Real-life MMD: Should expenses count as donation?

Augustus_the_Strong

I think it would be fine to claim your expenses back from the donated funds - it's not as if you were charging for your time, just the additional amount of money you've had to spend in organising it. Self-righteous commenters above might like to consider why should it be you who has to foot the extra bill, on top of doing all the organising?

Either claim what you've spent in setting things up, or else split those costs between the twenty people who did the sponsored walk (which would not be easy and would take up lots more of your time).

bergeracoise

I work for a charity and so hopefully can offer some inside advice on the situation.

Firstly well done for organising what was clearly a very successful fundraising event and I hope that you and the other participants enjoyed themselves.

Beware of taking money out of collected sponsorship. As other members have said if people have sponsored you under the banner of 100% goes to charity then this must be done. Also I would hope that the majority of your sponsors have signed for Gift Aid. If this is the case it is going to be hard to determine whose donations you are taking your expenses from. By this I mean if someone has sponsored you £5 and signed for gift aid, you are technically covering £5 of your expenses with a £6.25 worth donation.

Out of interest I would like to know whether you spoke to the charity you are supporting before you arranged this walk and discussed any potential expenses you would incur by organising this event?

And finally to those who have suggested that your donation will simply go to printing costs, and the huge salaries of charity executives please be aware that most charities, to be able to do the good work that they do, will need to print out documents. And there is not an unlimited supply of highly skilled individuals with indepth knowledge both in management and their particular charities' field of interest who are able to work for free.

jazzali_2

Did you do all the organising for all 12 participants? Did they contribute to your expenses?

If not, rather than take the money back from the donations, I would ask the other participants to all chip in - it's less than a fiver each.

nczm

I think you're going to have to suffer the £50 on this occasion, take it as a lesson of what you would need to do in future and as something which needs to be costed up front to determine how the funds would be paid for.

To the person who wrote about "people not wanting their donation to go to printing etc" - quite naive, how do you think many charities advertise? Only 20% of donations actually go to the cause...

patricia.emburey

Whilst I think it is morally wrong to take your expenses from sponsorship money, I do not think it is wrong to deduct your expenses from the money raised on the raffle. I am involved in many charity events throughout the year and we spend up to £400 on prizes and sell over £1000 worth of tickets. The charity get what’s left after deducting the costs.

sarah_loobylou

I think that you should only expect to be refunded for reasonable expenses.

Fuel, no. No real way to prove, and what about the miles other group members have travelled?

Raffle prizes, highly debatable but not unless you're deducting the cash specifically from the raffle prize fund. Saying that - a heck of a lot of one-off raffles have the prizes donated by the community or local shops - was this considered before you bought the prizes?

Ticket books, poster printing - yes. I think you could reasonably get the cost of these items if you kept the receipts. If people were encouraged to donate as a result of your snazzy posters, then I think that would be fine.

Essentially if you expected to claim back, you should've raised this at the start and I bet a lot more people would've been happy to help you out to lessen your financial burden.

sue.b_2

Of course you should get your expenses paid. Charities themselves have costs associated with fundraising, just look at their annual accounts.

toffeecoated

Any donation to charity is voluntary. It is up to you if you wish to donate the money you have paid on legitimate expenses. Although the fact that you asked the question suggests you are not willing. So don't do it. Some people have said everyone who donated expects all the money to go to charity, this is a very naive view. Legally i think you only have to donate 12.5% or something like that, and remember if you had not done this the charity would receive nothing.

The_Aquapanther

If I am sponsoring someone with the understanding that the money is going to charity, then I'd be a bit put out knowing that they had used some of the money to cover their expenses.

When I give money to an organised charity, I'm handing it over on the understanding that they will spend it as they see fit.

They are a business. You are not.

duchy

The_Aquapanther wrote: »

If I am sponsoring someone with the understanding that the money is going to charity, then I'd be a bit put out knowing that they had used some of the money to cover their expenses.

When I give money to an organised charity, I'm handing it over on the understanding that they will spend it as they see fit.

They are a business. You are not.

This


I won't sponsor anyone "treking to Everest" "Walking the length of Britain" etc -for precisely this reason. Raffle prizes should be either donated or sponsored anyway.

Last spring I travelled out to Idaho to help out a friend running a charity event (gala dinner, concert and marathon) I paid for my own flight, hotel, food and regarded it as my donation to the event (I also worked my socks off as I had a flight delay and had to hit the ground running as I arrived 24 hours later than scheduled on 3 hours sleep -I was registering runners, floor managing the dinner and marshalling at the run) . My reward was seeing the results of fundraising -seeing the faces of kids hearing properly for the first time is priceless.

Fifty quid is nothing (I'm a single parent in a low paid job so I'm not saying it's a not significant amount) if you're genuinely committed to a charity- Suck it up -You don't really think it's right to take anyway -if you did you wouldn't be asking us !!!