Sponsorship and blackmail

GracieP

apesxx wrote: »

I've been looking into doing a sky dive as it's something I always wanted to do. I couldn't believe it when I saw that if you do it through the charity and raise the £350 minimum only £70 goes to charity and the rest goes to pay for the skydive. When I do mine next year I am going to pay for it myself as I've always wanted to do one and anything I raise will wholly go to charity then x

That's pretty much the norm for a lot of those sponsored 'terrifying experience' events. A huge part of the sponsorship goes to pay for the experience and sometimes the cost of the experience is higher than it would be otherwise. I'd never sponsor someone doing an event like that as essentially you are paying for them to do something they have likely always hoped to do and only a small amount of your sponsorship goes to the cause. I have had one friend do what you are doing and pay for the experience out of her own pocket, in that case I was happy to sponsor her.

thorsoak

I haven't read the whole thread yet - but my initial reaction is that if it was for a charity/cause that I disagreed with/did not support, then I would acknowledge the effort that she was putting into it, by giving a nominal amount - say £5 to that charity but the remainder of the amount that I would normally sponsor her to another charity in her name.

Fluffi

Gra76 wrote: »

I'm very happy to give to any of the charities she's chosen in previous years. The charity she's chosen this year is something to do with her husbands extended family. I get the reasons she's running for them, I just don't agree with supporting that charity myself. In an ideal world I'll ask her if she minds me donating to one of the charities she previously ran for and she won't be offended.

For me it would come down to the reasons I don't support a charity. For example if I disagree with their mission / vision / marketing approach (some charities have put some extremely insensitive adverts on tv and other media - I don't donate to those on principle) / wasteful with funds / unethical then I would explain to my sister in detail the reasons that I wouldn't be donating to her chosen charity and donate my usual amount to a charity we both had in common.

peaceandfreedom

fierystormcloud wrote: »

Worse still (imo) is people begging money for their kid's ice hockey team or football team to go on a trip to New York or Chicago to a special tournament! I know a number of people who do this, and think it's their kid's right to have a flashy holiday paid for by 'sponsorship.'

Absolutely - let them pay for their kids' holidays if they want. I can't afford to go on holidays, I'm certainly not going to pay for someone's kid to go!

We get that a lot in our secondary school - 'charity' trips for two weeks to some far-flung exotic location, costing a couple of thousand. The kids who are going are expected to 'fund-raise' to pay for the holiday (there is actually very little charity-work involved). It is VERY annoying and I never contribute. These are mostly kids who already go on nice holidays every year, they are not deprived in any way so I feel no guilt.

Ditto with people (already mentioned on this thread) who do similar charity trips which are really just holidays for which they feel entitled to extort cash from their friends :mad:.

Getting back to the original post, I have stopped contributing to all the fund-raising requests at work because if I contributed to them all, I would be even more skint than I am now. When I myself did one or two races for charity, I just slung them some of my own money.

Edited to add: If it's a close family member / close friend, I do indeed sponsor them, just to show support. So far, this has never involved a freebie holiday / experience, just taking part in an endurance event.

Topcat1982

The OP has not clarified whether they have a moral objection or it just doesn't interest them

pollypenny

I think I'd be inclined to donate to one of her earlier charities and explain why, of course.