To think this is just getting someone else to pay for your holiday?

[poppymango]

A friend is doing one of those big adventure holidays for charity. It's a worthy charity (although I won't be donating as I'm really trying to save right now), but having looked up the details the whole concept has really started to bother me.

You only have to pay a couple of hundred quid as an admin fee, plus the cost of flights (which in this case is super cheap) and then commit to raising a minimum amount for "charity". This is 2-3 thousand, depending on the type and duration of your adventure. However, considering everything that's included in the trip I'm not convinced that much of this will actually end up with the charity.

Essentially, I feel like I've been asked to help pay for someone else's holiday while they get to feel good about themselves.

AIBU?

Yes, my friend did one in Peru, I didn't donate, nor did many others so she did have to go out and do some fundraising for it. I think she thought she could just wave a sponsor form in front of people and they would hand over ££

Totally agree although rowing the Atlantic is definitely not a holiday.

This thread has re I def me that it’s been quite some time since I saw school kids packing bags at the supermarket to pay for rugby tours or dance competitions - is that no longer a thing?

My youngest niece was almost involved in one of these things through her school. Fortunately, it never happened because Covid.

It is still a thing in my town- recently had my shopping packed by the girls from the dance school raising money for costumes, etc.

YANBU, I donate to useful charity activities, like the Beach Cleans or refurbishing nature reserves, or something that benefits other people rather than just the one being sponsored. If I want to support a specific charity, I donate to them directly.
But jetting round the world on a personal jolly to climb a mountain, run a marathon or helping some unskilled 20 year old ‘building houses in an African village’? No.

Lots of schools in our area do world challenge type trips which are really expensive and the kids are encouraged to raise the money to go, themselves. Lots do baby sitting, car washing etc or make or buy things to sell.
I'm often skeptical about how useful a bunch of unskilled 16 year olds are going to be to whatever project they're doing. (Ditto adults if they don't have relevant skills to what the project is!)

Charles Dickens nailed it in Bleak House, taking the piss out of the Charitable Ladies and comparing their focus by using the example of Jo, the London street child.

’Jo is brought in. He is not one of Mrs Pardiggle’s Tockahoopo Indians; he is not one of Mrs Jellyby’s lambs, being wholly unconnected with Borrioboola-Gha; he is not softened by distance and unfamiliarity; he is not a genuine foreign-grown savage; he is the ordinary home-made article.
Dirty, ugly, disagreeable to all the senses, in body a common creature of the common streets, only in soul a heathen. Homely filth begrimes him, homely parasites devour him, homely sores are in him, homely rags are on him: native ignorance, the growth of English soil and climate, sinks his immortal nature lower than the beasts that perish.
Stand forth, Jo, in uncompromising colours! From the sole of thy foot to the crown of thy head, there is nothing interesting about thee.’

I haven't seen it in my area since the advent of Covid. It stopped and never came back.

Average wage for charity bosses is £170K a year. Why anyone parts with a penny to any of these muggers i don't know. Stick to local charities at least you can see your hard earned cash in use.

Yes,. I always look at the CEO's wage before deciding whether to support a charity. Over 100k is a no from me.

I did one of these types of trips many years ago. The charity was a small organisation with a very clear cause and the challenge aspect was something that was genuinely very challenging for me. I paid the minimum fundraising target, which included the cost of the trip and fundraised over and above that to the benefit of the charity. I was in a group of three and between us raised over £20k not including the cost of the trip - we also raised the profile of the charity through our fundraising activities.

I think if someone is covering their own costs and fundraiser money goes to the charity it’s fine. Different if someone is fundraising the bare minimum in exchange for a jolly.

YANBU.
Although my work (large company) does this with them funding the cost of the trip. All funds raised are for charity

Yep, my mate is taking her 13yo to somewhere in Africa to "build a school" and is asking us all to sponsor them both.

I'm currently avoiding her as I can't bear these poverty porn type holidays and I'm not giving them a penny.

I also found out on here recently that if you donate anonymously to a just giving type page, the page owner can see your names anyway so I can't fib about an anon donation.... And I also can't really tell her what I really think....

Is a British teenager with zero experience really helping to build a school in Africa? Really?? When there are undoubtedly qualified local tradesmen who would appreciate the work and pay?

They're not likely to be "building a school in Africa" or whatever, @IamaRevenant; they're not even likely to be "helping" if, like a neighbour's daughter, they spent most of the time moaning that they can't get a signal on their phones
At best they'll move a few items around, and all in the time a local could have done much more and, as you say, appreciated the work of which they have much more understanding

Still, the social media beast has to be fed, and pics of someone actually on the spot presumably earn more kudos among the unthinking

Raising awareness of a valid charity, but not actually fundraising. Piss take.

Really interesting reading this thread.

I would love to run the London Marathon, I enter the ballot every year but never get in, the ballot has a very small number of the total places allocated to it, as the vast majority are given to charities so the majority of runners effectively jump the ballot by 'buying ' a place with a charity.

It seems to be happening more and more. There is obviously more profit in it for race organisers, but I can't see how.

The Endure24 race over the last couple of years has started pushing this too....deliberately reducing the number of non charity places in favour of charity places....

I've just paid for my 2025 entry it was £130, if I wanted a charity place , it would have only cost me £20 as long as i promised to raise £350 for charity....so in effect my friends would be paying most of my race entry fee but wouldn't be aware of this. I think it's completely immoral.

Virtue signalling at its finest.

"Pay for me to do something I would absolutely love to do, but would never fork out for myself, but it's for charidee too, so aren't I wonderful"

Me and my kids could do with a holiday. What charity should we start a fund for 😂😂😂

I know someone who did this twice, once to Peru and once to China. He’s a nice guy and he organised several charity nights to raise the money. It didn’t really feel like it was beneficial to the charity and he kept going on about ‘raising awareness’.
He then tried for a 3rd time and basically got nothing. He realised early on it was a no go and closed it. I wonder how much it ended up costing him though.

Just fyi the Just Giving page owner can't actually see your name if you tick the box saying "keep me anonymous". I volunteer for a small charity and we sometimes get people upset that we haven't thanked them for their donation but all we could see in the backend was "Anonymous".

On a side note, I've volunteered doing boring admin work for this charity for over 10 years and none of my friends have ever given a penny in donations. And yet if I did some big "charity" stunt everyone would be donating money and telling me what I hero I am. It's so stupid (and frustrating).

https://www.tcslondonmarathon.com/more/about-lme
Well apparently 'maximising revenue' is one of their aims, along with 'inspiring' people to take up sport. I find that somewhat contradictory.

Also 'to show that humanity can be united ' 🤢🤢🤢

What hypocrites.

Reducing the proportion of ballot places increases barriers to entry - and those who are least able to raise money will be most affected. Most people raise money from their social circle - friends, family, work not randoms. They can also probably just pay the 2K themselves if they're that desperate to run it.

Those who are less financially well off are also less likely to be surrounded by people with spare cash, and so struggle to raise the funds.

I wonder how much they charge the charities? Hmm
Or maybe it's just the publicity

I’ve never had an adult ask me to cough up for one of these - used to get requests for ‘gap year’ jollies, though - going to e.g. ‘build a school’ in Africa - 18 year olds with zero skills! As if the ‘charity’ couldn’t get competent locals to do it for a fraction of the cost!

The companies that organise these jollies must be laughing all the way to the bank.

A niece did go on one such, and thoroughly enjoyed it, but her dad has very deep pockets and paid for it all - nobody else was expected to shell out.

You know the charities wouldn't get involved in such schemes if it didn't raise money for them right?

Why don't you just pay for her then?