To be annoyed at work colleagues

I think that's really sensible.

This. Really not good to be pestering people at work for charity donations. There's one guy at my workplace who does this - hes messaged a few times now about a charity event hes doing - and people are getting pretty annoyed it him... I doubt anyone has said anything to his face, but there have been a few eyerolls and muted grumbles.

I'm a fundraiser and in my professional opinion, your approach is not what I advise my event participants to do. You made it about the event (egg hunt) rather than the charity. The most efficient way to raise a high amount is good storytelling. Your colleagues might not have heard of this charity - I haven't. Explain what the charity does and your personal connection. Give an example of someone they've helped, ideally someone you know, and what difference it made.

Often these events only just raise enough to cover the costs. They're more about marketing the charity than raising big bucks.

I've done a challenge event in the past and raised a decent amount, because my friends, family and colleagues knew I'd been passionate about the cause (wildlife) for many years.

‘And, even work friends who may care a bit more, would not be impressed enough with this feat of endurance of a 2 year old collecting chocolate eggs to sponsor it.’

😂 love this! Completely agree.

I actually detest when people do this kind of thing at work but I suppose this was a good cause so I probably would have donated.

What I would have done differently is that I would have put a bit of a blurb in your e-mail about Claire House and highlighted the importance of it and the work they do, often times when people see e-mails like that going around they automatically ignore them without thinking about the actual cause

Its disappointing that more didn’t donate but I genuinely think that people in the workplace unfortunately really dislike these kind of fundraising e-mails

At least you tried though so good on you!

YABVVVVU. I'd never dream of asking colleagues to donate anyway.... but if I did, I wouldn't in a million years be annoyed if they don't!

I get SO many requests for donations from friends/colleagues and therefore I tend to ignore almost all. I donate to charities I want to donate to (and if I'm doing a charity event or if my kids are, I'll donate the money myself so I don't put the burden onto friends/family/colleagues). I'm actually doing a charity event in the summer which wants a minimum donation to take part ... and I'll be paying that myself. I don't see why I should ask others to fund me doing the event, and I factored that in before deciding to sign up.

You are bring ridiculous and really unfair to expect your colleagues to donate. You will have many many years ahead of you with your children needing to raise money for charity - please learn from this this time rather than later down the line.

A raffle is totally different, too, op. They know most people will just bring in an unwanted gift or similar, they won’t be expecting people to go out and buy something to donate.

‘I cannot help but feel like it’s partly popularity contest, if I was more ‘pally’ with some of the more well liked members of staff, or the louder, more extroverted ones, that more people would have put their names down?’

I hate to break it to you, but making these sorts of requests of your colleagues is not going to improve your popularity, quite the opposite. Learn from this and don’t bother them again.

My kids are 15 and 11 and I have never asked people at work to sponsor them for anything.

The only sponsorship I have ever given at work is for things where people were raising money for the hospice that another work colleague was in before he died or for raising money for research into the illness that caused a 30 something colleague to leave work on the Friday night with a cheery wave and be dead by Monday morning.

Exactly, noone gives two shits about their work colleagues children doing an egg hunt at nursery. And, even work friends who may care a bit more, would not be impressed enough with this feat of endurance of a 2 year old collecting chocolate eggs to sponsor it.
Honestly, OP, you are coming across as a bit batshit. Please take a step back from the egg hunt madness. Would you really be invested in any way, if a colleagues child was collecting easter eggs at nursery. This is an activity that grandma and Aunty can sponsor 1 pound each and the kids can enjoy collecting the change. It's not a huge organised sponsored event.

In my office we had an agreement that no one would ask for sponsorship for themselves or their children.

I have a colleague, of whom I’m very fond, who runs ultra-marathons. The response he mostly gets in the office is gentle slagging of the ‘Therapy is also a possibility, you know’ and ‘Wouldn’t it be easier to buy a Maserati and get a twentysomething mistress?’

How will the other parents even know how much your daughter raised? I’m on a nursery committee and can assure you a sizeable number of parents won’t even bother to engage with this at all.

I think you’re completely overestimating your colleagues interest in YOUR child, why would they care?

Look, I might, just might sponsor a really impressive effort like riding 100 miles or running an ultra marathon, if its for an incredible cause, but silly little things? No, sod off. I’ll support my own chosen charities.

There are so many things up with this.
Easter Egg Hunts are fun, they are no hardship for your child. This leads me to the fact that lots of people hate sponsoring people because they are using it to do the thing they wanted to do. They already wanted to run that marathon/ jump out of that plane / climb that mountain. Possibly a level of challenge but no hardship. If I want to support a charity I give to the charity.

If I give to Jane's retirement, it's because I personally had a relationship with and like Jane. That's completely irrelevant to giving or not giving money for a child I don't know to do something fun for a charity I might or might not support.

So have you sponsored any of your colleagues’ children then? The passive aggressive “judging by your own standards” is completely uncalled for. It was massively inappropriate to ask yet you still seem convinced you have the moral high ground here, because “charity”.

"Judging people by own standards" 😂

I would never bring a sponsor form for something my kids were doing into work. It would just not be appropriate.
I think if you are worried about people judging you for not collecting enough sponsorships for a nursery egg hunt, then you are too invested in the nursery egg hunt.
It's a nursery egg hunt, noone cares about it really. Noone is going to be rushing around trying to collect 1000s of pounds like it is a major televised event. Maybe Ant and Dec will turn up and prove me wrong.
Otherwise, just collect what you can and forget about it.

And we have the pass agg final post 😂 from St. Mummy.

I like my colleagues but I won't be sponsoring their children (unless it's something big like the marathon). It's because most of my colleagues have children and I don't want to sponsor some and not others. I wouldn't expect them to for my kids either because they don't really know them. I'd only be asking family and close friends (who I believe will genuinely be interested in my children's activities).

Iabu

Darling “Jess” wasn’t about to leave on an expedition to climb Mount Everest to raise money for the cure for cancer. It isn’t that deep.

She’s your child and is the centre of your world, that doesn’t mean everyone else feels the same. Your work mates who have never met her couldn’t care less if she wants money to run around collecting chocolate eggs and rightly so.

It's a bit of a tenuous link for most people to feel motivated to donate money. The child of a work colleague is doing an activity to raise money for a charity... it's just a bit far removed. I wouldn't ask work colleagues for something like this.