The other thing that I was going to add is that we are hemorrhaging walkers. Walkers are going to bigger, fancier walks, where there is more to do and more fun. I keep hearing complaints about how our walk is not an “event”. Well, I want to spend the money on the mission…not on fancy things for the walk. So you definitely need to make it an event, and people are demanding bigger and better walks, or they just don’t; go.
Short note - at one such walk I was one some food vendors use the event as a cheap promotion for new products. At one they were giving out these frozen yogurt bars and they were so gross after just a couple bites, most people were throwing them away and warning others. They were practically begging people to take them. I mean when they walk downtown and star handing them out to the homeless, thats pretty desperate.
OTOH hand back to the OP, the costs are high and thats why they usually have a minimum donation.
Yeah we had one year like that. Someone gave us these godawful granola bars, super healthy food and all that crap. It tasted like shit.
I think there are also a wide range of event scales.
For example, I have participated in local charity type 5ks, that were on the smallish side and it was all volunteer and donations. It was like $25 entry fee and all the water and food and stuff other than the t-shirts was just donated and the t-shirts had small ads on them so they probably paid for most of the costs via this. This 5k was probably less than 200 walker/runners.
Then I have participated in the mega 5k that was put on by a very well known charity. it was like 18k walkers/runners, each walker/runner was to raise as much as possible and I am sure a lot was donated to this due to the vast size and the marketing of such an event. For their 3 day walk, they require you to raise a minimum of $2,500 (if you don’t you have to cover the rest or not walk). And I am sure that is due to the vast amount of support required to put it on. I am sure a lot is also donated, but they probably still have to pay a lot so they only want very committed people.
And you definitely raise more money encouraging people to sponsor you to walk 60 miles in 3 days for this cause than you would if you just went around asking people for money to support research for cancer or whatever.
But there are also a lot of complaints that this particular organization (and others) give a relatively low amount of the money raised for actual research, that a lot goes to support the organization.
I participate in various bike tours – funds usually go the local Lions or Rotary club. I have no idea what the overhead is, but I do know time (staffing rest stops) is donated and food if not free is probbaly obtained at cost.
Side topic: professional fundraisers. I have heard people complain about them keeping most of the money. But which is better for a charity: raising $100,000 with a 10% overhead (net $90,000) or using a professioanl company that raises $1,000,000 but keeps 75% (net $250,000). Obviously the latter raises more money, but if folks hear that the compnay is keeping a lot of the money may make them hesitant to donate in the future. On the gripping hand, if it is some mega rock concert and tickets are $100 (25% going to charity) people might still by them if tickets are normally $90+ (0% going to charity)
Brian