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?

Honestly if you want to do the massive personal challenge + raising money for a charity at the same time then just pay for your own spot and raise the money separately.

That's what I did, and everyone who knew me also knew this was a one off massive challenge specifically to raise money for the charity. I also made clear I had no fundraising minimum because I'd paid for my own spot. I really disagree with getting other people to pay for something you want to do - whether massively challenging or not.

If you want to run a marathon there are lots to choose from and you could fundraise without a set target as pp have suggested.

If you want to do a bigger marathon and get an official charity place, the targets for Brighton marathon last year were significantly lower (iirc £500-600) I don't know whether that will have changed now that London marathon has taken it over.

I know several people who had London marathon charity places and they had to put in almost as much effort to fundraise, as to train. It's not just asking for sponsors, they organised raffles, cake sales, games, quiz nights, bbqs, made things to sell etc

The London marathon is very very difficult to get a ballot place in, and that's why charities can insist you have to raise £XXX to get a charity place.

If you just want to run a marathon, you can find a smaller local one you just buy a place on for £50. There are some like the Boston marathon in Lincolnshire or various GP circuit races that are only £35! https://www.bostonmarathon.co.uk/ https://www.runninggrandprix.com/.

Or just start your watch and go and run 26.2 miles...

A marathon is a sporting event. You can do one every month if you want without the obligation of raising money for charity. There are literally hundreds of races (of all distances) you can do without needing to raise money for charity.

The London marathon is both a sporting event and a huge charity event. I've run it 5 times and never raised money for charity. The first marathon I did was a smaller less well known marathon and I paid for an entry and raised money separately for charity

There are loads of marathons out there, and if you want to fundraise you can do so at any of them.

I've just looked at the page by the race organisers RunThrough (who have events across the country) and the next one costs £35 (plus £12 if you want a T-shirt)

It's different for events which go to ballot, and which people really want to take part in. Then the "ransoms" for a charity place are much higher. But it costs the charity over £300 per place for London, hence high ransom, so they know they'll make money on it. And it's worth it for them, not just for the income but also for raising awareness.

And there's no shortage of people who will take on those places. Which is why the ransoms stay at that level.

I’m a fundraiser for a medium size health charity. I wish I only paid £300 per London Marathon place!

It costs me a lot of money to buy the places so I really need my runners to raise a lot in order for me to break even, let along bring in money.

There are cheaper marathons people can do, or just send my charity a donation and sit on the sofa 😉

You are being unreasonable. Charities exist to help their beneficiaries. They need to maximise fundraising income. So far as I know, there is no charity that exists for the benefit of people who want to run marathons.

If a charity can raise £2k plus with a marathon place, why would they give it to someone who would raise £1k?

If your primary aim is to raise money for charity, then why not chose to do something constructive, that will have an actual benefit - such as a sponsored litter pick
.

then chose a marathon, pay the entry fee and just run for yourself - which is what most marathon runners do. They run mainly for the personal challenge, not purely for altruistic reasons

But can you not just pay for a spot an amount which covers the cost of running it, plus profit if it's a private business? Or are all marathons now 'raise £2k for charity' or no spots available type events? (Not goady, asking)

Whoops sorry. Loads of people have answered. Yes, there are other marathons available. So, that post was entitled nonsense then.

I agree with you - if people want to raise funds for charity, do so. Don't co opt others into guilt-funding someone's personal challenge of sky-diving, marathon running, climbing Kilimanjaro or whatever.

OP, i youf want to run a marathon there are masses of them across the country with small entry fees. Do one of those.

If fundraising is the most important thing to you, leave a bequest in your will, host an event, do a raffle, etc etc.

My wife recently ran the Manchester Marathon. Lots of places available so she just paid to enter, no charity place. Cost her £50/60ish. Lots of people asked if she was raising money, she hadn’t planned to, but set up a just giving page so people could sponsor her if they wanted. She never pressured people or anything, just put the link on her FB page and gave it to people who asked. She raised £1000. Which was fab. But she would have run anyway without the sponsorship.

Just enter a smaller race, no need for these expensive charity places.

Perhaps my post was not well worded. I want to raise money for a charity that helped a relative at the end of their life, that's the purpose. I have got into running recently and thought that it would make sense to combine the two things. I'm not looking to do a marathon for pleasure. (As far as I'm aware, running 26 miles is not all that pleasurable or fun for most people?!)

I feel pretty dumb for thinking raising a few hundred quid is worthwhile, because I guess it isn't. So therefore you can only take part in big events like the London Marathon if you're rich, you know lots of people, or know rich people.

Maybe go back and have another read of the answers op, if you haven't understood them.

@Hooploop - as several of us have said, you can do that for almost every other marathon except London. Very few races insist you must raise a certain amount to get a charity place. You just pay your entry fee of £50 or whatever, get your place, then announce you are raising money for X charity and set up a funding page, email friends and relatives, host a coffee morning for donations or whatever else and send the charity a bank transfer once you've done your run. Sorted.

As some have suggested, I've looked into other marathons. I was mainly looking at the London Marathon because it's probably easiest for me to travel to for a 9am-ish start! A lot of the other London based marathons seem to have loop courses where you have to repeat 3/4+ loops of the same area which I'd find a bit dull. May as well just run around my local park 5 times and get people to sponsor me.
Any recommendations are very welcome!

You’ve had lots of good replies explaining that it’s very rare marathons have such high targets, and that the charity may help you fundraise. Yet you’ve ignored all of them and posted a stroppy reply anyway so I’m not sure why you bothered asking really.

I didnt actually know charities are charged for places. Why are they charged £300 per place?

I feel pretty dumb for thinking raising a few hundred quid is worthwhile, because I guess it isn't. So therefore you can only take part in big events like the London Marathon if you're rich, you know lots of people, or know rich people.

It is worthwhile, but not when the charity is paying a few hundred quid for a guaranteed spot.

That's why so many of us are saying for you to pay for your own spot and create a recognised charity donation page detailing why you're raising money for the charity.

Anyone can run the London marathon, however if you're not an elite or someone who can raise serious money for charity you'll have to enter the ballot like everyone else.

Why does it need to be London? 26.2 miles is 26.2 miles no matter where you run it. If you fancy one in an iconic location the Loch Ness Marathon looks beautiful. I've heard brilliant things about the Manchester Marathon in terms of atmosphere and if you really want to do something unforgettable and challenging the Snowdonia marathon is meant to be amazing gruelling but amazing

There are marathons held all over the country. If you can't get a London spot (already too late for 2024 ballot) then take a look at the ones either nearby or somewhere you'd like to go. If London is where you want to run there's a Marathon at Battersea Running Festival, the Thames Meander, the Richmond Marathon. None needing a ballot to enter.

Running is primarily a sporting event, it’s only really the London Marathon that isn’t. No one is forced to fundraise or even participate - there are tonnes of other races to try. The whole ethos of the London Marathon is fundraising and inclusivity and it’s quite sad that some people are unable to see that.

Op re fundraising a good friend of mine ran London for charity and had to raise £3K. She did car boots (both her stuff and tapped all of us up for garage junk), hosted a race night, did raffles. She also got local businesses to sponsor her kit - vest front, vest back, each leg etc (I remember my dh wittering that he didn’t want his business logo on her backside!) and we all got involved. It doesn’t have to just be sponsorship you can raise funds anyway you choose.

@TeaKitten I don't think I've been stroppy? I've literally just said thanks for the recommendations to do another marathon, here's why I ruled some other ones out, but any recommendations appreciated please.

I'm at work and now on my lunch break, I can't reply immediately to every single reply.

Thank you for your replies. I thought you had to raise the cash via pure sponsorship to a Justgiving account or something.

It's also a bit sad that regular competitors struggle to get places at what is, lets be honest, the pinnacle running event in the UK because of how many places go to charity. People who run all the time, run each weekend with a club etc still want to run a big closed road course but it's arguably more difficult for them to get sponsorship because its not really a challenge to them. I'm not a runner really but I am a cyclist and can never take up charity places at bike events because I get the 'why should we sponsor you, you knock out 100-150 miles a weekend anyway' but they would sponsor me to put the suffering in to train for a marathon. For regular marathon runners i'd bet it was the same. Arguably the charities would get more money if people just got sponsorship to run round their local park with zero entry costs and all money going to the charity...

You can make a weekend of running a marathon if you want to go somewhere further afield - whether another big city in the UK, or somewhere like the Amsterdam marathon with the aid of a cheap flight/ferry/eurostar.

The priority is to maximise funds for the charily - everything else is peripheral, which is fair enough.