AIBU to dislike being asked to sponsor colleagues and friends?

[Needablueskyholiday]

I wanted to gauge popular opinion on being asked to sponsor colleagues / friends etc. - the exception being kids.

Do you happily oblige? Or do you cringe inside, that it’s £xx you hadn’t budgeted for and you really wish you’d not been put under pressure to agree. To add to this, often giving more than you feel comfortable for fear of being judged as tight.

AIBU - Don’t be tight, it’s for good causes.
YANBU - I hate sponsoring people. I try where I can but hate the pressure of being asked - often by the same people.

I hate it too, especially when I feel like I’m paying for them to do something they want to do anyway. I feel like the charity will get their cut after they have paid for the activity itself! If I want to donate to a charity I just will, I don’t need to sponsor anyone to do anything.

I hate it. I'm one of the lower paid at my company and the Directors and Senior Management will put in £50 or £100 each. It is clear £10 is the minimum by what everyone else gives, and the 'normal' amount is £20.

It just feels like so much money. I put in the required £10 I'd rather have kept with a sigh, and know it's probably making me look tight fisted rather than generous so, its pretty lose-lose everytime.

You are definitely not being unreasonable. I can afford it, but I resent it because often the person in question isn't raising money for a cause I'd choose to support. I already give a fair bit to charity but I carefully research where to donate to.

I actually resent kids just as much as adults - often children are fundraising for a naff "voluntourism" holiday, and I make a point of not supporting those financially.

I don't sponsor people but also we usually get an email and I have never felt pressured in any way. I am yet to have someone ask me in person.

I’m going to be honest, I hate it.

But also, I don’t understand it. What’s the difference between me paying Flossie £10 to run a marathon or just donating £10 to the charity. The running (or whatever) doesn’t add to it or mean the charity is able to do more.

I have blanket ruled not sponsoring anyone from work. The phrase “a cause close to our hearts” is so common in my inbox that if I donated to all of them I might as well stop taking my salary!

I just don’t. So many donors are anonymous anyway on these sites, they don’t really know who anyone is so 🤷🏼‍♀️

I always just sponsor a fiver

I don’t mind being asked but am also confident saying no. I also find children awkward- I give though often it’s not a charity I’d have chosen (not that I actively dislike but for example I tend not to give to animal charities)

I don’t do the ‘climb Kilimanjaro’ things - but everything else I sponsor. I pretty much sponsor everyone who asks - I put some money aside each month for my ‘sponsorship’ pot and whoever asks I go to the account, see what I have and donate from that.

On the flip side - I will let people know if I am doing something that encourages sponsorship but to be honest I never do anything that impressive (10k is my max distance) and I don’t mind whether people sponsor or not.

I hate it. I manage a big team and they are constantly doing these things (all are great people with far more interesting activities than I have). It looks so mean if I don't do it, but it feels relentless.

Nope. I run a lot. I have never asked anyone to sponsor me and I never will. It’s my hobby. I’m a member of a few sports clubs and it’s so tedious. There are so many go fund me links bandied around. Ridiculous.

At work, if they ask via email, and leave it to you to sponsor online or go find them and sign up - no problem.

But the ass who once went desk to desk shamelessly asking people to sponsor his 5-y-old to do a ten-yard "race".....

Outside of the office, I'd rather people didn't ask, regardless of whether they're kids or not - I'd prefer to choose my own charities, and research carefully where the money actually goes.

Typo edits

I’ve not voted as neither for me. I just don’t do it but carry on with my day without worrying.

Oh God, I hear you. I won’t donate to voluntourism causes or skydiving for that same reason.

YANBU. I hate it and so I just don’t do it.

I would sponsor my dgc to do literally anything 😂

Yanbu

I rarely sponsor people anymore

Often its either a personal challenge that they pretty much want other people to enable them to do by sponsorship, or its not a challenge at all ( eg my fit and healthy sil wanted sponsoring to do a 5km walk. She is perfectly capable of walking that distance with very little effort)

I don't mind being asked in a non-pushy way, as long as I can just ignore the request. Its now often mass emails sent out at work or a social media post. I don't mind that as I just delete/ignore them, no awkwardness.

I currently live in a country that doesn't really do this.

But when I worked in the UK I would get someone that I often barely knew turning up at my desk at what felt like almost weekly asking for some sort of sponsorship. Too be honest I usually obliged, but it did feel awkward, particularly in the work context. Also most of the charities seemed fairly benign, but there is quite a lot of charity fraud, so it wasn't always 100% clear what I was donating to. It would be better if employers had a policy on this (also the collectors probably weren't doing this in their break time).

I like it - I would definitely afford to give more to charity, so I'm happy to be asked.

I am selective, depends on the person and the charity.

I remember one guy doing a swim and saying he wouldn't get far, so I pledged so much a whatever the length was, of course he did 10 x more than he said. And cost more than I could reasonably afford, haven't sponsored any one since.

I'm fine with it if it's not excessive and if it's a quick message with no pressure.

I've sponsored 1 colleague and a family member this year. There was no pressure and I could have kept the amount anonymous.

In my previous job there was a woman who always had a thing that she was doing and wanting sponsorship from.
And she would ask and ask and ask. If you avoided it, she would remember and ask again. And she went on ad nauseum about the thing.

It’s really frustrating. Just last week I had one colleague plugging her daughter’s fundraising page and one of the school mums sharing the fundraising page of another mum (whose child is in a different class to mine) in our class WhatsApp group. I didn’t sponsor because I don’t know either of the people! It gets a bit ridiculous. If it was someone I knew I’d suck it up and sponsor probably. The cost of everything is so high it’s wrong to make people feel pressured to donate. Yes you can say no, but people would really rather not be asked than made to feel awkward for saying no.

Pretty sure TAATs are banned.

I can afford it, but will donate to a charity of my choice. I'm not going to sponsor 'Barbara' because she managed to walk, run, sleep the normal amount a VERY average person should do daily anyways!