Most Expensive Charity - Spring Marathon

Northeastcorner

30/04/2012 at 15:30

I ran 2012 VLM and having entered the ballot today for my annual rejection letter I was reflecting on my first marathon experience. The hardest part wasn't the winter training but the fundraising. I had a nosey around other charities golden bond schemes and I think my charity (which can remain nameless as I run for it for personal reasons) wins.

Registration Fee - £150

Pledge Amount - £2500

Anyone know of a charity charging more?

Wilkie

30/04/2012 at 15:48

You could have run a different marathon and done it for less than thirty quid.

Northeastcorner

30/04/2012 at 15:54

Yes, I'm aware of that but it's not the point of the question. I'm curious to see if any other bond place runners were asked to pledge more.

Though no matter what the charge it would have been better than running Manchester yesterday.

Flat Foo..ted

30/04/2012 at 16:02

So you were running for Mcmillian then

Northeastcorner

30/04/2012 at 16:05

No, as far I can work out they only ask for £100 and £2k

Emmy H

30/04/2012 at 16:35

I think it depends and some charities raise it every year. In 2010 one charity wanted £100 entry and £1500 fundraising. This year they proposed £100 entry and £2000 fundraising.

I think the ball park figure is around £1500 fundraising plus the cost of your place but i've heard some "local" charities only ask for a minimum of £600 fundraising.

I've been saying this for a while - but I'd love a website which compares charities. Who's asking for what fundraising, what do they offer, how much per pound goes to the cause and how much to overheads etc.

Cheerful Dave pirate

pirate

30/04/2012 at 16:42

There was a poster up at work from a charity with places for this year's Brighton & London marathons. They wanted £500 raised for a Brighton entry and £3000 for a London entry. I forget which charity it was.

baldbloke

30/04/2012 at 16:42

i didn't know JustGiving.Com was a profit-making site until the poor woman died in the London Marathon. not particularly happy people are making money out of my donations...

gym'n'tonic

30/04/2012 at 16:50

Emmy Bug - the CRunCH website acts as a clearing house for ( some/all? don't know) VLM charities and lists the pledges yuu're expected to raise for each charity. Don't know if it's been updated for 2013 yet as i guess the charities tweek amounts each year depending on what they feel they can get people to raise.

Cheerful Dave pirate

pirate

30/04/2012 at 16:53

There's lots of people making money out of your donations I'm afraid, charities have a lot of costs to cover (including some highly paid executives) before any money gets spent on finding a cure for cancer (or whatever). I suppose that justgiving and the like would claim that by making it easier to donate they actually make more money for the charity than they'd otherwise get.

Emma McGlynn

30/04/2012 at 21:30

I ran for Alzheimer Scotland, for personal reasons, and they asked or £100 registration and £2000 fundraising. I didn't mind raising this, and actually raised a lot more, but I have been pretty appalled by the attitude of the guy who has been in charge of the fundraising, and the general disorganisation. In fact, I have a meting with the head guy to discuss my moans in a couple of weeks! Horrible to think that cash that generous friends donate goes to fund a very disorganised organisation. Hmmmmm.

Northeastcorner

01/05/2012 at 09:56

Cheers everyone.

On the subject of on-line fundraising, I looked at setting a page up for a local charity I'm involved in and the scale of the costs for us with JustGiving were enormous, we looked at Bmycharity and VirginMoneyGiving and ended up going with VMG because as soon as you've raised over £2000 or want an on-line presence for more than a couple of months as a charity it's much cheaper than JG.

As a result when I fundraise I always use VMG as well because I know the charity are gettting a bigger %. BMyCharity were cheaper still but we wanted the reassurance of a 'name'.

Edited: 01/05/2012 at 09:57

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