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?

OP can't afford £375 herself, so are the people who disagree saying she should just pay the regular £75 (I think, correct me if wrong!) entry fee and run - and the charity gets nothing?

This way not only does OP get to challenge herself, buy she has a great motivation too plus the charity gets her donation and maybe more depending on her fundraising efforts!

She's not going to be holding anyone at gunpoint for donations.

If I can't go skiing, you can't do a tuba solo and that's that.

Well, I might donate if you did a dance with your tuba solo.

Pay the standard fee, and make a charity donation that she can afford herself out of her own money. Her parents and siblings have offered a combined £200 donation too. No need to be mithering workmates for contributions.

So why are you doing it then? No-one is making you so what is your main motivation?

You could take on a second job and donate to charity- then you would have done something hard for your charity.

We all have charities close to heart- why do you think I should give your charity money rather than mine?

I actually remember seeing a sketch - iirc it was on The Sketch Show (with Lee Mack and others) - with somebody asking their friends to sponsor them to go on a wonderful-sounding dream holiday. When everybody asked which charity it was in aid of, this was met with absolute confusion on the part of the person asking for sponsorship - there was no charity involved whatsoever, but they wanted to do something they couldn't afford, so they just thought they'd ask everybody else to 'sponsor them' (pay for) it!

I have a holiday home in another country and I am on a local community FB page for the expats in the town. Today there was a post from a British woman who lives there, saying

'Hi all, Im looking for volunteers to come to my place and help with cleaning, gardening and some DIY and maintenance jobs. It could be a fun weekend, refreshments a snacks will be provided! We are not lazy by the way, it's just that there is loads that needs doing and we are on a small budget.'

After one or two comments along the lines of 'Wow, is this even real?' and about 30 emojis that were either 😂or 😡I noticed she quietly deleted the post.
Some people, eh?

Speak to your workplace. Most have some kind of goals charity wise they need to commit to particularly if Corporate. Speak to the local Council to see what they can suggest.

Your colleague is totally wrong. It may be they do not have any money to spare and could be embarrassed if you asked, so that is something to bear in mind when asking.

In my last workplace, people would bake cakes for a charity and sell slices or cupcakes during the day. If the big bosses were told they would come down and put extra in the pots.

Best of Luck x

I don’t think you SHOULD. I have not once said I expect that. I’m not forcing people to

Hilarious!

Well I’m sure some of you will faint in horror but on my run tonight a lady asked me why I was running (because she’s just started because of the marathon!), when I told her she asked for my fundraising link and has sponsored me for £50. Goes to show there are a lot of people who just want to do something kind.

How convenient.. How come noone has EVER asked me in 10 years why I'm running? Another thing that did not happen..

Maybe because you don’t live in a small town?

It’s true :)

Your attitude is bizarre.

You paid 20£ out of 60£ standard fee.
You are heavily passionate about what turned to be a huge bog standard charity.
One of your colleagues has mentioned in passing that it’s not in good taste to do something like this at the moment as times are tough, and it leads you to believe that everyone is more than happy to donate. (Wtf?)

It is ok to ask once around you, in a way when you don't really know who donated and who didn't. Anything else is annoying.

If you live in a well-off bubble, you can do the baking or something else , and people can donate just for the fun of the interactions around it.

If you are in a running bubble, people are tired of the incessant requests.

How hard is half marathon for you is irrelevant, you've decided you want to spend time getting ready, good for you.

Yes, I see a big difference when children are fundraising, they are getting some skills from that. It's a bit lame comparing your hobby with kids.
I don't really care about the guy with a fridge, though I respect the extraordinary effort that got them to the front pages.

I mean you can say cancer research is a bog standard charity. I feel very passionately about them due to multiple friends and family suffering with cancer, one of whom was saved by the work CRUK does.

Gosh, I started a AIBU thread this week as I was worried people would judge me for NOT raising money for charity for the London marathon (I had a ballot place). I did donate happily to lots of other people’s fund raising.

Nothing wrong with what OP is doing and as I found, when people hear you are taking on a big challenge, they often want to support you and are rather surprised if you aren’t raising money!

As long as you are not too pushy about it (and I wouldn’t call a bake sale pushy) most people will think it fine.

People are genuinely so offended by me working my arse off to do something that they’re starting other threads about it 😂 never experienced something like it in my life

Good luck with your training, OP.

You are missing the point here.
This isn't people being offended by YOU or your arse being worked off. It's just something which totally lost the novelty, you are gazillion-second person doing it, and there is nothing interesting or special about that.
Now your are still going about you, you, you, and people are annoyed about the entitlement dripping from that.

You've opened the thread with a colleague who hinted it's not welcomed - and still you are sure everyone is happy!

People are making other threads about it, clearly hoping to link it here to be like “see? Everyone hates it”, but the majority of posters responding have said they’re not bothered 😂

OP there’s a lot of seasoned runners on this thread. We are coming to the end of spring marathon season and we have been bombarded with sponsorship requests from our runner friends. as explained above, lots of people take up charity places as a way to get an entry into a ballot only race, and expect friends and family to contribute to pay the amount required by the charity. I have a friend who has just done their third London, for a different charity each time. It isn’t a great sacrifice for them as they would have done it without the charity place if they’d been successful in the ballot.

Nobody is doubting the effort required to run a half, especially starting from scratch but some of us are a little fatigued with the charity request and are trying to warn you that other people around you might feel the same way.

'Bog standard' doesn't necessarily denote a negative; just often something that is ubiquitous and very familiar to everybody.

CRUK had income last year not too far short of three quarters of a billion pounds - and they spent £130m just in raising more; so I'd say they're probably not desperate for additional funds. Personally, I prefer to give to smaller charities where I know my money will make a difference - and will actually be at least momentarily noticed - rather than to a behemoth where it will be 0.00001% of a hidden rounding sum on a balance spreadsheet. Many others feel the same in this.

Also OP have you considered other ways to raise the funds? I raised £500 through sending my just giving link to friends and family. I only sent it round once with a message that said no pressure at all and that I also value any running tips. The rest I am raising through buying and selling things!

That's not what I am saying and I think you know it.

If you want to know whether YABU or not, try this simple multiple choice quiz:

Question 1:

I took up running because:

a) I've spent the last two years losing loads of weight and now I want to improve my health and fitness

b) I wanted to raise some money for a cancer charity and running seemed like the best idea. My fitness 'journey' was not a factor at all. The running a marathon for charity idea came first, the running training started purely as a result of that.

Question 2:

When I first looked into how to enter this particular marathon, I had no idea whether I'd be running it for charity or not, and no idea which specific charity I would be running it for. I decided I wanted to set myself this fitness goal and looked into the entry options later.

a) true

b) false

Question 3:

I opted for a charity place because:

a) I really wanted to raise money for cancer even though I could have done that in several ways at any time in the past (for example being a coordinator for the McMillan coffee morning thing at my workplace) and haven't.

b) it's easier to get a guaranteed place on the race if you choose the charity route.

c) I have over 1000 followers on social media and I wanted to make the optics of my weight loss and fitness 'journey' appear more selfless and altruistic.