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?

whenever (Uni) offer ''charity'' visits to Africa/the rainforest/India they always tell us how great it will look on the CV

I'm a retired recruiter

They're wrong

Puzzledandpissedoff I can imagine, I always think it would surely be better spending your summer doing work in the subject area you're getting your degree (and future career) in.

I always think it would surely be better spending your summer doing work in the subject area you're getting your degree (and future career) in

Spot on

Yes Lots of very expensive holidays funded by mugs.

Going back about 15 years DF did gap year in Rwanda at an orphanage. She paid £3500, own money saved.

When she got there they said to the gap year students we're fully staffed we don't need any volunteers. The charity didn't care they had their 3.5k. Oh and they were advertising for people to go out the next year.

I run the charitable side of our company, and these irritate the hell out of me. Not just the build a school but the individual having an experience and asking for sponsorship for it.

Quite frankly I would like not to be sitting behind my desk wading through endless requests and making a decision on them (now blanket banned incidentally) and I would like to climb kilimanjaro, everest, trek across the andes blah blah blah.

I write to inform them that the company won't be sponsoring them and to look at our t & c's (firmly stated on the website!) and frequently emails of abuse back.

Incidentally we quite often get abusive emails back when we do as we apparently haven't given enough . I have total charity fatigue

Lots of 1st year uni students sign up for these trips (Walk The Great Wall of China etc) as you do your fundraising you send the money in and the charity makes quite a lot from those who can't raise the full amount (and go) and who don't have rich parents to fork out the rest. My DD didn't sign up (she knew she could never raise the amount needed) and got really fed up having to go to pub quizzes, buy cupcakes and ugly bead bracelets to finance her rich friends summer holiday as she wanted to keep her friends and thought a refusal would see her ostracised.

I work for a local newspaper. We get one or two parents of teenagers phoning us every week asking if we'll do a story on their 'charity' trip to Uganda, or wherever, so they can promote their crowdfunding page and try to raise the thousands they need. We always politely explain that we don't cover these nonstories anymore as we don't have the room in the paper.

Then when you put the phone down the whole office shouts 'FREE HOLIDAY?'

Crosstrees, although I'm sure those children are in need, by volunteering you are enabling that system to survive.

Charities like JKR's lumos are trying to pressurise countries across the world to move to a fostering/adoption model, but it's so hard because of a) institutional inertia and b) volunteers making it an attractive & cheap prospect.

I was asked to do something like this, and the cost was about 4K, I rang and asked the cost of the trip which was about 2k and since there was no way I could afford that I declined. I didn't feel comfortable asking people to fund my holiday in the disguise of raising money for charity - the pressure I was put under by the person organising it made me so uncomfortable we no longer speak.....

OneFlewOverTheDodosNest

It's a very small but notable local charity and because of the previous information I've given, I don't want to out myself but most if not all parts of the country will have at least one small local charity/voluntary organisation (or even more national charities) that will do some sort of befriending or peer support. Some do it in the more usual ways such as taking someone out to do what they want to do or accompanying them to appointments or you will have a charity which does good work in the community (like community allotments) and they will pair up more experienced volunteers with the less experienced and less confident volunteers.

Most counties will have a CVS and they usually can advise people where they can go to become a befriender, some may even have their own befriending service. Also people can become phone befrienders, this is usually spending half an hour a week just talking to someone on the phone.

Gawd - how negative and miserable - so many awful teenagers around doing nothing constructive - don't see why anyone would slag off those who try to give something . My daughter did an African school building thingy which was life changing and enhancing. She didn't ask anyone for money - she saved her Xmas and birthday money for 2 years we did car boot sales, she arranged quizzes and she baked and baked and baked selling cakes and fudge at school every week. She saved £3.5 k and I was well proud of her and am surprised at you curmudgeons😨

"I do think it's different though to pay towards someone who is volunteering their time to help a community project because they're not doing something touristy"

Except that IME a lot of people do these projects as an excuse to live in a tropical idyll for a few months rather than cracking on with the 9-5 in the UK.

Lots of drugs, booze and sex.

It's an extended holiday.

Different story if the people are qualified doctors, civil engineers, plumbers, working in their field. But I have seen dozens of student volunteers with nothing to offer and not one doctor. (Not to say that doctors never volunteer, just that they are outnumbered 100 to 1 by layabout students on their gap yahs)

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

No, YANBU, give to whichever charity you wish to.

I think as adults we may make choices to support our kids, neices, nephews and friend's children doing such things because we can see that although this is clearly not altruistic charity it is:
-A chance to expand children/teenagers/young people's minds and horizons
-A chance to bring something like an orphanage into the public eye more, might those teenagers send support etc when they are older, maybe most will not but some may
-A chance to engage in something bigger than themselves and their small part of the UK

Many of us in the west especially, and all over the world have a lot more money than we really need and we can give to any charity any time, any place, any where. But when it comes to our own kids and those of friends and relatives we may well want to support these causes because we can see a bigger picture than just a trip of a lifetime.

And the reality is maybe some of these organisations would not get any money because without the incentive of a trip or something many teens and parents would simply not be interested.

I am also guessing most of the kids who go get far more in terms of experience and growth than they actually give. So as long as the orphanage or whatever does benefit from volunteers and the experience is actually enriching for both sides I cannot see how it is wrong.

I painted an orphanage once, it was quite literally life changing and I don't remember anyone paying for it except me (but maybe my parents helped!) It is important for this not to perpetuate the myth that we in the west have all the answers, clearly we don't! But we do have a disproportionate amount of the wealth!

Now you all started me wondering; 4 years ago DD organised and put on a show. She hired the theatre organised publicity coordinated all the acts ( and danced with them)

Ticket sales and donations came to £700 donated to a charity for a school in Zimbabwe

I always assumed this was ok as she really put the work in - but in a lot of ways it was just a Jolly for her in the same way these holidays are - I feel a bit sad now

Recently I got asked to help a teenager fund a school visit to.....Washington!! Political learning experience apparently. More fool me I gave some money so as not to offend. Followed closely by a similar request for a sports trip to another continent.

It's the environmental damage of all these unnecessary flights which bugs me.

fj3568 it may have been life changing for her but it could have had some consequences to the community they were 'helping'. As other posters have mentioned the money that your daughter and her peers raised could have been spent on hiring local qualified people, and to train young people, to build the school. That would help create sustainability in the long term and would be a lot more useful to those communities.

She saved £3.5 k So why not just give the whole amount to charity instead of spending most of it on travel? She was a school student, how much about construction etc does she know?

Ah now, come on fj3568. Everyone here is pissed off about people getting others to fund their trips. Folk can do what they want in their leisure time with their own money and nobody is going to knock a kid for helping out abroad at no cost to anyone but themselves.

Sigh. I've been ripped to pieces over this in a previous thread... my brother has duchenne muscular dystrophy, and one of my sisters walked around the base of Mont Blanc for charity, with members of MD Victoria (Australia); family members and carers of people with MD. she paid for the actual trip out of her own money, so everything people sponsored her for went to the MD association. It wasn't 'just a jolly' - it was a valuable bonding experience for all those involved...

Ooh yes, good point about just sending the cash instead

Honestly katymac I think playing to your strengths to raise money for a genuine charity you have an interest in is a totally different ballgame and is to be commended.

It's the travel bit that gets people I think.

I haven't been abroad in 10 years.

Surely the charity still profits though? They have worked out that if they offer an interesting experience it motivates people to sign up and if they set a minimum donation amount then they still make money, it's a form of advertising. If offering an incentive encourages more people to donate then it's win win. It's not as if the charity are losing out.

I think it will be great for her; whether it benefits the local community I am less sure about.

Doing something life changing in your gap yah is absolutely what they ought to be for, whether that's Tall Boats or Interrailing or WRVS or anything.

It's the bit where you pretend it's totally selfless and for the benefit of them in the Forrin that it's disingenuous and patronisingly colonial. Because of course a naice MC British teenager would be more use building a shack than a local builder who's used to the work, the climate, the terrain and the materials

On the other hand I absolutely adore the idea of sponsored litter picking. Someone I know does this locally because she's a good hearted person; I will ask her which charity!

She saved £3.5 k So why not just give the whole amount to charity instead of spending most of it on travel? She was a school student, how much about construction etc does she know

Well it was supposed to be working in an orphanage but the point I was making is it was a scam to get their money. That's why I'm warning other people to be careful.