Friends not sponsoring dh

I would agree with those estimates.

To donate on Just Giving - you can live anywhere in the world and donate any amount in a given time period, often over several months. Some people will donate more than once to the same event. Donors are not constrained just by the amount they can physically spend on baked goods. I often see donations from several hundred pounds to well into four figure amounts.

To donate at a cake sale you have to
a) live near the venue
b) be available at the specified time
c) like cake. Even then, there's a limit as to how much you could carry away.

Plus - baking isn't free. It's quite an expensive hobby but some customers feel it should be really cheap as it's home made.

Cake sales are nice, of course they are, but they're not very efficient fundraisers.

Asking other parents for sponsorship is onerous and wrong. Sorry to say it, but it's not on to expect it

Oh and no I'm not reading through pages of replies before responding

It does pay for their trip though, so they don't have to. Especially when it's something abroad, like climbing Kilimanjaro.

I would suggest he updates and recirculates his Just Giving page on the morning of the event and immediately post event too. Around 20% of donations often happen here!

And honestly, in the great scheme of things, very little is raised, particularly for the amount of effort expended.

Thousands of people sponsor friends and family generously and willingly and amazing things are done the funds raised.

I've been quite shocked by many of the attitudes displayed here - they are not something I recognise in my working life.

Don't forget the constant crowdfunding solicitations. When I was a child, I remember family members taking up collections to help out with poor relatives' funerals or other misfortunes, but now we're regularly asked to donate for strangers' vacations and cosmetic surgery.

I work in fundraising and I can tell you that many people do completely self fund their challenges so that 100% sponsorship goes to the charity.

Maybe your family members already give a lot.
I have several big standing orders set up for charity donations (admittedly to small charities supporting rare diseases because these are so underfunded in comparison)

OP, I totally get where you’re coming from. It’s for a good cause and although not everyone can donate you’d expect some moral support, converted to financial, from
at least some of your friends.

It’s been a bit of an eye opener reading some of the posts on here as I’ve done a couple of sponsored runs for a cancer charity. I was really surprised that although there’s a strong family history of the disease that so many family members did not support me on any of these.

That said, so many people, some not very close, were very generous.

Swings and roundabouts so I still give when I can, whether to support the friend even if I’m not interested in the charity, or if it is a cause I’d like to support.

I just scroll past all these sponsorship things, just always seems a paid for holiday.

If we take your figures at face value, why do you think saying that you are going for a run prompts people to give money to a charity more than offering to sell them a cake does?

Thank you.

So many people live without empathy, hope, or support because they have the misfortune to have a disease noone has heard of rather than one that has a visceral reaction in people.

I sometimes think maybe we should rename all rare diseases "xyz cancer" so people actually start to care about them and the people who suffer with them

The name might have been funny but the remainder of the post was deeply unpleasant and distasteful

I can't find any recent figures on the average bake sale income, but from experience, I'd say it's around £100 - £200. Last year, 10,000 people running the Great North Run raised £6 million+ on JustGiving. That's an average £600 each directly to charity (minus JustGiving payment processing fees), and it's likely Gift Aid was claimed on most of that, whereas you can't claim Gift Aid on a bakesale. I'm not saying you shouldn't have a bakesale, of course they have their place, but this idea that it's morally better to have bakesales is extremely reductive.

You can’t force people to sponsor someone if they don’t want to. You shouldn’t only sponsor people’s children so they will return the favour, give willingly or don’t give at all.

Completely get where you’re coming from, OP. I sponsor people all the time so would be a little irritated if I did an challenge and they didn’t sponsor me back. Also get your irritation at sponsoring children for something that’s not a huge challenge. I haven’t read the whole thread but am surprised to see YABU coming out top.

Haven’t read most of the comments but just to say good luck to your husband and anyone else doing something nice in the world.

I'm really randomly doing the dementia uk challenge this month (walking with my dog 😂) I obviously do it everyday anyway so not the hardest challenge but all for a good cause. All my family and friends have been so generous. For me personally it’s less about sponsoring a person and just an opportunity to give to a worth while charity! I hope others aren’t put off with negative comments about sponsorship 👍

I'm surprised in that case, if you were aware of the necessity to do so when you asked for sponsorship I'd have thought you'd have mentioned it here straight away.

Can't agree more - they are not called orphan diseases for nothing - because nobody literally gives a shit and nobody wants to do research as it will never pay back. Truly scary and must be lonely and people must feel abandoned. Can't agree more.

A bake sale is fine! You are getting something in return and it’s usually a few pounds. Forking out £20 or more for Jonny to take his 4k road bike cycling through the South of France in June to raise money for such and such charity irks a little bit. We all know he’ll have a bloody lovely time.

Organisations do need to be a charity or be an unregistered charity (e.g. a community amateur sport association, girl guiding unit) with a GiftAid number from HMRC to use JustGiving. (The JustGiving company itself is not a charity.) GoFundMe, Crowdfunder etc can give money to anyone.

Yes. I don’t see the point of donating when it’s likely my donations will pay toward the fees of doing the activity that Johnny wants to do, with maybe a little left over.

a cake sale, presuming cakes are donated which is nearly always the case, 100% will go toward the charity. Plus I get cake!

I’m very seen too many of these where the sponsorship basically buys the opportunity for the person to participate in their hobby. I don’t donate to charity via this mechanism anymore for that reason. I want my money to be used effectively. I do sometimes find the charity that is mentioned interesting and worthy and make a direct donation.

I never ask for people to sponsor my child. I cover that myself. I find the entire idea of having children ask other people to pay for them to participate in activities or to raise money for the school distasteful.