to think that these "challenges" people do for charity are basically holidays?

[ohbugrit]

I know people who've done parachute jumps, abseiling, etc, but also some folk who're raising money so they can walk the Great Wall of China for charity. How does this work? Aren't they just getting us to pay for their walking holiday then also presumably getting us to sponsor them to do it? Or AIJB a miserly bag?

yes totally agree YANBU. I don't really agree with the raising money thing by doing some sort of endurance (even if it's at home like a marathon anyway).
Fundraising imo should be something like making cakes with say £2 on ingredients, sold to work colleagues for say a total of £10, =raising £8 of money.
I know people who have done this for gap years etc, sold homemade xmas cakes, held raffles, ok people are still being asked for money but they are actually getting something in return.

Prefer to sponsor friends when they're doing a local 10k run for charity, especially s some have just started and it really is a challenge for them.

My DH is doing a bike ride next year for Alzheimers. We've already paid for the trip, so any sponsor money goes to the Charity. I'd feel a bit weird just asking people to give money to my choosen charity, it seems easier to ask them to give to his just giving page. So the Charity gets us acting as unpaid promoters of their charity, he gets a safe way to do a trip he always wanted to.
It also means that next year when we have a party for his "significant" birthday, we can ask for donations to that instead of presents (we might do a raffle or something as well).
Some people have given generously because it is a cause close to them, others have because they actually are fairly wealthy and just really need you to ask for them to give, and others give out of friendship etc. Actually I don't think any family have given (although I and the kids will be making token donations). As its something we do occasionally I hope we don't annoy anyone.
However there was an option to have to raise a certain amount to cover the cost of the trip, we'd have felt more uncomfortable asking for a donation in that case.

Marking to read later

I don't see why a lot of people of opposed to this. I'm cycling 1100 miles from Newport to Prague for my 30th birthday. I'm paying all the expenses myself. Since I was doing it anyway, I decided to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital. Now as I was doing this anyway and I'm paying for everything myself, how is that not 100% beneficial to the charity? They'll end up with a few thousand more than they would have had if I'd just cycled and not raised money. Absolutely none of the sponsorship money raised is paying for me to have a holiday.

Having said that, I can understand why people would be annoyed at those trips where some of the money DOES pay for the person to go.

tower, but you're doing something amazing and paying for the costs yourself.

The people who imagine that unqualified,inexperienced randoms are desperately needed to build houses in Uganda and raise sponsorship to go, neglecting to mention that the first 3K they raise will be paying their expenses, are not so impressive IMVHO.

I can see where you're coming from Sue. What I would do in that circumstance is cycle across Uganda (I like cycling :) ) and raise money for doing it. But I'd pay all my own expenses. I would then donate all the money raised to a charity that would train local people to perform building jobs etc and cover the costs of the materials. By doing it that way, the fundraiser has the his/her desired adventure. The charity receives all the money raised. Locals are taught skills that they can use for a lifetime. Everybody's a winner.

You can be head of the Big Society tower, I think your way is spot on .

Manicinsomniac- it seems like you are starting by thinking about how best to meet the desires of 17-25 year old brits with a yearning to do good somewhere exotic rather than what orphans in Brazil need.

So what ever the need - play work, social work, building work the answer is to fly in short-term unskilled randoms, rather than hire local staff. In the case of the situation you describe of dealing with child sexual abuse it seems wholly inappropriate to have untrained short-term volunteers dealing with vulnerable children and families. Social Work in this country is also understaffed, but we wouldnt accept that some random Chinese kids who wanted an adventure in the UK should pick up this kind of case work for a month or two.

As you say, even if the volunteers are told that £2000 spent locally would be better for the children, they are only willing to 'donate' it towards their own airfare and costs. Their money, their choice of course. But it's not charity for the good of the children, it's payment for the cost of fulfilling the volunteer's desires.

I think the trips that send people overseas to do good deeds are fine, but sponsors need to be aware that they are personal development charities, rather than aid charities- i.e. the prime benefit is intended to be the participant. Raleigh International is quite explicit about this, others rather less so. Arguably the locals do benefit from projects done by these volunteers (standpipes, schools etc) but the impact would have been more if they'd just used the money to buy equipment and build the school/standpipe using local paid labour. However, that's not the purpose of the charity.

On the other type of "charity holiday" - the trek/ marathon/bikeathon etc- my view is that I will sponsor, as they often involve a lot of training, but only if the participant is covering the costs personally.

Such an interesting topic. My lovely sister-in-law went over to Africa and worked at a school for 6 weeks a while back. TBH I just cannot work out the actual purpose of her trip. She had to do fundraising to pay for flights etc to get her out there, and I presume a bit of cash for the charity (whatever charity that was I'm not at all sure). It seemed a bit like forfilling her ambition to be 'caring' or something as she really was not teaching these children in her time there, she is completely untrained. I often think about this trip because she had a 1.5 yr old ds who my father had to babysit for loads so she could go! Since hs has been home again I just cannot understand what she acheived. Perhaps some small amount of awareness in our local community, but she even said herself that the children who get sponsored at this school end up with 'lazy' parents who know that they are charity cases, and can get foriegn money and don't have to work so turn to drink instead, these are her words.

I keep thinking 'Rights, not charity' - a phrase coined by disabled activists a few decades ago.

I told an activist friend I was being pressured by a collegue who's grandad (who she doesn't see much) had Alziemers, so she was climbing Kilimangaro to raise money for The Alziemer's soceity

(dreadful sp, sorry).

Friend said 'Why doesn't she spend those weeks with her grandad, making the most of their time left together, making sure he's getting the right support - and donate what would have been the airfare?'

Most of the time they are. If you look at the terms and conditions of most of these trips, 50% of the money raised goes to pay for the flight and trip, etc.

One of my friends did one but she had to raise £3500 and pay for her flight and kit, etc hersefl on top o fhtat so 100% went to the charity. Even so £3500 is alot of money and got sick and tired of her constantly trying to arrange events so we could give her even more money for her trip. There's a limit to what I will give. She only gave me a tenner when I did a 10k run.

I agree with everything you say Maryz. I am sick of these trips.

I went to an event recently where there was an after dinner speaker. Instead of a humorous or interesting talk this turned out to be a shameless request for money to fund a group of young people to go to Africa to dig wells or something to do with clean water followed by the organiser's teenage daughter gushing about how it would be the experience of a lifetime

We live near a town with very high deprivation. DD has done voluntary work with autistic children and on a sporting scheme for children from difficult backgrounds which aims to build self esteem and communication skills through sport. You don't need to travel to find needy causes.

I know a great poem/song about this very issue, part-penned by the friend mentioned above, but not sure I can just post it so please pm me if you're interested.

YANBU went to a fund raising night and was very annoyed that the bloke was only going away for 2 weeks. i walked the great wall and paid for it myself and never asked for sponsorship money. id take someone a lot more seriously if they give up 6 months worth of nights working with homeless than climbing the andes for 2 weeks and expecting others to pay for it. its very "Oh i walked the great wall etc for cancer tell me how great i am" when the people who really should be told how great they are are those who clean up the sick from chemo and make someone their dinner when they don't have the strength to do so themselves but they aren't in it for the "aren't your amazing" shite that the andes climbers seem to be in it for.

Its not fair Maryz: why not try a bit of promotion though?

Help her write an article for the school/local paper talking about why the summer camp is important and asking for donations (the charity might be able to help with this), talk about volunteering and the importance of it.

I bet you'll find at the heart of the "charity" trip an alpha mother who has no problem with overcoming British reserve to champion her child's trip. The school will usually be just as happy to talk about local volunteering if they know about it (appologies if they do, but I get the impression its just never been mentioned).

Yanbu. I had to laugh at the example of teaching children in St Lucia to play cricket though!

I won't give to these things, for pretty much the reasons Himalaya has been setting out. When I was in my final year at school [old gimmer emoticon] for RE we were sent out for a morning a week to do charity work. I helped out in an old people's home, other students chopped vegetables in a soup kitchen and so on. I think maryz's principled daughter has the right idea.

I always thought I was being a meanie about this. If I am, at least I'm not alone!

The people who prompted my post originally are working fantastically hard to train (they're mums too, so busy people) but while I can personally applaud them for the challenges they've set themselves I am a bit about yet another coffee morning or whatever, under the banner of a charity, effectively to pay their air fares.

It is of course generating tons of publicity, and happens to be a charity which is helping a member of our family just now, but I know that personally I would find it hard to be comfortable with this unless I could fund my own place without relying on donated money.

I did one of these things and I would definitely consider it a holiday. It was a tiring holiday but did not require any training or suffering. I got into it because of the event not the charity. We paid all our own expenses so any sponsorship went straight to the charity. We told friends and family what we were doing but didn't hassle anyone. We reached and then exceeded our £1,000 target but weren't sponsored by DH's mum or my best friend for example. I made it clear to anyone ego expressed an interest in donating what would happen to the money.

My nephew went to Africa for his gap year. The organisation he went with was a bit bogus, as people have described, but he stayed on and spent 6 months volunteering in an orphanage. No, he is not a trained teacher, but he is very clever and charismatic, and great at football so the kids loved him even more. He ended up teaching basic maths and literacy, and also picked up several street kids and got them into the orphanage. Some of the teachers at the orphanage were illiterate and there were no books available, so my nephew was, relatively speaking, well qualified. My sister has continued to support three kids in Africa, which she wouldn't have otherwise done.
Of course the person who got the most out of the trip was my nephew, who was quite lost and confused, but has much more of a sense of perspective and purpose in his life now.

I know this is off topic, but I wanted to say kids volunteering in poor countries isn't always self indulgent nonsense.