AIBU re charity skydive?

[Gwenci]

Genuinely wondering whether I'm being unreasonable so prepared to be told I am.

An old acquaintance from school is doing a skydive for a charity and has sent a FB msg asking for sponsorship. So far I've studiously ignored it as I think this is a rubbish way of fundraising for a charity.

Her minimum target of £360 sponsorship will equate to £140 going directly to the charity - the rest covers the cost of the skydive. So more than 50% of people's charitable donations will be paying for the skydive itself.

Surely there are much more cost effective ways of raising money for a worthwhile cause?

AIBU to think this or should I be donating anyway as, you know, it's for charity?

Surely the point of these things is all the proceeds go to charity? If you don't want to pay a fortune to actually do it out of your own pocket do a sponsored walk or something

YANBU. She should be funding the skydive herself.

Most of these charity things are actually a way for the person to do something that they want to do, but not pay for it.

Skydiving, walking the Great Wall of China, cycling to Paris... There's few events that the person doesn't get an experience from. Someone at work is going on a wine tour in Spain, and fundraising for charity. Her plan seems to be that other people fund the tour, and she'll donate any leftover money to charity. She'll also buy a few bottles of nice wine whilst she's there and auction them off for the charity when she's back.

It's crazy. I don't donate much these days, I pay the charity directly instead (although that raises questions about CEO pay etc...)

No, YANBU; I hate this type of fundraising.

Exactly my thinking! There are so many websites (some directly from charities themselves) asking people to do a skydive to raise money and all say that if you raise a minimum sponsorship, the charity covers the cost of the skydive.

If you can't afford to pay for the jump yourself, do something else!

I think my judgement is also clouded by the fact that I would LOVE to do a skydive, so to me it seems like I'm paying for someone else to do something incredibly fun.

Anchor I am at anyone thinking they can do a wine tour for charity!!!!!!

YANBU. I did a solo parachute jump for charity (fucking terrifying) but I paid for the jump itself so everything I raised went to the charity.

It's the same as walking the Great Wall of China, climbing Kilimanjaro etc. I'm not paying for your holiday/experience of a lifetime.

I don't give anything to these sorts of things.

Neither do I pay for other people to have a holiday fortnight abroad helping people. But I would give directly to the charity and I would help someone, say, going to help at a school for a year, that sort of thing.

A CHARITY WINE TOUR???????

I'm on the fence.

On the one hand, the person is getting a free skydive

On the other hand, without that person getting the free skydive that charity wouldn't be getting any money from her efforts at all.

YANBU My friend did a skydive. She paid for it herself but asked people to sponsor her and all the money she raised went directly to the charity.

Though a sponsored Wine Tour I could completely get onboard with

I don't funderstand the leisure activities of people not in need. I give direct to small charities of my choice and dislike emotional blackmail. I don't give to big charities job creation schemes taxing kind people anymore they are not all they seem.

This sounds very familiar, I've also got someone asking sponsorship for a skydive on my time line. Amounts are the same too. It did piss me off a lot when she said only two thirds of the money she raised would go to this charitable cause

I read somewhere that the overall cost to the NHS of amateurs doing skydives is greater than the amount of money they make. There's an interesting article here

YANBU. Sponsorship is a great way to raise more money than you would be able to donate on your own, but if you choose to do something with high costs you should be prepared to fork out for it so that sponsor money actually benefits the charity.

I did a charity Zip-slide over a local river once. There had to be at least £25 raised to cover the costs before the charity would receive any sponsorship.

I coughed up the £25 myself meaning that all of my sponsor money went to the charity.

Yup, this is one of my bugbears. It gets worse too - someone I know wanted to climb kilimanjaro and if she raised a certain amount the climb was "free". She genuinely didn't understand - or was deliberately not acknowledging - that that meant hundreds or thousands of her sponsorship money was being used either to fund her trip, or someone else's.

I think the only saving grace in your friend's case, OP, is they are being upfront about it.

Just hope they don't do what another friend did - do their free skydive and love it so much that they start collecting donations for their next one the day after!!

YANBU. One of my friends did one a few years ago, I didn't sponsor it.

My DH has run the London marathon twice and he didn't fund his travel and hotel expenses and running shoes with his sponsorship money!

Good point re the London marathon Rae My dad did it, had always wanted to do it, was going to do it anyway. He thought if he could raise anything then it was a bonus. He did raise quite a bit but it went straight to the charity. It probably cost our family the same amount as he raised with travel, hotel etc but he was going to pay that out anyway.

Ones that get me are the ones where, trust fund kids on a gap year ask you to stump up for them to go to X exotic place under the guise of them doing it to help build a school/house/etc. when in reality it's more so to get a holiday out of it.

I just don't see how, instead, all the money that they're spending on flights/accomodation/food/etc. could be paid direct to local third world tradesmen to pay them to build whatever it is, I doubt they need help in bricklaying by someone who's only experience with bricks was when they played with lego.

She should pay for the skydive herself. All money donated should go straight to charity. I'd continue to ignore. Selfish people getting others to fund the activities they want to do anyway.

It's also virtue signalling.

Fuck me, a sponsored wine your? Which charity is she expecting to so generously raise money for doing that?

Op, YANBU!

I did a charity skydive, I'm not sure how much went to the company, but in total I raised over £1200, which meant that the charity got at least £900/£950?

I didnt want to throw myself out of a plane, i was asked to do it by one of the fundraisers and i'm a 'yeah i'll do that' kind of person, so agreed to do it

My work at the time matched £500 of it, which was amazing.

I have a Facebook friend like this. She's done amazing things all over the world, clearly an adventure junkie, and claims its all for charity. Right-o.

Cost should be paid by the fund raiser in full
All money raised should go to the charity

There are plenty of things that you can do to raise money for charity that do not cost anything

Your friend does not know if you have several monthly direct debits for charities of your choice or if you donate once a year to the charity of your choice

Sometimes I have sponsored someone, then been asked for sponsorship for another cause by someone else. I say I have just sponsored x, so I am sorry, but I cannot sponsor you, but I wish you the best of luck and look forward to seeing the photos....

You do not have to give a donation

Some people do not donate money to charity, they donate other things like; their time, food, some thing they can share eg knowledge etc