<p>So, my cousin’s DD walks 3 days for breast cancer. I always contribute. Is this legit?</p>
<p>I don’t know I’m kind of torn because DS and I did a medical mission trip to Honduras with a church group a couple years ago and one thing we did was put in cement floors by hand for some families while we were there. There are a lot of people living in “houses” that most people in the U.S. wouldn’t store their lawn mower in. It’s really sad. While I paid for our flight and expenses there were some high school kids that raised money to pay for their way through car washes and other things. I’m not sure if they would have been able to go otherwise and they really did make a difference by going.</p>
<p>I have no trouble patronizing car washes for kids to go and WORK, but do have problems with them just going “as leadership ambassadors,” etc. and selling overpriced junky merchandise or candy or getting pledges. </p>
<p>Generally, we just made donations and didn’t sell to family, friends or neighbors, except for scouts–with the troop at the shopping center. </p>
<p>I hate the many companies springing up to get folks to “fundraise” on the flimsiest pretexts. It seems sxploitive if the kids and causes to me while the companies make profits for their overpriced products. </p>
<p>@bookworm “is it legit?” That is a legit charity and I have contributed in the past and probably will in the future. And if you WANT to donate, feel free. My complaint is more like if your cousin’s DD want to do this three day walk in Hawaii and wants you to contribute to the plane/hotel/food and by the way, she is staying in Hawaii for a week before and a week after to “adjust” to the time difference before the walk and recover after the walk. Our sons have spent a total of a couple of months doing charity work- post Katrina house rehab, environmental work in Puerto Rico, etc. While one son did also ask for donations of gently used books to replace school library books lost in Katrina, it never occurred to us to ask for any money for any of this. It costs us a lot to get the 2300 books down there but it was something he wanted to do. I have really fond memories of the trip taking the books down and the amazing reception the school gave him- and really glad we just did it!</p>
<p>Here’s the thing about those high school kids raising money to go to another country to fix houses–what about them makes their efforts worth more money than someone there who could be paid to do the work and wouldn’t need plane fare, housing, etc? I know they work hard and mean well, but from a professional development point of view, flying kids to foreign countries is not the best use of scarce funds. </p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>good point. but the same kids who can get others to pay their way (parents, others) arent going to instead give those same dollars to repair people to do it.</p>
<p>There is a difference between the teens saying ‘give me money so I can go to Guatemala to build houses’ and donating a lot of your junk so they can have a garage sale and earn the money. Yes, the people they are helping may be helped just as much by our sending money, but the teens learn something from the trip too.</p>
<p>I’m sick of kids (including my own) just asking for money all the time for fund raisers.</p>
<p>I do like to donate to local church mission trips. My son spent his high school spring breaks and some weeks a few summers on mission trips to Central America and the Caribbean. Those mission trips were expensive and they don’t stay in luxury hotels, some pretty basic living and a lot of hard manual labor. I also donate or help with band fundraisers - being a band mom and knowing how very expensive high school band is.</p>
<p>I do admit though I check the 990 Finder when someone solicits donations from me. I’m still not comfortable with Wounded Warriors - they are raking in the dough and I just don’t know that the salaries and bonuses are necessary (yes, I know they would earn even more if they were corporate - but it just doesn’t sit well with me) along with other expenses that allow only 50% to flow to the actual veteran.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>they do buy a lot of tv air time, so that probably costs a lot. I’m not afraid of that charity. </p>
<p>CF, while I agree with you on lteam in training who can just pay the entry fee and go, there’s a small number of events where one simply cannot pay their way in. For instance, the only way to get an entry into Boston is either by qualifying (those times are nothing to sneeze at - done that!) or by doing a charity fundraising. Both the qualifiers and the fundraisers have to pay their entry fees. And knowing some of the fundraisers, these are people who have never ran marathons for fun but decided to challenge themselves. It is different than team in training and some dude on his bike pedaling across the country in the name of charity. </p>
<p>Yes, I think people in every country have the skills to dig wells and lay concrete floors.</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest I am sick to death of the constant requests to donate to “charitable” causes. You can’t get out of the grocery store these days without someone at the register asking you for a donation and then you get hit up again by someone parked outside the store door selling something. </p>
<p>Our family as a whole gives to charities of our choice on an annual basis. We are generous in our giving. They are thoughtfully and carefully chosen causes with our particular goals in mind. I do not need the constant barrage of organizations and individuals who I know little or nothing about asking me for money. I no longer feel bad in the slightest when I give a polite but firm “no.” I do not particularly like the idea of giving when I am not 100% certain where the funds are going and who they will benefit. As far as assuming the cost for someone’s hiking gear, that is patently ridiculous.</p>
<p>I contribute to a bike ride for charity. The riders pay to ride and 100% of what they raise goes to charity. The organization that runs it pays some hefty salaries but all are funded by corporate donors. That’s as far as I’ll go. If someone wants to do something cool, like run in a specific race somewhere cool while raising money, I refuse to pay for it. I have on 2 occasions said I’ll donate directly to the organization but …</p>
<p>These are totally different from charitable missions or the like. </p>
<p>Have also happily contributed to bike rides, walks, runs, etc. But not trips. Sorry. </p>
<p>If some organization wants to raise money by putting on a bike ride, they should charge the riders, nobody else. Both the bike clubs I belong to put on bike rides. The riders pay $X, and in return they get excellent support-- yummy food, well-chosen routes, sag for people who get in trouble. The work is done by club volunteers, and the club makes money. </p>
<p>Other organizations, charitable organizations, do the same thing: they put on a bike ride in some wonderful location, charge the riders, and whatever is left over after their costs is their profit. Good on them. Pancake breakfasts and firefighters’ barbecues are the same thing-- the eaters pay for yummy food cooked by volunteers, and a worthy organization makes money. </p>
<p>I’d like to see more of those events, and fewer events where I’m expected to pay and someone else gets all the fun. If I contribute money to a bike ride, I need to get the fun of riding the ride. I’m not paying for someone else’s entertainment.</p>
<p>Hey, will anybody here sponsor me to go to the Lions’ Pancake Breakfast or the Firefighters’ Fall BBQ? Worthy causes! How can you refuse?</p>
<p>Wounded warrior lost me when the started sending solicitations with dollar bills visibly inside. That may get the envelopes open, but I won’t give them any more money.</p>
<p>I’ve been on both ends of this spectrum. A friend in another state was doing a great number of diabetes rides. He rides a lot regardless, but his son has diabetes, so there is meaning to the ride, and all the donated funds go to the charity. Once was fine, twice was ok, but after a few requests, I said no. It gave me pleasure to say I was putting my twins through college and money was tight. They are in a different economic demographic than me, and I’m sure others contribute. </p>
<p>One of my great pleasures was going to build a house in Guatemala with a team of friends. We paid our own lodging and food, but contributed the $500 toward the build, that we could provide or fund through requested donations. I had a mid winter chili supper and was amazed by the generosity of friends who donated. My friends would have paid about the same for a dinner out with alcohol. I was able to take a lot more money to Guatemala to help those villagers, who as noted above, live in truly abysmal conditions, with health risks and no way for kids to do homework, living in huts without windows. </p>
<p>Yes, sending the money might have been more efficient, with Guatemalans doing the entire build. However, I’d probably not have gone to that trouble to raise $1000 sans the personal involvement, and there is benefit for our country as well as us in learning about conditions in Central America. Peace Corps was founded on just this principle, that person to person contact and positive effort can be worth a great deal. </p>
<p>Thing is, building a house in Guatemala is work. If I pay $100 towards buying bricks or wood or whatever for a house for a Guatemalan who needs a house, that’s one thing. Doing a bike ride is play.</p>
<p>I’ll never forget when while in middle school, my parents forbade me from going on a walk to raise money for a zoo to bring a beluga whale there. They said the idea of a walk was stupid, and why didn’t they have people doing something useful, like raking leaves? My parents are immigrants and the whole idea of walks, rides, etc. is foreign to them. I must admit, the beluga whale lesson stuck with me and they do have a point. Nonetheless, I do give occasionally when others walk, and even once walked myself for a local cause meaningful to me where I knew that the money would be put to good use. Still, it is not my favorite way to give. I’d just rather write a check and to heck with the walk! I guess I have been fortunate to have never been hit up to contribute for a mission trip.</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest I am sick to death of the constant requests to donate to “charitable” causes. You can’t get out of the grocery store these days without someone at the register asking you for a donation and then you get hit up again by someone parked outside the store door selling something.</p>
<p>Me too. But I am much better than I used to be than just saying, I already give/ have my charities, thank you.
My H still struggles, even when people come to the door, which I can’t stand.
I don’t get solicitations to pay for trips or expensive camps except for one relative.
A few years ago, her mom was soliciting money for a sailing camp, & this year its for a summer science research program at Harvard. </p>
<p>Ya, I get it would be fun and exciting. * Although my kids * worked summers and there are similar things that she could be involved in that wouldn’t involve a fee & she could stay on this coast, but I suppose it doesnt hurt to ask. They don’t even pretend to be raising money for a charity, I suppose the name " Harvard" is supposed to be so impressive that we get out our checkbooks without asking any questions.</p>