wherever you live, whatever your fitness level, you choose the place and pace to complete Fred’s Big Run. Choose the distance you want to cover, step up and start your challenge and keep track of your progress on your fundraising dashboard.

Fred’s Big Run is more than just a walk or run, we encourage everyone to step up to restore sight. You decide if your challenge is on foot, on a bike, in a wheelchair or in the water, simply adjust the distance in a way that will challenge you. A challenging goal will make sure others will support you.

You are almost there – simply click here and get ready to step up to restore sight.

It’s free to register and participate in Fred’s Big Run! Just sign up and start your challenge and help restore sight to needlessly blind people.

1. Login to your Fred’s Big Run account and head to ‘Dashboard’.
2. Select ‘My Account’ in menu bar
3. Under ‘Update My Account’ select ‘Reset Password’.

Any business can sign up to Fred's Big Run as a Workplace Team! This is a great way for members of the business to come together to aspire to reach a shared goal, all whilst getting fit and raising money for an amazing cause.

Your organisation may choose to establish several teams within your Workplace, as a means of fostering internal competition and adding some fun to the workplace. You could consider creating Workplace teams based on departments, office or shop locations, or even invite external providers to form teams within your workplace.

Please do NOT use this option if you just plan to walk in Freds Big Run with a group of friends; in that case you should use the TEAM option and create your team fundraising page and then invite your friends to join your team.

To register your Workplace, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Sign Up button located at the top of the homepage.
2. Choose whether you're a new or returning participant.
3. Enter your personal details.
4. Enter your postal address.
5. Answer the additional questions.
6. Select your goals for your challenge fitness activity and distance.
7. Select your fundraising goal.
8. Upload a photo if you wish.
9. Choose 'Create a Workplace', enter your organisations name.
10. Choose whether you would like to make your Workplace Open (anyone can join) or Closed (only people with the code can join your workplace team).
11. Choose whether or not you would like to create a Team within your Workplace. This would be useful for large organisations with multiple locations, or even for different departments within your business. This is a brilliant way to foster some internal competition! Other work colleagues can sign up and create their own teams which are all joined under your workplace team.
12. Invite friends or work colleagues to join your team
13. Make a personal donation to kick-start your fundraising.
14. Your Workplace page is now created!

Here are the steps to join a workplace or team for the Fred's Big Run challenge:

1. Log in.
2. Navigate to the search bar at the top of the page.
3. Search for your workplace's name.
4. If you're joining a department or location team within your workplace, scroll down and select your team.
5. Click "Join Us."

To join an existing Workplace, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Sign Up button located at the top of the homepage.
2. Choose whether you're a new or returning participant.
3. Enter your personal details.
4. Enter your postal address.
5. Answer the additional questions.
6. Select your goals for your challenge fitness activity and distance.
7. Select your fundraising goal.
8. Upload a photo if you wish.
9. Choose 'Join a Workplace', enter your organisations name.
10. Choose whether or not you would like to create a Team within your Workplace. This would be useful for large organisations with multiple locations, or even for different departments within your business.
11. Invite friends or work colleagues to join your team (if created). 
12. Make a personal donation to kick start your fundraising.
13. You are now a part of your Workplace's challenge!

• Invite and motivate your colleagues to join your team or ask them to register a second team to promote internal competition.
• Encourage senior leadership to join the challenge and lead by example.
• Connect us with the person in charge of your organisation's health and well-being program. Email fredsbigrun@hollows.org the details and we will help your company setting up and assisting with the fundraising pages and keeping everyone motivated during August.
• Urge your Workplace to match staff fundraising efforts to help restore sight.

You can do this challenge on your own or invite as many friends, family or work colleagues as you like.

Together you will work towards your individual teams goal but also contribute to the overall Workplace goal and target.

Each of you will manage your own personal fundraising account, where you can track your distance and fundraising, but everyone’s tally will be added up and show in the combined total on your team and your teams tally in the combined total amount of your workplace page.

Many employers support their employees’ charitable efforts through their matched-giving program. Even if an employer does not have a matched-giving program, they may still be willing to support your challenge and donate to you or your team. 

All you have to do, is ask! Check here for more info.

Register for Fred's Big Run
After you have entered your personal details, set your goals for the challenge and skipped the step Create a Workplace, now:

1. This step allows you to create a team. 
2. Select Register a New Team (if you were in a team last year, you still need to create a new one), choose a team name and select the type of team.
3. Invite friends or family members to join your team.
4. You have now registered your team! Share your team page URL to start fundraising.

1. Select CREATE TEAM on your dashboard and here you can complete setting up your team.
2. Follow the prompts to set up your team.
3. Upon completion of setting up your team, you’ll receive your team URL which you can email and share on socials to recruit team members.

The Fred's Big Run app is now live on the Apple and Google Play stores!

Click here to download from the Apple App Store.

Click here to download from the Google Play Store.

If you have used the Fred's Big Run app last year, please delete that app on your phone, it won't work anymore and is no longer connected to your fundraising page for the 2023 event.

No, you cannot track your kilometres on the old Fred's Big Run app. This app has been discontinued and will NOT link to your fundraising page, and therefore any activities recorded on it won't count.

Please delete this app to avoid confusion for this years challenge.

Besides the app, you can log your kilometres in two more ways:

1. Link your fundraising page to a personal fitness tracker or app

1. Login to your Fred's Big Run account.
2. Click on your name/profile picture in the top right corner of the screen and select 'Dashboard'.
3. Scroll down till you see 'Connect your preferred fitness apps'
4. Select your preferred fitness app and follow the steps.

2. Log your kilometres manually

To log kilometres manually, simply login to your online fundraising page and head to the ‘My Fitness Activity’ and follow the prompts to record your activity manually.

It is good to get ready for Fred’s Big Run and you can start tracking your training kilometres prior to August, however we will reset your kilometres to zero on 1st August.

This is so that every starts equally and together. The events app will only be ready to download end of July so to train you may want to use a personal fitness app or log your kilometers manually

We hope that you signed up for Fred’s Big Run to have not only a personal fitness challenge but also challenge yourself to help needlessly blind people by setting your own fundraising goal and target.

Remember, your efforts will help the over 38 million needlessly blind people in this world, it will help pay for a 10 minute procedure costing as little as $25 to restore their sight. That small amount not only changes that person’s life but has a far-reaching impact for their family and wider community too.  

So set a high target. we will help you along the way to reach your fundraising goal.

Make sure you set an ambitious but achievable fundraising goal. Over the 31 days period it is easy to raise $500 or more, simply ask your network of friends and family, use our tips and hints along the way. You’ll be amazed at the impact you can make once you get started.

Your friends and family are more likely to sponsor you if they see you have a goal and they can help you reach it. The higher the goal, the more support you will receive! Don't forget to update your target each time you have reached it. As long as their is a goal to be reached people will be keen to donate and help you towards it.

Don’t forget to also set a goal for the distance you like to cover in August. Challenge yourself and remember, the higher the goal, the more impressive you will be to your friends and family and they will want to support you.

Raising money may be a a bit daunting, but that’s why we are here. We will help you with your challenge and make raising money to help needlessly blind people fun and easy. Use the available resources on the website and remember all you have to do is ask.

We understand that circumstance are different for everyone, this challenge is as much a challenge for you to keep fit (or get fitter) but is is also about making a small effort and give back to people who are less fortunate then we are.

All you need to do is sending out an email (or two) to your network, we have prepared templates for you to send out, it is that simple and it will change lives!

To keep you motivated we have a few give away prizes to be earned along the way for your efforts.  

When you register for Fred’s Big Run, your fundraising page is automatically created. With that page you can keep track of your distance covered, your funds raised and share the link with family, friends and other potential supporters.

Fundraising is simple, easy and fun. Here a few quick tips to kick start your fundraising:

1. Be the first to donate, make a small contribution to help restore sight to your own challenge. Remember $50 can help restore sight.
2. Show your friends and family that you are taking this challenge seriously and help to encourage them to do the same.
3. Share your personal page on social media and let your network know of the great thing you are doing. People who spread the news on their Facebook page and other social media usually raise twice as much as people who only send out emails. 
4. Share internally at your work! Ask your work collegues to join you or support you, find out if your workplace is matching your fundraising.
5. Use one of our prepared email templates, you can find these when you login to your fundraising page.
6. Organise a trivia, movie or dinner night making fundraising even more fun.

The Fred Hollows Foundation has a very clear goal: Ending avoidable blindness! Fred got things done, he always pushed for change and, because of that, put in motion a legacy to end avoidable blindness. In his time as a humanitarian and eye surgeon, Fred helped restore eyesight to thousands of people in Australia and overseas. Over the last 30 years thanks to your help and support The Foundation was  able to keep Fred’s dream alive and was able to restore sight to over 3,000,000 people in the 25 countries we work in, including Indigenous Australia. Find out more about our work and your impact here and read how much of your fundraising is spent to restore sight in our annual reports here.

Upload a profile image so that people can find you on the website and see who they are supporting. Tell your story, update the blog regularly and share your enthusiasm and passion for restoring sight.

Lead the way and sponsor yourself. Once you're underway, your friends and family will be encouraged to follow and make their donations to help reach your goal. Once you have achieved your goal, you do have the option to increase it! As long as there's a goal to aim for, people will give.

Join our Fred’s Big Run Facebook Community This group helps you to find all the answers you may have. You share tips and ideas with other fundraiser’s and you can also discuss training and running tips. Join here.

Put up a poster We have a range of resources for you to advertise your fundraiser. Put up a poster at your school, workplace, local coffee shop, gym or club and let everyone know about your participation in Fred’s Big Run. Click here for posters.

Add a Fred’s Big Run email signature to your emails Download our Fred’s Big Run Email Signature Banner from our resources page, and add this to the base of your emails, before emailing to your network.

Ask and you will receive Ask everyone you know to support your efforts to restore sight. Log in to your fundraising account, go to 'My Fundraising', then 'Get Support'. 

We’ve done most of the work for you – select one of our email templates and send to your own email address where you can personalise, before forwarding to your contacts.

Remember - if you don’t ask, people won't know. If you tell people about your efforts to run/walk 50km or more in August, they will likely want to support your challenge and donate. You may be surprised who will support your challenge to help restore sight to needlessly blind people.

And don’t forget to thank your supporters for their donation!

FACEBOOK is the perfect platform to fundraising. People who use social media raise on average twice as much as other fundraisers!

Share your fundraising page on all your social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) to maximise your donations. Make sure you read our FAQs on Facebook Fundraising to avoid donation issues!

Send a personal message to your friends explaining your reasons to help needlessly blind people and ask for their support.

Click here for social media images 

Sample Social post: “I’ve started a new challenge! Fred’s Big Run is a virtual challenge to walk or run 50km or more during the month of August. I’m running X km and fundraising for The Fred Hollows Foundation to restore sight to needlessly blind people. Help me carry on Fred’s vision by supporting my run. Every bit helps! As little as $25 can help restore sight.”

HOW TO LINK YOUR FUNDRAISING PAGE WITH INSTAGRAM?

Instagram doesn’t allow links in comments or posts.

The only way to add your fundraising page link is by adding it to your personal profile as a URL. Go to 'Edit Profile' and copy/paste your fundraising URL into the website field. 

Then to promote on Instagram, we suggest you download a social tile from our resources page on Freds Big Run website and add the words “Please click the website link in my bio to support my challenge” to the tail end of the copy in your post.

Any donations made using a Facebook fundraising page will be received via PayPal Giving Fund and sent to The Fred Hollows Foundation bank account. A tax deductible receipt will be issued directly by Facebook (through PayPal Giving Fund) as they collect and distribute the donations received. The donation will show on the fundraisers page as a 'Facebook' donation without the donors name.

Yes, even so Facebook donations are handled by a third party and it may take some time for the money to arrive at The Foundation, the donations will be showing on your fundraising page as a 'Facebook' donation. Your donor will have received their tax-receipt through Facebook and for privacy reason Facebook is not able to share the donors name with your fundraising page.

If you want to have your donors name showing on your fundraising page (and making sure the money is getting to us faster), we advise to always share the link to your fundraising page on your social media account instead of creating an actual Facebook fundraiser. 

When someone donates on Facebook, a payment (tax deductible) receipt is sent to the primary email address listed on their Facebook account.

The receipt includes The Foundation's name and details. It  confirms that the donation was made to a charitable organisation and that no goods or services were received in return.

Find your receipt in your Facebook payment history. 

1. Delete the initial post, as this is the only way to remove the Facebook Donate button,
2. Create a new Facebook post and share only the link to your fundraising page without adding the ‘Donate’ button.

The Facebook Donate button is a Facebook-owned feature, you will need to contact them directly with any queries about privacy and security. Here is the link to their policy: https://m.facebook.com/payments_terms/privacy

All donations of $2 or more are tax deductible for Australian tax payers. If the donor receives something material in return for their money, such as a raffle ticket, a ticket for a movie, a dinner or auction item, these contributions are not tax deductible.

Your supporters will automatically receive a tax receipt emailed to them, when they make a donation on-line using your fundraising page. For cash and cheque donations follow the instruction below.

The Fred Hollows Foundation does not usually issue receipt books to its fundraisers, unless a large event with potentially lots of cash donations warrants receipt books being used. If you need assistance with receipts, please email or phone 1800 627 892

Add cash donations to your fundraising page by following these steps:

Step 1: Login to your fundraising page

Step 2: Go to 'My Fundraising' and select 'My Donations' and then select 'Add Offline Donations' 

Step 3: Add the amount and the details of the donor (First and Last Name and email address) should your donor wants a receipt. Or use your own personal details.

For a tax receipt please tick the box under the amount field. Please note any money received for goods sold (e.g. movie or raffle tickets, BBQ etc) are not tax-deductible so please DO NOT tick the box under the amount field.

Step 4: Use your credit card to make the donation

Step 5: The amount of the donation will be added to your fundraising total and a tax receipt is issue to your sponsor if applicable.

Deposit directly into The Foundation bank account

You can bank cash or make an EFT transfer to The Fred Hollows Foundatio through any Westpac Bank branch. For our bank details please contact us on 1800 627 982.    

Cheque donations

Please make sure any cheques are made out to The Fred Hollows Foundation. Send the cheque(s) together with a small note containing the event name (Fred’s Big Run), participant name, donor name and donor email address to The Fred Hollows Foundation, Locked Bag 5021, Alexandria NSW 2015. Make sure you mention it is in support of Fred’s Big Run.

We will allocate the money to your fundraising page and issue the donor with a tax receipt.

Of course, BBQ, movie night or trivia, a book club, dinner, high tea, girls’ night in, the options are endless.

1. Click here for BBQ tips and tricks
2. Why are trivia nightsso popular? Because they work! Get your friends, family and work colleagues together and have fun with fundraising. Click here for more
3. Host a Lunch, Brunch or Dinner– a great meal with friends and families? Charge an amount to cover food, drink and a donation towards your fundraising. Click here for more
4. Movie Night – a movie night may be all you need to reach your fundraising goal. Enjoy a great night out with friends and family and restore sight at the same time. Click here for more
5. Raffle - A raffle can be incorporated into all fundraising events! It’s a great way to increase your fundraising.  Click here for more

Host a bake sale, casual clothes day, sausage sizzle or sports activity to raise money for The Foundation at your school. Check out our fundraising blog for more.

No, however we reward the first 1,500 fundraisers who raise more then $250 with a limited edition of our Fred's Big Run 2023 T-shirt!

Start by making a donation to yourself right away, set a high fundraising goal so your supporters see you are keen to help restore sight, send out your email and post on social and you will be wearing a Fred’s Big Run T-shirt very soon. 

Don't forget, there are also many more exciting rewards to be earned for our dedicated fundraisers going the extra mile ;-) 

Since Fred’s Big Run is a virtual event, we do not need volunteers for this event. However, you can volunteer for The Foundation in our office or at one of our other events.  The Foundation recognises that volunteers are a crucial part of smooth running and success of events and in the office. Contact us to find out more.

Instagram doesn’t allow links in comments or posts.

The only way to add your fundraising page link is by adding it to your personal profile as a URL. Go to 'Edit Profile' and copy/paste your fundraising URL into the website field. 

Then to promote on Instagram, we suggest you download a social tile from our resources page on Freds Big Run website and add the words “Please click the the website link in my bio to support my challenge” to the tail end of the copy in your post.

While the cost of cataract surgery varies depending on the specific operating environments in the countries where we work, in some countries it is possible to restore sight for as little as $25.

Our $25 cost includes the three key things needed to restore sight – the surgeon’s time, the consumable equipment and the intraocular lens (IOL) which replaces the cataract.

The most important element in modern cataract surgery is the IOL – Fred Hollows used to refer to them as "the most expensive pieces of plastic in the world". Reducing the cost of the IOL was the fundamental factor in making cataract surgery affordable.

Today, IOL prices vary significantly – including in low and middle-income countries.

In October 2021 The Foundation evaluated our program costs for small incision cataract surgery in countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Cambodia to ensure the $25 cost remained accurate.

Our assessment showed IOLs start from $4 in Pakistan, about $6 in Cambodia, and about $14 in Bangladesh.

The other key costs are the surgeon’s time (which is less than $1.50 per patient in those three countries) and consumable equipment (as little as $5.46).

So with the cost of the IOL, the surgeon and the consumables it is possible that The Foundation can restore sight for as little as $25 in some countries.

We acknowledge that not all surgeries in all countries are as little as $25. The cost of surgery depends on factors including the country of treatment, the age and circumstances of the patient, how and where the treatment is delivered, the type of procedure, the IOL used, the hospital type (government or private), the facilities of the hospital, inpatient or day procedure delivery mechanisms, and the economic status of people in the country or region.

We appreciate your request to visit our programme work, but unfortunately, we can’t allow visitors in our clinics. This is to avoid disruption to our eye care services and to provide privacy and respect to the patients accessing eye care. Please contact us on 1800 627 892 for more information or questions.