Once in a lifetime trip disguised as fundraising for Charities

[staveleymum]

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for people raising money for Charity. People asking for sponsorship for things like Marathons, 1000 miles walked in a year, midnight walks, etc. I'm also on board with Red Nose Day, Children in Need, PTA fundraising, kids clubs fundraising and everything else that seems to constantly need money to run.

BUT I just don't get fundraising for things like hiking up Kilimanjaro or funding a trip to Borneo (for a 16 year old) to build a school or some such similar. Both these events need to raise £4,000 so they are on facebook, justgiving, etc trying to raise the money. My issue is that of the £4,000 needed how much will actually go to charity. This covers flights, accommodation, food, guides, etc - surely this is just something that they want to do as a personal thing and wrapping it up in Charity and getting others to pay for it?

I'd love to walk over Sydney Harbour Bridge but I wouldnt dream of masking it in Charity and hoping others will pay for it with perhaps 5-10% of the money raised actually going to the Charity?

I know I don't have to sponsor but I'd rather just give the donation directly to the Charity. AIBU?

YANBU I did a firewalk for charity a few years ago - I paid for the firewalk itself out of my own money then every penny raised went to the charity I was supporting :)

I did a trip to Honduras in some sort of life crisis mode. Paid for the essential portion myself and then fundraised an extra £2k, and have continued to fundraise for the charity after the trip as it really affected me. I had a ( paid for by me) life changing experience and the charity has about £10k more than it would otherwise.

Barbie Saviour made me laugh. Humanitarians of Tinder made me sad and more than a little angry!!

We all had to fund my boss the cycle the length of the country

See, I think that people asking for funding at work is really not on, especially when it's the boss. There's an element of bribery in expecting your employees to pay for this, as most would feel obligated to agree.

I've literally just seen someone posting on Fb about this. Specifically who was good for no fees.
If you are going to Africa with no travel accommodation or food costs the charity isn't getting much from the £2k you raise is it?

I may just be wrong, but I think I see a consensus.

That may be a first on MN...

I knew someone who did this, she climbed a mountain for charidee she bungee jumped for charidee... except she expected us tofun both and donate extra for the charity.

When I ignored the begging emails/text messages/fb posts she had the gall to send me a really shitty email making out I was mean and horrible for not having the compassion to help charities.

I do help fundraiser for charities and contribute to them, and during the time she was going off on her jollies doing her charitable events I was going through a financially crippling divorce (which she was aware of).

But she wasn't a nice person anyway.

I mainly agree..but i guess also they have to make the fundraising events appeal to people or human nature would mean people wouldnt sign up.

People asking for sponsorship for bungy jumping or sky diving is an absolute joke. Both things are just loads of fun and don't entail any sacrifice or hard work whatsoever. It's like asking for sponsorship to go on a rollercoaster.

Years ago we had backpackers at our supermarket from the local private school raising money so that the whole class could afford to go to the Sydney Olympics. Fuck. Right. Off.

Perhaps I could lie on my sofa and watch films for charity?
Maybe people would sponsor me to tidy my flat for Charity?

I don't mind fundraising when it's children under 16 who are also working (well paper rounds and odd job stuff) to raise money for trips. I work with kids so see it a lot and to be honest, I much prefer seeing kids earning their money for expeditions and charity trips than those kind of experiences being only available if you've got wealthy parents. I think more highly of kids who fundraised their backsides off than when parents just write out a cheque.

But once you get into college/university and adulthood I'll only sponsor people who i know are covering their own costs. My university's charity group used to love asking for money to trek in a jungle 'for charity' and it turned out that the only money for charity was after the students had used donations to buy flights! That's basically saying pay for my holiday.

I did the moon walk a few years ago with 2 DDs. £50 each to "enter". £30 each for transport to London. £40 for meal before hand. £20 for coffee and bacon rolls for breakfast from van at the event when walk finished and £50ish for outfits to fit that year's theme. We raised £250 sponsorship between us. We might as well not have bothered with the walk and just donated the money! I wont be doing it again.

A parent at our school makes a big deal of doing the New York Marathon. The whole school has to charity fundraise for him, dress up days, you name it, the requests for money are endless. The head seems to think he's the best parent since sliced bread. Then we have to put up with endless photos of him on the plane, arriving at the airport etc etc. Couldn't really give a toss if he does do the New York Marathon. Yes it's for charity, but why can't he just run round the local Common.

I think it really depends on the setup and ensuring you thoroughly research which organisations to work with. I did some charity projects abroad in my mid-20s. I worked with NGOs and paid all travel costs, accommodation and an extra donation to the NGO myself, as well as offering my time over Christmas periods when they are desperate for people because so few volunteer. I was taking care of and teaching children in an orphanage and despite the claims in some PP about 'fake' orphanages I can confirm they were abused and orphaned children. Some of the older ones told me about what had happened to them and it was incredibly sad. In the country in question there was no state support so all of the help available to these kids was provided entirely by volunteers with the NGO, a combination of some amazing local volunteers and people from abroad. Most of the local volunteers wanted to be with their own families over Christmas so the orphanage was really struggling for staff and I do believe the time we gave was worthwhile. The money donated to the NGO by me and by anybody who sponsored me was used entirely to buy books, sports equipment and medical supplies for the children. And I continued to raise more money to send to them after I returned to the UK, through sponsored runs etc.

Yes, it was interesting for me to see another country, but I paid for that myself. I'm not sure why people are so negative about these trips provided that any sponsorship money donated by third parties actually goes on the charitable cause. And contrary to the link posted above, trips working with children are not about photos for social media posts. For child protection reasons people shouldn't be posting online any photos with vulnerable children, that would be exploitative, distasteful and wrong.

I'm surprised at the tone of some of the comments in the thread to be honest. Encouraging a charitable mindset in young people can only be a good thing, as is them seeing other parts of the world and realising that even as an average or poor person in the UK you are comparatively rich, by quite some way. It can change people's perspectives, making them kinder and far less entitled, and I wish it was possible to make it part of compulsory education. I do agree though that the projects need to be appropriate, i.e. add real value to the local community. There is no point sending a teenager with no construction skills to do a building project that will end up being low quality or even unsafe.

A parent at our school makes a big deal of doing the New York Marathon
People who are big on endurance events generally get a massive endorphin hit from competing in events, a long lasting and intense feeling of euphoria which is even better than taking drugs.
I speak as an exercise addict, this is pure self indulgence and yet he's lauded is if he was mother Teresa

Hi everyone
I'd Really like to fulfil my dream of working with disabled, partially sighted, homeless, motherless orangutans who are roaming around in a beautiful far away land.

I intend to build a nice home for them in pleasant surroundings.
It will cost me £3000 to go there ( this includes my accommodation and food etc) plus £2000 to build the home.

Please please could all you nice mumsnetters chip in together to cover the costs?

Pretty please.

I'll post lots of pictures of very happy orangutans to justify the expense.

I'll even do a blog so you can all check on my progress.

Oh and if anyone could donate cash so that I can buy a few new outfits to wear whilst I'm there that would be great!

But Oneiroi if the money the volunteers spent going over there was instead sent straight to the orphanage itself, they then could hire staff. This would prevent an over-reliance on foreign volunteers, it would mean local people would be employed who would then spend their money locally and most importantly it would mean that vulnerable children would have stable adults who wouldn't be out of their lives after a few months.

There is something exploitative and patronising by a lot of these 'volunteer in a third world country' holidays.

When we climbed Kilimanjaro (4 years tomorrow since we hit summit) we did it to raise money for charity. The only caveat was that we had to fund the trip ourselves so that everything we raised through sponsorship went to charity.

YANBU. Personally, I don't sponsor people doing anything that they aren't funding themselves. Skydives seem to be the main culprits

I work with kids so see it a lot and to be honest, I much prefer seeing kids earning their money for expeditions and charity trips than those kind of experiences being only available if you've got wealthy parents. I think more highly of kids who fundraised their backsides off than when parents just write out a cheque.

But there is only a limited amount of fundraising a yong teenager a do. Money from a paper round doesn't go far when we are talking thousands of pounds. And if a number of children are doing fundraising within a small catchment, the pool of people to raise funds from is going to be limited and overlapping. So any commitment to go on one of these trips has to be underwritten by family.

Captain in an ideal world that would be great, but nobody in the UK would have heard of the small NGO I worked with if they didn't use this model, and there are so many competing charities that it's not easy to achieve what you suggest. It would require a huge marketing budget, is that any better? They also struggle to find locals there with the nursing, teaching and childcare skills they need even if they did have money to employ them directly.

The larger charities that people give money to under the impression that it all goes on the good causes tend to have huge overheads and highly paid executives. Whereas me spending my own money on such trips does not harm to anybody, my time was well spent and all of the donations from myself and others went 100% to the children.

Oneiroi - volunteering in orphanages perpetuates the orphanage system as a way of caring for children.

Orphanages, even well run ones, permanently damage children and leave them ill equipped for life outside of an institution.

Children brought up even in well run orphanages are much more likely to abuse drugs, turn to prostitution or be exploited.

The best thing to do is never donate to or volunteer in any orphanage. Instead donate your money to a charity that works with the governements of those countries with orphanage systems to move to foster & family care instead.

Oneiroi - read this on why orphanages, even good ones, are bad for children: wearelumos.org/stories/institutions-are-not-answer-cases-child-abuse-and-neglect

wearelumos.org/stories/visit-back-time

Another grim picture of post-soviet institutional care.