[Closed] sponsoring people to 'do things'

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.

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

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.

I donate directly to two charities.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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 🙂

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

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.

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..........

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

[img] [/img]

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.

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)

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.

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.

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

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.

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 🙂

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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....

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

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.

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"

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.

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.

I too struggle with the idea of sponsoring people doing things they want to do anyway.

However, if money ends up in the hands of charities, irrespective of the motives of the individual participants, isn't that a good end in itself?

Also, I'm pretty sure that the "cycle costa rica" trips usually require the participants to (1) cover the cost of their doing the trip and (2) raise a minimum amount of sponsorship. In other words, if you sponsor them, you're not paying for flights, etc.

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

Quite. Or, if you have no time, give cash directly. And, like TJ says, don't always choose the "cuddly" ones.

I have a personal dislike for people who wave a donation sheet under your nose and expect you to hand the cash over automatically. It's the assumption that everyone wants to donate money regardless of the cause which really annoys.

i've decided i won't be doing another event for charity. i'll make my own donations to leukaemia research and will sponsor anyone raising money for them, but that's it. this was a one off due to my GF fighting a vile disease and me feeling like a useless tw4t. and yeah i had a bloody good time while I was away (apart from the running 100km bit), but that's not why i was away and no one else had to pay for that side of it. thank you and goodnight.

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

Yes, but that isn't really the way it works is it? Regardless of the rights or wrongs people do make the effort for these things with the trip as a motivator, where they probably wouldn't without the carrot.

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.

Same here- I'd be reluctant to sponsor a healthy friend in their 20s to walk round most of a 5K run!

for Jimmy: they are at Lee Quarry 6th/27th sept and 18th Oct

I recently did a charity ride and, like iDave, was disappointed at the response of some well-to-do friends, particularly as others who I know less well or only via the web made a small donation (which is all I was asking people to consider). No-one's obliged to donate and most of us have regular donations and lots of requests for more, but it was still a bit surprising to me.

And the charity has told me that despite particpation in the event being about three times what they expected, the fundraising has been a big disappointment.

TJ...I see what you mean. But if Mencap hadn't organised the trip, then I doubt they would have got those 120 people to raise at least £2000 each.

I definitely wouldn't have put in all the time & effort I did, had I not been doing the event itself - whether that is morally bad or not, it's the truth.
Carrot on a stick to get people to raise loads of money.

You could argue a similar thing about all charity events, not just 'holidays'. How much must the Race for Life cost to organise?! It is now a massive event & must cost a fortune to put on, but it must be worth doing for the charity on a money raised basis.
You can argue that these same people should put their efforts into just raising the money, rather than doing a 5 or 10km walk or run and perhaps training for weeks/months beforehand.

I wouldn't be surprised if alot of the companies involved in providing flights / accomodation / food for these fundraising 'holidays' may donate their services as either free or at a discounted rate as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.

Of course you don't need to get people to sponsor you. That seems like money for nothing. We recently set up a charity bike workshop at work (We got management buy in) Over two days including gift aid we raised 2 grand for Edinburgh Sick Kids.

All we did was give bikes an "MOT", any real work we told them to go a local bike shop and get it sorted. People seemed to be more interested if they were getting something out of it.

Steve

I decided to put on a great big party with bikes, bands and beer. Someone sneered I was doing it to line my pockets so all money made is going to charity. Not because I had too, not because I wanted to polish my halo. It simply seemed the right thing to do.

Made buggerall difference to ticket sales from what I can see though

And, like TJ says, don't always choose the "cuddly" ones.

I did a Manchester To Sheffield on road and back again off road for our local (and UK's largest) hospice that my wife works for so I had a vested interest. She comes home with some pretty heart breaking stories and I'm an emotional cripple (apparently). I only approached companies for sponsorship as they would get some advertising benefit via radio, tv and newspapers.
I didn't ask nor expect individuals to contribute and if it came up in conversation and they wanted to donate, I told them to make a payment direct to the hospice if they wanted to.
I hate people trying to make me feel guilted into contributing and I wasn't going to do it to somebody else.

Haven't read all the above, but as a rule I don't give to such endeavours. I see it more as a subsidies holiday/activity with the excess going to charity. I would rather give money directly to charity, then paying for someone to have a jolly up a mountain in Africa or jumping out of an plane or whatever.
If people don't want to give you anything then that's up to them and has nothing to do with whether they have a bob or two or not.

traildog, no one paid for any part of my trip - it wasn't a charity jolly - i paid for it by selling a load of my possessions. all the donations went to the charity direct, none of it passed through my hands

I did a trip back in 2005 but it was organised by the charity and we paid for all the costs ourselves. All sponsorship money went direct to the charity. But having looked into the "charity tourism industry" I wouldn't sponsor someone on the type where you pay X amount for the trip and some money goes to charity. Some of the trips are just adventure holidays - one of the reasons we went on ours was because it wasn't. I saw someone in the local paper two years ago asking for sponsorship for her trip to pay for her gel saddle FFS !!!!

The trip we made was for our enjoyment but also to raise awareness / money. Some people on low wages were more than generous whilst some contractors on £400+ a day didn't give a penny. We were lucky in a lot of friends sponsored us and one of the contractors company gave £500 !!!

Nowadays TBH I'm fed up with people wanting money to do things which aren't challenging. I would rather give to the charities I want to and claim back the tax efficiently - I'm not sure this is always the case.

More info on our trip if you're interested on ......

[url= http://www.davegriffiths.force9.co.uk/Leprabikeride/index.htm ]Madagascar trip[/url]

Totally agree with you traildog. Why would I sponsor you to do something that you enjoy and would probably do for fun anyway. Parachute jumps are the worst offenders, with most of the money paying for you to enjoy the jump, wtf is that all about?

If you want sponsoring, do something productive! something for the comunity or work for the charity itself if posible. If you asked me to sponsor you in a race, id tell you to get off, but if you came and asked me to sponsor you to plant trees to help prevent land errosion on your local trails, or to clean up the local rec area, or perhaps paint the youth club or comunity building, i dunno, just anything of benefit to others, Id put my hand straight in my pocket.

Parachute jumps....honestly??

I give to charity when the mood strikes but almost never give to sponsored events as usually they achieve nothing of benefit to anyone other than the participant. If someone did 2 hours of litter picking for charity then I would sponsor them but as someone said above, no sponsoring for holidays etc.

I would also never knowingly sponsor any event that involves research on animals as they feel distress and pain just the same as us.

I don't like that Just Giving lot - you are just giving them 5% commission!