To think this is just getting someone else to pay for your holiday?

Charles Dickens nailed it in Bleak House, taking the piss out of the Charitable Ladies and comparing their focus by using the example of Jo, the London street child.

’Jo is brought in. He is not one of Mrs Pardiggle’s Tockahoopo Indians; he is not one of Mrs Jellyby’s lambs, being wholly unconnected with Borrioboola-Gha; he is not softened by distance and unfamiliarity; he is not a genuine foreign-grown savage; he is the ordinary home-made article.
Dirty, ugly, disagreeable to all the senses, in body a common creature of the common streets, only in soul a heathen. Homely filth begrimes him, homely parasites devour him, homely sores are in him, homely rags are on him: native ignorance, the growth of English soil and climate, sinks his immortal nature lower than the beasts that perish.
Stand forth, Jo, in uncompromising colours! From the sole of thy foot to the crown of thy head, there is nothing interesting about thee.’

Lots of schools in our area do world challenge type trips which are really expensive and the kids are encouraged to raise the money to go, themselves. Lots do baby sitting, car washing etc or make or buy things to sell.
I'm often skeptical about how useful a bunch of unskilled 16 year olds are going to be to whatever project they're doing. (Ditto adults if they don't have relevant skills to what the project is!)

YANBU, I donate to useful charity activities, like the Beach Cleans or refurbishing nature reserves, or something that benefits other people rather than just the one being sponsored. If I want to support a specific charity, I donate to them directly.
But jetting round the world on a personal jolly to climb a mountain, run a marathon or helping some unskilled 20 year old ‘building houses in an African village’? No.

It is still a thing in my town- recently had my shopping packed by the girls from the dance school raising money for costumes, etc.

My youngest niece was almost involved in one of these things through her school. Fortunately, it never happened because Covid.

This thread has re I def me that it’s been quite some time since I saw school kids packing bags at the supermarket to pay for rugby tours or dance competitions - is that no longer a thing?

Totally agree although rowing the Atlantic is definitely not a holiday.

Yes, my friend did one in Peru, I didn't donate, nor did many others so she did have to go out and do some fundraising for it. I think she thought she could just wave a sponsor form in front of people and they would hand over ££

I mean you’re right, but if the charities didn’t offer the trips financed in this way less people would do it and ultimately the charities wouldn’t get as many donations.

Nobody is forcing anyone to donate, just don’t if you don’t fancy it.

Yep and what's worse is the martyr type "in doing this amazing sacrifice walking though the Brazil jungle all for charity.

But would your airfare have paid for a professional?

I think if you have some specialist knowledge that you genuinely pass on to people who don't have that skill then go, do the work and enjoy yourself.

A few years ago when a new school for the Deaf opened in Uganda they were in need of a few things. Now I'm a teacher, I'm a BSL user (USL is a bit of a mix of BSL and ASL with a pinch of Kenyan SL).

I wondered if I could help.

In the end I bought a school uniform for a child at the school. The government pays the fees but not all children can afford the uniform.

Honestly, the money would have been better spent paying for local staff who would stick around long term, rather than steady stream of young people passing through (terrible for orphaned children with attachment issues and smacks of white saviourism)

Not having a pop at you, and I'm sure you benefited from your experience, but it's good to raise awareness that voluntourism isn't usually as good as it seems

I got the thing at work where someone said 'buy bricks for a charity'
When I asked she said it was really for a religious group that I woud not have a bar of So No. Weasel words

Friends sister did it. She said after it was a total rip off and cost a lot of money, and the charity didn't really get that much from it.
I refuse to donate to this kind of thing. If you want to hike the Great Wall of China or go to Machu pitchu pay for it yourself. I donate directly so they get it all. Or donate to raffles and buy cups of coffee and cake to support.

@ohfook exactly. Is a British teenager with zero experience really helping to build a school in Africa? Really?? When there are undoubtedly qualified local tradesmen who would appreciate the work and pay?

I get emails at work allllll the time from people wanting sponsorship for their kids. Nah mate.

That's precisely what it is. You're paying for their massive jolly abroad.

DS2 (24) did a skydive last year to help raise money for the Yorkshire Brain Tumour Charity (DS1 has a GMB4). He had to pay the Charity to reserve his place. Any money he raised went straight to the charity.

He raised a huge amount of money. If people wanted to donate great, if not that was ok too. We didn’t hold a gun to their heads.

A woman I work with got quite nasty and aggressive when some of us wouldn't sponsor her precious daughter to go on holiday for charity.

Whether it is self funded and all the money goes to the charity or not a charity is getting money because someone is taking a holiday?

So I would just give my money to the charity direct

It is all very 'look at me' and if people say it's not then how is it any different to 'I am going on holiday so can you please give money to charity'

That’s shit. Kids should not be encouraged or enabled to beg or ‘raise’ ANY money from friends/ neighbours/ parents’ friends and associates. It’s so cringe. You want to go, you earn the money yourself. They can be amazing fun and also do some good in local communities, but they are not charities, they are not regulated as charities and there is no proper legal scrutiny as to where the money goes.

Having said that I did actually donate to one adult friend’s climbing Kilimanjaro thing, as he was doing it for a good solid charity, and had set (and raised) a very ambitious target amount for the charity in question. Way beyond the cost of the trip, and it was personally very important to him what this charity did. Normally it’d be a hard no.

Idk, I volunteered at an orphanage when I finished school and it was very hard work and the kids were in desperately in need. The sponsorship paid to get me out there but I fully funded my leisure time out of my own earnings!

I worked for a charity that did loads of this type of stuff - the 'minimum' donation/amount to raise usually only just covered the commission charged by the commercial company organising the trip/event, with a minimal amount to the charity - barely even covered direct costs like T shirts etc - didn't go anywhere near covering the staff time involved.
more of an awareness raising exercise than serious fundraising.

Nah can't be doing with voluntourism!

My DD can't go on the Guides trips abroad as Guides require you to fundraise to pay for your place on the trips. We wouldn't let her fundraise for a holiday that we could pay for, it just feels wrong and doesn't even have the volunteering aspect that some of these things have.

Luckily DD understands why it wouldn't be appropriate to fundraise for a holiday, so has accepted that she can't go.

A guy from my sports club started a just giving page to raise funds for him to be able to run in races "representing GB" in foreign countries

Lots of sports have what is essentially vets competitions for people that are good for their age....they're nice to do....if you want to/can afford it....but I don't want to fund a jolly for someone else!