Rules around 'fundraising pledges'

[MamaAndSons]

I completed a half marathon hike with Macmillan last May, and want to do the full marathon route this year with my DH.
However it would mean between us we'd have to raise £500, and as we know all the same people (and not that many) it could be tricky. We read on Macmillans FAQs that if you don't raise the full amount, in the end they'll set up a standing order for you to pay them, but obviously this could set us back quite a bit depending on the shortfall. My question really is if anyone has ever experienced this, as although it's in their FAQs, it's not in their Ts and Cs for the event so not sure if they can actually enforce that?
Note- we would obviously try to raise the full amount but there's no guarantee we'd be able to.

To be honest if you don't think that there is a reasonable chance of you raising the money then I don't think it's fair of you to take a marathon place. Someone else who can raise money could use that. I'm assuming it's a marathon where there are limited places and you are using the charity to get a place. I apologise if that isn't the case.

From the charity's point of view, they incur an entry cost (eg, the charity entry fee to the London Marathon is around £500 and places are limited), so if you don't raise enough to cover the cost of the marathon fee, then it would cost the charity for them to have entered you.

So, it would be only fair for you to commit to ensuring that you hadn't actually cost the charity money - given that the entire point would be to fundraise for the charity, not end up incurring additional costs for them instead.

If you aren't willing to follow through and cover any actual shortfall, in the event that you don't raise enough, perhaps this is not the right fit for you.

And yes, a well-run charity would seek to enforce this commitment to covering the shortfall.

There's an assumption that we wouldn't try. We absolutely would and I was able to raise the money last time. The difficulty this time is that we are a couple who know the exact same people, so would be hard to raise double the amount.
Clearly if they will enforce it then we wouldn't sign up without being sure, hence why I am asking the question before committing.

But surely the point is you can go the route without taking a place that the charity needs someone to take who will successfully raise the money (or even exceed) it! You are not a beneficiary of the charity they are trying to raise money to spend on cancer care. Don't waste the places if you can't be sure you'll raise the minimum.

Yes, they do enforce it.

If you're not confident of raising the ££, don't take a charity spot.

Can you just pay to enter the race and raise money separately, then there's no minimum fundraising pledges.

Otherwise, like others have said, yes you should expect to pay, and it's a total waste of charity resources to have deal with runners who have taken a charity place and not committed to raising the clearly stated minimum amounts.

"However it would mean between us we'd have to raise £500, and as we know all the same people (and not that many) it could be tricky. We read on Macmillans FAQs that if you don't raise the full amount, in the end they'll set up a standing order for you to pay them, but obviously this could set us back quite a bit depending on the shortfall. My question really is if anyone has ever experienced this, as although it's in their FAQs, it's not in their Ts and Cs for the event so not sure if they can actually enforce that?"

"The difficulty this time is that we are a couple who know the exact same people, so would be hard to raise double the amount."

It's not an assumption that you wouldn't try. Of course most people who sign up for this sort of thing will give the fundraising a good go - some more successfully than others.

But in the event that you don't make the amount required, you need to be absolutely willing and able to make up the shortfall - and not rely on the charity being unable to enforce their (very clear!) expectations.

"Clearly if they will enforce it then we wouldn't sign up without being sure, hence why I am asking the question before committing."

If you thought that they wouldn't enforce it, would you then sign up and leave them with a shortfall if you ended up not raising enough?
If the answer is yes, then you're being very unfair to the charity.

Charity fundraising is really difficult. Money is really tight for many people these days and so donations are under so much pressure.

Each charity only gets a very limited number of places and in the charity I worked with, they'd be seeking to raise a four or figure figure sum (after covering costs) from each runner.

Being brutally honest, if you cannot raise a sizeable sum of money then enter the marathon as a private individual, don't take a charity place.

It's not a charity place, you have to pay to enter.

It's not an actual marathon run, it's a hike so you have to pay to attend. It's not a charity sponsored position.

You do pay, it's not a race. It's a macmillan hike as I stated so you pay to enter.

I’m not clear why friends and family should be expected to cough up so you can do something you want to do. Do a marathon by all means, if you’d enjoy the challenge, but don’t expect others to stump up their hard-earned cash to pay for you to do it.

Now where did I put my hard hat…?

But the charity still have costs associated with the event.
Also, it's a fundraiser - they want to make a decent surplus out of it.

If you participate and you don't make the full amount they state upfront, then absolutely you should make up the shortfall willingly and not rely on a loophole that they won't enforce their very clear expectations.

If it's a Macmillan hike they 100% will expect you to meet the minimum fundraising pledge, and rightly so. They aren't creating the event because they're event organisers, they're creating it to raise money and will have tight budgets to work to with an expected return on investment. You could try emailing them and ask if you could do a joint pledge of say £750 between the two of you - as it's their event they might have a bit more flexibility on things.

EDIT as OP clarified that there are no "ordinary" places.

Marathon-type running events organised for peole to do for whatever charity they like have X charity places and Y ordinary places. For the ordinary places you pay a fee (normally about £25) for the admin and you have no fundraising obligations. You can still fundraise but there's no consequences if you don't get many sponsors. For the charity places you commit to raising £Z for the charity. If you can't be sure of raising £Z then don't take a charity place, take an ordinary place. If they have sold out of ordinary places you can't do that race. There are hundreds of other races you can do instead, there is no shortage.

In events like this then yes you should make up the difference if you take a charity place and don't achieve the minimum. Someone else could have taken that place and raised the money.

This event clearly isn't like that. The event organiser is Macmillan. The entry fee is £500 of sponsorship. If you can't achieve this you can't do that event. Enter a different cross country marathon event instead. It's more like those sponsored Kilimanjaro experiences where you have to raise £3000 to join - the idea of joining and not paying the fee is just not allowed.

This falls in the same category as sponsoring teens to go on ‘holidays’ to build schools in Africa, or sponsoring someone to do a skydive. You’re expecting others to pay for your jolly.

There’s plenty of other hikes you can do. You don’t have to do a charity one, just join a rambling club.

I get that’s not quite what you’re asking - you’re asking whether you’ll obliged to raise the minimum donation. And if you can’t, can the charity enforce you to pay it.

From the charity perspective, I'm head of fundraising and have been in the sector for 20 years. Regardless of what kind of event you sign up for, any commitment you make to a charity to raise a minimum £x is not legally enforceable and the charity cannot force you to pay them if you don't meet the target. In the past my charities have been severely stung by people taking one of our London marathon places for example (which cost us £800 each), committing to raising at least £1500 and then disappearing off the face of the earth, not responding to phone calls/ emails etc. So we lost money but couldn't do anything about it. It's a risk charities take when giving out places. If places are paid for by the participant (as in OP's case), outlay to the charity is £0 so they should be happy with anything raised.