To fundraise for a half marathon?

[tilyougetenough]

I’ve entered a half marathon next spring (I do appreciate it’s a long way off but it’s a very popular one and I wanted to secure my place!), and in order to take part I need to raise £375 for a charity.

I want to do things like bake sales, etc., to bring in some money as I think it’ll be tough to hit that amount without doing it. But one of my colleagues has mentioned in passing that it’s not in good taste to do something like this at the moment as times are tough.

I can’t lie, I do expect the majority of it to come from my family - my parents have promised £150 already and my SIL has promised some money too. AIBU to try and fundraise, or should I just stick the link on my Facebook page and hope for the best?

I don’t see the problem in your fundraising suggestions. Lots of people at my old work loved it when someone bought home made cakes in and would gladly buy them.

Of course, but I wanted to do the charity as it created the page for you, it’s more official.

That comes with the massive advantage of a guaranteed ticket rather than having to go into the ballot.

I'm not offended. I just think it's pretty cheeky to expect others to subsidise you to comple a prestigious sought after activity you want to do. And even worse to dress it up as you doing some kind of selfless act, when it's nothing if the sort.

I think you should pay your own essential 'fast track' fees, and I wouldn't donate. The chances of me being one of your real life friends is pretty slim, so it doesn't really matter, but it's worth you understanding that it's how many others will feel.

You can't expect people to donate just because you're doing an activity that you want to do and have found a loophole to skip the ballot.

And the skipping if the ballot, of couse! Be honest!

There’s no ballot for this one.

I think the unwritten understanding is that there's a certain amount that the charity wants/needs to raise from each space in order to make it worth their while - or even just to break even.

They will often nest it so that the person doing it pays so much ('entry fee' or 'personal contribution' or similar) and then the rest of it is the amount that they say you 'need' to raise.

Maybe not so much for things like marathons, but when you get people walking the Great Wall of China or trekking Machu Picchu and they're told the minimum amount that they need to raise, they often don't realise that achieving that minimum actually pays for the activity/holiday and the charity only starts to benefit from it once they raise more than that on top.

Even if they do raise more, it's very skewed: e.g. you need to raise a minimum of £2,500 and you manage to raise £2,750... you haven't raised £2,750 for the charity; rather you've raised £250 for the charity and bagged yourself a free £2,500 holiday, paid for by people who felt guilted into 'giving to charity'. People get cynical about things that people do 'for charity' that just happen to be immensely enjoyable by them as well.

Which you need to raise money for in order to enter?

So it is your entrance fee.

I have worked in the charity sector and can see both sides of this. Event fundraising is really important for charities because it generates un-restricted funding. However the charities do have to buy the places in advance (often multiple places for a number of events) and all the other hoopla around it (teeshirts, emails, social media and celebratory items, which people expect these days) of course takes money to provide.

I say this tactfully, but they are probably anticipating that most runners will raise more than £375.

How about donating £300 yourself and then fundraising on top? You will almost certainly hit the £375 and go nicely over it too. The bake sale is a good idea and you could put out a QR code for your fundraising page.

If anyone would like a charity place in the London Marathon please look at ‘Charity Runners Clearing House’. Also known as CRunCH. Some excellent smaller charities and reasonable pledge amounts.

Edited to add: people absolutely queue up for those London Marathon places because so many people want to do it!

But fundamentally I do believe that we should be the main supporters of our own good causes. If we are not prepared to donate money ourselves then who will?

Good luck.

I definitely agree that it seems much fairer for the fundraiser to actually give people something in return for their support of the charity. If they get a cake, a fun night out or their car washed - even if the price is clearly higher than it's strictly worth, because of the charity fundraising purpose - it's very different from somebody telling you that, because they are doing something that they want to do and/or which will have no consequence to your own life, you should donate money to their chosen charity.

I personally don't sponsor people to do something they want to do. I donate regularly, and volunteer regularly, but if I'm going to 'sponsor' something I'd much rather sponsor something with actual impact - so a litter pick maybe or similar. Happy to support a bake / book / plant sale. I just think people can run in circles as much as they like but not sure why I should pay anyone to do that.

My daughter's dance team is currently fundraising for something and they went around all the local care homes and performed. I had no issues asking our friends and family to sponsor her as that had actual impact. They're doing a bake sale this weekend - we will bake lots and help out at the stand as it's a nice community event. So maybe think of things that are nice to participate in instead of just a link to give you money.

Fundraise away! I'll be doing the same for the half marathon I'm doing in September. I am running for a prostate cancer in support of my stepdad, who has stage 4 prostate cancer and is unlikely to live out the year. Running will be a distraction for me, and I want to raise money for this cause. Good luck with yours!

No ballot for this 'very popular' event next spring, that you needed to sign up for now 'in order to secure your place'. Really?

In any case, if you'd signed up as general entrance and paid your own fee, the charity would benefit far more as they'd keep every penny of your raised funds, rather than having to cover all the associated costs. If fundraiding for the charity was your true motivation, then that's the route you would have taken.

Honestly, you're not fooling anyone. People 100% know you are doing this primarily for your own benefit, and that is why you will find it hard to get donations

Why would you need to sponsor a litter pick? Surely you'd just join in with it? We run regular litter picks and are often short of volunteers - money isn't the issue, it's getting people to actually help out.

To be fair, if you are trying to raise money to cover the charity donation you may as well pay it yourself rather than a bake sale. After you paid for the ingredients you won’t make any profit I shouldn’t think.

It’s better to provide a service than a product if you want to raise funds.

Hmmm, there is the line of thought that, if something is out of your budget, then you don’t do it, rather than expecting other people to pay for it instead.

Some weird responses on here. I'm doing a half marathon in September and it'll be a real challenge - it's not some prestigious thing I've been dying to do. I used to run but haven't in years (since having kids, which killed my pelvic floor) and am going to have to really get my arse in gear to do it without expiring! Not sure why the OP is being treated with suspicion for her decision to run and raise money for a charity that means a lot to her. Although judging by the Parkrun threads, people on here hate runners almost as much as they do their own daughters/DILs who need childcare.

Yes, really.

Not sure how it’s for my own benefit when I can hardly run now, it’s a challenge!

Yeah I think some people are miserable for the sake of being miserable tbh. Good luck!

But the entire point is it’s a charity place with a fundraising goal - not the entry price of the event which is £75.

Yes, it's a challenge that you want to do for your own benefit.

The charity gets no benefit from you running a half marathon, only you do.

The charity would benefit more if you fundraised / donated £375 directly. The running of the half marathon is just for your benefit.

It is great that you want to raise funds for charity.

One request on behalf of everyone who knows you IRL:
Please, when you tell people about it/advertise your fundraising, DO NOT write one line about the charity and then an essay about you.

It has always made my funds unavailable (unless it was one of my managers who did it).

This. You’ve paid the token entry fee but I do think it’s a bit in bad taste to ask friends or colleagues to cough up the £375, just pay it yourself to your chosen charity. I have friends that are forever posting links to their charity runs/walks etc in WhatsApp groups and on instagram etc and unless they’re doing a once in a lifetime ultra marathon or some such event, I find the pressure to donate a bit irritating. Whenever I do runs requiring a minimum charity donation I just pay it myself and never mention it to anyone.

Yes, there are always the basic costs that can get overlooked, which actually negate (or more than) the actual amount raised. Home-made cakes are invariably much tastier than shop-bought ones in a packet, but they cost you more than the shop ones, once you figure in the true overall financial costs (let alone your time).

Our DS's primary school once had a bake sale to raise funds, but the vast majority of the parents hadn't had time or the inclination to bake cakes themselves, so they'd just done their bit by buying and bringing packets of cakes from the supermarket - which were then sold by the school for less money than the parents had paid to buy them!

To be fair this is a pretty big deal for me - im overweight, have spent the last two years losing a massive amount of weight and I’m pushing myself. It’s not like I’m some ultra fit person doing it for a laugh

Oh, give over. All charities have to find creative ways of getting people to donate to them otherwise people just...don't. Why are you attacking the OP for this?