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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to consider taking the cost of participating in a charity event out of the money raised?

63 replies

juicychops · 28/04/2009 08:01

just wondered what people thought. i have been looking into different running events such as the great north run, great south run etc and they cost up to £45 just to participate which i think is quite a lot. i dont have any money as it is but would like to consider taking part in some of these runs to raise money.

would it be frowned upon to take the cost of participating, or part of the cost of participating out of the money raised?

your thoughts please...

OP posts:
rubyslippers · 28/04/2009 08:57

Hmmm - how much do you think you may raise?

As the young visiter says if you use just giving or any other online giving you won't be able to move any money as it goes directly to the charity

i work for a charity - we do appreciate there are costs involved for people runinng races and organising events but people OFFER to do it

Sponsorship money is just that - and i think most of your sponsors would be very uncomfortable with you doing this

can you ask the charity if you raise a certain amount will they help with the costs? We do this if people are raising a lot of money ...

pingping · 28/04/2009 08:59

YABU

I am doing Race for life May 6th wouldn't even dream of taking the cost of it out of the money raised. You have to remember all the admin insurances etc the organiser encur sending out your packs etc

Original poster
juicychops · 28/04/2009 09:01

i have 2 charities i want to raise money for.

i think i will do as a few have suggested and ask for donations as a favour from family or friends in advance towards entry costs and then all that i raise can go to charity. i think that would be the best way to do it. i shouldn't need too much anyway as i would be able to put some money in myself.

OP posts:
shootfromthehip · 28/04/2009 09:03

I think YABU, like all the training involved, the entry fee is part of the sacrifice that you are making to do the run in the first place. I think if you can't afford to do it then you shouldn't do it full stop. Sorry but I wouldn't want to sponsor someone who expected me to help cover their costs.

QSthevampireslayer · 28/04/2009 09:06

Some charities will only let people run on their behalf if the amount of sponsorships will cover the cost of participating, and there is a minimum limit of how much sponsorship you should have, say £1500, or £750. Then the cost of participating, ie the entrance fee will be deducted so you dont pay the fee, but you have sponsorship money that goes way beyond the entrance fee.

There would be no point to organizing a marathon, or race if people got donations and paid their entrance fee with it. Which is why they cannot fill up all the places of, say, the london marathon, with people who have been sponsored only for a total of £100 per person, they rely on getting in a lot more than just the entrance fee!

fishie · 28/04/2009 09:07

juicy talk to the charities first. they'll also probably have fundraising support for you. there might be implications with gift aid too and for all we know they may prefer to do the entry for you.

Original poster
juicychops · 28/04/2009 09:08

im not saying i will do this but as an example... even if it said on the sponsor form something like 10p from every sponsor would go towards participation charges? just 10p??

OP posts:
fishie · 28/04/2009 09:11

then i don't think that gift aid will apply to that part of the sponsorhip and will cause admin nightmare for charity.

theyoungvisiter · 28/04/2009 09:11

but then you'd need 450 sponsors to raise £45. Do you think that's likely?

rubyslippers · 28/04/2009 09:12

no - you can't do that - sposnsorship is just that

and you cannot claim Gift Aid on an entry fee which would affect the amount raised

you need to speak to the charity and see if they can help subsidise your entry fee if you are going to raise a substantial sum of money

you really need to pay the entry yourself otherwise

Original poster
juicychops · 28/04/2009 09:18

theyoungvisiter - it wouldn't be for the whole amount, only to help towards it

OP posts:
SarahL2 · 28/04/2009 09:24

The gift aid thing would be really complicated if you took it as part of your sponsorship. You really need to deal with the 2 things separately.

lalalonglegs · 28/04/2009 10:28

Having organised some charity events and taken part in a couple of big bike rides, you have no idea how much it costs to organise these things and, in many cases, the charities barely cover the costs and do it more as an awareness raising event than a money-raising one. YABU.

wasabipeas · 28/04/2009 10:31

Totally, totally unreasonable.
If you really can't cover the cost yourself, speak to the charity and see if you can get a charity place, where they cover the entry fee in return for raising a certain amount of sponsorship
But people sponsoring you are pledging money to charity, not to cover the cost of your hobby.

fishie · 28/04/2009 10:33

there's an interesting article about challenge events here unfortunately you have to log in to read it sorry.

i think the author's friend ellie is entirely right.

branflake81 · 28/04/2009 10:59

YABVU.

These events are expensive to organise and require a lot of hard work. They don't charge an entry fee for fun. There is masses of administration involved, plus t shirt, chip, goody bag etc etc.

If you want to do the event, you have to pay for it.

If you want to do a sponsored run on your own for free, do that instead in your own time.

PrimulaVeris · 28/04/2009 11:04

I don't think it's on at all, sorry. I would expect any sponsorship to go straight to the charity, not to cover entry costs. Otherwise you're paying someone to do something they enjoy/want to experience anyway.

HomeintheSun · 28/04/2009 11:04

I think this is unreasonable, it's taking money from the charity you're trying to help.
I'm on the committee for the local toddler group, I found out recently that the chairman's wife had taken money out the funds to cover her baking costs when we did a bake sale at Christmas to raise money for the toddler group.

rubyslippers · 28/04/2009 11:06

homeinthesun - she needs to pay that back

there could be issues otherwise ...

SomeGuy · 28/04/2009 11:07

People do these events for their own benefit. I know Marathon runners and they'll do it for whichever charity will take them (it's quite hard to get a London Marathon place) - the charitable fundraising is not their concern.

It's not essential to do prior runs, you can go on training runs with running clubs, or just on your own. There's really no charitable element to this.

HomeintheSun · 28/04/2009 11:11

Rubyslippers Her and the chairman have already left and moved away, it only came to light when the toddler group was taken over by someone else. We have another situation now with someone wenting money to replace the cartridge on their home computer because they used it to print posters to advertise the group, but only about 20 posters were printed.

rubyslippers · 28/04/2009 11:13

home - i am sorry - the money raised is not for people's personal expenses

do you have a copy of your constitution?

people shouldn't be out of pocket for volunteering, but neither should they take charitable funds

morningpaper · 28/04/2009 11:15

This is quite normal, all of the sponsored sky-diving programmes work this way.

ibbydibby · 28/04/2009 12:13

When I was training for the marathon I did one half marathon in the build-up - it was a local one so relatively cheap. COuld you find a few "smaller" events that are cheaper? There will be less emphasis on the fun aspect, and in my experience there were a lot of more serious runners - but also others who were using it as pre-LM training.

The downside of attending races is the time taken - not only do you have to consider the time taken while you are acutally running, but also the time taken in getting to race venue, and getting home etc. The training is (I found) a great strain on family life. The thing that helped me most was having a friend to accompany me on my "long run" of the week. That meant I didn't feel the need to go to more events.

As an aside, am interested to read that you have paid £32 this morning - is that for LM 2010? I registered this morning (much hassle) but was not asked to pay. Now worrying in case I have done something wrong here.....?

katiestar · 28/04/2009 12:25

YABU.
Why would people sponsor you rather than giving the money direct to charity ????