To feel a bit "hmm" about charity treks abroad

[prettybutclumpy]

I am donning my hard hat, but am interested to know if anyone feels the same as me about this!

I feel a bit unwilling to give to charity for friends who are doing a charity trek or other big activity abroad. I think for some people they are just a chance for a cheap holiday and amazing experience which they sort of shame their friends into "paying" for. I do know that most people pay a fee for joining in the activity, but I am sure this doesn't cover all the costs for the charity - I think the charity relies on each individual meeting or exceeding their fundraising targets to cover additional costs. If anyone works for a charity, I'd really like to know whether this is true!

I also feel that I should choose which charities I give my cash to which are of particular relevance to me and my family, rather than to choose charities offering these experiences. However, I do feel pressed into giving funds as it is someone I know who has asked me directly to contribute.

Does anyone else feel this way, or am I just an old moany-pants?

I am training for the Machu Picchu (inca) trail in Peru. I have paid for my own trip so all the money my friends raise is going to the charity. The trip costs £1800 and the minimum sponsorship is £3750 I already have over £5000. I can see everyone's point of view though. I was quite shocked at how much the trips did cost. I also donate monthly to the Marie Curie by direct debit. My reason for signing up was to give myself a goal to work towards after he died from a brain tumour aged 50. He had been ill for 12 years with it and we had a lot of support from Marie curie over the years and in his final weeks.
I won't ever do another one though. My friends have been so generous and I have held a few fundraising fun events but there is only so many times you can ask people for funds.

"He" is my husband or rather "was"

Greenandcabbagelooking - what you're doing is different. The World Scout Jamboree is a Thing. It is clear what you are doing and why. It is very well established and even I've heard of it.

Some of these other causes are more vague, or at best - complex. It is not always clear what the benefits are and whether they will last or whether they help the people concerned to become self sufficient.

I don't mean to be rude, or unkind as I think that all these people do it with the best of intentions. But I have talked to a number of people who are citizens of some of the countries that benefit from our charitable interest.
If you are an engineer, a teacher, a medic or a person with useful skills, then a VSO type holiday is of use to the people, especially if the stay is long enough to create something worthwhile, make an impact or train someone.
But although
'My sister worked her arse off at the age of 19 to fundraise her stint in Tanzania building a health centre.'

as do thousands of youngsters on gap years, with energy and with good hearts.
Watched by adults and children who would be able to work twice as long, and who would benefit from any spare cash.
I've had friends who felt very fond of their volunteers, doing their best in the heat and still having the energy and time to party in the evening and then go on holiday. Or the ones who couldn't work from 6am for a full day, because they just didn't have the stamina.
Others were less keen on the English teachers who came to teach basic English for a few months, then left to be replaced by another batch who taught basic English all over again.
In many cases, it is a rip off by the businesses involved, in others it's a publicity stunt and in some people's minds, it is part of the paternalistic infantilisation of people.
If your sister was doing the electrics, or the plumbing at an advanced level, then she was useful as well as well-intentioned. If she was slapping paint on a wall, then what skill was she using that a local team couldn't have done better and for the cost of the airfare? And fed their families?
It's a jolly, an exciting event abroad. There are a lot of schemes closer to home, but they lack the 'Wow' factor. However useful to the community and the individual they are.

Thanks, Mothra, that's just it. Medecins sans Frontieres do immeasurable good, for example.

I have a friend who has been working in Rwanda for some time. She is utterly scathing of this kind of tourism and of Comic Relief (etc) sleb appeals where money is often thrown at a problem without infrastructure or longevity.

I surprised a teenager from the local (expensive) private school at Asda recently. She and her fellow sixth formers were packing bags to raise money for a 'world challenge' trip to Ecuador. She started packing my bags and I asked her not to. She said, "Why?", exuding wounded pride, so this is what I told her:

I think that there are many causes far more deserving than your holiday, and if you really wanted to help those communities you'd donate money to them directly instead of descending on their villages pretending to plaster walls for a couple of days (I am in full agreement with Mothra on this one). If you want to go to Ecuador, you or your parents should pay for it yourselves and not pressurise the people shopping in an Asda store in [a not particularly wealthy area of the north of England] to contribute money they can ill-afford to the leisure pursuits of a privately-educated teenager.

World Scout Jamboree is not the same as random trekking for charidee I agree, and also your style of fundraising is much different to sitting on your backside and begging via Facebook etc... You are also presumably going as a leader which will enable young people to have a fantastic experience without pretending that you are a more skilled tradesman than anyone in a developing country!

I did one - skinted myself to pay for it though because it was an amazing holiday for ME! I asked people if they wanted to sponsor me and raised a few quid but that didn't go towards my trip, not a penny.

However - lots of people on my trek were there on the back of fundraising though and tbh I was a bit hmmm about it. Some had raised loads so trip covered and much more. Others had raised just enough to cover the trip.

I wouldn't sponsor someone's holiday.

I agree. Unbelievably, my DP has a family friend who have 2 sons about our age. When we were 18, they were going round the village asking for donations as they were going to drive/hike across Europe. Their dear old dad rammed it down our throats how proud of them he was of them going and seeing the world etc instead of "sitting at h

Whoops posted too soon! "Sitting at h

Bugger it. Basically we asked their dad which charity they were raising donations for. Imagine the reactions when he said none! Pretty awkward.

yanbu the cost of the trip itself could be saved by raising money in their own country.
I find it is mere showing off & an excuse to get a holiday at the same time.

Real charity givers use their knowledge to gain sponsors for something done here.

"I think there are better ways of raising money for charity - I'm thinking of someone who was dared a large sum of money to put a picture of her cleavage on a closed group for ten minutes, and that conversation raised four figures in twenty-four hours with not a penny in overheads."

lol I'm sorry, what is that better than?

I'm uneasy about these charity fundraising things full stop. I think it's rather sad that if you feel passionate about a charity you can't just ask people to contribute to it. Why does running a marathon or sitting in a bath of baked beans make that charity any more worthy than another?

I give to charities that I know what they do with the money, and do work I support. If someone asks for sponsorship for something then I might give them some money if it's a charity I support. I don't give to Comic/Sport Relief because I'd rather support charities I choose directly.

I especially dislike what the OP describes. A friend at uni was going round getting sponsorship to do a sky dive. He didn't have a clue what the charity he was doing it for was. All he wanted was to raise the 400 quid so he didn't have to pay for it himself.

Yeah, I think a lot of people are paying for treats for themselves by doing these things - in the end most of us would do the thing for the experience alone, it's a questionable kind of altruism.

They are outrageous rip offs IMHO. I also hate all the gap holiday type things where privileged teens pay £x thousands to trek in Nepal or similar for 2 weeks and then paint an orphanage for 6 hours and come home to show me zillions of photos of elephants and tell me how they bonded with the orphans and have had a life changing experience. Total rip off and exploitative to the local people. When I'm prime minister these will be illegal

YANBU not to make a donation to someone who asks you, however YABU if you are completely rubbishing the whole process.

Charities run these kind of fundraising enterprises (along with many others*) because they are relatively efficient in the amount of money they raise. So called 'Challenge Events' also engage a group of people who might otherwise be non-contributors to charity - typically younger people who lots of time, lots of energy, and lots of contacts; people whose life circumstances have been fortunate and they do not have any strong charity links; and people who once engaged with a particular charity might be a committed fund-raiser / donor in the future. Many people who post on mn seem to have strong links to particular issues and charities, but there is evidence which shows that there are large sectors of the population (typically those who are not in need of any sort of help) who have no warm links to charity and who do not contribute. Anything which can help to access this sector is helpful to charities.

So for a relatively low admin / overhead / management cost a 'bright young thing' contacts 100 people at work (whom they know) and persuades them to donate £25 each. For a professional fundraiser to do the work to develop links with the same company and approach people would cost far more than the money raised.

*There are many other ways in which charities try to raise money - people shaking a can on the street, 'chuggers', people packing bags at the supermarket, people knocking at your door etc. etc. And I've seen all of these slated on mn.

P.S. ON a personal basis, I agree with you completely. I don't contribute to my friend's charity based holiday, but I do support all her other fundraising activities for the same charity.

Yanbu, why should you pay for someone else's holiday?
A sponsored litter pick would be of more value to society IMO.

bearsprout I'm not necessarily recommending getting your kit off ... but it was very effective fundraising as there were precisely zero overheads. Unlike trekking up K2 or whatever.

I hardly think Mont Blanc qualifies as a third world area! And as I said, my sister paid for the actual trip costs out of her own pocket, so everything raised went to the charity. So YABU in cases such as that.

But if she really cared about the charity couldn't she have given that trip money directly to the charity?

Someone on mumsnet said that when asked to sponsor people for this kind of expedition, she would always say, "oh, I'll give my donation directly to the charity." Unfortunately I've never had the nerve to use this line. But I always think it, as I politely decline the sponsorship sheet.

and tell me how they bonded with the orphans

They get bonus points for the observation that, "Even though they're, like, really poor, they're soooo happy!"

[cynical]

FinancePrincess: That was a brilliant response.