Am I Wrong to be Angry at This?

oompahloompah

HI everyone
I've not posted to the charities board before, but have just had an experience that I am not happy about, although I am not sure whether I am right to be miffed, so please let me know your thoughts.

We (DH, 2 friends and myself) run an events company, which can include providing the PA system, an MC, evening entertainment and so on. Anyway, we were approached by a friend of a friend, who said he was raising money for a charity with a fundraising night, could we help him out by donating our services for free. We discussed it and agreed to provide what he needed - equipment hire, our services on the night, and we talked to a band we hire sometimes and they agreed to waive their fee too.

Fast forward to the night of the event, it is all going well, lots of money being raised by raffles, auctions and so on, all great stuff. Then when the friend of a friend who is holding the night makes his thank you speech, it transpires that the money is NOT going to the charity after all, but is funding one of these "trek kilimanjaro for charity" for him to climb the mountain which people sponsor him for, and this sponsorship money goes to the charity.

Is it right that I feel annoyed at this - had we known the real reason for the fundraising, that it was to provide him with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at everyone else's expense, and not for the charity as he claimed, it is unlikely we would have become involved, and certainly not for free.

To cap it all off, he "didn't raise enough" on the night so has now postponed his "trip" til next year :mad:

Let me know what you think

Errata

I think if you're running a company it would be sensible to have a paper trail of who's agreed what, who gets what, who gives what.

oompahloompah

Errata wrote: »

I think if you're running a company it would be sensible to have a paper trail of who's agreed what, who gets what, who gives what.

we were asked to get involved because we have all the gear, experience and so on, and were told the money raised was going to the charity. We sometimes help charities FOC (and do it willingly), but this (to my knowledge) is the first time we have been misled as to what was actually happening to the money raised.

MrsBartolozzi

TBH, all of the once in a lifetime trek for charity things I've looked at leave a bad taste and make me feel like I'm subsidising someone's trip rather than giving to a charity.
My dentist has done two of these treks and for each we were unindated by posters etc around the surgery focussing on the charity's work and the sponsorship sheet on the counter, yet how much of the sponsorship was required to pay for him to enjoy a trip some people save up to do?
So OP, you are not wrong to feel this way, but it's possible that he really thinks he is helping the charity and didn't mean to mislead you - maybe a friendly word in his ear might change his view.

soolin

I'm surprised you were not clearer about percentages etc before you agreed to help. I am a board member of a charity and we wouldn't even agree to put our name to anything let alone provide support unless we went through the 'small print' as to what they hoped to achieve and what sort of figures we were talking about.

However to answer your specific question I would be very upset in your position. I wonder if there is any benefit in contacting the charity and explain that this money was raised in their name and you fear it may not actually reach them.

Edinburghlass_2

Worth having a read of this thread about these type of trips.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2561519

I found it quite an eye-opener.

lolly1981

he is wrong to mislead you...these trips do have a self fund option...which is were the person taking the trip pays for it but people sponser them to do it...the charity gets 100% of monies raised. this is the option i have taken..after much discussion on my previous thread (linked above by someone else) there is another option which is a flexi option where the traveller pays about a 3rd ( i think) and the rest comes from teh charity sponsership, and then there of course is the last (and most disliked one) the minimum sponsership...a minimum of around 3000 is raised..through sponserships and events (such as the one you participated in) the charity receives around 55% of that.

the reason i opted to self fund was because of all the negative feedback, and i couldnt justify to myself getting others to fund my 'holiday' it was put lol...when i started looking into the trip i wasnt sure quite how it worked, so i had to begin with thought minimum sponsership was the only way IYSWIM. i do feel that no matter which way its done the charity will benefit from the trip be it 1600 or 3000, the way i see it is something is better than nothing.
the amount of time and efort that goes into raising that money is immense. i didnt realise how much till i started doing it myself lol i have spent hours contacting companies and the like asking for donations for a raffle...many have been very generous, i have been completly honest told them that it is part of a evening that goes to sponsering us for the trip...we also make them aware that 100% of money raised goes to the charity so they know exactly what they are donating for.

you have every right to be angry but take a little comfort in that the help you put in means the charity will be at least 1600 pounds better off (nota consilation but may go alittle way to making you feel better)

Savvy_Sue

I'd be upset too, and wonder what he's doing with the money while he raises some more ...

foreign_correspondent

If people self fund, fine - but it seems most people do not, and raise sponsorship to cover the cost of their trip.

I looked into one of these, which was being held to 'raise funds' for a major uk charity - it turns out that the person going on the trip donates a registration fee of £250-ish, then the minimum sponsorship they have to raise is about £2,600.
The cost of the trip was about £1500, so minus the £250, the first £1,250 donated was being used to sponsor what looked like a wonderful holiday, with more sight seeing than trekking happening. The remaining £1,350 was going to the charity - so if you sponsor someone a tenner, almost half of that goes to pay for their trip.

That is all well and good IF people are upfront about it, and people choose to give knowing how their money will be used. Personally, if I knew almost half was paying for the fundraisers trip, I would send a tenner to the charity directly, and let them have all of it instead!

I suggest you contact this fundraiser, and say that as you understood that the money was going to the charity directly, not funding their travels, you would like them to honour that agreement, and send the full amount to the charity in question - immediately - as a donation on behalf of your company. I would specifically say that you do not wish them to hold onto the money till next year, as it could be achieving some good for the charity in the meantime, and that you felt the fundraiser had not been completely open and upfront about how the money was to be used. I would also cc this to the charity and keep a copy.

oompahloompah

Thanks everyone, good to know it's not just me! I'm going to discuss with business partners and also the band about letting the charity know what's happened.
It's definitely something I will be mindful of in future, though - I checked back all the communication (all emailed) and there was definitely no mention that there was even the tiniest chance every penny wasn't going directly to the charity. From now on I will make sure I ask directly!

lilac_lady

If someone wants give to charity and have a holiday they should separate the two things.