Charity cycle rides (your experience)

[Jules]

Dunno.  I've only done one sponsored cycle ride and it was a massive feat of endurance / courage / madness.  I wouldn't have done it if it weren't for the charity end of things.  And you lovely people all sponsored me lots. 

I'm not planning to do another one though.

That's a bit of a change from...

"As soon as I finished, I wanted to do it again…”

Only joking - wild horses etc

[EMnut]

Sorry that was not clear, but 25% of what I 'raised', not of the minimum sponsorship.
When I did it the min you had to raise was 1200 quid, and the tour company took 500 of that.
Some of the riders had raised tens of thousands and had lost kids to cancer, so this was a drop in ocean for them, and I suppose gave them so kind of closure...

[Martin]

Thanks for being so upfront about that EMnut; it's certainly been enlightening to see where the money comes and goes on some of these events,

[Androcles]

I was thinking of doing the BHF London-Brussels in 24, but after reading the thread I'm not sure any more.  The entry fee for this is 99GBP which is refunded if you meet the sponsorship target.  Unless I've read it wrong I could raise a  hundred quid, pay my 99 and get a well supported ride to Brussels with a hotel night and transport back to London.  BHF would be subsidising me for the ride.

On the other hand, I could do a local 400, raise the same amount of sponsorship, and hand all the money over to the BHF.

[YahudaMoon]

I think most of these charity rides stink.

There businesses hiding behind cancer victims and dying children while they make money and give little to the organisation they preach about

Real charities give ALL there money the the cause and work for nothing

One word for these types of events

SICK

[CrinklyLion]

An organised charity ride doesn't much appeal to me, although I'd probably make an exception for the Martletts ride if it wasn't in term time and didn't involve riding in That London, because it seems to have a nice balance of a bit of challenge for many riders, a lot of fun, and a personal connection between the fundraisers and the organisation IYSWIM.  Having said that, the Cub raised over 700 quid when we rode from home to Bedstemor's last year - and I think taking that opportunity to fund raise was a good choice.  

We were doing the ride anyway, and I paid for all the expenses as I would have done anyway.  Lots of people asked if we were 'doing it for anything' before we'd even contemplated sponsorship.  Then, when his friend Gabriel died, it seemed like the right thing to do to ride in Gabriel's memory and raise money for 'his' charity.  

It was a very personal 'charity ride', and I'm still frankly astonished that he raised as much as he did.  On a couple of Silly_Bike_Adventures since people have asked 'what this one is for' and it's quite nice to say 'oh, just for fun this time'.  

[Wowbagger]

Real charities give ALL there money the the cause and work for nothing

I don't think you'd get any effective charities if that were true.

Vested interest alert: my younger daughter has a highly-paid job (but peanuts compared to the private sector equivalent) working for a large British charity.

She's a policy researcher. She speaks directly to ministers and other MPs / Lords. Her job is to influence government policy and she's been quite effective at doing that.

It's a full-time job. It's a highly-skilled job. She, and almost all her colleagues, have first class degrees from top universities. If she chose to work in the banking sector, someone of her skill, education and drive would probably get a 6-figure bonus every year.

If you want effective charities, you can't do it on the cheap.

[Kim]

Starting to wonder how much sponsorship it would take for CL to get over her fear of riding in That London... 

[YahudaMoon]

@ Wowbagger.

I understand there has to be some admin logistics n stuff that need payed wages though some of these charities are in it for profit and thats it.

I don't like the way some of them work and use a certain illnesses or children to gain more business.

Charities are struggling at the moment and in my opinion there aint the right regulations in this sector making the needed the losers.

Im not saying all charities are bad. Just be careful who you give your money too !

[robgul]

@ Wowbagger.

I understand there has to be some admin logistics n stuff that need payed wages though some of these charities are in it for profit and thats it.

I don't like the way some of them work and use a certain illnesses or children to gain more business.

Charities are struggling at the moment and in my opinion there aint the right regulations in this sector making the needed the losers.

Im not saying all charities are bad. Just be careful who you give your money too !

Your quote from up-thread :

"I think most of these charity rides stink.

There businesses hiding behind cancer victims and dying children while they make money and give little to the organisation they preach about

Real charities give ALL there money the the cause and work for nothing

One word for these types of events

SICK"

=======================

With these outbursts you are misunderstanding the charities and their relationship with fund-raising activities.

1  The charity (for whatever cause, whether you agree with it or not) raises money by various means - that can be national events (Red Nose Day, Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning etc), flag days (Poppy Appeal, Lifeboats etc) local activities that are invariably volunteer run - and events that are contracted out (London to Paris type rides)

2  The charities employ people to run the organisation (how else would it work?) and as Wow says, they tend to pay at the lower end of the scale BUT they must nevertheless have professional people to be effective in achieving the stated objectives (again, Wow's lobbying example is a good one)   There are numerous cases of positive outcomes achieved by lobbying and profile-raising.

3  For some events charities sub-contract the management for logistical reasons - this is where the issues that, I think, prompted this thread came from ... how much of the money that is raised goes to the contractor and how much to the charity ... and more importantly as I tried to expound in my first post in this topic - how transparent is that in the way it's shown to the entrant and his sponsors?

4  The "fat cat" suggestion of being "in it for profits" doesn't apply to the charity - the Trustees of the charity and Charity Commission rules see to that.  

Where there is a possible "in it for the profits" motive is the companies that organise the events - with, in my view, often excessive costs and/or wasted expenditure and resources - which takes us full circle again.


I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the % in fees that the likes of justgiving.com and Virgin Money Giving take for managing the online fundraising .... ?

The sub-contractors/online giving services would suggest that their involvement improves the yield on fundraising by increasing the size of the event (would London - Brighton attract 30,000 riders if it wasn't commercially managed?)

There's no clear answer to all this - it has to be a balance that is deemed reasonable to the charity, and the participant with his sponsors

Rob

[jogler]

AAMOI I have wondered how many charity staff members do the rides & raise sponsorship for their employer.
This arises because when I handed my sponsorship £ to the charity connected with my E2E the gathering was attended by the bosslass of the fundraising manager who was my contact & therefore the bloke to whom I handed the £.
Mrs. bosslass,who was probably the most effective "people person" I've ever met,asked if I would be doing it again.When I said "yes" she suggested to Mr. Manager that he too does the ride.Mr.Manager's rapid response was that he couldn't do so 'cause he has no bike.
Mrs. Bosslass was overjoyed when I suggested Mr. Manager could share my tandem 
He said he would consider it. 23 months on I've not yet heard from him although I get frequent emails & mailshots from his department asking for £

[Wowbagger]

AAMOI I have wondered how many charity staff members do the rides & raise sponsorship for their employer.
This arises because when I handed my sponsorship £ to the charity connected with my E2E the gathering was attended by the bosslass of the fundraising manager who was my contact & therefore the bloke to whom I handed the £.
Mrs. bosslass,who was probably the most effective "people person" I've ever met,asked if I would be doing it again.When I said "yes" she suggested to Mr. Manager that he too does the ride.Mr.Manager's rapid response was that he couldn't do so 'cause he has no bike.
Mrs. Bosslass was overjoyed when I suggested Mr. Manager could share my tandem 
He said he would consider it. 23 months on I've not yet heard from him although I get frequent emails & mailshots from his department asking for £

My daughter has participated in many events raising funds for her employer.

Possibly the most degrading was spending all day in the Palace of Westminster in a mole costume. Actually, she wasn't sponsored to do that: it's just that no-one else in her office was prepared to make an idiot of themselves in front of the noble, right honourable, honourable and just plain 'orrible.

[stevedo]

I was always under the impression that lobbying involved sidling around the Palace of Westminster passing fat envelopes of cash to various MPs and peers.

Not much fun in that.

BUT, sidling around Westminster handing out wads of cash while DRESSED AS A GIANT MOLE - that's my kind of job!

[Wowbagger]

It was pretty hot, so I understand, and involved no cash or brown envelopes.

[stevedo]

It was pretty hot, so I understand, and involved no cash or brown envelopes.

Of course, I never thought for a moment that it did ...

(As you can tell from my avatar, I'm no stranger to the idea of dressing up in an animal costume to promote things.)

[Ray 6701]

I've just done 110 miles in aid of St Giles hospice, Tamworth CC organised it ourselves so we know all of the money raised will to to the hospice 

[EMnut]

Just to heat up the topic a bit....

Some chaps from our local club are doing L–P in 24 hours ride.
I have just been into local Waitrose and seen that they are getting money for sponsorship in a token donation collection, so in other words...

The donation gives the impression that the all  money is going to charity, when it is really going towards their sponsorship... is it me or is that dodgy?

[hatler]

I'm pretty sure that the vast bulk of money raised by the FNRttC Martlet's ride in September goes straight to the target charity.

[phil d]

Just to heat up the topic a bit....

Some chaps from our local club are doing L–P in 24 hours ride.
I have just been into local Waitrose and seen that they are getting money for sponsorship in a token donation collection, so in other words...

The donation gives the impression that the all  money is going to charity, when it is really going towards their sponsorship... is it me or is that dodgy?

I can't see why that would be seen as "dodgy".  As I understand the Waitrose token scheme, they give a sum of money in proportion to the two or three options available to customers.  As I see it that is a charitable donation from Waitrose, targeted by customer selection.  I can't see a problem with that.

Of course, that doesn't answer any questions about the costs of the L2P ride, but neither does it change them.

[robgul]

Just to heat up the topic a bit....

Some chaps from our local club are doing L–P in 24 hours ride.
I have just been into local Waitrose and seen that they are getting money for sponsorship in a token donation collection, so in other words...

The donation gives the impression that the all  money is going to charity, when it is really going towards their sponsorship... is it me or is that dodgy?

I can't see why that would be seen as "dodgy".  As I understand the Waitrose token scheme, they give a sum of money in proportion to the two or three options available to customers.  As I see it that is a charitable donation from Waitrose, targeted by customer selection.  I can't see a problem with that.

Of course, that doesn't answer any questions about the costs of the L2P ride, but neither does it change them.

That's exactly how it works - I've been trying to get the nearest Waitrose to adopt MacRide with the tokens ... and, of course, get the double-whammy of promotion for the ride too.

How individuals raise their sponsor or donation money can be quite varied - from the simple bit of paper around the workplace or pub - through adding a justgiving type link to e-mails ... and we have someone who organises a quiz night at a village club and raises about £1,000 ... getting the Waitrose store on board is just another method.

What hacks me off is the people raising money to cover the costs to undertake an event - I was approached by a couple of guys that were going to "pop to Paris on bikes" to raise money to finance them to row across the Atlantic (which is intended to raise money for a charity) - that process seems wrong to me, and perhaps seeking money under false pretences ??  [I declined the "offer they made to me" to help ...]

Rob

[phil d]

What hacks me off is the people raising money to cover the costs to undertake an event - I was approached by a couple of guys that were going to "pop to Paris on bikes" to raise money to finance them to row across the Atlantic (which is intended to raise money for a charity) - that process seems wrong to me, and perhaps seeking money under false pretences ??  [I declined the "offer they made to me" to help ...]

Rob

But is that so very different to a Charity itself spending money to raise money?  Provided they are open about it, it could just be seen as part of the overall fund-raising business.  And I suspect that a couple of blokes rowing the Atlantic is going to (a) have fairly significant costs involved, and (b) raise rather more money that said couple of blokes doing a charity cycle ride.  And it's hardly a holiday!

Where I draw the line is where a third party is organising for their own profit.  But I suppose that is just old fashioned prejudice.

[robgul]

What hacks me off is the people raising money to cover the costs to undertake an event - I was approached by a couple of guys that were going to "pop to Paris on bikes" to raise money to finance them to row across the Atlantic (which is intended to raise money for a charity) - that process seems wrong to me, and perhaps seeking money under false pretences ??  [I declined the "offer they made to me" to help ...]

Rob

But is that so very different to a Charity itself spending money to raise money?  Provided they are open about it, it could just be seen as part of the overall fund-raising business.  And I suspect that a couple of blokes rowing the Atlantic is going to (a) have fairly significant costs involved, and (b) raise rather more money that said couple of blokes doing a charity cycle ride.  And it's hardly a holiday!

Where I draw the line is where a third party is organising for their own profit.  But I suppose that is just old fashioned prejudice.

It's actually a bit deeper than that (sorry !) with the values/ costs/ returns/ expectations and attitudes etc  involved ... however, I don't to add more to the comments in a public forum.

Rob

[EMnut]

I think what I thought was Dodgy was that the info that this was a cycle ride was pretty hidden, so in big type

Charity X

does blah blah blah,
 
Then in tiny type at the bottom a little info about the cycle ride. It seemed to me that it gives the impression that all the money os going to a cause when of course it isn't. If the riders cover the costs of the ride and donate the whole sum, than that is of course fantastic. But in this case the Waitrose donations are also in part funding the fun bit. One presumes the other charities were collecting direct donations

[robgul]

I think what I thought was Dodgy was that the info that this was a cycle ride was pretty hidden, so in big type

Charity X

does blah blah blah,
 
Then in tiny type at the bottom a little info about the cycle ride. It seemed to me that it gives the impression that all the money os going to a cause when of course it isn't. If the riders cover the costs of the ride and donate the whole sum, than that is of course fantastic. But in this case the Waitrose donations are also in part funding the fun bit. One presumes the other charities were collecting direct donations

Assuming it's the same "business model" as the Waitrose I have spoken to (it must be?) then the total payment from the tokens in the box is made direct to the charity (i.e. not to the person who is undertaking a linked event - although one would expect it to be attributed to that person's fundraising effort)

Rob

[EMnut]

If that is the case then I might have misjudged then.