Charity cycle rides (your experience)

[Martin]

I notice quite a few ads for this type of thing (and also STI's Etape; 2 now; cash cow or what?) in the CTC's august journal Cycle

[Jasmine]

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

That one gets me too.  If it's through the Woodvale Challenge (most likely, Dec 2011 start), it's very expensive.  Entry fees are in the £10k range; the boats are £15-30K second hand for a 2 person boat; then there's getting flights to the start, finish, equipment & supplies, shipping everything to the start etc.  I'd love to do this event, but I can't lay my hands on £40k to do it.  There's a major fund-raising element to doing this sort of challenge, but unless you have a commercial sponsor for that first £40k or can afford to stump it up yourself, it's a lot of money coming out of the total pot...

You can be in the Virgin Round Britain Challenge for a mere £7k though. I don't think people necessarily do it for the charitable aspects, more for being able to talk about it afterwards.

[TimO]

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.

In all likelihood, since a lot of the effort on the ride is done by regular FNRttCers, and Simon obviously does a lot of work on it for no cost.

For last years smaller Martetts Ride in March, their would have been some expense in terms of the lorry and minibus used as a sag wagon, but I believe those vehicles actually belonged to the Martletts, and I presume the people on board were volunteers.  Possibly the main expense would have been petrol.

I presume that for the larger ride this year there are likely to be other expenses which will have to be paid for, like public liability insurance, although Simon has found some effectively free solutions to expenses.  He's got NCP to allow him to use a London car park as an assembly point in exchange for some small amount of advertising.

I would feel uncomfortable doing a charity ride where the money that people donated was in effect partly being used to pay for my holiday.

[Adrian]

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.

In all likelihood, since a lot of the effort on the ride is done by regular FNRttCers, and Simon obviously does a lot of work on it for no cost.

For last years smaller Martetts Ride in March, their would have been some expense in terms of the lorry and minibus used as a sag wagon, but I believe those vehicles actually belonged to the Martletts, and I presume the people on board were volunteers.  Possibly the main expense would have been petrol.

I presume that for the larger ride this year there are likely to be other expenses which will have to be paid for, like public liability insurance, although Simon has found some effectively free solutions to expenses.  He's got NCP to allow him to use a London car park as an assembly point in exchange for some small amount of advertising.

I would feel uncomfortable doing a charity ride where the money that people donated was in effect partly being used to pay for my holiday.

They laid on food for us, and a couple of months later there were the bottles of fizz.

[StuAff]

I would feel uncomfortable doing a charity ride where the money that people donated was in effect partly being used to pay for my holiday.

That was a big reason for me going for the Legion's Pedal to Paris- as FatBloke mentioned back on page one, riders pay all their own way (though there are commercial sponsors as well, they certainly don't cover all the costs, all the non-Legion crew, like motorcycle outriders, are paid for a start). Much more transparent and you can say with absolute honesty to potential sponsors that the charity gets every penny (particularly if you avoid using services like JustGiving that take a cut of donations.. Bmycharity, which I use, doesn't).
BTW, it's the same for my forthcoming LeJOG for the Legion- self and my fellow riders are picking up all the tab for accomodation etc.
 I don't know why other charity rides- commercially run or not- don't follow the Legion's fine example. Some of them even seem to suggest they could deny you your place if you didn't make the minimum sponsorship, even if you'd covered the ride costs out of your own pocket..!! The Action Medical Research L2P (highly rated, AFAIK) brochure doesn't say that- as long as you've paid the entry costs you're in- but then tells you Gift Aid doesn't count towards your sponsorship target. Pardon?!!!

[TimO]

They laid on food for us, and a couple of months later there were the bottles of fizz.

Oh yes, that as well.  How could I forget the fizz... possibly due to the hangover.

Still, I don't imagine it was a vast part of their total running costs.

[Adrian]

They laid on food for us, and a couple of months later there were the bottles of fizz.

Oh yes, that as well.  How could I forget the fizz... possibly due to the hangover.

Still, I don't imagine it was a vast part of their total running costs.

Indeed not and as an investment to get us back next time it probably represents money well spent. All we need to do is persuade Antonia that we wouldn't turn out otherwise.