To be a bit peeved about this fundraising expectation?

[BuggersMuddle]

My work has signed up to support a charity and one of the events if a 5k /10k across sites. I am a regular 5k runner (park runner) and so was happy to sign up. The blurb suggested initially asked everyone to sign up without mention of expected funds. It's now come out that the expected fundraising is £100.

I think this is a bit much tbh, especially when targeting (as they have) existing runners. No way would anyone sponsor me to run a 5k, but I've had gone for the 10k (easily achievable) and put in a bit plus DP and parents would probably have contributed on a 'keep buggers on the training plan' basis.

I just feel like £100 for a work 5/10k is a bit much and tbh want to pull out. If it'd been £50, no probs. I suspect my new team would sponsor me as a don't 'look like an athlete' but I did multiple sportives, a 10k and a triathlon last year so would feel a bit of a tit, to be frank.

Am I being silly? I'd love to do it, it's a massive work event etc., but whilst I do feel that asking people to sponsor me would be a bit cheeky. AIBU?

They can expect. But they might not get.

Just do it and raise what you can.

Exit That's what I thought, but I did wonder if I'd end up liable (it's not at all clear) because it it states 'you must raise at least'. It'd be a good goal (the 10k) and am sure it'd get some kudos with colleagues, but just worried I wouldn't make the £100. (Maybe 10 colleagues would give me a fiver).

Well I'd be surprised if it was an obligatory amount. What if you tripped at the start.

It depends on who is running the event (your work or the charity) - some charities make you pay the extra you haven't raised at the start line when you register. Is there an entry fee? If so it should generally come off your total too. Does gift aid count towards your total? It can help boost your total.

Depending on the profile of the event, yes £100 sounds quite steep but the event will cost to put on so that needs to be taken into account.

I think it's unreasonable to let people sign up without telling them the sponsorship expectations so YANBU.

It's all work little which is why I was quite shocked. I've done events for charity in the past and while there was a minimum, it was quite clear that if we fell over at the start we were only liable to cover the shirts.

I guess I could gift the money myself and tbh if it was £50 I would have in order to take part in an event with colleagues (great chance to meet other colleagues interested in sport while donating to charity), but £100 is making me wince a little.

I had to raise £250 for a 5k! I think I only got £180. It was my first and only run, though. No one said anything, neither employers or the charity. I walked it.

Would your colleagues sponsor you that much? Won't they be doing it too or sponsoring lots of other colleagues who are also doing it? I'd think you'd then have to sponsor them, so it would end up the same as paying the £100 yourself.

I have this problem, I can pretty much only enter non fundraising events these days because no one will sponsor me as they know I run/cycle/swim all the time.

I now only fundraise for the local community by bringing in a load of cakes once every few months.

Ten Cynically I am a short curvy female who carries a few extra pounds (BMI 26-27 & muscular so not very fat, but not slim yet). Whatever, my physique or something else about me makes people assume I can't run for a bus, so yes, I can get sponsorship from those. Anyone who knows my sporting background.....I am slow (very, very slow) but fit.

TBH I feel a bit bad asking for sponsorship because I 'don't look the part'.

I don't understand.

Surely the whole point is that people are sponsoring you to do to raise money for charity, not to complete a run?

I can see the problem if it's a company wide thing so your colleagues might not be that generous, but I think I'm missing something with the rest of it!

Felicia You may be absolutely right, but I've always thought it should be a challenge iyswim. Any other fundraising I've done around sporting events has been a serious challenge. Running 5/10k wouldn't be that. I may be overthinking this (especially as I am very slow).

People don't sponsor you to fail. Your physique has nothing to do with it. I hope that you are being honest with your colleagues and not giving them the impression that you'd be happy with £5 for 1 km as "that's all you'd manage" and then "surprise" them with a bill for £25. Can't think that you would be but can't see how the whole physique thing comes into it otherwise.

Just do it, - sorry Nike!

Do it fast, do it slow, raise £5, raise £100, it's for charity.

I think if they are expecting everyone to raise a set amount they are wrong, and if so you should suggest the company makes up any short fall from any runners who simply cannot afford to put the money in themselves or find the sponsors.

BuggersMuddle I feel exactly like you. I have run for years and never ask for sponsorship as it's something I enjoy so no hardship involved. Why would I ask for sponsorship for something which is not a challenge for me and that I do at least once a week for fun- I may as well ask for sponsorship for having a glass of wine.

Surely the whole point is that people are sponsoring you to do to raise money for charity, not to complete a run?

Not really. I'm a runner and a member of a few related FB forums, where a lot of people are doing London marathon on charity places, which involves raising £2000. Nearly everyone is raising money predominantly through side activities like car boot sales, bake sales and quiz nights. Very few can do it through the "oh, have 20 quid for training for the marathon" route anymore. Combination of donor fatigue, more people contributing through direct debits to charities of their choice, and realisation that by sponsoring the event, you're subsidising the participant and the charity doesn't benefit that much.

I never sponsor for 5k. If you're able bodied and can't walk 5k, then you've got bigger problems than me not sponsoring you.

YANBU to be peeved.
I personally would go back to the organisers and say that you don't feel able to sign up to any conditions - it's up to other people if they sponsor you, and how much they give, if you do. Say you are willing to run, and to ask some people for sponsorship to support the charity, but that if they need some kind of guaranteed amount, then you will have to withdraw your offer, which means they won't get anything, rather than the £60 or whatever you might have raised. Seems an odd way to go about fundraising to me.

I still don't see the issue Keyser.

If you want to raise money for a charity, and there is an event you can join, even if you know you can do it - what's the problem?

If people are giving you sponsorship money for selling stuff at a car boot, then surely that's the equivalent of people paying you for having a glass of wine?

But then, I've never done a sponsorship where you sponsor per mile completed. I always give an all-in amount and still give it even if not completed - as ultimately it goes to the charity.

YANBU. I agree you should do what BackForGood says.

I think this highlights how the concept of sponsorship has changed over the years.

You used to be sponsored to undertake a challenge. The amount of sponsorship you earned was determined by how much of the challenge you completed.

Nowadays you are sponsored to fundraise. Which is basically just asking somebody to give you money because you have chosen to collect it for a good cause. Often you don't even have to complete the event you've been paid to do.

I too wouldn't sponsor a healthy, able-bodied person to walk a 5k. There's no challenge there and not much sign of effort. It's just a collection exercise with branding. Plenty of people are already donating their money to charity via collections and direct debits.

Blue Not at all, it's just that my new team don't know me and I don't tend to shout about sport from the rooftops, so they might well assume that a 10k is a massive big deal for me. I have experienced previously that people often get more sponsorship if the perceived challenge is greater iyswim so was musing that I probably would get some sponsorship if I asked (without either an exercise CV or any kind of bullshit - just asking).

I get really annoyed when friends who can easily run 5k ask me to sponsor them. In fact I just don't generally as essentially they're just asking me to donate to that specific charity for no effort and I have my charities that I donate to each month. It's even worse when they start trying to guilt trip you!

I'd cheat - bake some cupcakes and take them in as part of the fundraising effort. £1 a cupcake going towards the 5k. Most people will buy a nice cupcake for their morning tea for a £1. Tell them that over the course of the next few months you would really love for them to buy a cake for each k you run!

felicia because events are a hugely inefficient way for charities to raise money and I'm not a big fan of them for that reason. Race for Life has something like a 10% net margin.

I'm actually waiting for someone to start a just giving page saying "sponsor me not to run the marathon and double the amount of money that goes to charity vs sponsoring someone to run the marathon"

Cynical? Maybe. Completely true though.

I have both sponsorship and big charity fatigue. I now see big charities as job creation schemes with a sideline in the original cause. You are basically paying for someone to enjoy a hobby/experience, a CEO's salary or advertising execs salary.

I still support smaller charities in my own way.

I hate these sort of company required charity events where everyone is supposed to get on board and support the chosen charity. I don't think any employer has the right to tell their employees who they should fundraise for. If they want to donate to a certain charity, then why aren't they stumping up the 100 for everyone who wants to do it? They're putting the financial burden on their employees, instead of themselves, while they sit back and claim to be community minded.

It's a form of extortion, because if you're boss signs up for the run then asks you to sponsor them, then you're not going to risk the fallout from saying no. Then their boss comes and says they are going to do it too, then you'd better sponsor them. Oh, and here comes your colleague with their hand out. Ridiculous.