I do the local Tour de Cure and WolfRide (Lupus) bicycle rides most years. Both require a sign-up fee of around $50 plus a minimum donation raised. The minimum for both is under $250 each. My work pays for one and I just pay the other out of pocket. Any other money that I raise from friends and family is just icing on the cake.
You have be careful about professional fund raisers, but if one raises $10 million with 10 % going to the charity, is that worse than one that raises $500,000 with 90% going to the charity?
For a bicycle ride maybe the former has better food, accommodations, and services (that is, higher overhead) or maybe the organizers are greedy. Or both
Brian
Back in high school, we were required to one of these every year. I can’t remember the amount - $100 or $200, but part of your financial obligation to the school was to raise a certain amount of money for the Walkathon, or pay it yourself.
You want to see some real cutthroat fundraising, try Ducks Unlimited for a couple years. The paid staff are paid a percentage of what the states and chapters under them raise and chapters/committees are often formed and folded strictly on profit margin. Don’t get me wrong - they do much good and many good things. And their record for the overall percentage going to the cause is fairly in line with most major charities. But when it comes to “all about the bottom line” they are far and away the kings.
(And yes – even knowing all that I would get involved on the local or state committee level. Just right now I can’t afford to and I don’t have the right business anymore to justify the expense.)
And if you didn’t?
Since it’s part of the "financial obligation to the school " , it seems that the school is not a free public school. In my kids’ school, the unmet obligation would have been added to the tuition bill .
It’s hard to imagine a better way to raise awareness about suicide than to bring in volunteers who are dunned for $1000 if they can’t get enough donations, and who wind up killing themselves because they can’t afford to pay.
Brilliant!
Yep. This was Catholic school. That’s exactly what would happen.