I'd agree with that. My monthly dd goes to [url= http://www.wrvs.org.uk/ ]these people[/url] it's a great charity, people like this kept my grandmother living at home until she died, which is what she wanted, independence is a real gift.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!
