To grudge donating to charity expeditions?

[Nospringflower]

Can't decide as I know the people do raise money for the charity but they also go on a trip of a lifetime with all food and drink included. Saw an ad for trekking in Brazil and you have to raise nearly £4000 and of that just over £2000 goes to the charity. So £1900 that you raise pays for your 'holiday'. I'd rather just donate directly to the charity and then 100% goes to it.

Yanbu op Anneye, you are just mean.

Yanbu. I don't mind giving money for sponsored walks, runs, whatever. But sponsored treks in fabulous overseas locations tend to need the first 2 or 3 thousand pounds raised to pay for the trip. The person doing it acts like a charitable hero and uses money meant for cancer research or the like to pay for a holiday of a lifetime. You would need some nerve to do that.

They should explain to people what happens to the money they donate as a lot of people don't realise.

Dida that is classic each one pound raised cost the nhs £13.75

Soon why am I mean? I don't give to groups packing bags in shops as I prefer to pack my own bags and I think they should pay for their own jollies. Not once have I seen a group raising money for a cause other than their own entertainment.

YANBU in that they could do a 5k toddle in the local park for charity instead to get your money and just pay to go on their own holiday.

However:

I'd rather just donate directly to the charity and then 100% goes to it.

But you don't. You don't sit there thinking 'hmm no one has tapped me up for sponsorship in aid of the the charity of their choice lately. Mildred likes Save the Armadillo. I'll donate a tenner to that.'

These initiatives, regardless of whether it is a three legged race or trekking up Machu Pichu (?) encourage people to give money they wouldn't have otherwise.

My cousin, who works fulltime for a charity, did a skydive. They funded it and 100% of the sponsorship went back into the charity. She's paid to work for them, and chosen to do something big and scary to publicise the charity and raise money. She gets enjoyment out of her work daily as she works with clients directly assisted by the charity, which enables people with disabilities and mental health problems work therapeutically. Some of these people couldn't work in a normal environment, so I'm very proud of her and her skydive. She wasn't just getting her jollies paid for. She's come from a bad start in life and now is a hound working mother, who helps disadvantaged people every day, there are perks like getting to hold the Olympic torch and doing certain types of fundraising that I certainly don't grudge her.

Not so sure about the holidays, I think the fees should be paid by the volunteer and all the funds raised go to the charity.

Also as Bugsy said it should be that the person going pays the organising company themselves for the trip and then raise money for the charity. No money 'sponsoring' the trip should be used to pay for the trip unless eg the parents pay the fee for their child.

*hard working, not hound working

FWIW I did donate to a charity recently following a chat with the fundraisers sitting in a soaking wet supermarket car park. I didn't want to contribute to the lottery they were running, but instead I sent the money direct to them with a note about why I was doing it. I would not have donated otherwise.

so fundraising CAN work.

BTW with the charity that funded the skydive - that is still a few hundred quid that went to the skydive, not the charity. Just because she found the skydive no fun (nor would I) doesn't make it better than a holiday that is fun.

her other work makes sense but I don't understand this.

YANBU however it does depend how the money is used. I did a charity 'trip of a lifetime' where we had to raise £2000+ BUT all of that went to the charity and the cost of the trip was entirely covered by us.

... I actually find it more annoying to be asked to donate to someone doing the 'race' for life and just walking round a park!

I don't mind so much if they are organising something to raise the money, eg a quiz, entertainment, cake sale, car wash, raffle etc as they are showing initiative and creativity and these things require effort.

I do begrudge people who just send a link to their justgiving page and coerce you because they are your boss, etc

peppermint I agree with you, not so much because of showing initiative but because they are giving something in return to sponsors. I am very happy to pay for a car wash, quiz etc.

didactylos thank you for that link.

My SIL went and helped to build a school in Uganda. I seriously do not understand it at all. She came home saying that it was a shame because in the local area all the charity money seemed to discourage locals from working.

I really could never understand the point of her trip. I believe she found it 'eye opening', and tried to get friends to sponsor a specific child when she returned. But her trip out there was the extent of her 'charity'. It just seemed like she had taken a weird sort-of-holiday to me, and made some 'great friends', with other people also on 'holiday' while she was there.

My SIL went and helped to build a school in Uganda. I seriously do not understand it at all. She came home saying that it was a shame because in the local area all the charity money seemed to discourage locals from working.

I really could never understand the point of her trip. I believe she found it 'eye opening', and tried to get friends to sponsor a specific child when she returned. But her trip out there was the extent of her 'charity'. It just seemed like she had taken a weird sort-of-holiday to me, and made some 'great friends', with other people also on 'holiday' while she was there.

It's been in the paper and the like so I would guess with the donations, then all that publicity, they wouldn't have lost anything, raising awareness at the same time as raising money is worth investing some of their budget.

My cousin has been nominated for Pride of XYZ awards, done radio advertising, and has been in the paper a good few times, so I'd say she's pretty good with publicity, that matters in a small town with a local charity. The fact that she is young, grew up here and is doing well gets notice, which means so doors the charity.

She does other charity work too, like the race for life. I'm proud of her, her mum died of breast cancer when she was fifteen, and she had a baby at sixteen, she's grown up to do something and make a difference. She's dyslexic and thought she was never going to get anywhere because of that (I went to college at the same time as her and she was really upset). I just can't grudge what the charity did because I can't say she doesn't deserve to do something that's usually once in a lifetime for a good cause, if she did get something out of it, I hope it's the passion to keep doing what she's doing to support those with learning disabilities and other issues, who were all there and enjoyed the trip also.

I'm afraid the charity sector only has itself to blame for increasing cynicism people have.

I admire people who do donate their time to charity work. I have done a bit in the past and also given money but having worked on the inside of a large local and large national charity I can certainly say there is a pretty big lump of people at the senior manager in that sector making a very nice living not really doing anything for the charity but drawing a salary and floating about in meetings and at events.

Yanbu....

Had massive discussion with someone from red nose re this.

If anyone wants to 'do good' then there are any number of local opportunities to volunteer and make a real difference to your own communities. Befriending (older people and young), carers' organisations, especially young carers' orgs, are always looking for volunteers. There are many others.

One doesn't need an exotic location to make a difference!

YANBU

Yabu and yanbu. First up, if you disagree, don't donate- you're under no obligation. If you haven't heard of the charity before your friend/relative/colleague flagged it up and you would like then to donate, well just donate without sponsoring, that's easy enough to do! For example, I did not like the no make up selfie business at ALL and I'm bit mad on cruk but the endless deluge of selfies prompted me to donate to Marie Curie, so it did good in raising awareness.

I don't think charities would offer these events if the charities felt they were not good money raisers.

On the other hand, if it's a jolly then yes, it would be better if somebody paid for themselves if they could. I did a skydive and paid all costs myself, but still asked for sponsorship for a charity and raised money because I thought I may as well- without that sponsorship on my mind and the thought the money would do some good I'm pretty sure I'd have bottled the whole thing. I wouldn't have expected others to fund the jump itself though, no. On the day I went people were jumping for spina biffida, Tommy's, Bliss and War Child amongst others and has they not jumped then the charities wouldn't have made those ££ and I think all those who jumped that day did so with the very best of intentions and for very personal reasons.

I think that if you've done charitable deeds or made charitable donations then by all means be critical when others seem to do them only if there's a benefit to them. On the other hand, if you don't give or haven't ever raised anything yourself then why be down on and sniffy about those with the get up and go to do something?

Finally, for me the biggest issue is that charities have to exist at all. It's far more sickening to me that children's hospices (for example) need charitable donations than it is that some people trek the inca trail and raise a few £££ at the same time.

Oops many typos! Meant to say I'm not mad about cruk.

But Springheeled, as another poster has just pointed out (with references!), for every £1 raised for those medical charities, it costs the NHS £13.75 to care for the parachutists' sprained ankles etc.

I don't mind if its a charity whose aims I support which isn't one that I normally donate to. But I really dislike being asked at work - I simply won't do sponsorship there.