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 unless it’s something genuinely difficult and not fun. Sponsored sky dives, running or any kind of hike I would not sponsor!

We use Monzo and each month budget a small amount which goes into a "pot" we've named "Being generous to people". It gets spent on sponsorship / get well soon presents / GoFundMe for local causes, credit on a local homeless person's electricity card, charity donations etc. etc. For us it acts as an additional prompt to think of others and we enjoy it. (This is in addition to our regular monthly charity standing orders.)

I don’t. I hate sponsoring people to do things they want to do anyway. I don’t care that you’re running a marathon or abseiling down the Great Wall of China, or having a charidee bake sale (no, I don’t want your muffins) but I’ll give anyone £20 to

: wash my car
: mow my lawn
: clean my oven
: drive me back from a nice country pub
: clean my shoes
: make my dinner
: a half hour piano lesson
: a guest pass to their gym
: uploading or posting Vinted stuff

(obviously the £20 is in addition to me providing the ingredients/cleaning products/packaging)

If someone on my street sent a message to the neighbourhood WhatsApp offering to make a charidee lasagne for £15 a head I’d be all over that.

I do not sponsor those who I work with and when my children bring home a form we just fill it in with family members and give the money to them ourselves. I find it difficult to say no at work but i now do. I feel its wrong to put pressure on people as we all have charities we prefer and it is a choice how we allocate our money.

This. I’m happy to say no to ridiculous ‘sponsor my seven marathons on seven continents in seven days’ vanity stuff, or charities I wouldn’t support. With children I’m more open but with small amounts, and I still won’t support a cause I’m really not in tune with. But I don’t mind being asked.

I will happily sponsor colleagues I like who are fundraising for what I think is a good, genuine cause! I do get requests from a lot of ladder climbers who are happy to step on others on their ascent. They’re blatantly just trekking the Amazon etc to raise their profile and couldn’t care less about the cause, so I ignore those!

I used to hate this too, especially when it’s something mundane (eg sponsor me to walk 10,000 steps each day for a month from an averagely fit person, just do it ffs) or when they approach you directly and you feel under pressure to comply.

But the past few years, I’ve noticed that the usual way is to make a post on FB with a link to a donation site, or even not asking for sponsorship at all. This way, it’s easier to ignore it if you don’t want to donate. I have discovered this week that 2 people I know unconnected to each other ran the London Marathon last weekend with no publicity beforehand and no sponsorship requested. When I found out, I offered to sponsor them and they were happy to send details. I donated more than I would have done had they asked me directly as I felt it came from the right place. I am also really impressed as one is a young person in remission from cancer and the other is a woman in her fifties.

I absolutely agree. I don’t mind sponsoring a marathon or something similar that people are putting some effort into. But I begrudge sponsoring people doing a 5K walk, or bloody dry January. If you struggle to get through a month without alcohol you should be visiting your GP, not asking for payment.

My DH ran the London marathon this weekend.

he was going to run it anyway (ballot place) but i encouraged him to get sponsored

he raised £1600 for our local scout group - money they would it have otherwise received

decline if you don’t want sponsor someone but they are doing a good thing - don’t knock it

I would support a sponsored litter pick.

It depends on my mood at the time but put me on the spot no chance in hell

I remember the big,big boss at work wanting us to sponsor her for some bike ride abroad with her husband

All the 'minor' bosses where like 'its only £50!shes doing it for a good cause!' (a charity i wouldn't support if it was the last charity on earth and I had a spare fiver to give)

Im on minimum wage

Shes worth upwards of 20 million-she could afford to pay for her own holiday!

Apparently the 'minor' bosses where 'disappointed' in us as they all coughed up and they got about £20 out of the colleagues mugs that did pay up

Fuck that-its cheeky fuckery at its best

I've never felt pressurised by anyone to sponsor them, people sometimes post their fundraising links on our internal social media, and I do donate from time to time, especially if it's a cause that resonates with me, or it seems like an amazing achievement (someone rowed across the Atlantic!) or just because I've benefited when people have sponsored me when I've raised money (approximately once a decade) and I want to pay it forward.

My DS has just raised money for his scout group. It surely preferable for a teen to be physically active and do something good than some of the alternatives?

One lady who didnt know me but worked in the same department cornered me in the tea room to ask me to sponsor her husband to cycle somewhere abroad .... i said i would think about it but didnt . I liked the people who bought in homemade cakes, i was always happy to sponsor their cooking!

Depends who it is and the cause.
A good friend who I see regularly I’ll sponsor, or if it’s for a really good cause.
If it’s just a randomer on FB who I barely know then def not!
I hate being made to feel ‘bad’ about it. You def have to draw the line somewhere.
ATM I’m not working in an office but when I did I don’t remember getting a lot of sponsorship request.

I would hate this also and wouldn't dream of asking others to sponsor me. Further to this I also hate being asked every two minutes to donate to someone's birthday/pregnancy/wedding/leaving present. I started to decline contributing to any of these things so I no longer get asked which is perfect. I'm sure I get slagged off big time for it but I truly don't care. Consequently I don't get bought anything for any events which is also perfect for me as I hate fuss.

They're like unavoidable chuggers you know. I can't bear it.

A number of my friends do big annual charity walks and ask for sponsorship in our group chats but I have never given, partly because going on long hikes is their hobby so it’s not exactly a hardship. I have also never asked for sponsorship/ ticket sales etc. for my kids. I mainly regularly support one homeless charity I think does amazing work and have made anonymous donations to charities supporting children with various disabilities that affect friends’ kids but they wouldn’t know that.

I don’t need someone to go through the faff and expense of doing a run or a bake sale. That distinctly turns me off. Just post on your social media about a worthy cause or even send me an email. Tell me why it matters to you and why it might matter to me. Sometimes I will be inspired to donate. Other times my funds will already be committed or the cause might not meet my threshold. The advocacy work is still completed without unnecessary steps.

Yes: people at work running or walking long distances for hospitals or cancer charities

No: friends husband cycling to Paris to raise money for their child's school (which my DC don't go to)

When I was quite poor my view was I don’t sponsor anybody for anything and I just gritted my teeth and said it, funding other people’s hobbies or life goals of running this or climbing that is not my problem and not in my budget.

I don’t mind being asked so long as they don’t mind me saying no. I do my charitable giving in planned, gift aided ways, according to my personal priorities. I’m not giving money elsewhere just to enable someone else to have the trip of a lifetime to climb Mount Everest or goskydiving.

I don't even like colleagues. I would happily sponsor them out of my life.

I say yes when I can but not to sponsor them to go on a cycling holiday etc. The thing I most hate about it is the admin of having to log in to a website and reset my password and make the payment.