So a friend is doing a Wingwalk in aid of a charity. The charity expects £800 to do it. Online it costs 500ish to do, so i guess the company has a special deal and the rest goes to the charity. She can’t pay for it herself so thinks that other people can pay for it.

Same with these people who fundraise thousands and go and walk across the great wall of China and a bit goes to charity. But most of the gifted money is spent on a jolly for that person. Bungee jumps, skydives see them all the time. All asking for money on Facebook, “Sponsor me to do a …….. Its all for a great cause.”

Do you think that getting people to sponsor you to do something like this is good? Ive never really thought about the breakdown of where the money actually goes until now.

Ive done charity walks and stuff before but I’ve never taken any of the cash. Most of the time i loose out on a days pay or give up my free time to help which i get a great feeling from for doing my bit.

Tricky one. My gut reaction is it is a bad thing. They should cover the costs then 100% of the sponsorship goes to charity. The other side is at least some money goes to the charity. I’m just sat on my butt doing nothing. At least they are getting people give some money

My general rule is that if someone is doing something fun then it’s not really worthy of sponsorship and I tend to just give money directly to charity but probably not enough.

I agree with Nick. Its a bit shit getting your fun paid for, but at least there’s summit going to charity.

I don’t think people actually know what the break down is. I would be ashamed to fundraise in aid of a charity, to jump out of a plane.

Another one for you….. Race for life in Leeds 1 in 3 have not given in their sponsorship! Just goes to show people just want to get on the band wagon and wear a pink tutu and wear a pink wig for ‘charity’

…but at least there’s summit going to charity.

If you climb a mountain.

It’s still good. At the very least it promotes the idea of charity and maybe people will give, if not directly or immediately but it plants seeds – awareness raising for a particular cause or just the idea of giving.
Some people are good at raising money, doing simple things and getting good contributions. I used to feel a bit uneasy about the whole ‘raise £3000 to hike to Machu Picchu’ thing too but I have absolutely no idea how you can get that amount of sponsorship. I work for a charity – myself and my colleagues regularly scheme fund raising events – for fun and awareness raising (it’s an autism charity – we work with people with Aspergers). Band nights, marathons, abseiling the Forth Bridge… a girl raised almost as much money by having her hair cut (and not even that short) as I did riding the WHW.

With your example, it’s still better for everyone that this happens. For myself, I pay all my costs. Maybe with these big events, some people can raise big money.

I think there are two sides to this coin. The organised trips or events where someone has to raise £x to participate and that’s to cover the cost of the activity with a very small % going to a charity is paying for someone’s fun. I’d prefer to give directly to the charity, but I can understand how difficult it is to get others to donate. But an argument could be raised that the charity does receive some money and some awareness. Maybe others do donate directly.

I did a sponsored swim on New Years Day, I raised just over £500 for Herefordshire Riding for the Disabled, but I covered all of the travel and hotel costs myself. Yes I could have just donated those travel costs and stopped at home. But I raised significantly more. Would I have raised that amount by just asking people for money for no action on my part? Very doubtful.

Doug Stanhope has a good take on it;

Definitely NSFW language;
linky

abseiling the Forth Bridge

*waves*

*wonders which charity*

I did the outlaw triathlon earlier this year. It was something I wanted to do so for the reasons above, I didn’t do it for charity. However, the closer I got to the event, the more people asked about charity. In the end, I did it for mnda.

All the money went to the charity but it did make me wonder. Given how much it has cost me in entry fees, coaching, physio, etc, etc, I could have just sat on the sofa for 8 months, given the money I would have spent to the charity and everything would have been the same.

It cost me more than I actually raised. Good jjob it was something I wanted to do.

I suppose events just need to keep getting bigger and bigger to rise to the top of public consciousness and that generally means more and more expense. Charity is a cut throat business. Just look at how McMillan tried to hijack the ice bucket challenge.

I did a charity challenge walk earlier this year (no not the three peaks, this…… http://www.exmoor3030.org.uk) raising funds for the Royal British Legion. As a team we raised a few £k, much more than our costs (accommodation, travel for event and training, etc) that we covered out of our own pockets, including the entry fees. Yes it’s something we wanted to and it was enjoyable in a mad breaking yourself kind of way. But it was still hard/awkward enough asking for sponsorship let alone the please pay for me to skydive or go to Machu Picchu type of events.

Might also be worth talking to the person as they may not be fully aware. I’m sure some people get sucked into the marketing. ‘Raise £500 for charity and your skydive is free’ could convince some people that they get a free jump and the charity gets £500.

I think it comes down to the type of people who actually do it. I guess it motivates them to raise the funds to get the satisfaction of doing something they could never afford to do. Charity begins at home right…..?

If I asked someone to donate money to charity i would give 100% to the charity.

After doing research i found a website that specialises in charity skydives. you fundraise £395 and £140 pounds goes to the charity. I think that is disgusting. Im sure i have never seen this advertised on their just giving page.

’skyline: Charity skydiving and parachuting FREE charity jumps’

Ill always donate straight to the charity from now on!

How much is a tandem sky dive if you just go to a local club?

Edit: looks to be £180-£250 so they are upper end but not a mega cash in.

£200-300 with the flight and insurance and training. depending on the day and how many people. i guess they have a good rate plus some sort of tax cut or gift aid stuff.

Why don’t people ever want sponsoring to go and pick up dog turds or fetch rubbish out of a canal?