To think sponsored charity events are exclusive

[Hooploop]

I've got into running over the past year or so and would like to challenge myself to a marathon to raise money for a particular charity that has been a help to my family.

However, minimum sponsorship is £2,000! I understand charities have fundraising targets but there's absolutely no way I'd ever be able to raise £2k+. I'm single, I have a very small family (3 of us), only have a handful of close friends, and work mostly remotely. I barely know my colleagues.

So are charity events only exclusively for wealthy, outgoing, popular/well-connected people who can easily raise cash?

It’s not about providing an opportunity for people who want a marathon place and fancy fundraising. It’s about making as much money for the charity as possible.

If you’re actually interested in the charity doing well, then surely you’d want people who can raise the most to take their places. If you want to run a marathon and raise a small amount, get your own place instead of taking a charity one.

Well, add in your network.at work, holding a few fundraising events and you'll achieve it. I'm guessing this is the London Marathon,? Places are in high demand. If you opt for other marathons you'll find charity places have smaller fundraising targets.

Smaller charities might help you with the fundraising. The charity for my rare condition shared the pages of all their marathon runners so we could sponsor them if we wished - I didn't know them at all but was very happy sponsor them

Very few are that competitive for places, I'm guessing it's the london marathon? Do another marathon instead, it's costs £30-40 typically to enter.

The charities have to buy the places from the marathon organisers for hundreds of pounds. Effectively charity participants subsidise the marathon costs. The margins are actually not that great for the charity once they factor in their own costs. I’m not a massive fan of the model tbh ( events based fundraising). Race for Life for example makes about 20% margin.

far better to just enter a less popular marathon on a normal place that will cost you about 50 quid and raise what you can.

London costs charities an absolute fortune. Hence the high targets.

Manchester/Brighton/Edinburgh/Leeds all city marathons with a good atmosphere that you can just pay to enter and raise a bit for charity if you wish

Wow I didn't realise that!

My DH has run the Richmond (SW London) marathon a couple of times. He's done it for charity before in that he's set up a just giving page to raise money for a small charity. No sponsorship targets or anything. He pays for his own entry but just uses it as a chance to raise a bit of money.

You can always buy a place for a marathon and then fundraise for them then it doesn’t matter how much you make

Oh and I agree that the charity places are a con. My parents work for a charity that always has places at the London marathon and it really doesn't help them much compared to other activities.

Even better, donate to your favourite charity and just go for a run.

They are. But for a very good reason.
I wanted to to do the Marine Challenge but it would cost me £500.

My controversial view on these things is...

If you want to challenge yourself to run a marathon or whatever, go for it!

But don't dress that up as it being about charity fundraising.

It's really about finding a way to fund your personal challenge and it means guilt tripping friends and family into footing the bill.

I'm fed up of being asked to fork out for what's basically people's ego trips.

If you're sincere about helping a charity, then donate time or money from your own pocket, or organise a fundraiser where people might get something in return themselves - afternoon tea, that kind of thing.

And pursue the challenge separately.

£2,000 is just the London marathon. You can get your own ticket to London through the draw if you’re lucky and then you only need to pay the entry fee. The charity places are there to raise money for the charity! Other marathon places can be found through charities and much lower fundraising targets - but yes charity places for London are very sought after and designed to raise as much money for the charity and so naturally go to people who have big networks to fundraise from. But there are still so many opportunities to do a marathon in the UK that aren’t so hard to fundraise for so don’t let that set up put you off! Perhaps you can apply for normal London marathon place every year and in the meantime practice on some of the more regional marathons.

Yabu. If you cost the charity more for your place than you make in charity money, you're not raising money for charity are you?

You've missed the point of a charity spot. Its purpose is ti raise as much money as possible for their charity. Their purpose is not to fund someone doing something they want to do. If you want to run a marathon and that's your target, do it, it's free.

I love donating to friends and family who are running a marathon etc for charity so not everyone holds this view. I think it’s a great scheme and it’s really valuable for charities - who do amazing work for our society!

Run around your local park for free

Small charity places for London are also allocated by ballot (just like for individuals) so it's a big deal, particularly for smaller charities, to get one when it might be once every few years. It's a big deal and a big opportunity to have a runner in a race like London.

Just pay your own entry fee/enter the ballot as an individual and then choose to fundraise on top. You will get support from the charity with no minimum fundraising targets attached.

My sil runs for different charities each year in the London marathon, she is not particularly well off or have a big family to draw from but she sets up table quizzes, sponsored walks/ runs etc and gets in loads of funding always gets way over minimum so you have options. The charities need to raise as much funds as possible from these events and setting a minimum is important particularly for the London marathon where running for a charity is the only option to get a place for most

As a runner I 100% agree with you. A marathon should primarily be a sporting event. It riles me that the obligation to raise money for charity has been foisted on my sport. Imagine if before being allowed to do any other thing - walk in a nice part of the country, take a train somewhere, visit a nice restaurant - you have to raise thousands for charities first. It’s shit.

if it’s London, try joining a small but property affiliated running club. London is the UK marathon champs and clubs are therefore guaranteed at least one place (I’d imagine more than that) every year so if no one else in the club wants the place you can usually claim it.

There are loads of marathons on in the UK and most cost about £50 or £60 to enter. Just run one of them and fundraise separately.
London is really an exception - they have to make it a huge charity event to get enough goodwill on board to close the roads, which, also, costs a lot. Google "golden bond", "silver bond", charity London, to read more about how it all works.

If you want to be on telly running a marathon - do the Snowdonia marathon - it's on S4C every year (but it's a challenging course and you have to sign up the moment entries open). Or I think the Yorkshire marathon has some TV coverage or live streaming.

Heart absolutely set on London marathon, nothing else will do? Then as well as the ballot, join your local UKA affiliated running club. They get so many regular-price places each year depending on membership numbers. Allocation method is decided by the club - ours says you have to do a certain amount of volunteering and be a first-claim member for a year or more to be eligible, and beyond that the names go in a hat - that sort of thing is pretty normal. Odds normally a lot better than the ballot!

YANBU I’ve always thought this - in my (larger than yours) circle I’d maybe get a tenner off people I am close to. I am not close to £200 people however. These people must either know very rich folk or they just are brazen enough to ask lots of people

It’s literally about making money for charity, not a day out for you. If you want to run in general it’s free and easy to access.
If you want to take part in an organised charity race you need to agree to their conditions.

Why should it be primarily a sporting event? No one has put an obligation on charity funding on running as a sport. You’re free to run as much as you like and there is no cost.

What isn’t free is piggybacking on the back of a large costly event and then complaining about it. You want all the perks and non of the work.
Organising the London marathon is incredibly costly, it takes a lot of people organising the logistics for it to come off.
It’s by no means the same as you choosing to walk in a nice part of the country.

It's normal for the big charities to make that a minimum sponsor for big races. They expect that as well even if you don't raise it