Bogus charity collections

mikemac

No, this isn't a rant about those bin bags you get through your door.

It's about people asking you to sponsor them on events.
Some are worthy, like running a marathon in Ireland or maybe a mega cycling journey around the country. Money goes to charity and due respect to the particpants.:cool:

I'm talking about the people (usually women) who beg, plead and threaten to name and shame you as a stingy bastard (doesn't work on Cavan people;))if you don't pay for their Kilamanjaro trek or even through the Andes.

Sounds like a free holiday to me.
As we all know, a little money goes a long way in the 3rd world.
So if you knocked the €1,000 or more that the person was spending on flights and accomadation, it could be spent on the right things and not on a holiday for someone who is trying to impress with their "charitable work"

This is an example of one happening for Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. Raise around €5,000 and you get a trip to South Africa. Who pays for flights?

So, if you're badgered in work for pay to these, would you?

sullivk

My uncle does work from some charity, he asks us for sponsorships to send him to other countries for his "charity work", last year he went to the great wall of china and this year he's off to thailand!
Does anybody want to donate money to the "Send sullivk on holiday" fund?? No? ok...

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

tbh to get people involved in a charity event you need to give them something. therefore the trip to kilimanjaro etc. people wouldn't go to the effort otherwise.

keithoconnork

As someone who has done parachute jumps for charity, ie cancer society, I know that i wouldnt have bothered with it before. Further to that, I have been raising money for charities ever since, which definately would not have happened!! Dont knock things before you try them..

Steve

micmclo wrote: »

Sounds like a free holiday to me.
As we all know, a little money goes a long way in the 3rd world.
So if you knocked the €1,000 or more that the person was spending on flights and accomadation, it could be spent on the right things and not on a holiday for someone who is trying to impress with their "charitable work"

If they raised 2k and got a free holiday so what. It's 1k for charity that wouldn't have been raised if they didn't do it. If the free holiday wasn't there, wheres the motivation to raise money?

p.s. the free bin bags are great - love 'em:)

lezizi

My father is going to South Africa in November on one of these charity things, when he first said it, i just said oh ya free holiday is it.
But he is actually raising €5,000 which most of goes to the charity, but they will be there for 3 weeks building houses, so they are actually giving to the community while they are there aswell as raising money.
Last year they managed to build 300 houses in 3 weeks.

Clay Davis

"Will you sponsor me for a parachute jump?"

lol - wtf?

Rb

I love the people who just think it's a holiday for free or something.

Take Lezizi's dad for example. It takes a fcking lot of work to raise €5k, then he's going to South Africa to build houses. So what if he gets a trip out of it, he's raised the guts of €4,000 for a charity and is going to build houses for a poor community.

The same applies to every single one of the situations, whether it be that guy who's going to cycle in the states (has to raise €4k iirc), the guys going to climb a mountain, or even the guys raising money for charity who get to do a parachute jump. They've put in a load of effort to get the money together for the charity, and get a little out of it. It's not as though they're sitting by a beach for a week sipping comped martinis, most are doing some activity, be it walking the great wall, climbing a mountain, cycling a certain distance etc.

These trips provide those who wouldn't usually be so charitable with a means of motivation to get out and collect a ton of cash for a charity, it gets their friends who may never donate usually to throw some cash towards the charity, which then goes on to help people. Oh no! €1 of the €5,000 is used to fund the trip! Oh dear, the charity now only gets €4,000!

It'd have gotten nothing had the person not went out and collected it. The charities do well out of it, the people they are helping do well out of it, and the collectors get an incentive to do it all.

Anyone who thinks it's just a free holiday is midly retarded tbvfh.

Edit: Just re-read the wording in the OP and realised he stated he thought it was a free holiday, I didn't aim that last comment directly at the OP as I didn't realise he'd worded it that way. It was aimed at those who think it in general.

Rb

micmclo wrote: »

So if you knocked the €1,000 or more that the person was spending on flights and accomadation, it could be spent on the right things and not on a holiday for someone who is trying to impress with their "charitable work"

The money wouldn't be there in the first place. Use your brain once in a while, it might work out well for you.

shane86

Got a buzz at the door the other week, open door, 3 young schwars about 12/13, hoppy earrings, trackers, whole sha-bang, doesnt even say what she is there for. Litreally shoved a form infront of me and said "sponsor us?!!?"

Sponsor what exactly? I assume it was the Emergency Dutch Gold, Johnny Blue, hash and yips fund for the under 15s in the community?

Good luck. I work hard to earn money needed to kill my braincells with.


The building abroad thing is worthy, but sponsoring free adventures like parachute jumps, I dunno.

anotherlostie

Calling someone mildly retarded because they don't agree with charity being used to pay for people's holidays is more than mildly offensive. John O'Shea and GOAL have the right idea about the money donated to charity going to the charity and not admin and other wastage.

Rb

anotherlostie wrote: »

Calling someone mildly retarded because they don't agree with charity being used to pay for people's holidays is more than mildly offensive. John O'Shea and GOAL have the right idea about the money donated to charity going to the charity and not admin and other wastage.

I didn't call someone retarded, I called anyone who believes that it's a free holiday retarded.

Glad I could clarify that for you.

Clay Davis

I've had people ask me to sponsor them for a parachute jump for the blind. They said it costs them €500 to do it - that's only 50 people @ €10 each, or less people if closer friends & family give more.
That's not much hassle at all to scrape that much together, and you get a free parachute jump! Feck off!

mikemac

rb_ie wrote: »

Anyone who thinks it's just a free holiday is midly retarded tbvfh.

rb_ie wrote: »

The money wouldn't be there in the first place. Use your brain once in a while, it might work out well for you.

****in prick! So I'm retarded now am I?
And this from a guy who wants to send people who disagree with your politics to the gas chamber (mods: politics thread)

I put it another way. The first part of my post praised people who undertook major challenges like a marathon or a cycling tour. It takes months of training to prepare for these and I would readily support someone looking to raise money and take part in a major challenge.

I would not include parachute jumps, walking the Great wall of China or the Andes in this category and I still state this is a free holiday for many.
How much money do charities waste on chuggers, admin and flights for "volunteers"?
I don't know but it could be better spent otherwise

Rb

Clay Davis wrote: »

I've had people ask me to sponsor them for a parachute jump for the blind. They said it costs them €500 to do it - that's only 50 people @ €10 each, or less people if closer friends & family give more.
That's not much hassle at all to scrape that much together, and you get a free parachute jump! Feck off!

Would the charity get the additional money if the person didn't collect it?Nope.

Would the person collect it for the charity without the parachute jump?Nope.

It's a win/win situation. The only person who loses out are the donators, but it is charity and it's going to a good cause.

I really, really fail to see how people can't comprehend this.

Rb

micmclo wrote: »

****in prick! So I'm retarded now am I?
And this from a guy who wants to send people who disagree with your politics to the gas chamber (mods: politics thread)

Reported.

Read the bottom of my first post, the comment wasn't directed at you, but sure if you consider yourself in that group then that's not really my problem.

Hells yeah, lets gas all FF supporters. Unfortunately it could be compared to Hitler gassing the mentally disabled though, which didn't and therefore wouldn't go down well in a lot of peoples books.

micmclo wrote:

I don't know but it could be better spent otherwise

The money wouldn't be there to spend otherwise. Do you see why?

Run_to_da_hills

Someone asked me yesterday to sponsor sending some child to Lourdes. I asked myself, why should I give money to send someone to a demonic shrine with "magic water" run by some religious organisation. To me this is bogus.

AlmightyCushion

micmclo wrote: »

****in prick! So I'm retarded now am I?
And this from a guy who wants to send people who disagree with your politics to the gas chamber (mods: politics thread)

I put it another way. The first part of my post praised people who undertook major challenges like a marathon or a cycling tour. It takes months of training to prepare for these and I would readily support someone looking to raise money and take part in a major challenge.

I would not include parachute jumps, walking the Great wall of China or the Andes in this category and I still state this is a free holiday for many.
How much money do charities waste on chuggers, admin and flights for "volunteers"?
I don't know but it could be better spent otherwise

No personal abuse. Banned for a week.

Rb

I'll use Lezizi's Dads charity work as an example.

Charity organises trip to South Africa, where once there those on the trip will build houses for the poor.
To take part in this trip to go build houses for the poor, you've to raise €5k for the organisation. Those interested then spend months trying to organise €5,000 and when they finally do, the money goes to the organisation.

Organisation then spends €1,000 of each members money on admin, flights, food and accomodation. The charity fund, which will go directly to aiding the poor/starving/whatever now gets €4,000. Ten people successfully get €5k together each, that's now €40,000 to charity, and €10,000 spent on admin/etc.

That is €40,000 that the charity would not have had, if it weren't for those ten people going out and collecting it. The ten people then get flown to South Africa, where they spent a few weeks building houses for the poor/starving, and come home, with a tan and a story.

So now the starving/poor/needy have €40,000 in aid, along with new houses. Those ten people, who spent months gathering the cash and who then went and built the houses, now have a tan and a little story to tell. They've done very, very well and have really done good things for these poor people.

Where would the charity get €40,000 extra if these ten people weren't involved? They wouldn't.

Providing a trip as an incentive has now gathered €40,000 for charity, whereas had they not, that extra €40,000 (on top of their monthly donations or whatever) would not be there.

So, some people may take issue with the fact that their money *may* go towards the actual admin/flight costs, rather than the actual charity. When you sign up to do €5 per month, some or all of that money may go to the running of the company (who are collecting more money for the actual charity), when you put a €5 in a chuggers box, that €5 may well go straight to the running of the charity. It's pretty much the same thing.

If you don't like the fact that someone's doing a good thing, and getting a little treat as a consequence for their hard work, then go ahead and raise the money yourself and go on the trip, but don't accuse people of scamming you for a holiday. Your €10 or whatever might go directly to buying food for some starving family in Africa, or it could go on the admin costs of the organisation, it's going to happen regardless.

anotherlostie

Don't you think that people might actually donate to another charity if they were not handing over the cash to these people for their jaunts? I doubt very much that only 20% of the charity goes on flights/ accommodation when people go to Machu Pichu and the like on their little trips.

(And I think the banning was unfair considering the emotive use of the word retarded in the earlier post).

phantom_lord

charity is such a load of bollix. in most cases as little as 20% of the amount collected goes to actually doing some good, and that's after paying for someone to go travelling around the world. **** poor people anyway. and all those chuggers should go and die in a grease fire.

Rb

anotherlostie wrote: »

Don't you think that people might actually donate to another charity if they were not handing over the cash to these people for their jaunts? I doubt very much that only 20% of the charity goes on flights/ accommodation when people go to Machu Pichu and the like on their little trips.

Well given that it's a charity, they might get a discount on the costs involved, also they'd probably get a discount for a group booking too. I doubt the meals or accomodation are anything fancy either. They might donate, but the overwhelming majority of people don't and tbh it's a great way of getting a lot of cash together for a good cause. €20 is pretty meaningless to a lot of us, but that could be huge to a starving family. Sure enough it may go directly to the cost of the persons flight, but it's even more likely that it'll go towards the cause and as I said above, even if you do give it to a chugger instead, it could well go directly to that persons pay for the day rather than the charity you want it to go to.

Also, check out "The Hideout" off Grafton Street some day, I used to go there as a teenager during lunch at school and you'd always see chuggers playing pool with money coming directly from their buckets.

Even if you sign up for a €5 a month thing, that €5 a month could be paying the staff every month rather than going to the charity. You'll never know, so I don't see what difference it makes whether there's a possibility that you're paying for a mates flight or the possibility that you're paying one of the chuggers (annoying fckers as we all know) to stand there and hassle you. I'd rather take the chance that my money goes towards the mates flight tbh.

anotherlostie wrote:

(And I think the banning was unfair considering the emotive use of the word retarded in the earlier post).

As I said at the bottom of that post, I didn't realise that he'd directly said that when I made the post, it was targetted at the group of people who subscribe to that thought as a whole, it certainly wasn't directed at the OP individually, particularly when I went back and saw how he'd written it I made sure that it was noted that it wasn't directed directly at him.

Take it to feedback if there's a problem with it anyway.

Dudess

rb_ie, tone down on your liberal use of the term "retarded".

connundrum

rb_ie wrote: »

Well given that it's a charity, they might get a discount on the costs involved, also they'd probably get a discount for a group booking too. I doubt the meals or accomodation are anything fancy either. They might donate, but the overwhelming majority of people don't and tbh it's a great way of getting a lot of cash together for a good cause. €20 is pretty meaningless to a lot of us, but that could be huge to a starving family. Sure enough it may go directly to the cost of the persons flight, but it's even more likely that it'll go towards the cause and as I said above, even if you do give it to a chugger instead, it could well go directly to that persons pay for the day rather than the charity you want it to go to.

Knowing the charity in Sounth Africa that Lezizi referred to, I'm aware that several aspects of the trip are actually part sponsored i.e. flights, accomodation etc.

Check out the Income & Expenditure sheet for said charity Niall Mellon I&E.

Volunteers raised €6m. It cost €1.6m to get them there. I think it was well worth the venture. I wish that all charities would make these figures as publicly available, as I believe that there is a lot of distrust when it comes to the run of the mill 'Sponsor me to jump out of a plane' fundraisers.

Wertz

If you'e going to take Niall Mellon's organisation into it then it's not comparing like with like; the difference being that the people raising the cash are using the trip (it's not a holiday) as part of their own charitable donation...they work to get there and then they work when they get there...the point is that in order to build the houses, they need to be there.
That's a far removal from these bloody charidee walks in far off remote places that do SFA for anyone in the locale; most of them are for home based charities anyhow, such as cancer care etc; why do they need to walk on some other continent?)...
I disagree with the argument that the holiday (let's call it what it is) is a required incentive for raising money....if someone is that charitable, then incentive should be the act of giving itself, not the act of giving whilst receiving a percentage of the takings.
The argument that if there is no incentive then no-one donates is dubious at best...people give what they can afford to any given charity...if they've sponsored someone to the tune of €100 a % of which goes to pay for "overheads", then they have denied another more worthy charity of the %...

As for threatening to name and shame someone who wouldn't sponsor you...lol just lol...I'd happily turn around and rip that person a new one in front of his/her peers, with rebukes such as "sponsor your own holiday, leech", "yes I'm a tight bastard, is that a problem?" or "I'm sorry, you've confused me with someone who cares what the rest of the office plebs really think of me"...

Alun

While we're on the subject of "sponsoring", waaay back in the day when I was a kid in the UK, the whole sponsoring thing went something like this ....

1) Go round houses asking people to sponsor you for X amount per lap/mile/whatever.
2) They would commit to a certain amount, sign your form and you'd go away and leave them in peace (note: no money has changed hands so far)
3) You go away and do your sponsored walk/swim/whatever and get your form signed by whoever was running the thing to certify how many laps/miles/whatever you had done.
4) You go back to the people who sponsored you, present the form certifying how far you've gone, and collect the appropriate amount. If you screwed up and only did 1 lap, tough, if you were super hero and did 100 laps then bingo!

The way it appears to work here is ...

1) Go round houses asking people to sponsor you to do "something" (usually mumbled under their breath, so you have no idea what it is), you give them X amount of money regardless of how far/ how many laps/whatever they do, they therefore have no incentive to do anything at all. End.

Seems like the "old" way was fairer to me?

phantom_lord

Dudess wrote: »

rb_ie, tone down on your liberal use of the term "retarded".

too much time spent in the poker forum imo.

cuckoo

Add me to 'team don't ask me to pay for your holiday'.

While i do admire the impulse to volunteer time, i'm tired of people who couldn't be bothered volunteering here in Ireland.....but when an exotic location is mentioned then they're all over it.

Or, the people who want to volunteer/holiday in some country for 2/3 weeks, to teach english to starving orphans/groom underprivileged dogs/whatever. I think it's naive and misguided to land into an alien culture, and think that you are doing good with such a short visit.

If someone i know will be carrying a tray of tea and biccies from cork to dublin by foot i'd defo sponsor them, or doing a sponsored leg wax, for a reputable charity, etc. But - i will not pay for someone's holiday. It seems now that the 'holiday' has become the challenge that we are expected to sponsor them for.

I do support organisations like MSF (aka 'doctors without borders'), they send professionals with useful skills to where they are needed. And, i think highly of VSO and the work they do - instead of sending someone to teach something, they send an experienced teacher to train hundreds of local teachers to teach it.

Office workers having an exotic holiday while giving building work/teaching a go feels like to me that less fortunate areas of the world are being treated like 'do gooder resorts'.

Why not spend the money that would have been spent on air fares hiring local people to do the work? I'd be annoyed if i were the local brickie who was out of work, and watching the rank amateurs make a mess.