Real-life MMD: Should expenses count as donation?

Ebenezer_Screwj

I'm not a great fan of sponsored events, they often exert pressure on people to donate to charities they wouldn't otherwise support. As you organised this one, presumably you are in charge of distributing the proceeds therefore you have the right to claim out of pocket expenses and presumably you considered doing just that when you spent the money.

Panda_56

Registered charities claim their expenses and overheads. Its your call of course, but I personally dont think you need to be out of pocket as well as doing the bulk of work.

rwd0802

I couple of points to consider;
You ever notice that BT calls to caritys cost more than they donate - that because the rest goes to cover their costs - and they make shed loads and don't need that extra income.
Another example is the famous Country File calendar uses free images provided by the public, and sold for top price - but not all goes to charity; in fact i've just helped produce a calendar for Help 4 Heroes and I now have an idea what it costs just to print and market; and with their bigger numbers I'm sure they have it even easier and cheaper; yet their margin of "aid to the charity" is below what we have given to H4H (in which reasonable expenses are covered).

If your doing a raffle and buy some ticket books and the cost is no more than a happy meal then take it on the chin, but £50+ not many can sit out of that sort of money, and to raise as much as you did, I can't see the harm in reasonable costs covered; as suggested above; the big boys don't suffer any cost and get rewarded for! Your donators will understand if you explain that a percentage of their donation will have to go towards costs (and in this example it's only 4%).

nhampson

I think it would be wrong, any thing you do in life costs you money in some way or other. In this case the costs should have been in my mind reasonably expected and if you were unable or unwilling to cover these you shouldnt have taken it on OR made it clear that you would take it on but expect to be reimbursed for XYZ items.

happyinflorida

Did you ask first? If not then you should not be asking for the money back, I wouldn't anyway, think of it as a donation and if you're not happy to not get this money back, you should not have done this.

portlandboy

I don't think it is unusual for organisers to take 'out-of-pocket' expenses from charity events. On a far bigger scale, charity shops do exactly that - they pay some staff a full wage and also reclaim the cost of rent and utility bills, which all comes out of the money raised or donated.
So there is no morally correct answer, simply a question of how much would you normally donate each month/year to the chosen cause? If you would normally donate £50 in a year then just leave the money in the pot without donating any more in the year, if not then maybe take a percentage of your costs so that you've not been left completely out of pocket and the charity has a share of it too.

JayD

I don't think it would be morally wrong.

I can see no reason why you should donate an additional £50, over and above the amount you have raised. I believe that charities themselves make deductions from the donations they receive to cover their own overheads - they could not function otherwise. So it would be naive of any donors/sponsors to assume every single penny will go directly the the cause to which they are contributing.

So, by all means reclaim your out of pocket expenses from the monies before sending them on - and do so with a clear conscience.

And well done on raising so much

redmower3

I would have no issues with you claiming expenses.

Have a look at what chief execs of charities earn here..

http://society.guardian.co.uk/salarysurvey/table/0,12406,1042677,00.html

alwayswrite

I sponsored a walk for cancer and did not realise that the walk was to be done in New York so I am now wondering did I pay for the 'walker' to travel to New York plus other expenses - I wonder - and if so I am very annoyed as the walk could have been done in this country so beware and find out where your sponsorship is going

youngpip

Every single charity has expenses to cover and they get paid for from donations. If this didn't happen then charities would not be able to function!

It would have been better if it was mentioned beforehand, but you should not feel bad claiming for expenses from the money raised as this is how the world works.