sponsoring people to 'do things'

Chat Forum

[closed]

sponsoring people to 'do things'

53 posts & 39 voices | Started 2 years ago by iDave | Latest reply from mastiles_fanylion

Tags:

No tags yet.

Pages: 12 Next »

iDave - Member

maybe i'm a soft touch, but usually if someone is doing an event to raise money i donate something. seems like the decent thing. this year i've sponsored about 5 friends and even friends of friends doing anything from a 10k to a 200km road ride. £10 here £20 there. i'm not flush, but i think it's a good thing to do. better than some of the crap TV fund raising things.

anyway, i've just done what i consider to be a pretty savage challenge for leukaemia research. i've been really surprised at the lack of donations. from people i know are not short of a few bob, and who i would have considered friends. some people i've never met have donated. but overall it seems to be like blood from a stone. things have been in local media etc. to no effect.

am i expecting too much? none of the donations went towards the trip, it was all self funded. i'm a bit disillusioned to be honest.

mleh

Posted 2 years ago #
CaptainFlashheart - Member

I sponsor no one. Sorry about that.

I give to my chosen charities (RNLI, RDA and RAFBF before you ask) and that's it. The endless arrays of "requests" to sponsor people bore the hell out of me, even from people I love dearly.

Posted 2 years ago #
iDave - Member

i should add i've never done things for charidee before, but this had personal significance, and was a fkin hard event.

Posted 2 years ago #
Nico - Member

I've sponsored three people in the last few weeks. Two bike rides (both long - one Lands End to John O'Groats) and a bloke sailing round the isle of wight. Of the three two raised several thousand and one raised less than 100 quid. The difference was the marketing campaign. Unfortunately you have to treat it as such and you can never make too much noise. No place for shrinking violets. All three were for hospices btw which is a very worthwhile cause in my book. A fiver here and a tenner there is all I'd expect but some people don't give for the same reason Mr FH mentions. Fair enough. I'm a bit reluctant to get involved in those exotic holiday type events. And chuggers get short shrift from me.

Posted 2 years ago #
vinnyeh - Member

I donate directly to two charities.

If I feel sufficient urge to participate in a charity event then I'll sponsor myself.

Posted 2 years ago #
beej - Member

Depends on the level of challenge (which depends on the person doing it). I also shy away from holiday style things, even if they are dead hard and self funded.

Posted 2 years ago #
druidh - Member

A bit like vinnyeh I think. I tend to do a few charity events in a year and I don't feel I can go round the same folk each time, so I "sponsor" myself.

Posted 2 years ago #
Bunnyhop - Member

Congratulations for taking the time and effort to raise money for charity.
However, when hubby and I got married, we decided to have a regular standing order to our favourite charity.
I do sponsor a good friend every year who rides Mayhem for the same charity.

Posted 2 years ago #
AdamT - Member

It's funny thing. I wouldn't sponsor my Tri club mates to run 5k, but I did sponsor my mum(67) to do a 5k. For me then, there's some threshold where if it's a real stretch for someone to do an event then I'm more likely to consider it.

Posted 2 years ago #
Brownbacks - Member

you should become a "community entrepreneur" and do something that people will pay for that benefits the community

this is what six blokes in a pub did

http://www.brownbacksracing.co.uk

it's not for profit, we don't even get expenses and we have started from nothing

I guarantee its harder than any "one-off" event, benefits more people and will hopefuly raise a shed load of money in future years

Posted 2 years ago #
djglover - Member

I realise you aren't, but it really annoys me me off when people do a sponsored parachute jump or run the new york marathon. Sorry, no, I'm not paying for you to go on holiday and give the leftovers to charity!

Posted 2 years ago #
firestarter - Member

im doing a sponsored ride for cancer research as a kind of thing to help me get thru the fact my dad has terminal cancer . I felt a bit cheeky askin on here for donations but its been very positive so thank you all as you will no doubt read this i suppose it probably does get tiresome people asking but ive never thought about it before i did one . Apologies if it offended anyone and as for the original post my mates have been harder to get support from than people on here i make monthly donations from my wage to yorkshire air ambulance . Fire service charity and try to donate to events when i can afford for certain charities that have somehow touch me namely burns unit and cancer. And when a friend is doing something regardless of charity. God i ramble sometimes lol

Posted 2 years ago #
firestarter - Member

oh and if you fancy anymore giving my just giving page is in my profile. Hows that for cheek cheers all

Posted 2 years ago #
I_Ache - Member

I know what you mean. I'm doing a sponsored Sky Dive in just over a week and have been on about it to friends I've known since school so they will sponsor me when I know full well they have the money and can spare the cost of 2 pints but after 6 weeks of badgering they still havn't donated. Its not like its not a good cause either its for premature babies. I guess part of the problem is they don't have kids so probably don't care. Oh and click on my name if you want to find out more.

Posted 2 years ago #
iDave - Member

ok cool, and i totally agree with most of the comments.

i would never do, or contribute to, those 'cycle across cuba' things where most of the cash goes to the trip.

i'm also more likely to sponsor an unfit housewife running a 10k than bear gryls eating a turd in siberia.

this was last minute, an email from a mate about an ultra marathon in mongolia coincided with feeling helpless about my closed friend having a real battle with leukaemia. so i put 2 and 2 together and made blisters.

as it is now, i don;t think i'll do anything for charity again, i'll make my own contributions and expect nothing from anyone.

please make all cheques payable to..........

Posted 2 years ago #
BlingBling - Member

"What it is right......."

Posted 2 years ago #
Drac - Moderator

Down to choice nothing else, your happy to sponsor people regularly others aren't, I'll sponsor people if I know them and the charity is worthy. I do hate charities knocking at the door asking me to donate or sign up does my head in.

Posted 2 years ago #
samuri - Member

as above. if I know the people I'm happy to do it but anyone else can bugger off. We've already chosen the charities we want to give to and we contribute by standing order to them.

The time I've participated in a charity event we did a great big ride from one end of the country to the other, I didn't feel like I was contributing to anything, just having a rather long and enjoyable ride on my bike. (Although we did raise thousands)

Posted 2 years ago #
Nick - Member

We raised 17k in the beginning of the year for the NSPCC, hardest thing I've ever done, sure some people gave us a tenner here or a tenner there which was great, but the bulk of the money came from events we put on, from cake sales and bonus ball sweep stakes to a charity ball.

Posted 2 years ago #
Pieface - Member

Often people who do events raise money for charities that you've never even heard of. A mate is running in support of Max Appeal. If he wasmn't doing it they'd never have got any money from me which is no bad thing in my book.

I think if you've sponsored people in the past and they don't sponsor you in return (even just a pound) I think thats just bad form.

Posted 2 years ago #
iDave - Member

i'm actually with drac and samurai's thinking. although throughout the tough parts of the run i had to focus on the leukaemia side of it, otherwise i'd have jacked it in

Posted 2 years ago #
scruff - Member

There are alot of things I'm asked to contribute to- people from work wanted to be paid to Bunjee jump in NZ, plastic charity bags wanting my clothes to be put through the letter box, save the polar bear bibs walking into me in the high street, church plate, mates doing bike rides (gave to that one) and mates getting drunk in flipflops and shooting vodka bottles (gave to that one too).

So no dont be surprised, credit crunch & too many good causes.

Posted 2 years ago #
nickname - Member

I'm sponsoring a mate who's doing the Kilimanjaro walk/hike/climb - probably same if not similar route to the celebrity one a few months back.

Now it looks to me like it's costing an utter fortune to just do the thing (flights/guides/kit).

So I now find myself wondering if they are in fact going to have any extra dosh to donate to charity, or if it will just end up one big holiday for him, oh well...not that bitter

Posted 2 years ago #
iDave - Member

i did get drunk, ride horses in flip flops and shoot vodka bottles - but did this by selling some furniture, my guitars, a bike, and some golf clubs and a dyson that weren't mine. and also by not paying rent for a month. so yeah I'd be v pissed off if a donation paid for any part of anyone's trip and didn't go straight to the worthy cause, not that shooting vodka bottles isn't worthy mind - it was all in the cause of furthering Ulster/Mongolian relations

Posted 2 years ago #
simon_g - Member

I donate where I think the person is really pushing themselves or putting themselves out for charity. A friend of my gf wanted sponsoring for walking up Snowdon in a group - ffs, thousands of people do that each year, including little kids. Ones round work have been for all kinds of trivial stuff.

Trouble is, good as sites like justgiving are, people think that they can send round a quick email to everyone they know with the link and raise thousands for charity with a minimum of effort. Then wonder why the only people that bother are their spouse and parents.

Posted 2 years ago #
thomthumb - Member

people keep askig what charity some of my bike rides are for - maxx exposure, 24 solo etc. - they all seem a bit surprised when i tell them it's for fun.

I'd really feel strange taking money from people for riding bikes - cos i love it. if it was eating tuna that'd be worth sponsering - i hate the stuff.

Posted 2 years ago #
scruff - Member

Mongolian horses wear flip-flops? Thats probably why Ghengis didnt get his Empire as far as he hoped.

Posted 2 years ago #
iDave - Member

Ghengis stopped when he heard about the Irish. Ghengis Khan, Paddy Will

Posted 2 years ago #
IanMunro - Member

I'll sponsor random people who are doing things generally in this country. I tend not to sponsor anyone doing anything abroad, for a variety of reasons but I guess something along the lines of it doesn't quite sit right with me asking to be sponsored for something that you'd probably want to do anyway. I was talking to the pub landlord last week about LEJOG and he said I should get sponsored, I said it's just a bike ride and inquired if he'd ask for sponsorship of his golf holiday in Spain, but he said that was different because it was enjoyable

Sorry to hear the requests bore you CF, I guess money's tight after buying chips.

Posted 2 years ago #
jimmy - Member

Brownbacks - that all looks good, and I don't know if I'm being stupid but... where are the races? I can't see it says anywhere....

Posted 2 years ago #
firestarter - Member

thats another thing too with the credit crunch hitting everyone hard its really hitting the charities :-(as no one has spare cash to give

Posted 2 years ago #
PeterStarkiss - Member

I am trying to raise sponsership for Meningitis Trust for The great North Run that my daughter and I are doing.

Proving really difficult, especially as we have a large pool of people to tap up that are the same.

We have a minimum amount to raise and at the moment that is looking really unlikely.

Posted 2 years ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

One of the things that irritates me a bit about charity fund-raising is that the "cuddly" charities get more. Raising money for children with Leukemia is rather easier than for lonely old people or homeless.

Also the efficiency of the fundraising - the "cycle costa rica" type things cost thousands per participant whereas as a sponsored walk does not.

On the whole I'd rather people gave their time to charities by volunteering rather than went on "cycle costa rica"

Posted 2 years ago #
stumpy01 - Member

I generally sponsor people if I know that they are making an effort to do it.
If my mate who runs marathons asked me for sponsorship for a charity 5k I'd tell him where to go, but I'd be more inclined if it was my mum who decided to train for a 5k.

I don't understand all the anti-holiday charity type stuff. I did a 450km bike ride in Egypt for Mencap in 2002. We had to raise £2k each & pay £250 towards the cost of the trip (sorry, holiday). It wasn't massively strenuous for the fitter people there (it helped that i trained for months - i wasn't really that into mountain biking then)) whereas some other people found it a real challenge. One of the blokes doing it was in his 70's.
But, I think the total cost of me being on the trip to Mencap was £470. That included the £250 I had stumped up & in total I raised just over £2400. It was really hard work - I ended up doing car washing at work, pub race nights, endless hours on the phone to people regarding sponsorship, raffles etc. Many people refused to sponsor my 'holiday' and wouldn't listen to the actual information about how much of the money was actually going to Mencap. Even though some of them could barely walk up a flight of stairs let alone cycle 450km in 30 degC + heat.

On the last day of our trip, we were told that the combined total of our trip & the trip that went out the week before us had so far raised £264,000 AFTER the trip costs had been taken out. And there was still money to collect.
So, I think these trips do genuinely help the charity, they give people the chance to experience things they wouldn't normally and they help the local economy by bringing 'tourists' in.

Posted 2 years ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

Stumpy - the point is that if you had put all that effort in fundraising without going on the holiday the charity would have got the money that you raised PLUS the cost of the holiday

That one doesn't sound too bad in terms of efficiency but some folk do these where the holiday costs a couple of thousand and the surplus is less than that.

Posted 2 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Pages: 12 Next »

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.

Singletrack Mountain Bike Magazine

Chat Forum

sponsoring people to 'do things'

Topic Closed

Don't miss…

Singletrack

Website & Forums

Exits