What’s the point?
Some of the mums from school are taking part in a sponsored walk in a far flung country.
Flights and accommodation etc must add up to a substantial amount which are paid for by being sponsored, seems like a complete waste of money.
In my old days I used to be a mechanic on triathlons(abroad) there was always a lot of groups from Blighty- flights must have cost a fortune all paid by sponsorship.

Thoughts ????

If you raise the funds to go yourself (from your pocket) and all donations go to the charity no problem. If your using donations for a holiday then no.

I’d question the point of sponsorship as a fundraising approach in general. Why not just say “I feel strongly about this cause, I wonder if you would mind donating?”

Now “high profile” sponsored events may have a purpose beyond the financial. In which case if you think of it as “crowd funding to raise awareness of XXX whilst doing YYY” you might view it differently?

I’m with Mike.

Unfortunately, charities are so desperate, and there’s so much competition, that they pretty much go along with all this stuff to get any kinds of funds in.

I feel uncomfortable with the

“Here’s something I’d really like to do, will you pay for my flights and accomodation?”

side of it.

If you want to climb a big hill book a holiday and go and do it, don;t expect 80% of what I give you to go towards paying for the experience.

The point is to get more people to do more sponsored events – some people won’t do the same thing year in, year out – I’ve ridden the Taff Trail from Brecon to Cardiff so many times I’ve lost count.

These big international ones come with a hefty minimum donation clause – you’ve got to raise thousands usually and some raise much more.

But yeah, on the face of it, you’re paying for someone to do something a lot of us would pay to do, if we could.

Yep. “Jog on” is my considered opinion (in the ‘will you pay for my holiday?” Scenario). See also: London Marathon/Ride London charity places

Summed up nicely by the Mash

So last year I went off and did Tour De Mo for Movember down here, 210km ride, way out of my comfort zone and a tough day, we paid all our own logistics fees etc. There was a 24km run up the local 1100m mountain too – those things raised over 100k$(AU) for charity with some donations from the kind folks in here. For me those things are all OK

In 2002 a mate and I raised just over 10k for Macmillan. It was a ‘sponsored’ trip across Ecuador. All our money went to the charity and we spent 6 months running fundraising events including a 24 hour squash marathon. Which was fairly bonkers 😉

My direct experience is it wasn’t a holiday. Most of the people (90+) we did it with were not semi-serious cyclists like were were and there was lots of suffering. Accommodation was extremely basic, food was terrible, it was monsoon season so we got soaked every day and some of the riding was pretty hard – 10,000+ feet passes and 90km days. Four people were evacuated, two with suspected dysentery.

While fund-raising, we had lots of ‘paying for your holiday’ comments even after patiently explaining we were funding the £1100 cost of the trip personally. My response was ‘that’s fine, if you support the charity go donate directly, if you don’t that’s fine too but what’s not fine it to belittle the efforts of those actually doing something’

I didn’t want to do another. It was bloody hard. Yes a fantastic experience to be with all those like minded people and the final total raised was impressive. Most – not all certainly – had raised way above the minimum though lots of fundraising Macmillan would not have got otherwise.

It remains a contentious subject, but it’s more nuanced that simply ‘I’m not paying for your holiday’

I have some personal rules about sponsorship:

Are any of the funds going towards the cost of your activity, rather than the charity? If yes, I’m out.

If you’re doing a “challenge”, is it actually a challenge for you? If you’re a double iron man finisher, I’m not sponsoring you to do a 5k. On the other hand, if you’re a lard-arse trying to get fit as well, a 5k walk might be a challenge for you.

Is it a cause you feel strongly about, or do you just feel strongly about the fact that they’ve got a place in the event you want to do?

Edit: on the flip side

While fund-raising, we had lots of ‘paying for your holiday’ comments even after patiently explaining we were funding the £1100 cost of the trip personally.

it’s a shame that the prevailing situation has belittled the efforts of people who genuinely want to make a difference

I know what you mean – I ofern feel like saying “scrap my contribution, and why don’t you simply donate the £2k the flight/trip is costing…”

I know of many people who have ‘spent’ £2+ k in order to ‘raise’ £600…

DrP

a 24 hour squash marathon

Impressive! How many glasses did you drink in the end?

Not much to add to this other than to agree with Mike.

You could always become a social pariah by telling the participants that you’ve donated the equivalent amount directly to the charity and why.

I know of many people who have ‘spent’ £2+ k in order to ‘raise’ £600

The counter argument is that the £600 would never have got raised if the £2k wasn’t spent.

mpressive! How many glasses did you drink in the end?

There’s always one. And it’s normally PP 😉 We had a team of 6 and about 12 people who came in for an hour or two. Played a lot of doubles. Which when you’re absolutely cream crackered is quite dangerous. Nothing like a racquet to the back of the head to wake you up tho!

Is it a cause you feel strongly about, or do you just feel strongly about the fact that they’ve got a place in the event you want to do?

Both of us had strong personal reasons to support Macmillan. It’s how we got involved in the first place.

Like several others, no objection if participant is paying for all costs themselves, but not paying for someones ‘holiday’ for them, and frankly its a bit cheeky to even ask.

Alex – Member

In 2002 a mate and I raised just over 10k for Macmillan. It was a ‘sponsored’ trip across Ecuador. All our money went to the charity and we spent 6 months running fundraising events including a 24 hour squash marathon. Which was fairly bonkers

My direct experience is it wasn’t a holiday. Most of the people (90+) we did it with were not semi-serious cyclists like were were and there was lots of suffering. Accommodation was extremely basic, food was terrible, it was monsoon season so we got soaked every day and some of the riding was pretty hard – 10,000+ feet passes and 90km days. Four people were evacuated, two with suspected dysentery.

While fund-raising, we had lots of ‘paying for your holiday’ comments even after patiently explaining we were funding the £1100 cost of the trip personally. My response was ‘that’s fine, if you support the charity go donate directly, if you don’t that’s fine too but what’s not fine it to belittle the efforts of those actually doing something’

I didn’t want to do another. It was bloody hard. Yes a fantastic experience to be with all those like minded people and the final total raised was impressive. Most – not all certainly – had raised way above the minimum though lots of fundraising Macmillan would not have got otherwise.

It remains a contentious subject, but it’s more nuanced that simply ‘I’m not paying for your holiday’

I was going to write a post, but my experience was pretty much +1 to this.
I did a bike ride along the Nile with Mencap in 2002. While not a real ball buster, it was still hard work & I put in a lot of training to make it more bearable.
We had to pay £450 towards the travel/accommodation & commit to raising £2000. I ended up raising £2400.

I wouldn’t do it again – the fundraising was very hard work & stressful.
And perhaps I was naïve, but I didn’t expect quite so many people to moan at me about ‘funding a holiday….’. Even after explaining how it worked, I got the impression that people still thought I was doing it just for a bit of a jolly.

I can’t remember the stats now, but Mencap got a massive proportion of their fundraising through these type of events.

it absolutely not on. Even if you are spending your own money to cover costs thats still money being spent on your fun not going to the charity. Its big business, the companies organising it make huge profits and its not eco friendly nor efficient charity raising.

Want to raise money for charity – don’t travel halfway round the world for some nonsense event. The two of you that have done it why could you not have done a similar challenge in the UK saving the hundreds or thousands of pounds in cost? More money to charity that way

tjagain – Member

Want to raise money for charity – don’t travel halfway round the world for some nonsense event. The two of you that have done it why could you not have done a similar challenge in the UK saving the hundreds or thousands of pounds in cost? More money to charity that way

Rightly or wrongly, I wouldn’t have signed up had it been ‘Cycle The Trent’, as opposed to ‘Cycle The Nile’.
People are more willing to do these events because there is some kind of personal benefit to doing them, as well as a benefit to the charity; selfish, I know.
The fundraising took a lot of effort & I had many sleepless nights worrying about how I was going to raise the required money (boo hoo, poor me). But, it was worth the effort because I got something in return for it at the end.
Not too hard a concept to grasp, is it?

Again, had it been a domestic event I probably just wouldn’t have bothered. I know – I’m a terrible person.

TJ, how do you feel about all these celebrities that pop up & do events for Sport Relief & Children in Need etc?
They must cost an enormous amount to do. Helen Skelton, for example has kayaked the amazon & travelled to the south pole for sport relief, as well as tightrope walking across Battersea power station for Comic Relief.
Why bother…..? She could have just Kayaked the Clyde & Trekked to South Mimms. People would have probably donated the same amount.

It’s TJ logic stumpy, pointless arguing….

See also: London Marathon/Ride London charity places

dunno about the marathon but ridelondon riders pay their own entry fee.

It’s also one of the biggest fundraising events of the year for many of the charities.

The London Marathon (amongst other marathons and Ironman events) kinda grind my gears. The minimum sponsorship levels stated for charity entries usually equate to the value of the entry the charity had to pay for the entry themselves. So if someone meets the £1,700 or so minimum then the charity break even.

Yet every year, you see the same comments on forums along the lines of “If you don’t meet the minimum amount they can’t make you pay the shortfall” and “I took a charity place because it cost me less”.

Last year I had a chum on facebook who spent 6 months on facebook saying how they were doing a marathon to raise money for charity, wouldn’t make the minimum amount required, but that it didn’t matter…

I have been tempted to do one/many of these foreign charity events but not done so for the reasons/arguments already discussed.
I have participated in one many years ago for MS with a forum menmbet who’s name escapes me, he was from Edinburgh and was passing by me going South so I got a lift

These events are about chugging your friends, family and colleagues to make you look good doing something you could do anyway

Far better to do something where there is something in return for the cash, organise a bike event for example, far better for everyone