To be fed up with people asking me to sponsor them?

[Peachy27]

I have a monthly direct debit set up to a charity, one which is close to my heart for personal reasons. It is for the amount I have budgeted I can afford to give to charity on a monthly basis.
Yet I seem to be continuously asked to sponsor friends, work colleagues etc for various runs they are doing. Whilst I get they are trying to raise money for a charity close to their hearts, should I stop giving to the charity I chose so that I have money to give to the charities they choose?
I can see that running a marathon or whatever is an admirable thing to do, for some this is going to be more of a hardship than others. People that actually enjoy running or want to get fit I almost feel like I'm paying their charity choice for them to do their hobby. Part of me thinks why don't they eat baked beans for a month or stop drinking alcohol and give the money they save to their charity rather than expecting their friends to pay...
I suspect I am being a little unreasonable but so many people have asked me recently and I feel really awkward not really having the money, especially as it is invariably to help a charity which has helped a close family member.....

People that actually enjoy running or want to get fit I almost feel like I'm paying their charity choice for them to do their hobby.

Things like sponsor me to do a parachute jump. Er, no, fuck off - pay for yourself to do it!

Me too Decaff. I wonder why they don't get a paper round or similar. Then they could run and give the money to charity!

Agree YANBU. I think as long as you remember that sponsoring someone is about making them feeling better rather than transforming anything significant. See above the proud posts about raising £1k etc. So i do sponsor people I like sometimes and I do give to msf regularly but that's to make me feel better. But I did become enraged (quietly) when I told someone I was doing dry January yesterday and they asked me which charity I was doing it for... Fuck right off..

Love the idea of someone doing a paper round! And Fanuary !

YADNBU!

The ones that get me are the "celebs" who climb Everest, Kilimanjaro etc, etc. Like someone said upthread, these things just make who ever's doing it feel great, and the celebs get loads of publicity.

The exceptions imo are David Walliams, who I can't stand, but credit where it's due 'an all, and that really nice bi-lingual comedian who wears the nail polish, what's his name.......

Eddie Izzard! He did about a million marathons in a month or so. Now that's pretty impressive!

A couple of years ago, DH came up with a corker of an idea! He announced that he was going to do a charity event to raise money for a charity that is very important to us.

Great!

Turned out it was some bloody road trip abroad (can't remember where) that meant him taking over 3 weeks off work !

Basically a three week lads holiday, which involved no hardship whatsoever, which he would then ask people to sponsor him for. Bless him! How did he ever think I would buy that, never mind anyone else.

Getting sponsored for sitting in a car!

With hindsight, I should have said it was a great idea - you can spend 3 weeks sitting in your car, darling, outside our house! I'd have sponsored him for that!

What is worse is a company asking customers for donations, then passing the donations on to a charity as if they are from the company.

Yes this bugs me to heck so YANBU.

My FB is full of it.
Someone I know has started a campaign because the company she works for has decided to support a particular charity.
I have managed to ignore three sets of FB invites - then yesterday she sent a mass email about it, ccing about a hundred email addresses together so now we are all open to spam and email harvesting.

Fuck her charidee.

The giving up drink one is daft, surely you just give the money you have saved on alcohol to the charity yourself? If you need to give up for a month it must be more than a few pounds.

I also get what people are saying about sponsoring people to just do their hobby or those expensive charity experience ones. Far better to just give to the actual charity if it's one you support.

I will sponsor if it's something personal to the person and they are doing something new and free, so a big run with no previous experience etc.

I have a few set charities I support and lots I don't agree with, many people won't support some charities as its a very personal thing.

I sponsored a work colleague a few years ago. Was happy to do so. Never again. Ever since, my post has been full of charity organisation begging letters. Virtually every day I get at least one and often, several. Nobody else in the household receives them and I am very careful about giving personal details to anyone, so I have to assume that the charity concerned were happy to sell on my details to other charitable organisations. I especially hate it when I am sent various'gifts' to entice me into giving. I used to feel guilty at not paying for these unsolicited items. I don't now, I cannot afford to give to all these causes, as admirable as they are. For this reason I only give now where I can hand over a cash donation 'anonymously'.

So I got a follow up e mail from someone who had sent a text asking for sponsorship. The e mail was just to people who had not sponsored her, not a general one. I replied explaining my reasons why I was not sponsoring anyone anymore but wishing her good luck and not heard back.....
Strokethefurrywall, well done for your marathon, I do actually agree there is a big difference someone running who doesn't usually do that to someone who normally runs for a hobby then decides to get sponsored for it......

I hate and detest people asking me to sponsor them. I recognize that it is for a good cause, but I am n benefits myself, and often have to skip meals and for someone to ask can I sponsor them I fiend detestable. As a child there was a great pressure schools would ask you to sell raffle tickets. Not being a a very sociable person I found it hard to sell tickets. Particularly as I live in an immigrant area where immigrants normally have the least amount of money in those days and would cost each dish so it is under £1 to feed a family. I also note that people who would not sponsor me, then came around for me to sponsor them! Some even disclosed to various organisations like the NHS that I would sell their tickets. I wrote back and asked who had given my name, The NHS would not disclose the persons name. But it was OK for them to disclose my name and address!

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