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?

Just the airfare would make so much difference to people in those countries.

"Daughter went on a trip, organised by school, and a specialised company (teachers go free, but its hard work) so many days hiking, the other days, buying equipment, and renovating a school, painting, creating a sports field for the kids, painting their toilet block etc. (Terrifically hard in the heat, and foreign language culture etc for them)"

Do you seriously believe that about renovating a school?

I have employed people digging in Indonesia, there is one man who is like the Hulk, he will stand there whacking with a ten-pound hammer all day long, I reckon the average British school child would give up after ten minutes. I pay him £5/day, he doesn't wilt in the sun like a British person would.

What you need when you have cheap local labour is NOT a bunch of school children to do a shit job of painting or whatever, but EXPERIENCED craftsmen who could teach skills or project manage. Adults. Not 16-18-year-olds.

A relative ... and a friend went over to an African school to help out

But at least it was an actual school they went to I know this is a different thing, but I'm reminded of a friend who worked in developing nations and told of the "pop up schools" laid on for tourists. A spare building, a few borrowed desks, books and wallcharts and a group of winsome children beaming at the visitors - and apparently cheque books would fall open with abandon

To be fair, though, at least that money given directly might have been more useful ... though who to is a different matter

Also more to the point, it was a self organised trip, so took a good year of planning with the teachers in Uganda and getting an understanding of what they needed. There were genuine skills being taught and passed on.

Y'all need to check out Barbie Savior.

sorry www.instagram.com/barbiesavior/

The VSO type trips are so much better for the communities they are working alongside. They will only send people with professional qualifications who can train local people or provide specialist skills that aren't available locally. You have to commit to a longer term placement and no fundraising is needed to participate.

Our school tries to raise money for sports trips to Australia that don't even pretend to have a charity element. Each child has to raise a certain amount of money. I don't contribute as I don't want to pay for other people's children to travel round the world when I can't afford the £4000 to send mine (the fund raising is on top of that for sports kit, meals etc).

Lots of MNers go on holiday every year. They may benefit enormously from it, sometimes the trips may be life changing and it may even benefit the local population with the trade the tourism brings but no one bloody well pretends it's charity. Those criteria of mutual benefit don't make it charitable!

That's brilliant, rosehippy

This irritates me no end. I live in a working class area. My local supermarket often gets the rich mummies from more affluent suburbs collecting for their school's gymnastics trip to Belguim. They shudder at our neighbourhood (which is a lovely safe one) as some ghetto because there are a lot of people of colour and eastern European living here, but not above begging us to bankroll your kids hobby.

I will put my money into my community for our kids. I'm certainly not funding your snowflake's umteenth trip abroad when I haven't been on holiday for 7 years and I shop in Primark and Lidl.

Also look up "Humanitarians of Tinder"

Totally agree with you all. This has annoyed me for a while now, the pressure to fund people's jollies in the name of charity. We used to have to work our way round the world if we wanted to travel, usually restaurant and bar work. That did teach you something on its own (how to spot an arsehole!) camaraderie, hard work, self sufficiency. The current snowflake jollies are not doing anyone any favours, least of all of the naive youngsters.

Sorry
Meant to link
humanitariansoftinder.com

YANBU I thought that people were expected to fund the trip themselves so all money raised would go to charity. My friend did a Great Wall of china walk this year for charity - but she paid for her own flights and accommodation!

I completely agree.

Amazingly enough the women I know that went to train midwives and deliver babies in India and Uganda for a year never asked for a penny, so I refuse to subsidise someone else's 2 week jolly.

I paid for my own trip, and all the money I was sponsored (we had to hit a target) when to the charity

Enko - Ds age 15 8a currently fundraising to gonwith Urban Saints to Mexico to vuild a home for a family. It costs £700 and yes it will be an amazing experience for him. I dont however think it will be less of an experience fo the family who will get their first home ever.

Enko The family get a shack. From a fucking 'Christian' bible-bashing 'missionary organisation. Built, by their own admission using 'handtools only' - again, a fucking shack.

A shack 'built' by c.30 kids, so c.£21,000 being the cost of said shack - Enko have you got ANY clue how much good £21,000 pumped in full directly to the local economy would do? It would provide employment for local builders, provide PROPER homes for families. It would NOT be a vanity poverty porn trip for kids whose parents should know better, nor an excuse to try and foist a made up 'religion' onto those gawped at in said poverty porn tourism.

By all means relish the 'experience' your child will have, but don't for a single second delude yourself that they - or you - are doing anyone any good.

And next time you contribute to a thread, maybe be a tad more open about the facts? Is only as I had already heard about the nausea inducing white man's bible thumping organisation that is 'Urban Saint' that I know the above; anyone reading your post would have not the SLIGHTEST clue that it is 'Demonstrating Gods Power and Love'

Here you go folks - check out the awesome 'home' being built on the back of that £21k collective trip cost and ask yourself if you genuinely believe this is 'good' in any way.... www.urbansaints.org/build

Enko Hell would freeze over before I let one of my DC do this or be in any way part of it myself, I find it abhorrent. And if you genuinely want to do good then I suggest you cancel his 'trip', find a local charity there and directly donate the fortune that £700 is within that economy directly to that economy. Where it would quite genuinely do immense good.

rose that's great 😁

why do you need to walk on the great wall of china for charity? i don't understand?

a lot of the times these activities are not even very challenging. like 'walking in the jungle', it won't be a challenging walk, it will be a very gentle one designed to cater for even the most out-of-shape person who arrives.

so it's a holiday. i don't see the connection between 'I'm going on holiday' and 'let's raise money for charity'.

there's no challenge.

if you are going to climb Everest or cycle to John O Groats then fair enough the money is like an acknowledgment of a hard task. But these charity holidays are explicitly designed NOT to be challenging.

I agree, IwasAM

I can't imagine the humiliation the recipients have to suck up and go through.

YADNBU . Well,said rosehippy a load of do gooders doing something for themselves under the guise of charity and doing little or no actual good for others whatsoever.

Usually from families who can easily afford to pay for,themselves or just bloody donate!

I don't feel comfortable with the climb Everest thing. The environment there is being damaged by the mid life crisis lot doing their own fund raising jollies.

I went to a school that did this.

We could not afford this by any means, my mum advised before I even went to the school that it was not on the cards.

The school did say they had to try to get the money through charitable contributions but when that didn't yield the full amount the parents always paid!!

This pops up on MN every couple of months. It's pretty much always 95% of people think it's unreasonable to pass off these things as in aid of charity