MOVEMBER FUNDRAISING
The Movember Banking Challenge: investing in men's health
The Movember Banking Challenge gets finance teams talking, competing, and fundraising for men's health, one branch and trading floor at a time.
The finance world is fast-paced and demanding, but often silent when it comes to talking about health. Men are almost three times as likely to die by suicide as women, and 65% wait more than six days with symptoms before seeing a doctor. Whether it's burnout, depression, or a cancer diagnosis, silence can cost lives. That's where the Movember Banking Challenge comes in.
The challenge gets colleagues talking, growing moustaches, and rallying around each other, all while raising funds for mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer.
WHAT IS THE BANKING CHALLENGE?
Every Movember, banks, credit unions, and the wealth management and capital markets teams inside them go head-to-head in this sector-wide competition: 30 days, one shared cause, no shortage of friendly rivalry.
Campaigns have ranged from hockey tournaments to stair climbs, hot wing eating contests, kickoff breakfasts, and mental health panels, whatever gets a team fired up. The sector has raised over $15 million since 2009, including $1,068,543 in 2025 alone from 952 fundraisers across 125 teams, with CIBC leading at $427,000.
THE ROI FOR YOUR WORKPLACE
The Banking Challenge gives your workplace a reason to:
- Get colleagues talking about things that don't usually come up at work
- Bring departments and branches together around one shared goal
- Add some friendly heat to your rivalry with other institutions
- Support a cause that reaches into every corner of the sector
- Help move the needle on men's health outcomes in your community
You don't need a moustache to make this challenge yours.
THE KIND OF STORY THIS CHALLENGE CREATES
Matt Watson, a CIBC Mo Bro, has grown a moustache every November for the past 16 years. He didn't join because of a health scare of his own, he just liked what the cause stood for and stuck with it. Along the way, his dad Stu became a fixture on CIBC's trading floor, and together they've raised nearly $300,000, enough to land Matt a spot in the Movember Hall of Fame.
CIBC's team alone has raised $6.34 million since 2008, proof that one workplace, if it takes the cause seriously without taking itself too seriously, can move real money. As Matt puts it: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
That's the thing about the Banking Challenge. It doesn't start with a captain or a company mandate. It starts with one person deciding to show up, the way Matt did 16 years ago.
And showing up doesn't require a moustache. Mo Sisters have built some of the Challenge's biggest teams, leading campaigns as Team Captains, moving 60 kilometres, or hosting the events that get a whole branch talking. The men in this fight don't get anywhere without them.
WHAT’S ON THE LINE IN 2026
Last year set a new bar: 952 fundraisers, 125 teams, and over $1 million raised in a single challenge, pushing the sector's lifetime total past $15 million. This year, we're hoping to climb even higher. Every new team, every returning Mo Bro and Mo Sister and every conversation sparked at a branch or on a trading floor adds to that total. And this year, leaderboard bragging rights come with something you can actually hold: a brand-new Banking Challenge trophy, awarded to whichever team comes out on top.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
- Create your Mo Space. Head to movember.com and set up your personal fundraising profile.
- Start or join a team. Set up your company's team page, or join one that's already running.
- Reach out to Tyler.Watkins@Movember.com for support getting your team involved and making the most of the challenge.
You don't need a title or a budget to get started. You just need to be the first one to show up.
