The boss is doing a "charity" adventure and we are expected to drum up sponsorship

[MaudOHara]

Trip to climb Mount Fuji, needs to raise £7,000 in sponsorship to cover it.

So far we have been spammed on whatsapp, personal e-mail, work e-mail, Facebook and twitter.

She is a millionaire pretty wealthy herself so could

1 pay for the whole trip herself
2 make a generous donation to the charity directly and not spend hours on her mountaineering training
3 not expect the staff that she pays not much more than minimum wage to donate / bake cakes etc to fundraise on her behalf

WIBU to voice any of this at work or is that an elaborate way to hand in my notice? She owns the company btw

So far we have been spammed on whatsapp, personal e-mail, work e-mail, Facebook and twitter.

Why on earth does she have you on whatsapp and personal email?

And being friends with colleagues on Facebook and / or Twitter is hugely idiotic!

Ha! Just say no. You aren't obligated to donate anything to her vanity mission. Let her get on with it.

She's a CF.

I'd be royally fucked off by this. I'm on minimum wage, don't have much spare money but I make small donations/sponsor people when I can.

Being bombarded in such a manner at work really puts people on the spot, it's no different to badgering people for specified amounts for leaving gifts etc. Nobody wants to be "that guy" and not contribute, but not everyone can afford to and not everyone wants to.

Leaving a donation bucket out that people can put something in discreetly is fine, specifically asking people to fundraise like this is cheeky, especially when it's a poorly veiled way to fund a fucking holiday.

www.charitychallenge.com/expedition/costs/2879/Japans-Mount-Fuji-and-Lakes-Trek#tabs

Seems you pay a registration fee of £750 and then can fund the £3185 it costs yourself then all the donations to the charity or pay the registration fee of £750 then raise a minimum of £6500. Guess the £7k she wants to raise pays for her jolly amazing, inspirational quest

Time to start #charityzilla on her posts

Don't give her a bean! Nona's response is perfect. And just be firm. Don't let her bully or cajole. Ignore all messages and hints.

feign innocence/ignorance-
wow, so you're raising 7K for the charity, that's amazing...how much does it cost you to go?
...but then....
I'd love to help but my charity spending is already allocated

"I can't afford to donate to charity. I barely make ends meet on this job"

These drive me mad. At DD's school they have an expedition every year £4,000+. So the DC going keep doing stuff to raise money to pay for it. So effectively DC whose parents can't afford to pay for them to go subsidise those can.

I won't sponsor anyone through just giving as they take a %age. I donate directly to the charity.

Re the social media stuff - we all publish stuff on the work Facebook account so have to be "friends" with the Admin, which is why we are being tagged / e-mailed.

I've looked at the link and have concluded that an awful lot of money is wasted that could be given directly to the chosen charities.

I hate these sort of 'charity' treks. Yes I'd really like part with my hard earned cash to pay for you to go on a holiday of a lifetime. It's always well off people who do it too I've noticed.
Tell her to pay the costs herself and you'll sponsor her for doing it. Then She'll sack you.

I’d tape 50p inside a card saying ‘have a great trip’ and give it to her like its a really big deal.

Totally agree with you. I've done a lot for charity (supposed to actually be mountaineering this weekend but being 7months pregnant scuppered this!). I've always paid for the activity/registration fees etc. myself. People donating/sponsoring are doing so because they want to give to the charity (although my skydive was very well supported 🤔) and it's not right that the money they're donating in good faith is actually paying for an experience that ultimately I want to do.

Set up a work Facebook account the so you can publish stuff from there and keep your private one private.

You could always do the old “Have you actually researched this charity, Boss? I have, and only £X of the £7,000 actually goes to the charity after all. I would hate to think of you wasting your time raising all that money (hassling us at work) schlepping up that mountain for nothing!” *cue concerned face - at the next meeting.

How infuriating, but ignore it all OP.

At least you and everyone else at work have the knowledge that she is a complete and total entitled idiot still I guess if she's a millionaire she doesn't care.

I think I must work with a MNer.

Just happened to be photocopying some stuff outside charityzilla's office (yes we are that old fashioned that we use paper instead of sending stuff) when I heard her ask someone if they had seen her just giving page and they said almost word for word what appeared on two of these posts

I would love to go to Japan and climb Mount Fuji, adventure holiday of a lifetime - but I wouldn't expect anyone to pay me to do it

Japan is worth a visit but that is far from the adventure holiday of a lifetime. My Fuji is just an uphill hike and thousands of people, from kids to old grannies, do it. The biggest difficulty is crowds. Waiting behind a hundred people for your turn to get through a gate is no fun. The sunrise view is nice if it isn't cloudy.

@BadLad Fair enough, have not really looked into the Mount Fuji aspect of it and did not realise that it was that easy, so adventure holiday of a lifetime is inaccurate - would still love to go to Japan though. :)

Even more reason for someone not to expect people to pay for their "challenge" though when it's not really a challenge at all.

The FAQ section from the link someone posted above says
^"How do I convince sponsors that this is a challenge and not a holiday?
The journey you are about to embark on is the furthest thing from a holiday. The physical exertion will be demanding and often extreme. Facilities are basic and you may well be roughing it in a makeshift campsite. Weather conditions are variable and can often be extreme - be it hot, cold, wet or windy. Temperatures could climb from -20°C to +30°C within 24 hours. A Charity Challenge is not to be undertaken lightly as it requires training for months, raising thousands of pounds for charity and then battling through the physical challenge itself. All three of these take time, effort and commitment."^

In the case of Mount Fuji the above sounds like a load of bollocks!

But even for something much more adventurous, I would see it as an adventure holiday and not at all as "the furthest thing from a holiday" - obviously it's totally different to spending 2 weeks lying on a beach, but to many people (like me) that kind of holiday would not appeal whereas anything adventurous somewhere exotic would be my ideal/dream holiday!

So the point I guess i was trying to make is that a lot of people like me (especially when I was younger) would see doing something adventurous" in a faraway location as something very appealing and not something to be endured or worthy of "sponsorship". If someone wants to do the London marathon wearing a diving suit - happy to sponsor them, if they want to go on what really just amounts to an activity holiday then no.

I think you should just say, "Sorry, I'm on minimum wage. I'm not in a position to give to charity right now." And "Sorry, I need all my money to feed my family. I can't bake cakes right now."

You will probably have a lot of fun on your trip to Japan if you go at the best time of year. It's just that I found climbing Fuji an anti-climax. Hope I didn't come across too snappily - I was on my phone, so I dispensed with some pleasantries.