Real Life MMD: Friends won't sponsor me, should I say something?

meurigjones

I know how you feel - my own mother-in-law refused to sponsor me the other day for a charity that I'm chairman of. This was after she had asked me to sponsor her on a charity swim she was doing!!!!

The bottom line is, you can ask them to sponsor yu, and be grateful if they do.

It's disappointing if they decline, but it's their choice. Maybe you just remember if they ask you in future!

Cimscate

People choose what to spend their money on, they have no obligation to choose you however good the cause. Personally I give quite a lot to charity and hate the constant pressure from friends / relatives to give them money as well

pippinpuss

What they spend their money on is none of your business!!

I have 2 charities I support & unfortuately I don't have enough money to go to every good cause. This could be the same for your friends

bennett2kuk

That really is a shocking attitude to have towards charity. I give to a select few chaarities and will never be bullied into giving more money to others. If somebody says that they don't wish to give or ignores your requests you stop and ask somebody else. What you arer talking about is extorting money from people using emotional blackmail.
It's illegal for people to rattle their collection buckets/pots for this very reason, to stop people forcing money from others.
There are so many oversubscribed charities, for instance I never give to Comic Relief or Childfren in Need, that's my choice as I give to others I deem more needy. Sometimes in our workplace it feels like it's one after the other with people collecting and you have to draw a line somewhere, you should be ashamed of yourself.

PeteW

No you should bloody not! How rude! You have no idea what their personal finances are, how much they already give to charity, how many times a week people ask them to sponsor them for stuff, or any moral issue they have with your chosen charity - ie, I won't give to a penny to 'save the butterflies' or whatever animal charity until the world is free of children starving or dying from easily preventable illnesses.

Fujiko

Ifind this a particularly embarrassing way of raising money. Usually it is a friend or neighbour or even worse one of their children and it is very difficult to say no. I agree with others who have said just because you think this charity is worthwhile it doesn't follow that everyone else should agree - I have a few charities to which I donate regularly and a list of those to which I would never give a penny! I was once accosted in the street by someone seeking donations for a charity which I had not heard of, and when I said "no" was subjected to a storm of abuse along the lines of how could I sleep at night for being so mean. I explained at some length that I was a pensioner with limited funds available for charitable giving and these were already fully committed, and then wrote to the head office of the charity concerned pointing out that this was no way to get support!

pennypinchUK

What's a "worthwhile charity"? You might think it is, but I may not. There are several charities I would not give to for a variety of reasons (e.g., their admin costs mean they only spend a relatively small proportion of their income on the cause itself, or they've got huge reserves already and there are charities with a more urgent need for funds, or I simply don't agree with their purpose).

Don't lose friendships unnecessarily. Put up and shut up, and move on.

libertino

This is one of my problems with the concept of charities: People don't give according to their means. If all worthwhile causes were state funded out of taxes (why are medical research and help for the elderly and sheltering the homeless and feeding the starving paid for out of voluntary donations but other human needs - and non-needs - are funded by taxes?) they could get the appropriate funding paid for by everyone according to their ability instead of one-off donations of variable sizes whenever somebody goes for a run or sits in a tub of beans or the BBC newsreaders sing an ABBA medley on the TV. It would also reduce overheads that go into advertising including those bleeders on the high street being paid to get a direct debit out of you. (Of course this also relies on the competency and purity of the government to spend the money well and without waste, which is usually the problem, but why not sort out THAT part if we have an imperfect system either way?)

joehoover

In a word 'No'

If people don't want to give it's their choice, it is no one else's
business how people prioritise their spending.

Doesn't even matter if they have their own charities they donate to or don't donate to any at all. No one has an obligation to, not even morally, we have a choice.

Paul_Herring

People who work in the private sector already (involuntary) give a substantial amount of their wages to such worthy causes as

• Charitable giving to 'poor' countries that have nuclear weapons and space programs
  
• Those who are 'unable' to earn their own money because they have too many kids, or they simply don't want to work
• causes that [strike]hector[/strike] [strike]nanny[/strike] encourage the general public to give up anything that's even remotely enjoyable
• allow a substantial number of the population to actually have jobs in the public sector, even though a substantial number of those are unnecessary

Failure to 'give' to these worthy causes can result in your being convicted as a criminal and placed into jail.

Why others feel that those in the private sector are obliged to give up even more of whatever's left after that somehow doesn't surprise me.