[Closed] Sponsorship Rant

Why? Because some events are easier to get into via a sponsorship deal.

But really, you don’t have to sponsor anyone if you don’t want to, even ‘events you do anyway’ need training and preparation and usually a decent outlay on their part.

You OK hun?

Actually "doing something" rather than just asking for donations tends to have a better success rate. It can also be fun for the participants and sponsors too. For example I recently took a bunch of players from my son's U14 rugby team to run the Liverpool Spring 5K. The boys enjoyed it, parents enjoyed it and we raised close on £1K for the team. Win, win really. I seriously doubt that sending home a letter with each player asking for donations would have had the same effect.

Why cant people just run a marathon if that’s what they want to do, or ride a bike a long way if they fancy it. Why does it always have to be “Sponsored”.

It isn’t some people do that every weekend. Hope that helps.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/joseph-holmes3

Oh Hai, here's my just giving page for a ride I'm doing...Not because I love riding my bike, but because I want to raise awareness and money for a charity that means a lot to my other half and I.

Raise money for charity + my enjoyment of riding = Good times.

I agree with the OP. I can see that these events are good for raising money, but I agree with the OP that it is more interesting if it follows the old format of so much per mile. And as for sponsoring a holiday to Machu Pichu or wherever, ffs. And yes, I'm OK. Hun.

Last year on one of our events we raised over £900 for a local hospice just by selling cakes. To think some people bake cakes most weekends.

To think some people bake cakes most weekends.

The utter bastards, can't think of anything worse. Shirley they should be off riding back to back centuries

There’s a lad at my work who I’m sure just does the ‘sponsor me’ thing as an excuse to tell people about all the running he does...

Last year on one of our events we raised over £900 for a local hospice just by selling cakes. To think some people bake cakes most weekends.

At least I would get a tasty cake out of that, what do I get for subsidising someone's latest adventure?

<p>This isn't as bad as the local scouts packing bags in M&S to raise funds for their troop's latest jolly.</p><p>No, I'm not paying for your holiday and I'll pack my own bag thanks</p>

it is more interesting if it follows the old format of so much per mile.

I don't think many people did something "per mile" or whatever without some sort of end goal in mind.  You'd do a sponsored 100 mile ride and people would offer 2p/mile rather than 2 quid in total, the notion presumably being that if you crashed halfway round you'd still have raised something.  You weren't going to be just riding indefinitely until you dropped.

I'm actually sponsoring myself to enjoy life until I die.  Costing me a fortune to do it, but its going on a cause I believe in.

I might set up a just giving page and see what I get.

If you want to raise money, just ask people to donate to a cause, you don’t need to complete an “event” to be able to ask for money

And if you want to raise money in an effective way and a very effective way is via sponsorship of an event then that is good isn't it?

People asking for sponsorship for a local event that's a physical challenge *for them* I don;t have a problem with - they're stretching themselves, doing training etc.

things I don't like;

1) People asking for sponsorship for something they do every week (e.g ride a 100 mile/run 10k/etc).
2) people telling you they're running a 10k when they've every intention of spending 2 hours walking it while eating a range of Ginsters pies.
3) people needing £4k to go to Ecuador and do a bungy jump.

people telling you they’re running a 10k when they’ve every intention of spending 2 hours walking it while eating a range of Ginsters pies.

How the hell are you supposed to do it then, clever clogs?

I agree with the OP. I can see that these events are good for raising money, but I agree with the OP that it is more interesting if it follows the old format of so much per mile. And as for sponsoring a holiday to Machu Pichu or wherever, ffs. And yes, I’m OK. Hun.

I guess we are old school....

One specific charity I supported just left me more and more thinking this was about them getting a holiday to climb a mountain than raising money.

Last year on one of our events we raised over £900 for a local hospice just by selling cakes. To think some people bake cakes most weekends.

In my book that's not the same (by a long way) as we are going to skydive over the great barrier reef or climb Kilimanjaro to raise money... (the last being the one I wondered if this was about funding or someone else paying for their lifestyle)...

There seems to be specific organised mass events over what we did for sponsorship .. .i.e its one thing to get sponsorship for a charity and run a marathon, its another to organise a marathon specifically for the benefit of one charity... ????

Don't get me started on Mrs_middle_class who wants me to sponsor Tarquin or Fenella to go on a school band trip to Italy for a fortnight, staying in nice hotels and each day a fully programmed set of cultural experiences with guide and two 'concerts' on street corners...

In my book that’s not the same (by a long way) as we are going to skydive over the great barrier reef or climb Kilimanjaro to raise money… (the last being the one I wondered if this was about funding or someone else paying for their lifestyle)…

Who mentioned Kilimanjaro?

I have no problem with folks doing something and raising money for charity while they do it.

What bugs me is that you mention you're going to do something, e.g. from personal experience, cycle the TransPennine Trail, because you want to do as a personal goal,and everyone assumes you're doing it for charity, or that you should do it for charity and keeps telling you that you should and suggesting a million & 1 charities you could donate the money you're not raising to.

My personal goal was a target I set myself after being told I may never be able to ride a bike again. 2 years later I did it. That was enough for me.

Fair enough, if you want to raise money fine, but don't expect every bugger else to do it because you think they should do it.

I agree with the OP that it is more interesting if it follows the old format of so much per mile

I agree, and they should have to obtain sponsorship using a scrap of A4 with boxes on it so people can write their name and moneys per mile and sign at the end. That way it's just friends and neighbours that get pestered by the little charity helping turds.

Yeah it's the sponsoring school trips abroad thing that bothers me - I managed to go through school without a rugby or cricket tour... and I especially don't want a 12 year old packing my shopping (I'm not hiding anything I just don't want a 5kg bag of potatoes on top of my cake etc.) :p

My rule of thumb is only to sponsor folk doing something that is difficult for them and for a good and efficient charity

I recently helped out with a woman riding a tandem Lejog - but she was a non cyclist and very unfit before she started - and was picking up a new stoker everyday.  Charity was Samaritans and she paid all her own expenses.  Or a chap I knew who cycled 150 miles in 3 days - a total non cyclist befre the start - easy for me to do - difficult for him

I never sponsor the "sponsored trip up Kilimanjaro" type things and will tell the people why.  Why do they want folk to pay for their jolly at a cost of thousands so a small % only goes to charity

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against charities or fund raising per se. This thought came about when an old friend started a sponsored bike ride from London to Amsterdam. I followed his progress on FB and it got me thinking about the company he booked his sponsored ride through. After a brief (may be the problem here admittedly) look into the companies offerings it seems as though part of the donations made go to the company to pay for the mini buses to follow the riders providing support and assistance, accommodation, ferries etc.

you do realise you have a choice? you don't 'have' to sponsor people doing things for the benefit of charities you don't believe in.

there does seem to be an industry arisen around 'paraglide from a helicopter to walk the great wall of china for 2000GBP of sponsorship', which i am a bit unsure about, but at the end of it, if a charity you believe in gets donations that it otherwise would not have received, WGAS, irrespective of how the money was raised?

WGAS, irrespective of how the money was raised?

If 85p of every pound I donate goes on running the activity, promotion and other expenses then I GAF.

I find being able to say no to people works quite well.

I have a couple of monthly donations set up (such as to the Trussell Trust) and give regularly to Sally Army. I also chose to donate to a charity a month based on who's asking me and me deciding I want to do so or not. I then don't give to others unless I feel that it's particularly deserving. And as others have said above - I also don't donate to "I'm going to Brazil to visit Rio" type charity events

Last year on one of our events we raised over £900 for a local hospice just by selling cakes. To think some people bake cakes most weekends.

In this example the people buying the cakes are giving money for cakes, usually without any pressure or "guilt-tripping" (if the cakes are particularly awful this might not be true). The donor is the cake baker, who is also the person undertaking the activity. In other examples e.g. I want sponsoring to go up Kilimanjaro the donor is the person giving money while the person undertaking the activity applies pressure on that donor, and there's the rub.

i will give the OP 50p for the charity of his choice if this gets to 5 pages.

We also raised an additional £14k just by walking if that helps Nico.

In other examples e.g. I want sponsoring to go up Kilimanjaro

Why are people talking about that. I was referring to the OP and their 100 mile bike ride.

It's chugging using your social capital to make you look like the altruistic hero you probably aren't,

You can raise more money and be a bigger benefit to the community by organising things that raise cash like er, bike races/ sportives/ gravel dashes etc (other ways of raising cash are available)

Op - really? Dry your eyes mate.

On the positive side its an excuse for me to raise awareness of my sponsored cycle ride in aid of my son who has a rare genetic syndrome - Cornelia de Lange Syndrome.  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nick-thorne-for-cdls

It's a 150 mile (4500m ascent) coast to coast cycling 'event' in 12 days time, I've lost two stone since February in order to give me the best possible chance of finishing the ride. Not easy finding the time for training around looking after my disabled son. Is it something I have always wanted to do? - er no - the longest I had cycled prior to the training was 65 miles. I only decided to do it last year as the charity is running out of money.

Op - If it makes you feel better you can sponsor me 10p a mile.

Well done nt80085

I asked for sponsorship when I did a sportive.  But rather than just ask for money, I tried to make it a bit more interesting by inviting people to pay a set amount per minute I came in under my target, and for every minute over I'd pay a much larger amount.  Made it a lot more interesting!

Who mentioned Kilimanjaro?

I'll happily sponsor people for doing something that they find tough.

What really pisses me off, is dry January. You want me to pay you for proving your not an alcoholic?

We also raised an additional £14k just by walking if that helps Nico.

Helps who?

Helps you understand that the OP claiming riding a 100 miles is nothing so don't deserve sponsorship. Baking is easy than riding a 100 miles but you can raise good money for charity. The OP seems to begrudge people doing something he finds easy because other don't.

Who mentioned Kilimanjaro?

Actually Evelina Childrens Hospital for personal reasons i used to follow and contribute but... this was sorta a trigger ... where I started to think "well who wouldn't want a expenses paid trip for Kilimanjaro ..."

and yes as zilog posted it did give me images of Toto...

The thing is I suppose it's actually a very good cause (they saved my son's life)... and perhaps a trip to Africa actually makes more money than a lot of cake baking and stuff... it just 'seems wrong' ....  perhaps in a way my company begrudge I see any 'personal advantages' from my travel...even if they cost them nothing... (like staying in a location on Saturday and getting the train/plane back Sunday where I pay the extra hotel and/or difference in flights if more expensive...

I'm willing to concede that they may make more for the worthy charity this way... it just seems that perhaps they are motivating the people to do it by having an expenses paid trip.

Helps you understand that the OP claiming riding a 100 miles is nothing so don’t deserve sponsorship. Baking is easy than riding a 100 miles but you can raise good money for charity. The OP seems to begrudge people doing something he finds easy because other don’t.

I can't speak for the OP ... but my 2c

If I sponsor you to do something it should be a challenge... I'm quite happy buying cakes though or other fund raising but it's not (in my book) like sponsoring someone to do something they have to really make a huge effort for.

As a kid I raised a whole bunch for the British Heart Foundation... (through school) it's a long time ago so I'll admit what I did.

Some kids went and washed cars etc. but I kinds cheated ... it just happened I hate swimming in pools so at the time I had a 200m badge.. (after which I got and still do bored)... but stick me in a lake or sea and I'd swim quite literally miles...

My "adversity" was swimming in the pool.. and everyone asked how many lengths I had swum previously across Coniston and back... only none actually asked me that everyone asked how many lengths...

Anyway my Mum made me stop after a mile... I got the 1600m badge and never did bother with a 400 or 800

looking back it seems like a bit of a cheat ...

If I sponsor you to do something it should be a challenge

Riding a 100 miles is a challenge for some.

I raised a decent amount of money last year to do the hardest thing I’ve ever done to my body, thanks significantly to the amazing people on here. It was also for a deeply personal cause (yes I know that’s true for everyone) but i found the process to be hugely helpful in starting to heal my fragile mental anguish that had been caused by the tragedy that led me to be raising the money.

if I hadn’t asked then I wouldn’t have raised anything like the money that I did.

Riding a 100 miles is a challenge for some.

I dont think anyone is saying it isn’t for some.

Would you sponsor an audax’er to ride 100 miles?

Agree with the "pay for my holiday" ones.  My response is always "no thanks, unless you pay for mine".

Now, if they are paying all the costs and happen to ALSO be raising money for charity, then I'd consider it.  That's not been the case when people have asked me to sponsor their them for Trekking in Nepal / South America or skydiving in France.

Sponsor someone to ride 100 miles?  Depends.  Are they a regular cyclist that wont find it tough?  Then no.

Is it something they will actually have to put some training in for, and is it going to be a challenge?  Then almost certainly yes.

I dont think anyone is saying it isn’t for some.

Would you sponsor an audax’er to ride 100 miles?

I'll sponsor you to read the first post.

Race for life?

More like stroll around the park for the evening with some mates wearing some pink tat and then go to the pub!

ride 100 miles (loads of people do that every weekend),

I wonder what a percentage of the population actually do that? Less than 0.001% would be my guess.

Sponsorship Rant

There not a just giving page on the go for this? 😆

Race for life?

More like stroll around the park for the evening with some mates wearing some pink tat and then go to the pub!

It's rased over £500m not bad for a stroll and a pint.

Drac - I've read the 1st post a few times to try to ensure I'm not missing something.

Perhaps you could explain where it defines the fitness or otherwise of the participant?

I think we're all agreed that for some people riding 100 miles would be a challenge.  Perhap you can also see that it's not those people we're actually saying are taking the piss, but those for which the sponsored event is just something they enjoy doing or want to do because it's fun and not a challenge.

Perhaps you could explain where it defines the fitness or otherwise of the participant?

That's exactly the point a 100 miles for some is a challenge, does it matter if they fancied doing it or not it can still be tough. The remark of loads of people do it every weekend belittles the effort it can be for some.

Run a charity here, the best form of giving is direct. Short illustration of what works for us - went to buy a small fleet of bikes as we are moving some of our transport to greener methods. A customer heard about what we were doing and has paid for one of the bikes even upgrading it to electric. Has cost us nothing (no fundraising costs) and gives us 100% of the benefit. It also allows us to build a relationship with the donor that is meaningful.

That type of altruism is rare!

Last year I rode round Staveley and Kentmere a few times. Then one weekend I did pretty much the same thing as part of the Sam Houghton Challenge and raised a few hundred quid for cancer research in the process. I'm a right ****t.

Sponsor someone to ride 100 miles?  Depends.  Are they a regular cyclist that wont find it tough?  Then no.

I think I'd be looking at the cause as well rather than solely at the personal challenge difficulty.  If it's a charity worthy of support then it's worth supporting, n'est-ce pas?

Sometimes threads like this are useful too. I donated to a guy because his seemed like a worthy cause. It's very very rare i do that.

I've not even donated to my own sons one in a few weeks yet.

I'll sponsor this thread 1p per page.

I can see the OP's point, for instance when there was a charity abseil off one of the cranes on the Clyde a few years back, I knew I wanted to do it and wasn't really doing it to raise money, so I paid for the expenses out of my own pocket and everything I raised was on top of that. I felt this was a fair deal as I got to do something fun and paid for it myself, and the charity got a bit of exposure and maybe a bit more money.

I wasn't offended by anyone who said no.

I agree that there seems to be an industry springing up offering to essentially get you fun stuff to do if you raise "enough" "for charity". I'm not very comfortable with it.

Whenever I do the Strathpuffer I drum up sponsorship. It's a 24 hour race, I used to do a lot<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;"> of them and while they're hard at race pace, they're doable .</span>

I raise money at the Puffer for Glencoe and Lochaber mountain rescue teams, because the week before I did the race in 2013 my old race partner for most of these races were was killed in an avalanche and they picked him up. I'm clear about that when I ask for money, and pay the cost of the event and travel (and broken bike costs!) myself. Over the last three times I've done it we've raised about £30k.

That seems alright to me. But I'd agree that sponsoring someone to do a 5k run, something anyone can manage, for a charity they've picked at random then I'm much less invested.

Sponsored events should be something interesting, not this bike riding guff.

A few years back my mates set a world record for the three legged walk, that was sponsored and made money for a kids' charity.

Now some kid wants me to sponsor her to do swimming (she's the school swimming champion), she can do one 'cos it's not interesting enough.

Anything short of Snowdon on a pogo stick and I'm out.

Does it matter what the challenge/task etc. is as long as the money raised goes to the Charity? Everyone is different and we all find things challenging - me I'm scared of heights so an abseil of a bridge/building would be a huge challenge for me.

With some of the bigger challenges i.e. Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro, Machu Pichu etc. there is the self funding option where you pay the trip costs upfront and the sponsorship raised goes to the charity - if I were to do one of these it would be the self funded route.

I agree with not being too impressed with the "pay for my church choir to tour Japan" type things though.

Yep, in the same boat as the OP.  Sponsor me to grow a beard...what??  A bloke I know decided to raise money doing this and it really boiled my piss.  For a start, he was one of those blokes that could tear the hair out in the morning with gorilla tape and by 4pm he'd have a beard.  The second point was that he was a scruffy bastard anyway and he was a network engineer so it wasn't like anyone expected him to shave.  So basically sponsoring him to be lazy and continue his scruffy appearance...no thanks.

I did a sponsored ride to work - which was 90 miles each way and I decided to do it in December to make it extra hard.  It was miserable, on the first attempt I fell off on the ice at 4am and had to call my mum to come pick me up.  I'm not saying everyone should come up with an idiot idea like mine, but as mentioned  you're going to do a sponsored event, make it well beyond your comfort zone or do something like the cake baking above (but that's not really sponsoring).