Sponsoring children and adults Facebook requests.

[measles64]

For years I have sponsored friends and family children and adults on Just Giving and Virgin Giving. Now when I am trying to get my grandson sponsored for a baby splashathon for Tommys charity by putting it up on Facebook I get a deafening silence. I have sponsored runs, colour runs, dragon racing, and numerous other endeavours etc. etc. I am blooming annoyed with family tbh. friends well that is their choice.

People will say YABU to expect people (anyone, even family) to sponsor your grandson, but I understand why you're miffed if you've sponsored them or theirs in the past. You know not to next time they ask / post.

I bloody won`t I am quietly steaming here.

Same here OP. Sponsored a whole load of relatives over the last few months for various things-did they reciprocate when my boys did something? No they blooming didn't. Hope they don't bother asking me again!

Do NOT post a passive agressive facebook status!! Just repost again in a few days.

I find people are very tight when it comes to sponsoring on Facebook.
people that have hundreds of friends and there are zero comments when they put their just giving page on.
I always sponsor people if I can. there have been a lot recently though

My son, his Uncle is going to get a massive kick up the backside tomorrow if he does not sponsor him. He can well afford it.

This has come up on my feed too - tbh I would prefer to sponsor someone for a) their own rather than their child's endeavours and b) for something physically challenging.

That said, I don't ask for sponsorship myself

WTF is a baby splashathon and why do they need to be sponsored for it?

I wouldn't sponsor for a splashathon. I sponsor for things that take a bit of effort, like climbs or runs.

I think sponsored anything has reached saturation point on Facebook.

So many post links to "justgiving" who take a cut out of the money. Now I only sponsor people who ask me in person and can accept cash.

It's annoying if you've sponsored a lot of these people yourself. In general though I think people get a bit fed up with the requests.

Opposite to 60sname! I now refuse to sponsor adults 'challenging themselves'. Would always sponsor a child though, but for cash, never via justgiving or similar.

I only ask immediate family personally for anything my DCs are doing. My friends on FB don't have anything to do with them, and what the kids are doing (eg the big toddle) isn't really that challenging! It seems very money grabbing. Plus I want my kids to learn about asking nicely for sponsorship etc, not just make loads of money from people they don't know.

I'd find it really weird for a FB friend to ask me to sponsor their grandkids to be honest.

Their uncle though, yes do shout at him!

I can see why it's annoying but surely you don't sponsor to get sponsors back?

I've been sponsored before via FB and some family members I barely see were very generous, but I know that if they posted something I wouldn't be able to offer the same in return - I just don't have the money. I could probably give a couple of pounds but then you wonder if that looks worse than giving nothing at all. I have to save it for "big" things - someone's first marathon for example - so something like a splashathon wouldn't make the cut for me I'm afraid.

Have you tried approaching people directly (even bu email or fb message)? Usually that's more effective than just posting as it's easy to miss a post.

The lack of reciprocity is annoying. However, I feel a bit wary about the Waterbabies thing. There's no effort, the little ones don't have any idea what's going on.

the thing is that its often about the timing ie if i am looking at facebook on the bus then I am not going to sort out sponsorship whereas in the office I might and I am unlikely to sponsor anyone at the moment as I have two kids birthdays coming up plus the school holidays. So its not a judgement on the value of the charity or what the person is doing IYSWIM

I sponsored my cousins grandchild for a child hospice I have never met my second cousin let alone their child. I have not seen the cousin in 45 years. Perhaps I am a soft touch.

With all due respect though, OP, it's your choice to have done that. If you haven't seen the cousin in so long how do you know they'd even be in a position to sponsor your grandchild?

It's lovely that you're so generous to others but I really don't think you should look at it as something you do expecting it to be reciprocated. You just don't know what else people have got going on. I've sometimes ignored sponsor forms at work, for instance, not because I don't want to support them but because I've got other things to pay for at that time. Sometimes it's not personal, it's just that other things take higher priority.