AIBU to ask whether Guides trips abroad usually involve fundraising?

[Mumbythesea1]

My daughter has just joined guides. She is autistic but has found that the girls in her guides group are a lot like her which I’m pleased about as she never does clubs usually. We’ve just had details of the next guides trip which is abroad and is a cost of £1400 😬
can I ask if your daughter had been on one of these if they did fundraising to help pay for it?! We don’t have spare money that we can use to pay for this and have said we will help fund it as much as we can.
if your daughter did do fundraising what did they do?

Christ. When I was a nipper, cubs, brownies, guides and scouts had a couple of camps a year and a day trip by train to York or Portsmouth.

I think expensive trips abroad is not what cubs, brownies, guides and scouts are about and is clearly going to separate the haves and have nots, the wealthy and the less well off.

Baden Powell would be turning in his grave.

Well, I mean, it’s not going to be free, is it? You either pay for it or your dd needs to work out how to raise the money herself. Ordinary enrichment week trips abroad with school (very ordinary state secondary) are £800-900 and the ski and New York trips are £2-3k. So yes, sounds like a normal trip cost. Some people can afford it. Some can’t.

Fundraising is an option, though unless it’s to do something she is really passionate about or she’s really committed to Guides, I’d save that money for secondary school trips when all her friends are going and she’s desperate to not be the one left out.

This is particularly so if she’s yet to go on any big trips abroad with school. I think there are probably stepping stones to a big expensive trip like this that she should take up first. Residential to France? Enrichment week trip to Ireland for a week? Things that wouldn’t cost the earth.

What does the trip involve? Is it the entire unit going, or has she been selected for a place specifically?

For a unit trip, I don't think she'll manage to fundraiser anywhere near that amount. For a trip she's been selected for, as long as the unit are supportive, it's probably doable. If it's a unit trip, I don't think they'll be expecting girls to fundraise much independently towards that total, but there may be some group fundraising to bring the total down (either overall, or for those who participate). What info have you been given already on payments?

Have a chat with the leaders and find out about any payment deadlines, support available, unit fundraising, and what others are doing or have done in the past. I'd say if it's going to be too much of a stretch for you to pay for it, say no, as there's no guarantees with fundraising, particularly for a unit trip where there'll be lots of other kids in the same boat (so no grants etc). Maybe chat to the leaders about whether there's other trips likely too, as they're likely to be a really keen unit if they're going international trip, so there may be other residentials coming up at a lower price point.
I'd also bear in mind if your daughter hasn't been attending long, how committed is she, as a trip that expensive is likely to be being planned quite far in advance, so check she's committed to being actively in the unit that long, outline the requirements and committment needed etc, as you make it sound like she's only been attending for a short period of time.

Bear in mind too that often the true cost of these type trips escalates when clothes, maybe equipment and pocket money are added in. Sounds very expensive for someone new to guides imo