sponsorship for things that aren't difficult

[blameitonthecaffeine]

I have a feeling I probably am being unreasonable here but, anyway ...

In the past 2 weeks I have been asked to sponsor adults for the following:
a 5km run
a 15 mile walk
a 10 mile walk
a 1 mile run

All these adults are healthy, able bodied and under 50. I just felt a bit about it. I admit I sponsored them anyway as I tried to focus on it being for the cause rather than for the event but really, I'm quite shocked that what is essentially just a morning jog or a weekend ramble can be considered worthy of sponsorship.

AIBU to think that, as an adult, if you are getting money for something, even if it's not for you, that it should be a real challenge, require preparation and be difficult to achieve.

A weekend ramble not everybody is out walking/jogging miles all the time why would they be that is obviously the people who do walk /jogs interest yabu it is a sponser thing not a track and field events

I wouldnt walk 10 miles for fun

DH has just been asked to fill in a place for some heptagonal event and the details suggest that sponsorship in the £1000 zone would be appropriate.

Now it's sad that someones relative who we never met died young and I understand that they want to remember her but AIBU to think that a load of middle aged, middle class men getting out of breath for the afternoon is really more about them then her?

Nice as it is to have the chievement of a 10k run or whatever, I would much rather sponsor somebody for doing something useful - litter picking, gardening for an older person, taking someone shopping, helping out in a comminuty centre, etc, (choose your own nice thing) than running/swimming.

Might just be me, but I think there would be 2 lots of 'charity' - the money raised and the good deed done.

I have to say, I agree that sponsoring people to do something which they blatantly want to do (bungee jump, jungle trek, spa weekend ) rankles with me a little, but I just don't sponsor them.

I tend to link sponsorship to performance...so a certain amount per minute under your target time or whatever! Hard to do on just giving but at least you are pushing for some level of achievement!

blameitonthecaffeine what have you done to raise money for charity?

I get people asking me if I am running for charadee when I am out for a bimble. It is as if exercise outside in the hills cannot be done for just the enjoyment.

DH refuses to sponser anyone for something he'd do just for fun/weekend workout.

I don't sponser anything that is someone using the fact it's for charity to do something they just fancy doing.

I'm able bodied, healthy and under 50. A 5k run would be an enormous challenge for me, I can't run more than 1-200m at the moment.

But I'm doing a sponsored 5k run later in the year and training for it. My friends are all supporting me. It'll be an achievement if I finish!

Is that deemed worthy enough?

No Iteotwawki apparently unless you are risking certain death it's not worth giving you a quid for ...I'll sponsor you though !

YANBU but it does depend on the activity and the person.

Last year, a very good friend of mine did a so-called "driving challenge". She had to raise a minimum £100 sponsorship in aid the firefighters charity. Now, my uncle was a retained firefighter so this is a cause I have some connection with. However, the "challenge" was basically spending several hours at a disused airfield getting to drive and mess around in a double decker bus, a JCB, a fire engine, a truck. She had a whale of a time.

I didn't sponsor her. I don't mind donating to a charity (and have several I support) but I'm not paying for someone to go off and have a jolly.

I kind of agree with your attitude, which is why I only ask for sponsorship for marathons and nothing shorter. However, as lots of others have said, for some people 1M or 5K IS a challenge. In fact I would rather sponsor someone doing their first race for life than one of my club mates on their xth marathon. Because going from no exercise to 5k is more of a challenge than running your xth marathon in my opinion.

YANBU.
I am running a 13.2k half kilamathon tomorrow and I wouldn't ask for sponsorship because I have run a half marathon before.

I did think about doing a guess the time spreadsheet, where people would pay to guess how long it would take me to do it and then I would provide a prize for the closest answer, but i never got round to it.

A close friend does the Race for Life every year and asks for sponsorship every year. Breast Cancer is a charity that is close to her heart for family reasons and I feel such a heel but I tend not to sponsor her as she can run longer distances and I don't see it as being a challenge for her.

To those saying that 5k is a challenge for them, that's different.

I ran (waddled) a half marathon a couple of years ago and as it was my first in 10 years and my first post DS I did ask for sponsorship for that.

If its genuinely a challenge for you and you aren't asking for sponsorship for anything else in a 12 month window, then that's fine.

gordylovessheep, what have you done to raise pressure others to give money to charity?

...would be more accurate. That's the worst thing about this whole sponsorship industry, it's all "look at me, look what I'm doing, I'm so caring about others". Charity isn't about you, it's about the cause. The best way to support a cause is to set up a direct debit so the charity has a reliable income to depend on, and not go round bragging about what you "did for charity"

I hate asking people for sponsorship. It feels like scrounging. I did a skydive a year ago for a DV charity and my main aim for that (apart from obviously raising money for them) was to raise awareness. I came from a fraightfully naice middle class background where that sort of thing "just doesn't happen" so I needed to make sure people realised that it really does.

This week I've got to scrounge off people for DD's pre-school sponsored bunny hop. Bloody dreading it

I get pissed off with people cycling the great wAll or something like that and needing to raise 5k some of which goes towards the cost of their trip.

I often think I could do a very nice sponsored sunbathing marathon on a beach in Mauritius if really pressed.

Also refused to sponsor an acquaintance for running the marathon, she came I'm when they were clearing away the barriers after they had stopped Actually timing people due to being hugely unfit and not having shed the 10 stone or fine and running as a preparation.

I could do 26 miles in less time than she did whilst shopping at Bluewater!

But how does doing a skydive 'raise awareness' any more than just putting up a poster in the office, or talking to people about the cause without asking them for money? Unless you have a big DV poster on your parachute and you do the skydive over a city.

If anything the skydive aspect distracts from what the message is supposed to be - for example I could tell you about a couple of people who've done 'charity runs' in the last 12 months, but I'm fucked if I know what cause it was they were running for. On the other hand if they'd sent round an email about just the cause and why we should know about it, I'd remember that. Not..

"Hey Everyone!

I'm doing a 15k run

At x place...

At x time...

I need money for it!

heres a link where you can make card payments...

heres a list of people who've already donated (so you will look bad if you donate less cough cough.

Oh yeah and its for x cancer charity."

Bigcow talking about school childrens sponsorship DS gets a sponsorship form from his school each year as they do something for their nebulous charity.

He goes to private school and part of the money goes to the disadvantaged childrens fund which is used to keep kids at the school if their parents lose their jobs or something.

Naturally I'm not going to ask my friends - most of them also have children at the same school, or my other friend who is anti private school, and certainly not my parents who already pay half the school fees.

Most parents just put in £20 of their own money. Not me I bin the form every year, pay enough for him to go already without subsidising other parents fees.

not so much 'is it difficult?' but 'is it useful?' Running, cycling, climbing mountains, swimming etc are all fun and healthy but people should be exercising anyway.

do a litter pick, garden tidy, help old ladies etc and you get my money. Otherwise no. And NEVER via sites that take a cut, or to chuggers.

I have never, and would never sponsor someone for a skydive.

I remember getting an email asking to sponsor someone for one, in aid of a teenager with cancer to get specific treatment.....fast forward two weeks....new email 'well I did the skydive today, it was amazing! Sadly 'Liam' died the morning before, but I'll donate the money to another cancer charity'

WTAF well I'm so glad you had a good time. He wanted to skydive for free, found sme poor child's cause to limpit off and didn't give a flying fuck when the child actually died becuase he still got to skydive for free.

This was 5 years ago and it still pisses me off.

zwischenzug I meant raising awareness among the family and friends I was approaching for sponsorship, none of whom were aware of what I had gone through or why my marriage had ended the previous year. The email I sent contained a massive amount of information about the charity and how the money would be used.

But couldn't you have done that by doing something that didnt cost quite so much money for you to have a free experience?! How much money did the charity actually make after the cost of the skydive?