Kenya Challenge

Noel said:

Saw this in IT Week in case anyone is interested:

http://www.computeraid.org/kenyachallenge.htm

It's another 'please pay for my holiday' charity ride.
I've always made a point on the rides I've done of making it clear that
I pay my own way, and all sponsorship goes to the good cause..

...d

Noel said:

Saw this in IT Week in case anyone is interested:

http://www.computeraid.org/kenyachallenge.htm

I generally feel the same way as Sheldon about charity rides.
<http://www.sheldonbrown.com/thons.html>

--
Dave...

In article <[email hidden]>

dkahn400 said:

Noel said:

Saw this in IT Week in case anyone is interested:

http://www.computeraid.org/kenyachallenge.htm

I generally feel the same way as Sheldon about charity rides.
<http://www.sheldonbrown.com/thons.html>

He's quite right, of course. When people are regaling you with tales of
pain and supreme effort in a good cause after their 50km charity ride,
it seems impolite to mention that you commute that much every day, and
did a hilly 200 on Saturday and a 100 on Sunday just for fun. Having
said that, the Kenya Cycle Challenge does sound like a fun way to spend
a week.

"Rob Morley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Having
said that, the Kenya Cycle Challenge does sound like a fun way to spend
a week.

Also a fun way of spending other peoples' money....

My colleagues were aghast at my refusal to do my JOGLE and LEJOG rides as
sponsored activities they couldn't believe that long rides are undertaken
for fun. They were nonplussed when I suggested that they ingnored the middle
man and give money directly to their chosen charities. I didn't want the
responsibility of having to complete a ride that I wasn't enjoying to
fullfil a contract between myself and the sponsors. I'm also allergic to
paperwork and bureaucracy and collecting the cash would have been a chore -
folk are quicker to make pledge than they are at meeting them. It took me a
day to get £300 worth of sponsorship for the only sponsored ride that I have
ever done. It took me six weeks to collect all of the money in from the
colleagues who'd sponsored me.

On my JOGLE ride this year I met two women in Monmouthshire who were not
enjoying their JOGLE ride. They'd started off with the intention of doing
the scenic route and had modified their route to incorporate as many trunk
roads as possible to 'get the bloody thing over as fast as possible'.
They'd have packed had they not had sponsors.

I'd be very interested in knowing what percentage of the minimum sponsored
amount actually reaches the charity.

In article <[email hidden]>
vernon <[email hidden]> wrote:
<snip>

Quoted message said:

They were nonplussed when I suggested that they ingnored the middle
man and give money directly to their chosen charities.

I guess sponsored events get people out collecting money that otherwise
wouldn't have been given, but I'm sure it's often not an efficient way
of raising funds, especially as there isn't the option of reclaiming tax
on donations to sponsored events as there is when making a direct
donation. Also there's the problem that whenever there's a big charity
drive the small charities lose out as there's only so much money people
will give, and they're more likely to give it to a telethon.

Quoted message said:

I didn't want the
responsibility of having to complete a ride that I wasn't enjoying to
fullfil a contract between myself and the sponsors. I'm also allergic to
paperwork and bureaucracy and collecting the cash would have been a chore-
folk are quicker to make pledge than they are at meeting them. It took mea
day to get £300 worth of sponsorship for the only sponsored ride that Ihave
ever done. It took me six weeks to collect all of the money in from the
colleagues who'd sponsored me.

I wonder how many hours that took, and how much that would have been
worth as a slice of your earned income.

Quoted message said:

On my JOGLE ride this year I met two women in Monmouthshire who were not
enjoying their JOGLE ride. They'd started off with the intention of doing
the scenic route and had modified their route to incorporate as many trunk
roads as possible to 'get the bloody thing over as fast as possible'.
They'd have packed had they not had sponsors.

That's no way to have fun.

Quoted message said:

I'd be very interested in knowing what percentage of the minimum sponsored
amount actually reaches the charity.

Always a concern with charitable donations. Even after it's reached the
charity, how much actually goes to field work and how much disappears
into the admin of some of the big ones that have paid staff?

Rob Morley said:

I guess sponsored events get people out collecting money that otherwise
wouldn't have been given, but I'm sure it's often not an efficient way
of raising funds, especially as there isn't the option of reclaiming tax
on donations to sponsored events as there is when making a direct
donation.

There can be. People were encouraged to donate online for the
Bristol-Bath unicycle ride [1], with the option of Gift Aiding the
donation. Sure, justgiving.com take their cut, but the charity still
gets a lot more than they would from a cash donation.

I'm broadly in agreement with Sheldon about charity rides. It seems
strange to ask for sponsorship for something that you'd usually do for
fun anyway. I could hardly present a 14 mile unicycle ride as a
challenge when I've ridden more than twice that distance in the past for
fun.

In this case, I was doing the ride for fun and just considered any money
raised for a good cause to be a bonus. I made a donation to the
organisers' chosen charity as a thank you for organising the ride, and I
like to think that my sponsors were doing it mostly for the warm glow of
giving money to a good cause. I'm still grateful to everyone who
sponsored me.

<url:http://www.justgiving.com/BristolToBathOnAUnicycle>

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Quoted message said:

It took me six weeks to collect all of the money in from the
colleagues who'd sponsored me.

I wonder how many hours that took, and how much that would have been
worth as a slice of your earned income.

It was a disproportionate amount of time I can tell you. I was determined to
reel everyone in....

Quoted message said:

On my JOGLE ride this year I met two women in Monmouthshire who were not
enjoying their JOGLE ride. They'd started off with the intention of doing
the scenic route and had modified their route to incorporate as many trunk
roads as possible to 'get the bloody thing over as fast as possible'.
They'd have packed had they not had sponsors.

That's no way to have fun.

I think that they'd been a tad ambitious with their daily mileages for their
level of fitness. Although they were bed and breakfasting and travelling
very lightly, they were doing 70+ miles per day despite never having done
more than thirty miles in a ride prior to their JOGLE. They also didn't
have the luxury of a flexible timetable which allowed for a day off or a
couple of days of 'off pace riding'. I'm assuming that they finished the
ride, our routes diverged in Somerset. They went for Dartmoor, I went for
Exmoor.

Quoted message said:

I'd be very interested in knowing what percentage of the minimum sponsored
amount actually reaches the charity.

Always a concern with charitable donations. Even after it's reached the
charity, how much actually goes to field work and how much disappears
into the admin of some of the big ones that have paid staff?

What worries me with the 'sponsored holiday' or 'sponsored daring event' is
how much of the minimum sponsored amount is top sliced to fund the
endeavour. I'd be more inclined to donate if I knew that the participant
had paid for the endeavour out of their own pocket.