Franklins £50 Challenge

Star of The Apprentice and Countdown, Nick Hewer has shown his support for the Franklins £50 Challenge for the second year running by taking part in a social media video to launch this year’s campaign.

The launch video features Nick Hewer, Lord Sugar’s former right-hand man, encouraging teams to sign up to take part in The Apprentice-style challenge, organised by prominent legal firm Franklins Solicitors. The challenge sees teams from across Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes receive £50 seed funding from Franklins with three months to turn the £50 into as much as possible for their chosen charity.

A record 12 charities have been selected to benefit from this year’s challenge which aims to make a difference locally, with an emphasis on bringing local help and hope to every generation. The selected charities are: Cynthia Spencer Hospice, Northampton Hope Centre, The Lewis Foundation, Willen Hospice, YMCA, Shay’s Smiles, Milton Keynes Hospital Charity, Milton Keynes Age UK, Air Ambulance, Arthur Ellis Mental Health Support, Headway Milton Keynes, and Rainbows Hospice.

Andrea Smith, Partner at Franklins Solicitors, commented: “Last year’s campaign was a record-breaking year with more than £35,000 raised for eight local charities. This year, with a record 12 charities set to benefit, we’re hoping we can raise even more money and really make a difference by bringing help and hope to as many people as possible across Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes.”

Nick Hewer said: “I first became involved in the Franklins £50 Challenge last year and I’m delighted to lend my support again this year as it’s such a brilliant initiative to spur people on to fundraise and ignite entrepreneurial thinking and flair. I’m looking forward to discovering the creative ways teams choose to turn one £50 note into hundreds, or hopefully thousands of pounds to benefit the charities that help so many people in our local communities.”

Last year’s challenge saw teams fundraising by everything from bakes sales and raffles to retro movie nights, stone-baked pizza lunches, 12-hour bike rides, football tournaments, lawn-mowing and much more.

The Franklins £50 Challenge 2025 runs from Monday 24 February to Friday 23 May. Teams can sign up to take part in the challenge at www.franklins50.co.uk 

Watch Again - Interviews from the 2023 £50 Challenge

Watch again our interview about last year's challenge with Rosanna Stimpson, Marketing Manager at Franklins Solicitors who are sponsoring the challenge, Louise Miller-Chalk from Miller and Chalk (her interior design and soft furnishings company is taking part for the first time in the challenge), and Sarah Jones from Northants Telecoms provider, dbfb (they've done the challenge before and are hoping to smash their previous fundraising totals).

Rosanna Stimpson, Marketing Manager at Franklins Solicitors, Nina Gandy, Corporate Partnerships Fundraiser at Cynthia Spencer Hospice and Dave Williams from onefoursix Marketing Agency came in to talk about the Franklins £50 Challenge on Revolution Radio - watch our interview in this video: