Sponsor meeeee. :(

Fluffy Cat 88 wrote: »

One of my nieces wanted money to read books :O

The wee bitch

Fluffy Cat 88 wrote: »

In the past few months I've been approached by family, friends, and enemies looking for sponsorship for everything from "Hell and Back" to 5 kilometre strolls. One of my nieces wanted money to read books :O

I'm probably a right tight ar$ed stingebag for thinking this way but - I'm sick of it. One particular family (his feckin brother's 4 offspring) are always whipping out a card and chanting "sponsor meeeee". €5 is the expected amount - not a huge amount but it all adds up when its so frequent.

Chuggers - while annoying and a nuisance, are easy to either ignore or say no to. Extended family, not so convenient. Is there any way I can avoid being shook down for money?

Surely parents are sick of their kids constantly badgering them for sponsorship? A lot of it seems to be school related activities.

Would love to read people's opinions and experience of this nonsense.

Well, no - becuase the kids bother every one else except their parents!!

Beyond that, it's just a fund-raiser. If it was a worthwhile cause it wouldn't btoher me, but I don't remember being inundated wit hthe things.

Tell the kids to fck off and use their confirmation money.

My parents refused to let me do this. They'd send a note with me to school telling the school I was excused from this, and my parents and relations donate to charities of their own choosing, not the school's.

My parents did give me a fiver so I could do the Simpsons quiz (which was for charity.) A written quiz about Simpsons trivia (a seriously hard one too, and it was before the internet and the simpsons guide books came out.) And they always gave me a pound for the non-uniform days.

The parachute jumps or Kilimanjaro exhibitions are the ones which really push it.

It's actually quite disgusting using charitable donation to fund such activities. If you want to do a climb or a jump to raise money for a charitable cause fine but pay for it out your own pocket and donate 100% of whats collected.

Some of these collectors can be really pushy.
I was in work a while ago and an elderly lady came in. She knew the boss and was given free reign.
So she came into the office with her bucket said her piece i.e "I'm collecting for x, it's a great cause, close to my heard blah blah".
That's fine. One or 2 people went up to her discretely and donated. That left a few of us that didn't give anything for our own various reasons.
She proceeds to ask everyone individually that hadn't "are you going to donate?"

Absolute cheek. No one was impressed and as I found out later it actually made up a few people's minds not to give, that were on the fence about going to the car for change or going to their coats.

That pushy stuff drives me nuts.

I have to say I gave to Medics Without Borders recently because I liked their approach. A well presented man came to my door, explained their work and a little about them. He then told me I could research them more and if I wanted to I could set up a direct debit.

The days of people pushing buckets under your nose should be numbered.

I agree it just leads to more knowing it's an easy target point for sponsors.

I am guilty of doing charity events. I only ask for money for one of them, and that is a gruelling 400 km cycle.

However I always cover the entry fee myself, and any money raised goes to the charity. I also rarely ask for money directly - I tend to organise a bake sale or a table quiz so that at least the people donating get something out of it.

The exception is my current request. A friend of mine was in an accident recently. He was hit by a truck and left with life changing injuries - he is paralysed from the chest down. They're currently fundraising for him to fund the renovations needed to their house to allow him to come home. In that case I'll do the event and just share the sponsorship link.

I do think that people are taking the p1ss with the events that they're doing and asking for money for though. A marathon? Sure, have some funds. A 5km stroll in the Phoenix park? I'm gonna think twice.

Argh, bagpacking. Did it with the school and with Brigins and once as a job. It is the most tedious, mind-numbing, brain-draining activity out there. Especially doing it as a job. Seven hours standing there, smiling at customers, being scowled at because people rarely actually want their bags packed and are trying to be nice to the dumb teenager that is sure to put the bread under the raw meat (I didn't, but it's expected!). Argh. Never again.

My parents didn't particularly approve of school-encouraged begging for money, both for safety reasons and because of the begging for money aspect. There were also a number of us from the same street in the same class in school, so the neighbours probably got pretty sick of it too. I did take part in the Readathon (that'd be the reading books for money thing :P) and I'll sponsor that if kids are doing it. It's all very well if you're a bookworm (as I was), but it's as tough as a marathon for kids that hate reading. It is very cheatable on, mind you, but still.

Also, it's nice every so often to have a competitive-type thing that the non-sporty kids have a chance to excel in.

It's the sponsored holidays that are the worst. Sponsor me to run, for example, the New York Marathon - feck off, plenty of marathons you could run locally for much less cost with more money to the charity, if it's genuinely about running the 26.2 miles rather the freebie weekend in New York.