Real-life MMD: Should expenses count as donation?

Maat

The people who've said that you shouldn't take the money directly from the donations you've collected are right, but the story doesn't end there. Charities normally have procedures in place to enable their volunteers to claim for legitimate expenses. It depends really whether you can afford to and want to donate the expenses money as well as your time.

If you do want to claim the simplest thing to do is to talk to the charity. They won't want their volunteers feeling resentful about the work that's done for them, and I'm sure they'll help you to resolve this amicably. It's in their interests to take good care of you so that you may wish to do more for them.

Just be open about it. Don't take the money direct from the donations but go through the charity's procedures and make a claim. Basically get the form signed! Good luck.

HeadAboveWater

I did a sponsored 24 hour fast for a charity a few years in a row, but when I actually considered the amount of newsletters, leaflets and paper stuffs they posted me from one year to the next, I stopped.

My sister did a tandem parachute jump for charity. She had to raise a 'minimum' amount, so everything after that went to the charity. She paid for the jump herself, so the sponsors' money was used specifically for charity, rather than costs.

I'd probably say the costs were my donation, and not make a donation on top of that, although I guess it would depend on the amount. Did you volunteer to organise the event? If so it'd be unfair to claim your money back...

shoe_gal_84

I literally just left a job as a fundraiser for a regional charity, where I worked for 4 years - so hopefully this is useful!

First of all, well done for organising the event and raising a brilliant amount of money. It's a tough time to fundraise, so the charity should be thrilled with what you have achieved.

Onto the expenses; I think that this should really be something that you should have spoken to the charity about prior to the event (hindsight is a wonderful thing!). If they were happy for you to claim expenses, then great, but it's really important to make it clear to the donor where their money is going. This can be clarified by a poster saying 'all proceeds/profits' to charity.

From my experience, it can be fairly easy to get a number of good quality raffle prizes for free. Walk around your local town/village and ask local shops to donate a prize or voucher. This will help get their name out there and may even result in new customers for them, it also makes them look good to be supporting a charity. Ask family and friends to donate unwanted birthday or christmas presents (everyone must have something at home that they don't like/want/need).

Printing posters could be sponsored by a local printing company - offer to stick their name on it, in return for free printing. It's great advertising for them. Or, speak to the charity and see if they can print the posters for you - we used to do this for lots of people doing events for us (obviously depends on the charity).

Unfortunately, if you have advertised the event as 'all donations to charity', then you simply cannot take your expenses out of it. The donor has given you their money, expecting you to pass it on to the charity - so you should really stick to your side of the bargain and not take anything out of it.

There are costs involved in putting on fundraising events and, from my experience, most people that put them on are doing so as their donation to the charity (ie. giving their time/fuel costs/etc).

As for the people who are moaning that charities pay their CEOs too much, a charity is essentially a business. They provide a service; whether that be rescusing injured animals, providing respite to poorly children or helping build wells in third world countries. Fundraising is just one part of that business and the CEO manages a whole lot of other stuff like service provision, legalities, HR, marketing, PR and fundraising. Why should they be paid a smaller amount for a mammoth job, just because it's a charity.

And of course charities have to pay expenses, otherwise they wouldn't have any literature, any fundraisers or be able to do very much atall. The key is to find out how much of your donation is actually going to the cause - I think the average was around 20-30p in the £ going to admin. You can find out how much a charity spends on admin on the Charity Commission's website.

The people on the street who try to get people to sign up to Direct Debits are usually not employed by the charity, but an agency. They usually work on commission only, so only earn if they get donations for the charity. That said, I personally don't agree with them and always enjoy challenging them by asking about the chairty's admin costs, which they never know!

Overall, I hope this has helped. Don't let this dilemma take away from the wonderful fundraising you have done, perhaps just keep it for future reference and bear it in mind if you choose to fundraise again in the future. Personally, I would feel terrible about taking money out of the donations for myself, but that's just me!

debs_2000

I really feel that if you are collecting for a charity that any money you have collected was meant to go to the charity.
My husband recently saw a poster at Alder Hey childrens hospital and arranged to do a sponsered parachute jump with some of his friends, they were told that their fee for the jump could be reimbursed from the money they had collected as long as they had raised more than £200, I think the jump was £150.
We felt so strongly that we personally paid for the jump so that he could honestly ask people for a donation and was able to say all proceeds were going to the charity, I wouldn't have been able to ask my friends for sponsorship if I had felt that they were actually paying for an experience for my husband rather than to a worthy cause.

ronangel

Quote:
Originally Posted by alwayswrite
I sponsored a walk for charity and did not realise I may have had the expenses for the 'walker' to do this in New York and I wondered if I would have had some of my donation used for expenses and if so why couldn't this walk have been performed in this country - so beware!

What has this got to do with anything?

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It shows that all money donated does not always go to cause.

XRAT

Expenses should definitely be deductable from your donation.., you don't see the bosses of the charities working for nothing..., far from it.

bill_the_bus

Not sure if i am supposed to do this, if not then mods please delete.....


I was the one who asked the question. I organised a sponsored walk for Macmillan Cancer Care purely as they had helped us a lot recently and it was our way of saying Thanks. Thed final total we raised was £1560 (not bad as Macmillan had their own big walk a few mile away in Clumber Park the same day) so i am both proud and pleased. It was much harder than i expected to put together, not helped by the amount of red tape involved.

I made a decent size donation at the start but did not realise how much it would cost to organise everything due to naivety. It was quite difficult to cover all the extra expenses but i really had no intention of taking them from the final total.

It could cause others serious concern if they, like me, had not realised how much it would cost and this was the point of the question. What i would say is if you want to do anything like this, dont talk about it, DO IT. It was a great day and the memories will be there forever, oh and a great cause gain much needed funds.

Some great comments by the way !!

Loonic

I dont se why you should feel bad in anyway for claiming back your expenses as your part of the deal was commiting your time and energy. Many people these days take part in sponsored events that cost much more than your £50, e.g. great wall of China ect and it seems to be accepted (even by the charities themselves) that the trip is paid for out of the money raised!!

auntie_sal

If you are having to ask this question then it must be because you have contributed all you can, so no it is not morally wrong to claim back any other expences you have incurred. Charity is about giving what you can even if that can only be time. I am sure that as you have involved yourself in this venture, you would cancel the £50 if it was possible, as it is you maybe feel that you can't or shouldn't so don't feel guilty about it.

Muffin_Princess

I recently did a sponsored charity trek through the Carpathian Mountains in Romania and we had to raise a minimum of £2,480. Two events I organised to raise money were a raffle and a pub quiz. I didn't buy any of the prizes myself, I asked around and people were kind enough to donate prizes; perhaps you should have tried this first before buying them and then taking the money back.

I also put in £1,000 of my own money which paid for the actual trek itself; flights, hotels, meals, trek leader etc. I understand why people have a problem sponsoring someone to do something like this if they're getting a free holiday out of it, plus my conscience wouldn't let me do it so I was more than happy to pay for this myself.